re: Why would anyone in their right mind go into the Restaurant Biz?

I've been owning a restaurant for 13 years now. I work a lot, but only because I enjoy it and the more I work the less I have to pay someone.

There have been scary moments financially but overall I'm doing alright considering. I make my own decisions and don't have to worry about some middle management SOB telling me what to do all day.

It's a helluva lot of work, from day to day operation, to bookwork payroll ect....and I don't recommend it to many people. It takes a different breed to be successful in this business. I happen to be of that breed.

In my experience most who do try aren't willing to make the sacrifice to be successful.

I'm married with 3 kids and they all spend a lot of time with me at work. So while I may work 50 hours a week I'll still see my family around 10-20 of those work hours.

The restaurant business is really fun. If you are really good at it, it doesn't even seem like work half the time. That said, I'm sure it gets REALLY old. Not to mention, that the average emotional maturity of your typical restaurant employee is extremely low for whatever reason, in my experience at least.

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REcent experience with one location on a serious uptick over the previous year since I took over... only to have him try to open not one, but TWO new places in the same year.

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Hogs get slaughtered and pigs live on.

I don't understand why it's so tough.

Seems to me of you have 3 things it's a no lose venture.
1)location
2)quality product
3)service

No particular order, just be spot on with all 3.

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i'm just a very conservative financially person

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And you have poor very grammar

I worked in a new restaurant which was family owned. It takes dedication and is your life. You are there every day and you work when everyone else is having fun. You need several dedicated and reliable team members with certain specialties to be successful. A chef who can cook like a SOB will see the restaurant fail without a professional and experienced manager. You need a quality bartender who can be trusted.

I am sure all of us have been to a restaurant in one form or another which had great food but terrible service and presentation. Those places don't last or barely pay the bills.

No idea. Worked a restaurant between semesters during Summer of 1974. It was some of the hardest fricking work I ever did, because you did some of everything from waiting tables, to cooking, to sweeping the parking lot. All it paid in 1974 was $1.40 and tips.

My dad hired me in his construction business the following summer. Paid a hell of a lot better, and in a way actually wasn't as bad as restaurant work. Before anyone gets on my arse about the perks of being the owner's kid on the summer job, no - if anything he rode my arse harder than anyone else's. However, I will hand it to him, he whipped me into the best physical shape of my life that summer.

Yea, my family had Ray's Bull Pen and my mother had Touch of Italy in Slidell.

Now I'm at Hooters in Houma. The family business days are long behind me.

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It definitely depends on the kind of restaurant as well. 

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This. Overhead factors in big.