On 10 Jan 2006 14:59:44 -0800, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

:So the land adjacent to the inn is for sale, and we want to put an
:aviation themed restaurant on the site. It'll be the perfect fly-in
:restaurant, with breakfast all day, decent prices, ugly waitresses, and
:a 2nd-floor patio over-looking the airport. We want to call it "the
:Tower", and it'll have a great view of the runways!
:
:Trouble of it is, we don't know *anything* about running a restaurant.
:Now, this never stopped us before -- we didn't know anything about
:hotels, either -- but, hey, this sounds WAY more complicated, from my
:uneducated standpoint.
:
:Anyone here own/operate/manage a restaurant? Got any words of advice?
: Any advice on finding someone who DOES know something about
:restaurants?

Two thoughts quick -

1) Contain food costs. The fastest way to go broke in the restaurant
business is to open a steak house. The slowest way is to open a pasta
joint.

2) You're looking *building* a restaurant, not just running one. If
you were just leasing a pre-existing restaurant space and opening a
new business the odds would be against you. If you were leasing and
putting in a kitchen and fixtures, it would be worse. But you're
talking brick and mortar, AND the inside build out, AND running a
restaurant. If it fails you don't just have a lease to pay (or walk
away from) - you have a mortgage.