Friday, October 06, 2006

Restaurant Business--Is it as hard as it sound?

A lot of people want to open a restaurant, but like writing a book. Everyone wants to write a book, but it is not for everyone. Am I right? Opening a restaurant has been one of the debates I have with a friend for a long time ago--to be exact, opening a Thai restaurant in the US. The location and how the hell we are supposed to make it happens, only God knows.

One of my inspirations comes directly from a BSU friend, Ole, who 5-6 years ago would be the last person on earth I would have expected to own a restaurant. He never cooked and back when we were in college, he never expressed himself, not even once, he wanted to open a restaurant. Ole's roommate acted as his personal chef when they lived in an on-campus apartment. A little after graduating, Ole worked in a high-ended/ high paying job on the west coast. As far as I know, his career is a time-comsuming on and that left Ole with a lot of money, but a little time to spend. A few years later, Ole called me to let me know that he had bought a Thai restaurant in Florida, and that he would start right away. There have been a lot of phone conversation between him and I, but to make it short, two years, two Floridian houses, one house in Thailand later, Ole is ready to retire and go back to Thailand.

It is not exactly about money that inspires me, but more of a CAN-DO attitude Ole has had along the way of running a restaurant and his ability to get along with pretty much anybody. Before the restaurant even opened, he had no food business experience and so on, but with the right mentality, he made it, and made it great. I called Ole last night, and sadly, he decided to sell his restaurant away due to his family emergency and that after training the new owner, he will fly back to Thailand--for good. The reason I mention Ole here has nothing to do really with restaurant business, but has so much to do with, again, his CAN-DO mentality and his dedication I admire. My personal reason of owning the restaurant some day is to feed my need in life. To be exact, I really do not want to pass it by then look back, and regret that I have never made it happen. I guess I'd rather fell, but have done it, so that regret will not be an issue in the future.

However, I wanna be smart about it. Running a restaurant is like taking a responsibility of everything you can imagine of. I might as well should try to work in a restaurant to see what's like before jumping the boat. Who knows.

2 comments:

Cuauhtémoc Villamar said...

Yes, I agree. You should jump in and try working in a restaurant. Not only would you get to know the ins and outs of the business, you'll get in touch with potential chefs and staff for your own restaurant, and get an idea of the customers. You may discover after the hours that it's not really what you want.

I hang out in a friend's restaurant a lot. However, I gave up the deep desire wanting to serve just good food a long time ago because I knew I'd never be happy working over 8 hours in one place nearly 7 days a week, 365 days a years. I've got wings on my feet that make me sometimes even want to take off from my family.

Pondering said...

Yeah..that's a kind of things I worry about too, and that's why I kinda feel that I maybe should try to work in a Thai restaurant to see if this is really somethings I wanna do. Long hours..I expect.