The cautious thing to do in the Portland restaurant market, as far as I can tell, is to do periodic pop-ups or a food cart and try to build up your repeat clientele to the point where you can justify a brick and mortar location of your own.

The reason franchises work is because they vet 99% of the owners.

If you own the business, of course it's going to be stressful, on top of that, you are talking about a sect of hospitality that hires untrained and junior staff with sharp objects, hot surfaces and dangerous chemicles. There isn't much about that, that I can consider not stressful haha

Unfortunately, there are 20-30 high risk/let's give this a go/I wanna say I'm an owner style restaurants that pop up for each one.

If you focus on quality food at a good price with consistency and quality control, and in a good location, you have a good chance. You would have to run it yourself though (best chance is to be in the kitchen). These are far and few between though.

As a chef, there isn't much more I enjoy, than to go to a family owned restaurant, have a great meal and to talk to the owner.

It really is a special experience, especially when I have spent so much time in the industry. To be invited into someone else's kitchen, see their ingredients and how much effort they out into it? It's amazing.

But it isn't something that I have ever seen done with a owner that doesn't work there. Ever.

To put my above into context, my job for 4 years was being paid to goto a restaurant and fix the problems. I cannot begin to explain how bad some of the things I have seen at some of those places.

But I have also seen owners who really want their restaurant to succeed. Only one, that I went to, whose owner didn't have hospitality experience, is still open. And she put so much effort into learning (infact she still emails me to ask for advice and information), that I believe she could succeed at anything.

But on the flip side, you could purchase an existing mom+pop business, but without an amazing manager who is willing to work for peanuts+, you're screwed.

+If they were that good, why are they willing to do that instead of working a larger site for more money, or opening their own.

Of course, now you have to qualify for the mortgage too, which is hard starting out, but once the machine gets running for you, it's not too bad to expand it to other locations.

Or just in college.

Tbh, I believe age (read: maturity) is the best predictor of reliability. When I worked food service (we all made ~$10/hour) you could bet the adults who had kids to feed would show up. Same with the girl who was busting her ass to go to law school. The college kid living at home? Coin flip. High schooler? Same.

Not too long after I left, the store got bumped up to $15/hour. According to both a family member and former coworker who both work there, they're having the same problem—only worse.

I don't wanna sound all high-and-mighty, because I was in college too. But man, if you make $15/hour, live with your parents, and can't be reliable at work it's not the pay...

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2005/12/bitt...

It's an interesting dilemma - Croissants have a shelf life of a few max, so they can't be imported. I'm guessing immigration rules + cost of expatriation would make it hard to fly in french boulangers-patissiers? Then I guess the money would be in opening "viennoiserie schools" in the US...

Biggest issue is, as apprentices (in general), they have to be at work at 2am. (Situational I know, but in general their hours are rather inverted).

I had the option to specialise in pastry when I was an apprentice, but the hours looked so bad.

Now I'd give my left trsticle for a decent pastry chef(well before I left hospitality), so I guess that's karma.

Also croissants - you can get rather high quality par baked fairly cheaply, you can import/export them, as long as they are snap frozen(and most people can't tell the difference). - yes there is a difference before anyone tells me off, I'm just pointing out an alternative

Which makes it all the more puzzling! It's not like it requires any exotic ingredients either...

"Tony would pick one of his hardworking employees and sell him a franchise, loaning him the money through a 10-year mortgage. He’d work out the math so the former worker could make a decent salary in addition to covering all his costs, including making his note payments with interest to Andrade. After busting his butt for 10 years, the former employee would own an investment that today is worth $1 million or more."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/09/17/the-secret-w...

A few examples:

Food truck: a proper food truck can be ran quite well, but so, so many are ran badly. If you are just reselling prepackaged food to labourers, at first you can make a good sale, but anyone making their own(at a good quality point), can undercut you. (Side note: yes, you can undercut prepackaged food if you control the production from start to finish, the difficult point is quality and consistency).

Cafe: good coffee, good food and a good price point will get you a stable customer base - but this isn't low ha ginger fruit, you will be there 12+ hours per day and using your own time to offset wages.

Bistro(low end restaurant): high output and middling quality will get you a high turnover, but again, you are at a huge risk of being cut out by a slightly higher price point and exceptionally better quality restaurant (or even a one chef show, I've seen that before - more later).

High end restaurant: you need exceptional quality, which means(ibitaly) high turnover until you find the right staff, then paying more than your competition for those staff members (I have many times sniped good chef's from other restaurants). Also you need an amazing head chef to do this - many will say they can, very very few can actually follow through with this.

