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Haifisch posted:And he started with such burning passion for the realities of the business. Don't you get it? He was supposed to be "front of house, designing the menu, signing cheques and glad-handing customers", you know, posing with "a rifle slung over [his] shoulder, a pint of cider in hand". The back of house stuff was just details for someone else to sweat out.
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Nov 6, 2017 06:38
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Yond Cassius posted:Don't you get it? He was supposed to be "front of house, designing the menu, signing cheques and glad-handing customers", you know, posing with "a rifle slung over [his] shoulder, a pint of cider in hand". The back of house stuff was just details for someone else to sweat out. That's the most amazing thing, I couldn't figure out who the chef was supposed to be because he says that he did a kitchen rota but how can he run a kitchen from the front?
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Nov 6, 2017 06:41
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Panfilo posted:GWM: Knowing someone BWM with a good restaurant idea that eventually transfers ownership of it to you in order to keep up on his Avocado Toast payments. It's expensive fitting out a restaurant so this is like a gift to the competent operator. At least someone was good with money in this whole thing. I hope his dream was worth blowing away a chunk of his retirement savings, losing his house and still having no job.
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Nov 6, 2017 06:41
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Yond Cassius posted:Don't you get it? He was supposed to be "front of house, designing the menu, signing cheques and glad-handing customers", you know, posing with "a rifle slung over [his] shoulder, a pint of cider in hand". The back of house stuff was just details for someone else to sweat out. Yeah after that line I was rooting extra hard for him to fail, even with the foreknowledge that the entire story was about his failure. I'm not a chef, I have no management or business understanding, and I don't really bring any capital to the table, but I can be, like, the ideas guy! What's this, you can get me a sweet deal renting this awful, disgusting hole as long as I pay you 50 grand for all the unsalvageable garbage first? DEAL!
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Nov 6, 2017 07:01
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The guy is BWM even in his early daysquote:In 2011, I applied to operate a booth at the Toronto Underground Food Market, a short-lived festival, known as TUM, where home cooks could sell their culinary creations to the public. I served mini-panko-crusted codfish cakes with green pea pesto, gourmet pork belly sandwiches, and wild mushroom and black pudding hash. I slogged through each step of thrice-cooked English chips, my fingers cramping so severely from peeling 100 pounds of potatoes that I almost called 911. In the end, I fed 400 people, and they liked my food. Several local bloggers wrote about my dishes. It was an adrenalin rush like no other. I lost money, but I didn’t care. My dream was gnawing at my insides.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:09
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Judging by his "whoops we were way underpricing the food for the quality" moment in the restuarant clusterfuck, I'm guessing he way underpriced his codfish cakes and pork belly sandwiches. 
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Nov 6, 2017 07:28
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The sad part about it all is that it sounds like he fell into the classic traps of small businesses - lack of adequate capital and no business plan. With virtually no money when he opened he had no margin of error to ride through the tough months (there's always tough months) or handle unexpected problems. There's no mention of advertising or any sort of plan to drive customers to his business, and since he spent his time robbing Peter to pay Paul he never had the cash or time to make a long term plan for profitability. Even when he had customers he had mispriced his food to the point he continued to lose money because everything was too cheap. These are all crippling problems for a new business, but not unexpected ones if you have a plan. I can't really root for him to fail but he seems naive as gently caress about almost every aspect of running a restaurant. Unfortunately, a lot of people get suckered into this "entrepreneur economy" dream where they'll come up with some idea/business that's going to make them a ton of money without any appreciation of the risks and time involved. The fact is that starting up a small business is super stressful and even when it's profitable it will take up a massive amount of time compared to a regular job. There's a lot more "staying up until 1 a.m. calculating payroll" and less "hanging out with your buds and rifle like some sort of low rent Hemmingway." Suspicious Lump posted:The guy is BWM even in his early days Because he never seemed to understand throughout this whole thing that having a good product or service means nothing if your price isn't profitable.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:31
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well, all that, and then there's the whole massive alcohol abuse problem. plus he didn't actually do any work. so he was probably actively siphoning money from the restaurant by drinking all day every day without putting any labor back. not a real surprise the restaurant is better off without him, all business aspects aside.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:44
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And he was an analyst before this all started? Of all things, you would imagine he would at least have a business plan, budgeting, market research, etc done to a tee. But yeah, it seems like he just wanted an excuse to drink all day while being nominally in charge. And blew his life savings in the process.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:48
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looking back im not sure what the guy actually did. he seems contagious to doing any actual work, and just hired people to do everything, like dropping thousands on a lawyer for a simple incorporation. he had a great chance to get hands on restauranteur experience working at his friend's place but treated it as a formality and did the bare minimum of hours. instead of real work he focused on DREAMS and uh drinking a lot i guess?? it's hard not to root for somebody like that to fail.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:52
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Haifisch posted:Judging by his "whoops we were way underpricing the food for the quality" moment in the restuarant clusterfuck, I'm guessing he way underpriced his codfish cakes and pork belly sandwiches. Gourmet pork belly sandwiches, you mean.
