That's a good observation about landlords. Often if you find a local "ethnic" restaurant that's been there forever and is run by a family (typically Chinese/Ind

That's a good observation about landlords. Often if you find a local "ethnic" restaurant that's been there forever and is run by a family (typically Chinese/Indian/Thai/etc) they own the building or at least the space for their restaurant. That means they can stay in business basically infinitely (well, until now) without worrying about rent increases. But this is a different model than most trendy restaurants where the owners are not interesting in buying a property outright - those are seen as an investment not as a steady income for a family.