A New Restaurant

The other day I wrote about not being able to please every one with your food.  Going along with that is that you can not be all things to all people.  You need to narrow your focus down.  Define who you are, then be the best you can be at that.

I need to talk about the restaurant that recently opened in my neighborhood.  I keep going back to this example for a couple of reasons.  First, I had the opportunity to work there during the opening, so I got an inside look at what took place.  I got to see what went right, what went wrong, and how many of the mistakes could have been avoided.  Second, there was a lot that went wrong during this opening, and there are a lot of lessons that can be taken away from this experience.

When the owner decided on his concept, he chose what he referred to as a Southern California restaurant concept.  The restaurant was constructed with a dividing wall down the middle, creating two separate rooms.  One side was a dining room, with white linens, mood lighting, and on Friday and Saturday evenings, a strolling musician.  On the other side of the wall was the lounge.  It had a juke box, TV’s tuned to whatever sporting event was taking place, and on the weekends, live bands performing.

The building was designed so later in the evening when the dinner crowd had cleared out, the center wall could be opened, creating one large room for the late night lounge customers.  All well and good, except the owner couldn’t seem to decide whether he was a restaurant or a bar when it came to marketing his establishment.  Much of his marketing was focused on increasing the late night business, and the restaurant part didn’t receive as much publicity.

To complicate matters even further, the people that lived near the new restaurant had grudgingly agreed to allowing the city to grant a variance for selling liquor at the restaurant.  They were concerned with potential drunks coming to their neighborhood.  They were appeased by the assurances that nice restaurants do not typically attract that type of person.  As the owner began doing more marketing for the lounge, the neighbors became more concerned.  They had agreed to the restaurant, but they were now feeling like the restaurant was just a cover to allow the owner to run a bar.

The restaurant has survived it’s initial opening trauma, but it continues to struggle.  While it’s opening was greeted with anticipation and excitement, many of the customers feel like the lounge is the main business, and the dining room is an after thought.  What had the potential to be a successful restaurant limps along trying to compete with the business on the other side of the wall.

How will it end?  Only time will tell.