re: Broken Egg's New Hours: WTF ??

brokenegg -- george's, cafe americain, jones creek, etc. all do really well with the lunch crowd in that part of town ... people just don't associate you with lunch yet and you have done little or no marketing in the area at all ... there are plenty of businesses along tiger bend, coursey, jones creek, etc. and these people generally eat at the above locations ... the biggest complaint that i have heard is that your prices are a little high for breakfast food ... there are still an alarming number of people in southeast baton rouge that have NO idea that you are there ... city cafe has been in the same shopping center for years and had done well and i think your food blows theirs away ...

just a few tidbits from a concerned, loyal customer ..

ETA: i think you're pushing the panic button too soon and have to give it time .. you haven't been there that long and i can tell you that people that are reading your banner with your new hours are basically assuming that your next step is leaving ... i don't think this is going to ratchet up your business ... drive around to the local businesses in the area .. introduce yourself, drop off cards, flyers, etc. to put on their counters and let them know that you are there ... i just think you need to do a little more than open the door and expect people to walk in .. obviously, you don't need to be told how competitive the restaurant business is ..

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it is no longer open on mondays and tuesdays and is only open from 8 to 2 wednesday thru sunday .

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Closing 2 days a week, and only being open for 6 hours a day. Just doesn't seem like you're giving the restaurant much of a chance to survive.

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FYI...I just spoke witht he owner of the Another Broken Egg in Lafayette. They open at 6:30 and will be pushing the hours back to 7:30 very soon.

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Cody or Jake?

The Lafayett opening hour is the earliest in the system...most of the units are open at 7:30. Jake and I have had a couple of converstations about his opening hour and they have a couple of advantages there to open early (the health club, etc.) I hope it works for them, but it is very early for our concept.

I think they are doing nice sales. We usually have a month or two of great sales, then it will settle down a bit. The River Ranch development is awesome, they should do very well in that location. I understand that the Bonefish is doing very well also.

if you're telling me that outback on jones creek is not living up to expectations, then what in the hell are their expectations ?? on thursday, friday, and saturday night the parking lot is packed from opening to close and cars are parking along market street ... unless all of those people are getting water and crackers i think they are putting up the numbers ... during the week their business seems to be decent too ... squeeky is like any other long time business owner and probably wants more .. but he's been open 7 days a week with plenty of cars in the parking lot for over 5 years now ... the problem is that you don't need 18 waiters/waitresses tripping over each other to service the dining room ... lower your overhead, but don't cut back on business opportunities ... once again, i noticed that you didn't address my main issue and that is that you have done ZERO marketing in the area ... cut back on a waitress or two and put that money into marketing in the area and you'll need that waitress or two back pretty soon ... opening at 8AM only wednesday thru sunday is absolutely going to KILL any chances you have of establishing a loyal weekday breakfast following ... the majority of middle to upper class clientele who have the disposable dollars to support your on-the-high-side breakfast prices are already sitting at their desks in their offices by 8 to 8:30AM ...

you haven't even been there a year and you are basically throwing in the towel in my and a lot of your loyal customer's opinions ... i dunno, maybe you were just under-capitalized to start out ..

Thank you for your suggestions.

We had a very good summer, with solid weekday mornings. I am hoping with the marketing that we are doing (like 1210, JBO, and the river...as well as print advertising), and a positive turn in the economy by the end of the spring, that we will again be able to open for a full week. Summer is usually a slow time for other restaurants, but not for our concept. When the kids are out of school, we are busy. You can tell on the "Monday holidays"...like MLK Day...we will usually do sales equivilant to a Saturday. Any time the kids are out of school, we are strong in sales.

We have a couple of business networking groups that meet every week. All those meetings, and even the groups that meet at the Old Hammond store start at 8 and will sometimes go till 9-9:30. I am in some of the church papers and the southeast journal. When we first opened, we were on JBO and River every weekday morning, but that cost about 6k a month, and I couldn't cut enough wait staff out of the building to continue to pay that rate. I bought the building on Old Hammond for 1.2mm, so it's not a case of being undercap'd. We just need to cut back for now and weather the storm, and the economy will turn by late spring. Historically, recessions don't last more that 6 months, and I believe we have been in this one since Oct...