OT - Anyone here own a restaurant?

Jay Honeck wrote:
Will it be adjacent to the airport property and as such will pilots be
able
to taxi up there to the restaurant, tie their plane down, and eat?


Sadly, no. But it will be right across a small road from the fence, and
we've tentatively received permission to allow planes to park on the other
side of the fence. (We'll have to put in a gate.)

It'll be maybe a 100 yard walk.


One thing that you might want to consider is
differentiating your restaurant from other local restaurants by way of
menu... My experience up there in Iowa while on contract for Rockwell
Collins was that there are NO good BBQ restaurants in the entire state.


Agreed, but from a slightly different angle.

Iowa City is like the "anti-Iowa" in many ways. It's got dozens of
"fru-fru" restaurants (a rarity in the rest of Iowa), thanks to the
University crowd, all of which serve tiny portions at outrageous prices.
You can get excellent Indian, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, Japanese, French,
and California (whatever *that* is) cuisine -- but you CAN'T get a decent
burger or breakfast served all day for less than $15 per person.

IMHO, a restaurant with those two items, reasonably priced and served fresh,
would make a mint in this goofy town.

Nancy's Airfield Cafe at K6B6 is a fine place to eat. I believe most
of their business comes from surrounding towns rather the planes.
Contact Nancy McPherson for more info. Web:
http://www.NancysAirfieldCafe.com

I agree a restaurant is a great idea. But the business is tough.

If I were you I'd build the restaurant and lease it to someone with proven
experience in the biz.



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Qv7xf.690299$x96.490384@attbi_s72...
You have to sell a lot of $4.00 hamburgers, $2.00 hotdogs etc. to make a
decent amount of money.

True. However, I see a restaurant as a necessary adjunct to the Inn,
nothing more.

If it were to merely break even -- but double out hotel business -- I'd be
a happy guy. :-)

God knows it's a great location. They're building a Super Wal-Mart down
the road from us (if it ever gets out of court), which should increase
traffic, oh, 5000% or so?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

If I were you I'd build the restaurant and lease it to someone with proven
experience in the biz.

Great idea.

Where do you find these mythic creatures?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
IMHO, a restaurant with those two items, reasonably
priced and served fresh, would make a mint in this goofy town.

A good friend has been in the restaurant business for a couple of
decades and has had two small, successful restaurants during that time.
She said aside from having A LOT of time and energy and the obvious
issues -- an adequate-but-not-overwhelming menu with fair prices,
reliable cooks that prepare consistently good meals, *consistently*
friendly and efficient service, hours that meet the demand, and an
environment that is clean and comfortable -- the biggest key to making
it a success is knowing how to ORDER. I think someone else early in this
thread said it, too -- knowing how much to order so that perishable food
lasts but does not spoil and your next order is received before you run
out, and even your garnishes (lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, etc.) are
fresh and edible and don't look like they're one step away from being
rotten. One quote of hers that we've all experienced: "It's okay if
people have to wait a few minutes to sit down, but NEVER make anyone
*wait* to pay once they're full and ready to leave!" Lastly, NEVER be
cited in a health inspection as that kind news is never forgotten.

Good luck! I've always thought that despite the long hours and hard
work, it could be rewarding and fun, especially with a theme that you
and your customers love.

I've never run a restaurant, but I've heard it's a very slim margin
business. I've been a restaurant customer in many restaurants that have
run up against their margins. They had one choice: either raise their
prices, or lower their quality. Every restaurant that chose the latter
failed.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

One other thing... I have noticed that many of the basic hotels I've
been around have no restaurant attached to them, but are built in an
area that has lots of separate basic restaurants nearby. I'll bet
there's a reason for this.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"babes" at LNR??? OK...I'm assuming there's supposed to be a smiley face
somewhere!

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.

Ahhh.... sounds like you've been there!

"John T" wrote in message
...
"babes" at LNR??? OK...I'm assuming there's supposed to be a smiley face
somewhere!

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.

If you are going to depend on the pilot community - be careful what
you deem a fly-in restaurant. When I think fly-in food, places that
are across the street or down the street, do not jump to mind.

-Nathan