Creating a Restaurant Concept
Once you’ve decided that you’re really going to open your restaurant, you have to come to a decision about what kind of restaurant you want to operate. That can be a very hard decision to make. You want it to be a concept that you like, but what happens if your tastes are so varied that it’s hard to meld them all into one style? How do you marry your love for burgers and dogs with your desire to offer more healthy choices. Throw in your passion for upscale entrees, and…well, you see what I mean.
Choosing a concept may be difficult, but it is an extremely important step in your business plan development. This decision is going to guide, or at least influence, most of the other decisions you make from this point forward.
For example, your decision of the restaurants concept will determine what items are on your menu, which in turn determines the type of equipment you’ll need to prepare the food. The concept will help determine table settings. While informal burger and fries type restaurants will want to use paper napkins, if you are starting an upscale full service restaurant, you’ll be more likely to use linen napkins and table cloths. Will you be using silverware wrapped in napkins, or will you be using formal dining settings?
You may also want to think about ethnic concepts or themes for your restaurant. Although Italian, Mexican, and Chinese are seen most often, more and more you are seeing other ethnic concepts opening. I know in my area there have been a number of Greek, Indian, Lebanese, and Thai restaurant opened, to name just a few.
While choosing your restaurant is partly a matter of your taste and what you want to do (after all, it is your restaurant), you also must do some research to make sure the area will support your concept. For instance, if you wanted to open an Indian restaurant, but there isn’t a large Indian population in your area, it’s going to be more difficult to get your restaurant profitable.
You need to give a lot of thought to the type of restaurant you’ll be opening. As I said before, there are so many future decisions that are tied into this, that it makes it difficult to change later on. In future articles I’ll talk more about what some of those decisions are.
