Is there any money in this? These towns seem to have only Americanized Chinese food and of course the usual fast food chains and some local diners. We have no experience but were thinking to start a restaurant. There would be no competition. Ideas are Shawarma and/or Indian Food.

Are only educated people living in a city interested in eating delicious ethnic food?

the town i am looking at it 40k people and 30 minutes from a "big city" with a lot of ethnic food and stuffs.

If there aren't restaurants in general, you could be in trouble. But 40k is big enough it might be worth it. Is it a recently grown town?

With no experience in the industry, you have a big challenge.

Don't even bother with indian, in general americans normally hate anything with a touch of kick to it

This depends greatly on the part of the country.

It depends greatly on where you are at. I would kill for an Indian restaurant less than 30 minutes away. We tossed around the idea of opening one, but decided we didn't want to be in the restaurant business. Mainly because neither of us likes to cook. We just saw a gap in the market that needs to be filled.

Tom had a good question. Is it a recently developed suburb of a major city? Or is it an established small town? They could have a very different demographic. If it's a recently developed suburb, I think you have a better chance of success.

In general, people like their American food on regular basis and ethnic food on occasion. I live in DC and we have tons of ethnic food places - but I don't know anyone who only actually eats Thai/Viet/Salvadoran/Indian/Indonesian/Korean/etc every day to support a specific place. Virtually everybody goes to these places for occasional variety - not for regular meals.

It has little to do with education. It has everything with a concentration of people large enough to support a specialty food. In a little town, there just isn't enough people to support the 1 time per month each person may feel like Vietnamese. It's the same reason why you have all sorts of random specialty shops in big metros.

Shawarma seems a lot easier to cook than Indian, unless you have really good chefs who can cook decent Indian I'd go for the kebabs

I grew up in a town like this. Indian would be a tough sell. Shwarma would work but I would call it Gyros.

Bismarck, ND

That will be 10%, PM for billing address

Also I'd like to point out that North Dakota has the second highest % of people with post high school education outside of Massachusetts.

I agree, but when he said small white town I just assumed midwest or thereabouts, which is where I live (foreigner) and people like their steaks well done and their food without spice.

East or West coast is completely different

Have we determined were in the U.S. OP is? If you are in a major met area most ethnic food can survive if the quality is high and the prices are reasonable. There are shawarma/ kebab joints that do very well in NJ with low sq footage. IMO, if you cant put out high quality food you shouldn't even bother.

Central Florida.

This white guy would eat the **** out of that, and does at least twice a week at my local joint..... if you could keep the prices cheap (5 to 7 bucks for a lunch) it would work imo

Does your city have any area where a significant amount of office type jobs are located?

The food would have to be really top notch tho

Central Florida seems like it has a better chance just due to old people eating out a lot. However, old people are probably less likely to eat ethnically as it would involve changing their habits.

You're going to have to be more specific. I think some places in central FL could handle it and some can't. I live near Tampa. If you're more specific about where you want to open it, I can give you my opinion about the area. Feel free to send PM if you don't want it to be general knowledge.

I could end up being your best customer.

Indian food really is not that hard. you just need to make your own spice mixes. you don't really need a tandoori oven to make tasty nan bread (though obviously not totally authentic) or bbq'ed meats.

This is probably a really bad idea for a variety of reasons. I would be relying on there being enough people who already like Indian food but just don't have it around and being the only game in town. Expecting to recruit new people when there a zillion restaurants they already know exist is probably unrealistic.

This whole thread reeks of failure before the idea is even started. This is why most businesses fail.

Whatever you do, do not tell us the city/town you are thinking about doing it in....there are probably at least 20 people waiting to start an Indian restaurant in a 40K city where one does not exist.

In serious mode....do they have Thai food in this unknown city?

That would go over MUCH better then Indian imo

I really miss biking down the street and getting 3 Shawarma for $2.

I would recommend that you do turkish instead of Indian. I think it would be a lot easier to sell to most Americans - grilled kabobs, chickens, and lamb chops just do better than curries with most westerners.

I'd very much advise extreme caution or outright disagreement with this as a business idea. Ethnic restaurants in small towns can be disastrous.

I'd do something like a fusion, or a place that can offer both local fare and ethnic side by side. In all seriousness, go watch something like diners and drive-ins on the food channel. There are many examples of ethnic fusion places that do extremely well in small towns, but it's mostly due to the fusion part.

In general, restaurants fail more than people realize, and they are a TON of work.

Yeah. Don't do it. Not because it's Indian food but because it's a ****ing restaurant. You have no idea what you're doing and the food industry is one of the most brutal in terms of ROI, failure rate, and number of idiots (like you) who think they can come in and do something without having the faintest idea what they're doing.

If you really want to open an Indian restaurant go get a job in and Indian restaurant and work there for 5 years. If you have done every job in the restaurant well including manager and chef consider opening a restaurant. I have no idea why people think that they could open a restaurant with no experience but don't consider starting an architecture firm with no experience or credentials. Neither one is a good idea.

I don't know what industry you work in now... But whatever that industry is you should be trying to figure out how to start a business in that instead. What you know is a point that I can't really overstate. (which is why I just said it in 4 different ways... Because I'm hoping you'll actually understand what I'm saying )