gordondaviesmoustache
Well-Known Member
Some do but it’s very hard. The set up costs and fixed overheads are huge, however the saving grace is the gross margins, which are insanely high. If such a business can get to its break even point then any marginal income translates well to the bottom line, but conversely if they fall below their break even then with those fixed costs (which don’t leave much room for cutting back) then things can unravel quickly unless, as you say, the business is supported by a benefactor.
I’d say the three business models that are most likely to succeed within that sub-sector are small venues in suburban settings, with a limited number of covers, where the owner-chef is in the kitchen pretty much every night overseeing a small brigade of chefs - and the rent is relatively modest; a restaurant that is attached to another business such as a hotel, so the overheads can be kept to a minimum and the chefs deployed for breakfast as well as the dining in the restaurant as a quid pro quo, as this means the capital investment for the operator is far less and there is a steady stream of business from hotel residents; and well located sites in London that are busy every night, not just at weekends.
Know several people who own multiple restaurants which include venues like this as well as more middle market places and the latter is far more profitable and much less hassle. They often have a weird relationship with the former which they grow to resent somewhat but still find it hard to let go of. They seem a lot of grief to me, but they plainly like the kudos and status it manifestly gives them.
Ego is a big part of that world, but it also drives people on to excellence.
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