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I was curious what it might be like to run a restaurant, so as a limited experiment just to get a small piece of the feel of it I tried running a little private

I was curious what it might be like to run a restaurant, so as a limited experiment just to get a small piece of the feel of it I tried running a little private ‘restaurant’ for a night. I spent about a month creating a menu of three courses each with three choices of dish, then invited three couples over, bought a ton of food and supplies, set up tables and lighting out by my pool, enlisted my wife to be the waitress, and waited for the guests to arrive. Holy heck was it way more work and stress than I had expected. It was a lot of fun, and I think I pulled it off reasonably well, but I can’t imagine cleaning up from the evening and then starting again the next night, let alone managing multiple meal times in one day, having more diners, or a larger menu… and then trying to make money at it. Gave me a lot of respect for folks who run restaurants.

gernb 4y ago
It's certainly very hard but it also is certainly easier than doing it once. You had to buy supplies for 1 meal instead of supplies for say 10 (so 10x the work). You had to setup tables (those would already be setup in a restuarant). Much of the stuff you did it was probably your first time so you were likely both not used to it and inefficent. But still, running a restaurant seems like super hard work and it really makes me appreciate people who choose to do it.
- technothrasher 4y ago
  You make a good point that inefficiency due to inexperience likely increased the workload. Although a lot of the stress only came after the guests arrived, as suddenly everything had to be timed correctly and the guests seemed to be doing everything they could to screw up my predetermined plans. I don't think they really were, it just felt that way. When main course orders came in and I had more orders than people, I had to ask my server what was up. Somebody ordered the beef but with a side of the pasta, and I had to suddenly figure out how to plate that to look good as I'd only worked on plating the dishes the way I had planned on. Stuff like that kept happening through the whole meal. To your point again, experience would have helped, but thinking on your feet is clearly a big part of the deal.

gernb 4y ago

It's certainly very hard but it also is certainly easier than doing it once. You had to buy supplies for 1 meal instead of supplies for say 10 (so 10x the work). You had to setup tables (those would already be setup in a restuarant). Much of the stuff you did it was probably your first time so you were likely both not used to it and inefficent. But still, running a restaurant seems like super hard work and it really makes me appreciate people who choose to do it.

technothrasher 4y ago
You make a good point that inefficiency due to inexperience likely increased the workload. Although a lot of the stress only came after the guests arrived, as suddenly everything had to be timed correctly and the guests seemed to be doing everything they could to screw up my predetermined plans. I don't think they really were, it just felt that way. When main course orders came in and I had more orders than people, I had to ask my server what was up. Somebody ordered the beef but with a side of the pasta, and I had to suddenly figure out how to plate that to look good as I'd only worked on plating the dishes the way I had planned on. Stuff like that kept happening through the whole meal. To your point again, experience would have helped, but thinking on your feet is clearly a big part of the deal.