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Nov 6, 2017 07:53
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"My business plan is to chug a pint and say 'how hard could it be?'" *has no idea what his start-up costs are, runs out of money before opening day*
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Nov 6, 2017 08:01
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My family has a restaurant equipment business and my dad always was excited to get first time restauranteurs in... He'd sell them the equipment then a few months later when they'd inevitably shut down he'd buy it back for a fraction of what they bought it for. GWM for him BWM for them. I was in sales for our company for awhile before I couldn't take how scummy it was and quit to go to school. Worst story (this was 12-14 years ago so it's a little hazy) I saw was a guy who wanted to open a little taco shop and instead of like... Doing research on what the health codes were he just started buying equipment and setting up shop. He had spent maybe $40k on equipment and outfitting the restaurant space before getting ANY feedback from the health department if his kitchen plans, floor drains, grease trap, exhaust, etc were to code. I tried to help him with what I knew about code, and told him be needed to submit plans, but he just kept moving forward. He just had his tweaker contractor do all that work, then submitted his plans (this takes forever, so he has a full kitchen ready to go just sitting there for weeks during the approval process). Surprise, there were all kinds of issues and he had to completely tear up the floor in the kitchen and buy and install a bigger grease trap, the exhaust system is not right, multiple issues, and then he has to resubmit for approval. The guy ends up blowing all of his money before the restaurant even opens and I get a call from him one night, he's talking quietly and slurring his words and he tells me this was the biggest mistake he's ever made, his wife is going to divorce him, and he doesn't know what he's going to do. So he ends up having to sell everything before he even opens just to recoup what he can. My dad gladly obliges. My dad tells him "Hey we're just like a doctor... We're here when your born and we're here when you die Jerome Louis fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Nov 6, 2017 |
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Nov 6, 2017 08:19
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Jerome Louis posted:My family has a restaurant equipment business and my dad always was excited to get first time restauranteurs in... He'd sell them the equipment then a few months later when they'd inevitably shut down he'd buy it back for a fraction of what they bought it for. GWM for him BWM for them. hey nothing scummy about that, somebody's gotta sell the shovels. good story though.
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Nov 6, 2017 09:16
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Suspicious Lump posted:gently caress. BWM to the max. But this bit I don't really understand: No, he was selling off the business piecemeal in lieu of paying rent. That's one of the many incredibly lucky breaks he gets, and he even recognizes that most landlords would have just shut him down then and there.
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Nov 6, 2017 09:25
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The fact that this guy was drunk by 11am every day on his restaurant's kegs-on-credit before the place even opened is the indicator he's not cut out to run a business, you don't even need to know anything else. Why didn't he have any idea what competitors had to charge on gourmet dishes just to keep the doors open? Because his piss-poor impulse control was leading him to show up drunk every day rather than say do any market research. And then if he couldn't stay sober before the restaurant was even open for business, welp yea no wonder he was getting drunk in the freezer while the business fell apart.