Goverent contacts (or private) for such as hospitals: good luck, to beat their rates you need to hire under current min wage and/or cut corners somewhere - it's a race to the bottom, as quality is never a consideration compared to the books.

As for cleverness, I have seen that work. Infact the best example is a small restaurant I saw once(and spent a lot of time talking to the owner), it was a 30 seat, one sitting restaurant with a set menu.

You had to book two days in advance, the chef/owner purchased everything that day and they charged quite a lot.

Imho this is how restaurants should be, and he was quite successful (for someone who only worked 3 days a week in his retirement). But that's not low hanging fruit, he was a 40 year experienced chef who has probably forgotten more about food than I'll ever hope to know.

Long winded I know, but I hope that gives you an idea about trying to be clever in an industry that is probably one of the most cutthroat around.

Do you think you can say anything more about this restaurant? I don't have any questions in particular, just curious about any anecdotes or interesting things you may have learned. Thanks.

It's a small place, about the size of a two car garrage, and you have to book in advance by two days.

A little history, I had just arrived at the town a few days ago, and on my lunch break I was walking around, checking out the competition, when I saw this chalk board above a little building. All it said was: $60 pp, and a phone number. Fyi this was about 50% above the restaurant I was working ats price. Also the most expensive in the area that I ever found.

So I called up, and booked for my gf and myself. Turns out he only too reservations for at least 2 days previous, you didn't get to pick the menu (although any allergies had to be stated), and you were seated with other people.

The first time I met him, I was in my uniform. I was on my break, and I knew he had a booking, so I ducked down (it was only a few blocks), to see if I could meet him.

An hour later I had learnt, he was an ex fine dining chef. Retired with his wife to a seni-tropical location(eastern coast Australia, up towards the north), and he only worked 3 days a week.

He didn't need the money but it paid for their luxuries. What he would do is take up to 24 people (three tables of eight if I remember correctly), and give them a dinner party.

They would arrive at 530-600 and he would serve them 5 courses. Just him, no kitchen hand, no assistant.

The diner would go until about 1030-1100, and he would join them for the last course.

It was amazing, this wizened old French chef, his hands like knarled claws of some prhistoric creature, would turn out all these beautifully prepared dishes - all from local ingredients mind you - from a kitchen that is about the same as mine at home. Note: I live in Japan now the kitchens here are small.

So three nights a week he would do this, punching out these perfect meals, and when I say perfect, realise my background: executive chef, head chef,and I worked in all capacities in some of the top restaurants in Australia.

The most surprising thing I learnt? I was invited to his house, where I cooked for him(God's wasn't I nervous!), After a few wines, I learnt from his wife that they didn't need the money.

This guy, running one of the most exclusive dining experiences in the area (and that's what it was, it wasn't dinner, it was an actual experience certificate, not just a marketing term), was doing it, purely for the joy of cooking and meeting the clients.

The biggest regret in my life, is that I didn't meet him earlier.

He passed away a few months later, we were cooking at the time.

I honestly think, meeting him was the best experience in my life, and what made me quit cheffing.

Dudes must be making great money from this.

I had a coworker who would frequently visit Vietnam and come back with all sorts of KFC stories. Very popular.

If I'm not mistaken the most recent annual general report from Yum! China who manage KFC and Pizza Hut show a significant slowdown in KFC business.

This may be the end of the novelty binge and the beginnings of health consciousness in the Chinese middle class.

this will make a killing even in the US, anywhere but the south. people just can't seem to do this very well anywhere else, for whatever reason.

We're doing fairly well for ourselves - nobody's getting rich, but it's fun and the income is enough to keep us from wanting to shut down, so I guess we're doing something right.

"Boring" is getting the location right. If you're competing with 50 other restaurants, you've got to be special. If you're the only one in town, and the demographics are right, you're sorted.

   I'm curious what the "boring" food venture is?

Low-end franchise with captive audience seems to be a winning combination, and sometimes you can even get a captive audience with low rent: One example of a McDonalds franchise that was reportedly doing quite well is a small rural town (population ~1500) whose biggest feature was the nearby prison (population ~2000), got a significant amount of its traffic from travelers coming to visit inmates. Location kept rent (and labor) costs quite low.

On the other end of the cost spectrum, you have airport eateries, which are high-cost real estate that more than make up for it in volume. Fast food franchise are especially advantaged (compared to other types of eateries) in airport venues, partly because there are a ton of airport-related restrictions (all dangerous utensils like knives have to be tethered to cooking stations, lack of gas lines at many airports) that tend to affect them less due to the way they handle food prep. And fast food's best features (convenience, low turnaround time) is at a premium for folks in airport terminals, such that they're willing to pay inflated prices for low-end food.