A New Restaurant

We all know how important it is to have a great location, but have you thought about how the concept you decide on affects your location choice.  It does.  Your concept will, in part, determine how far people will be willing to travel to get to your place.  That little piece of information can be a big determining factor in your restaurants success or failure.

A Tale of Two Restaurants

There are two different restaurants in my area that have different concepts, and very different abilities to draw customers.

Restaurant #1 is one I’ve talked about before.  It is an Italian restaurant that has finally started to see a little bit of success.  The problem is, however, there is no shortage of Italian eateries in our area.  That limits this restaurants ability to draw from surrounding communities.  While the food is good, there isn’t anything that would make potential customers want to drive past one or more of the other Italian restaurants in order to visit this restaurant.  Restaurant #1 has to rely on the people living in the neighborhood for it’s long-term success.

Restaurant #2 is located about 10 miles way.  It’s a restaurant that specializes in sandwiches, burgers, and home style dinners.  It has huge portions, and has positioned itself as a quirky, fun place to go.  It has  a burger topping bar that is in the trunk of a Cadillac that is attached to the wall.  Even though there is a pretty good burger joint not far from my house, I’d rather travel the 10 miles to get to  restaurant #2.

The point is, these two restaurants are in completely different types of location.  Restaurant #1 needs to be located near residential areas.  Because it has to rely on the people living nearby for it’s success or failure, it needs to be in a location that is close and convenient.  Restaurant #2 is located on a busy intersection, but the closest residential area is nearly a half mile away.  There are a lot of restaurants that are closer and more convenient to get to, yet restaurant #2 continues to thrive.

Now I’m not suggesting that you should ignore all of the rules when it comes to finding a great location.  A bad location makes success much more difficult.  While there are a lot of people that are convinced that they are the ones that can overcome the obstacles, the failure rate indicates that most of them are wrong.  Just be aware that there are a lot of factors to consider when you are thinking about your restaurants location.  Don’t be impatient.  Keep working on your business plan and doing your homework.  The right location will come along.