re: F&D board fail .... Off the Hook closing up shop

quote:

---

You Baton Rouge schmucks made fun of Johnny's Pizza closing years ago, but you obviously have forgotten that it was set up in B.F.E. The same applies with Off the Hook. The place has very good food, it was just set up in a terrible place. Hopefully the owners move their business to a different area of town.

---

Coursey is hardly BFE, shmuck.

quote:

---

It's always a damn shame when good local places that help define the area close down. Especially when there are waits to eat at Olive Garden, Golden Corral, and Joe's Crab Shack.

---

Thinking the same thing when I read this.


It's just a good thing we didn't lose one of our myriad of different McChain restaurants littering this city. I mean, what ever would we do?

I talked to him (as I was in the seafood business myself a while back) and he attributed it to their wholesale going down last year, the economy, and the oil spill. He said the building was mainly chosen to do wholesale and some retail. When the wholesale went down, the market was left to cover the costs and it didn't justify the location and it was too much overhead for a small restaurant. He said he also has not received anything from BP and has been having trouble with BP reimbursing him for high seafood prices, low seafood availability, and lower sales due to the spill.

I know lots of people in the seafood business and most of them are hurting right now. Some say their sales are the worst it has been in over 30 years right now. Their isn't a lot of seafood to begin with and then a lot of people are afraid to buy it.

Plus the local seafood industry has been taking a beating for years with imports. Imports are so cheap that it makes it a hard sale even here and especially across the country where imports prevail. And with this spill that just happened, imports will only strengthen their market share.

I got that email last night, pretty surprised. I dont get a chance to go out there since I don't work nearby and it is hell to get there in the afternoon due to its location. I will send the wife by there today or tomorrow to pick up stuff for the rest of the week. Sad to see it go, good guys.

quote:

---

The ONLY good shrimp poboy I've found in BR.

---

The BR side of Prairieville isn't that far, you should try Tommy's Fish House.

Since I am a owner at Off the Hook I will shed some light on the situation:

We choose the location to do both wholesale and retail. When the economy started tanking a few years ago our sales dropped drastically in the wholesale. Our sales was at the lowest ever in it's 30-something year existence. Besides the economy we also had a lot of problems with our wholesale customers going out of business locally and nationally (we shipped a lot of seafood all over the country). With that said when we made the move, the wholesale could not withstand the moving costs of moving a operation like that and we decided to close it down around October/November of 2009.

With the wholesale closed down, the market was left to cover the overhead. It was basically too much for a small restaurant and the location. The location was not meant to be a stand alone for the market. Lunch business was descent but dinner business was basically non-existent. We would do 50-250 (the higher amount for fridays during Lent) people during lunch and do 5-20 for dinner. And being that we didn't have alcohol (rezoning cost more than we could afford), dinner business lacked because of that also. And being that I am only 31 and don't have a deep credit history, getting a load during these times and starting a businees during these times without sufficient capital is almost impossible. Banks are just not lending right now. Several banks wanted just as much collateral as the loan and most wanted cash for collateral. But if I had the cash I wouldn't need the loan. Even after a year of the market doing descent sales, still couldn't get anything. We never had the cash to put the sign up or do alcohol which didn't help things.

As for the business, I liked it a lot. I liked cooking regular stuff and boiling seafood. I had no restaurant experience (the only thing that did help was that I knew seafood just as well as anyone and also had food service experience in products we sold through the wholesale-poultry,dry goods, etc.) when I started it but put the menu together and did the research and put all the restaurant stuff together. I didn't even know how to cook that much before I started but learned pretty quickly. Taught myself to cook redbeans, gumbo, roast beef for poboys, and all the other dishes we served for lunch. I learned a lot in a year. Running a restaurant is tough and cooking for other people is way different than cooking for a family meal/party. And boiling crawfish/crabs is way easier to cook and serve to people immediately than it is to sell and have to wait on people to come in and buy it. Makes it hard to know how much to cook and have hot.

As for the seafood selection, when I was running it in june-october of 09 and from march 10 up until a few weeks ago, we had just as good as anyone of a seafood selection when it came to fresh local seafood except maybe tony's. There was a gap in there where my family didn't want to sell fresh fish because it is such a hard sale. Fresh fish is expensive and most people do not want to spend that much on it. At the beginning we had to throw a lot away and was too much to cook. I even had people come here and say we were way to expensive for fish when we were anywhere from $2-$5 cheaper a pound on all seafood than whole foods, fresh market, and maxwell's market (really the only three places in Baton Rouge that have fresh fish).

As for the spill, it definitely affected seafood. Shrimp, crabs, and oysters are at all time highs and that is not a good thing in a bad economy. We were paying $4-$5 a pound more for oysters. Hard to make money when things raise that much. Shrimp was around $2/lb higher or more cost to us and crabs were hard to get and the crabs we have been getting lately have been a little inconsistent. One thing most people don't know about blue crabs here is that most of them go up the east coast because they pay more money for them. As supply shrunk, most went up the east coast, especially the big ones. Well even with dropped sales BP did not help us like they were supposed to. We never received $1 from them as of yet. Still battling with them right now. I shouldn't have to raise my prices way higher due to spill and pass it along to the consumer but most have had to do it. People are definitely afraid to buy seafood right now. Some seafood companies I talk to have never had sales this low even if they have been in it 20 years or more.

I might put in for a small disaster (due to the spill) business loan and relocate somewhere. I'm not sure yet.

quote:

---

quote:


The ONLY good shrimp poboy I've found in BR.





Have you tried Dempsey's shrimp poboy?

Sorry to hear about the Hook..I was never a big fan of the place, but no way do I like to see that they're having to shut down. I was definitely in the minority on TD.com about my feelings about the place because I think most of you were fans.

---

I have been to Dempsey's a bunch of times and always enjoyed my food there. Even their poboys.

But for some who like New Orleans style poboys, to me it's not the same. It's different bread and not overstuffed. But everyone has different tastes. And again, I liked their food. Liked their gumbo and pretty much all their seafood.

I was there on a Saturday afternoon in mid May. I bought a frozen quart, particularly because I'd read how you made yours. I could tell it looked lighter than I preferred, but I bought it anyway. No big deal. So sorry y'all are closing.

in other news... Olive Garden still packin em in...

Good luck Jason with whatever you try to do next. Sounds like you have a great attitude and a good knowledge of the seafood industry.

I appreciate anyone who makes a go at running a place like that. Restaurants in any form are tough and yeah, you are dealing with alot of people in the general public who probably want to compare your fresh seafood prices to crap they are buying from China at Walmart.