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Nov 6, 2017 10:16
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Also he sells his house, pays down all his debt, then spends a heap more, and the real kicker, gives all his employees a raise. I'd be happy to see minimum wage increases, but as a business owner who just had to sell their loving house to keep the crushing debt at bay, you shouldn't be giving your staff raises.
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Nov 6, 2017 11:38
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I wonder how many people saw the movie Chef and thought they could pull it off as easily
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Nov 6, 2017 11:51
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George H.W. oval office posted:I wonder how many people saw the movie Chef and thought they could pull it off as easily It was a fun movie, at least.
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Nov 6, 2017 11:54
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Zo posted:looking back im not sure what the guy actually did. he seems contagious to doing any actual work, and just hired people to do everything, like dropping thousands on a lawyer for a simple incorporation. he had a great chance to get hands on restauranteur experience working at his friend's place but treated it as a formality and did the bare minimum of hours. instead of real work he focused on DREAMS and uh drinking a lot i guess?? https://ca.linkedin.com/in/robert-maxwell-8b166712 Visit in chrome incognito mode if the annoying as hell linkedin lightbox comes up. He is a marketing analyst by the sounds of it. His description for the restaurant is kinda interesting: quote:Proprietor, operator, designer, menu developer and sometimes cook at the Beech Tree Restaurant and Bar in Toronto Ontario: a highly acclaimed neighborhood restaurant and bar. Including - all social media oversight, copy writing, marketing and promotions, maintaining and authoring the company promotional blog, food photography and styling, web site design and maintenance. As well as, book keeping, costumer relations, human resources and building maintenance. The site has a blog: https://baronmag.ca/2014/12/office-tale-of-robert-maxwell-ownerproprietor-of-the-beech-tree-restaurant-and-bar/ quote:Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work ? quote:What is the best advice anyone has given you ? 
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Nov 6, 2017 12:16
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Oh man, that's the good stuff  I get that office jobs aren't all that fun, but did he seriously think that because he likes cooking and is a "foodie", he will like running a restaurant? I mean...he obviously did, but how? Shouldn't an adult have learned that enthusiasm doesn't count for much in the business world unless you can back it up with dedicated effort and knowledge? If you don't have any knowledge or skill and don't put effort into acquiring it, enthusiasm doesn't matter and won't last. So many people don't understand that the hobby they enjoy has only a tangential relationship to running a successful business around it.
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Nov 6, 2017 13:19
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Enfys posted:Oh man, that's the good stuff I think the real BWM here is the canadian taxpayer hiring this guy back to be an analyst for the CBC.
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Nov 6, 2017 13:22
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Jerome Louis posted:So he ends up having to sell everything before he even opens just to recoup what he can. My dad gladly obliges. My dad tells him "Hey we're just like a doctor... We're here when your born and we're here when you die Your dad's a wise man. I was eating at a sub shop thinking what it would take to own my own sandwich deli. Menu, staffing, stupid poo poo like, "do I get a soda machine or just sell canned drinks." What kind of location would work (somewhere with foot traffic, maybe near a college), can I get by with 4 tables and a narrow shaped shop, and just how small I could get my nut so that the place didn't need a constant line of people to break even. I think the tiny nuts are the key. There's a Greek restaurant nearby that opened in a terrible location that's managed to eat the dreams of 4 other restaurateurs in one decade and they've somehow managed to survive because they've kept their expenses low. The dad is carving the lamb and the cute Greek daughter is working the register. But even then, they're still going to fail. The location is just too bad and eventually you get tired to working 80 weeks just to barely survive. Good gyros though.
