Thanks for doing this!

Got about a million questions to ask you. I am in the same industry and doing well but I often feel as if I am clueless.

I've got an indie shop (takeaway) that is doing extremely well but I do not know what to do next. I feel as if I should expand but I am concerned that my success is due to my prime retail spot (which I am pretty sure I cannot get elsewhere.)


Any ideas or advice on what to do?

I have two concepts and business plans for both. Two polar opposite concepts. I've been in the industry for 12 years, have made others plenty of money through running a tight ship and paying attention to details day in and day out.

Looking into owning my own through partnerships to start. My plans entail buying a commercial center so the restaurant has no rent or minimal, while the other tenants pay on the building.To potential capitalize on the asset appreciation if that comes to fruition.

Do you see that as the way to go in today's climate or lease/build out should not be ruled out?

Can you tell me a little bit about what your shop does & why you think the location is so good?

Apacolypse, jus noticed your new Orleans location

U play at Harras?

A5: Thanks so much for the time and energy you have put into this thread.

A few have asked here and there but I haven't seen much verdict.

Any other book/forum/etc recommendations beside the e-myth and out of print ones?

Obviously a lot of books and such exist but its hard to know what's worth the time and money.

I don't know what your exact position is, but I would be inclined to seek out a premier location to operate from and make that my dominant strategy.

"restaurants that work" and books (bio or otherwise) on founders/successful brands have quite a bit of detail.

I'm interested in opening a restaurant delivery service, where I live there are loads of restraurants but almost none of them deliver, "deliver only" restaurants are unheard of.

I want to deliver meals to customers at home from restaurants that don't have a delivery service. I know these kind of services exist sucessfully elsewhere.

I know I could just take the menue prices at face value and charge customers a delivery fee but would rather look into getting a cut from the restaurants, keeping it as cheap and easy for the customers as possible.

How much of a cut is reasonable? I'm thinking of 30% here but I admit the number is arbitrary, I do think a healthy cut would be ok since the restaurant

- gets a sale it wouldn't have without me/can reach a whole new target market
- doesn't "lose" a seating space or time from one of it's waiters
- gets advertising through the website as well as through the actual sale

Any input welcome!

Greetings, apocalypse_fives1

Could you share any input if you have had nay experience with this.

How much value for the joint is there in a silent service needed buzzer.
I basically mean, that do you see this as avalue for the customers and for the joint also to have that system operational on the tables in a simple form of a small button.

I think that it could help to make it more comfortable for the customers and also would increase the table conversion?(maybe not the right term) so óne could serice more customers in an hour/day/month etc.

Hey Apoc,

Apologies if this was asked previously. I was wondering if you had any info on digital menu's on ipads IE: App's for bars or the like, where instead of a traditional menu given to the customer they are given ipad's with the menu on there.

If you've had exp or knowledge or know of restaurents//bars that do this would you happen to know if sales increased//decreased after or stayed the same?

Any info would be great.

I have seen it in restaurants that have deep wine lists & are diligent about keeping their list updated and accurate. Not uncommon for restaurants to have a short inventory of certain labels & vintages, so updating and outputting a new wine list (especially a significant one) can get pretty tedious. Once or twice on the food end. No idea of impact on sales.

There are have been times as a guest when I wished such a button existed, but I have never seen one in use. As long as it didn't make the service staff lazy (which I think it would) I think customers would like it.

A lot of places have them in china. I think its pretty useful as the wait staff doesnt regularly come to the table. Its completely appropriate to just yell at them to come over so i much prefer this.

If you were looking to invest in a Sports Bar, what kind of returns from previous years would make you interested? What kind of returns would you expect going forward? Roughly, what would be a top end ROI for an investor in a successful Sports Bar (something similar to a Buffalo Wild Wings).

This has been discussed in these forums. This is a much more difficult business then it seems. Had someone try to sell me one of these once & got a chance too look inside. They really had there ops together (central order processing, radio phones, knew to sell their own bevs, but personally I wouldn't touch it.

i just started reading this thread so i'm grunching here. what valuation methods would you use when looking to buy an existing restaurant?

It starts with multiples of verifiable sales, but even that number is informed by too many other factors. In the end the value is what someone is willing to pay, probably not what you want to hear.

Im not sure if you have covered this question before but here goes:

Do you have any experience owning/operating a restaurant overseas?
I'm flying out to take a look at a property in Belize in October.

I have no experience running a restaurant other working as a server back in the day.

I have a strong law firm and marketing back round and im hoping that you might be able to point me in the right direction.

This perticular property has a staff already in place for the last 14 months.

I can share more specifics with you if you are interested.

Thanks in advance

No experience in the industry and trying to operate in a foreign country... where your legal experience isn't actually worth anything. What could go wrong?

i've been traveling to belize for 16 years and have been there around 40 times. seen many a place come and go, mostly places bought up by wide-eyed foreigners. if you are talking about ambergris caye, i am sure to know the business. i would be happy to answer any questions.

Any background you have on the deal would be helpful and feel free to pm anything that is sensitive.

Just noticed I posted a question awhile back that you never answered (probably b/c it's the last post on the previous page), still kind of interested in the answer. It's post #300 if you don't mind.

Thanks for your high quality insight

Thank you for taking the time to reply in a mature manner. I appreciate it.
Im sending you & apocalypse_fives a PM since it looks like (as is often the case) adult things cant be discussed in the open on 2p2.

apocalypse_fives (or others) - any good comprehensive books surrounding opening a restaurant that you'd recommend?

None I can recommend on opening a restaurant, but Restaurants That Work by M. Dorf. might be helpful