marak830

40 ms·

481.
by marak830 9y ago
I know, right. And yet you see so many people starting restaurants because they think it's easy. I can't imagine the mess if I tried to start a software company haha.
482.
by marak830 9y ago
Amazing how back of house would like a share of the tips, isn't it -.- Side note over though, the owner was in over his head by the looks of it
483.
by marak830 9y ago
I agree with you saying "I wonder if the very high failure rate in the restaurant biz has anything to do with this." It's a massive reason of failure. Next biggest I would say is the inability to realistically calculate co
484.
by marak830 9y ago
My apologies I do actually agree with your point, I just wanted to expand upon it with my own experience :-)
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by marak830 9y ago
I do agree with you, I just want to point out that it is a lot more ficle than tech. One bad service can ruin your reputation. No one forgets a bad meal, and a whole table with bad meals is a death knell
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by marak830 9y ago
Hey, do you blog about it? I'd love to hear more about food truck operators, I was stuck in restaurants all my time haha.
487.
by marak830 9y ago
You know, I have been really tempted to go over there (us), and start a business doing that - with a mandatory 3 day previous r eservation system. (Also I'd get to travel around and try all those amazing smoking houses in the us!)
488.
by marak830 9y ago
Actually I know someone who went out of business doing this! Jokes aside though, you are correct(my friend went out because he made he location so popular the owner grippled his rent and sold it to someone else).
489.
by marak830 9y ago
That isn't due to the lack of pastry chefs. At least it shouldn't be if they have access to refrigeration.
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by marak830 9y ago
Damn there is a shortage of pastry chefs everywhere. Biggest issue is, as apprentices (in general), they have to be at work at 2am. (Situational I know, but in general their hours are rather inverted). I had the option to specialise in past
491.
by marak830 9y ago
It was probably me :-p I replied to the above comment, if you have any follow up questions I'll reply.
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by marak830 9y ago
Yes there are. As dismissive as I am of a lot of hospitality related posts on hn(and comments), it is actually possible to have a good (and profitable ) restaurant that is nice and boring(there is bothing" wrong with that). Unfortu
493.
by marak830 9y ago
I hope you're joking about the whole stressful thing there. If you own the business, of course it's going to be stressful, on top of that, you are talking about a sect of hospitality that hires untrained and junior staff with shar
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by marak830 9y ago
I wrote a few responses, then I deleted each one. The more I think about it, the more I realise that there really isn't any low hanging fruit in hospitality. A few examples: Food truck: a proper food truck can be ran quite well, but so
495.
by marak830 9y ago
Indeed I'd argue that their margins were off by a lot. It's not uncommon for non-hospitality trained people to screw that up (and in their defence, it is a lot more complex than most people think).
496.
by marak830 9y ago
This. This so much. Hospitality as a whole preys on, young people needing money and older people, needing status. (While I say our/we, I have left the industry after 17 years). We hire the cheapest students to scrub dishes and carry fo
497.
by marak830 9y ago
Anyone who runs a restaurant that doesn't know what a grease trap is, hasn't actually worked in a restaurant. Which I believe sums up this author.
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by marak830 9y ago
The landlord's positions are probably because restaurants and bars have to make a lot of changes to existing facilities, and also generally go under fairly quickly. That can leave you with a large bill to retool your location to a more
499.
by marak830 9y ago
The funny part is, he(the author), wasn't actually facing any problems. He just straight up screwed up on his property rental. There is no excuse for not looking up the relevant laws, and comparing them towards the property. If he did
500.
by marak830 9y ago
I honestly doubt that decade was actually working in a restaurant. Every restaurant owner knows how tight the margins are. Either that or it was a money throw to sate some other family member, (seen that before, a 100k thrown at someone to
501.
by marak830 9y ago
I believe the problem is right here: "This is a high stakes and risk endeavor that not only is OPs dream, but it's a dream he's stapled his name to" It wasn't his dream, bot in reality. If it was, he would have actu
502.
by marak830 9y ago
Building a restaurant around bargin hunters, oh the stories I could tell about that. It never works as well as the owners think it would, infact I have seen it work opposite(early bird special, 5 pm dinner for seniors, who ended up not leav
503.
by marak830 9y ago
Hmm I have seen many places try and do loss leaders as an enticement, I haven't seen it work yet though.
504.
by marak830 9y ago
Hospitality is all about tracking minor costs. You're argument would be akin to the keyboard buying from the user to write code. I think I realise what you are leaning towards, and it is like that. Any piece of equipment has a direct
505.
by marak830 9y ago
Yeah it was, sorry I'm stuck using a smartphone and I type faster than I correct :-)
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by marak830 9y ago
Side note: burgers are actually quite cheap to make (even top of the line burgers: eg waygu pattie, day fresh iceberg lettuce, Roma tomatoes and a good in-house made sauce will have a cost of less than $4 unless you are screwing up your ord
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by marak830 9y ago
Running a successful restaurant is -hard-. There are so many things going in, such a complex system with variables that change - sometimes within days - that sometimes I'm unsure how anyone actually runs a successful restaurant. Otherd
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by marak830 9y ago
Actually it's a little more in-depth(well it useto be, I'll explain that lower). When I started out it was: cook: two years training(while on the job), basics of most styles of cooking. Chef: 4 years training (most of the time, on
509.
by marak830 9y ago
Depends on the critic. Infact I'd go as far as to say that a critic has no place running a restaurant. (Caveats below). Someone who knows the industry and understands what the local population wants? Good chance, most critics (imho) do
510.
by marak830 9y ago
I would say yes. It's akin to running a successful port or delivery system, you can't just buy one and hope for the best, you need to actually either a) have experience and know what your doing or b) hire someone with that knowled

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