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Nov 6, 2017 13:40
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Yea, the way that many small restaurants (and really a lot of small businesses) survive is by having the owner put in ridiculous amounts of work with no real commensurate pay. If you can generate 80+ hours of labor below minimum wage (more if you have kids involved!) then you can sure shave down those necessary expenses. But if you aren't putting in that labor, man you better have a good business plan. In this case the guy wasn't even really doing anything - what he should have done (other than not start an idiot business) is to either bust his rear end working there or kept working a regular job while other people did the lifting on his restaurant. He was also in the position of having a friend who actually runs a successful restaurant who he should have pumped for all possible information and guidance, but instead he just smirks and dismisses the guys warning. I wonder how hard his friend was rolling his eyes this whole time watching this nightmare circle the drain and knowing exactly where it was going.
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Nov 6, 2017 15:53
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Ashcans posted:Yea, the way that many small restaurants (and really a lot of small businesses) survive is by having the owner put in ridiculous amounts of work with no real commensurate pay. If you can generate 80+ hours of labor below minimum wage (more if you have kids involved!) then you can sure shave down those necessary expenses. But if you aren't putting in that labor, man you better have a good business plan. In this case the guy wasn't even really doing anything - what he should have done (other than not start an idiot business) is to either bust his rear end working there or kept working a regular job while other people did the lifting on his restaurant. I watched his stupid youtube channel a bit and I think he was somewhat exaggerating his cooking/any skills. Also, I think his gimmick is wearing a different fedora in every video. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjx75IPqrzBN7RmTGnVeDg
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Nov 6, 2017 15:59
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Suspicious Lump posted:The guy is BWM even in his early days A lot of those conventions and what not are more treated as advertising I think. I have a few friends who did the craft fair thing a lot and usually they were happy just to break even. They mostly did it as a way to get people to go to their Etsy shop. The cost to rent a table at those things is just usually too high to make it back. The guy definitely hosed up his pricing though. The whole thing is the classic failed restaurant story. I've had people tell me I should start a food truck or something and just a quick check of the numbers makes it look like a terrible idea, and this guy was the worst money manager in the world. Still not sure if his line about people willing to travel to his shop to get the thrice-cooked chips was earnest or not. On the upside, he will be paying for this mistake for literally the rest of his life. He hosed over his own retirement so hard, he'll probably be working until he dies.
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Nov 6, 2017 16:07
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Postess with the Mostest posted:I watched his stupid youtube channel a bit and I think he was somewhat exaggerating his cooking/any skills. Also, I think his gimmick is wearing a different fedora in every video. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjx75IPqrzBN7RmTGnVeDg There's no way that guy's road map to success didn't include a regular judge spot on Chopped. But he's not even Guy's Grocery Games material.
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Nov 6, 2017 16:08
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Ashcans posted:He was also in the position of having a friend who actually runs a successful restaurant who he should have pumped for all possible information and guidance, but instead he just smirks and dismisses the guys warning. I wonder how hard his friend was rolling his eyes this whole time watching this nightmare circle the drain and knowing exactly where it was going. If it were a better friendship the guy would have said "No." Giving more rope to someone who is trying to tie a noose around his own neck isn't a great thing to do. If this guy had to go out and get a real job in a restaurant to get enough experience for his liquor license, instead of just dicking around doing light prep work at his friend's place, he might have realized that the restaurant work is actually hard work and not just something you can cruise through while hiding in the basement and drinking cider. If his friend hadn't cut him a deal on rent, helped him purchase the place, and so on, maybe he wouldn't have gotten so massively in debt. I don't know what's better, the bit where he got a not-real-restaurant job for 3 months just for the liquor license, or the bit where *finally* all the hard work pays off and they start turning a profit so they shut down for a week to celebrate. What the gently caress. This is a perfect storm of idiocy.
