Then Yeah, take advantage of that shit! What's your dream? From this post it sounds like you are interested in a 'Farm to Table' restaurant?
Farm-to-Table as a 'concept' restaurant is a bit
passe I think. Don't get me wrong, I am all about local-sourced ingredients as much as possible but I don't think I want to plaster it all over the menu. Honestly that should be a "given" at any fine restaurant...
My goof-ball restaurant idea is a place that actually turns a profit, or at least is profitable for the people working in it anyway.
I have several ideas on the 'concept,' most are probably doomed to failure.
My personal favorite, that is more of a joke than anything, is to have a "Bush Meat" restaurant. Of course that would be illegal, but I like to think of the Free Advertising that the permanent-PETA-protest out front would generate. As a bonus, I would probably be able to charge a premium for a hunk of lightly grilled blood-rare elephant/zebra/dolphin/etc... Maybe Azzerae could help me source some of that sweet endangered species meat, and quite possibly elephant is actually delicious, I couldn't say.
I hope that did not horrify you too much, a joke in "bad taste" as it were: Ha!To get back to reality, I would like to serve such things as Emu, Venison, Bison, Ostrich, Elk, Rabbit and other "exotic" meats. Probably not as regular menu items; maybe Bison & Rabbit... So that is one idea, not married to it of course but it has been a thought.
My core idea, whether it be Vegan to Carnivore menu and anything in between; is that EVERYTHING is made from scratch. For instance, if I decide that a Twinkie would be an awesome desert, I would not go buy Twinkies: I would direct my pastry chef to create a Twinkie "clone" from scratch without using gross
Bromated Flour, Alzheimer's inducing Aluminum based Baking Powders and whatever Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is (or even Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil).
If I want puff-pastry, it will have to be constructed "in-house" even though that is outrageously labor intensive, I don't want to use "convenience" products like frozen puff-pastry. Just do something else if it is too much. I would not be above making my own in-house puff-pastry in large batches and freezing it myself, however... Same with stocks and what-not. Probably not going to grind my own flour from wheat, but I will not rule that out either...
Another idea was to just be a sandwich shop, like a really really fancy Subway or Jimmy John's. Again, I would have to make the mayonnaise, mustard,
vinegar (think I would have to get a brewer's license for that...),
beer,
spirits, flavored syrups (make my own home-brew Cola, Lemon-Lime, Dr. pate etc syrups).
The 'concept' is sort of beside the point: I think the biggest overhead cost is the lease/rent on the building. The real dream is to turn the People's Free Democratic Republic of pate into a split-use Commercial/Residential property, which it is incidentally zoned for. That would cost some $$$ and I happen to be very averse to debt, BUT it sure would be nice to live right above my goof-ball restaurant. Perhaps a better idea would be to rent one of the many vacant already existent commercial spaces nearby that are already set up for restaurants. That too would cost $$$, rents are high around here due to the "location,location,location" effect.
So either way, I must overcome my aversion to debt (whether to a Bank or Private Investors) to realize my dream. So this leads me to my question:
Hey Roz,
If you owned a property that could be converted to a mixed use Commercial/Residential property would you do that or would you rent/lease a nearby existent Commercial property at somewhat inflated prices for your dream business?-pate
TIA