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Nov 6, 2017 16:21
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Ashcans posted:Yea, the way that many small restaurants (and really a lot of small businesses) survive is by having the owner put in ridiculous amounts of work with no real commensurate pay. If you can generate 80+ hours of labor below minimum wage (more if you have kids involved!) then you can sure shave down those necessary expenses. But if you aren't putting in that labor, man you better have a good business plan. In this case the guy wasn't even really doing anything - what he should have done (other than not start an idiot business) is to either bust his rear end working there or kept working a regular job while other people did the lifting on his restaurant. This is exactly the conversation I had with my good friend who is also a physician and talking about opening a coffee shop. I told her if she wants a slave for approximately minimum wage 80-100 hours a week she can possibly keep the doors open, if that doesn't sound like a great deal then she should probably just continue to work for $300 an hour and buy coffee at Starbucks.
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Nov 6, 2017 17:17
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Panfilo posted:GWM: Knowing someone BWM with a good restaurant idea that eventually transfers ownership of it to you in order to keep up on his Avocado Toast payments. Yeah this guy is the hero of the whole story, it looks like he got like $100,000 worth of equipment and renovations and a turnkey four star restaurant at the expense of some other guy's soul
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Nov 6, 2017 17:19
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https://notalwaysright.com/recession-part-70/97384/quote:Caller: “I got a call from the body shop and they told me that the repairs are done.”
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Nov 6, 2017 17:22
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Oh come on, how can you not include the last part for people who didn't click the link. I looked into it again a few months later. She never returned the car rental and the rental car company filed a police report as a stolen vehicle. She never picked up her fixed vehicle, which was thus considered “abandoned,” and the shop had to sell it! I have never heard from her or her lawyer. I waited until the statutes of limitations expired prior to sharing this story.
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Nov 6, 2017 17:26
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:This is exactly the conversation I had with my good friend who is also a physician and talking about opening a coffee shop. I told her if she wants a slave for approximately minimum wage 80-100 hours a week she can possibly keep the doors open, if that doesn't sound like a great deal then she should probably just continue to work for $300 an hour and buy coffee at Starbucks. I know a handful of places that were started on this model (professional office-job holder who wants to pursue their dream). The difference is that most of them were people who had spent the last 10-20 years working as something like a biglaw attorney or financial voodooist, and so they had 1/ enormous stacks of money to use to fuel their startup and 2/ were already accustomed to working horrendous hours all the time. If you've been putting 80 hour weeks into a company you hate, doing the same for one you actually care about can be great. But if you're leaving something with more regular hours for that life, oof, hope you're braced for it. And even those people almost invariably still spent time actually working in restaurants before trying to launch their own thing, because they weren't idiots and had plans.
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Nov 6, 2017 17:32
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I once heard a restaurateur say that owning a restaurant is a great way to spend a half million dollars to give yourself a minimum wage job.
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Nov 6, 2017 17:38
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My favorite people who talk about owning a restaurant/bar are the people who have never worked at either.
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Nov 6, 2017 17:41
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IMO every person who wants to open a restaurant should be forced to binge watch Kitchen Nightmares for a full 18 hour work day. If at that point they still want to open a restaurant they are either going to have a drat good business plan or just be beyond help.
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Nov 6, 2017 18:03
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Regarding the restaurant chat. https://nytimes.com/2017/10/31/business/too-many-restaurants-wall-street.html In summary, investors we're adding shitloads of restaurants by structuring their franchise deals to get most of the upside but shield themselves from downturns. This has resulted in all restaurants doing poorly as there are just too many out there. A cut throat business now seems almost impossible to succeed in.
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Nov 6, 2017 18:42
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NUKES CURE NORKS posted:My favorite people who talk about owning a restaurant/bar are the people who have never worked at either. It should be a requirement to actually work in a restraunt before you start one. 99% would never want anything to do with a restraunt again, 1% would be insane enough to actually have what it takes.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:10
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Pekinduck posted:It should be a requirement to actually work in a restraunt before you start one. 99% would never want anything to do with a restraunt again, 1% would be insane enough to actually have what it takes.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:49
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Pekinduck posted:It should be a requirement to actually work in a restraunt before you start one. 99% would never want anything to do with a restraunt again, 1% would be insane enough to actually have what it takes.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:56
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