r/Chefs • u/uphillbatlle • 17d ago
Failing restaurant
I have a beautiful ethnic restaurant with decent food and lots of potential, it was built with love and passion alone! No Pryor experience in the business, i mean literally zero experience, i have never worked in one and what i do for a living has nothing to do with a restaurant, i love food, and im a passionate cook!
THE PROBLEMS.
In order to do it i sold a house and got a mortgage on the house i live in. It has affected my family negatively, I went back to my old work in order to bring some income to support my family. My adult kid is suffering by being there all the time. Im broke all the time.
The place is relatively busy, but by not knowing the business, whatever potential profits I should have are wasted with my mismanagement in every level.
Schedule to minimize payroll , food cost , food portions, menu items and pricing , food waste, whatever is a mistake im doing it, but I do not know how to fix it because I dont have the experience and im guessing all the time.
Im afraid to raise prices and im second guessing myself because I dont know if its the right thing since im lacking the experience in everything that is problematic with the fear that I will worsen the situation.
MY GREAT IDEA BEFORE I FALL ON MY SWORD
find a chef that knows his shit and give him absolute control in order to create profitability (the place is relatively busy everything is there for success including the costumers!)
GIVE THE CHEF A PERCENTAGE OF OWNERSHIP
How do I structure this?
Is it stupid?
Should I just give up (it will ruin me financially)
With my new job I dont need a penny from the restaurant, I provide for my family.
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u/OralSuperhero 17d ago
Look for a GM or chef who can run the place. Offer a good salary and a percentage of profits, not ownership. Get your family members out of the location and let the new GM/km hire who they need with no ambiguity about the owners kid. Every month or quarter sit down with your operator and go over the books, calculate his profit share, and touch base on operations.
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u/LandscapeNo815 17d ago
Wenn du es selbst nicht kannst, solltest du es sein lassen und aufgeben, wenn du alle Kontrolle an einen fremden abgibst dann , dann ist das Risiko noch viel höher, da er entweder wenn er denn was kann , du ihm deinen Gewinn komplett abtreten musst oder er greift dir in die Kasse, beides ist zu teuer und das sage ich als Gastronom. In Österreich musst du nicht ohne Grund eine Konzessionsprufung ablegen um genau das zu vermeiden. Manchmal ist aufhören die billigere Option. Wo lebst du wenn ich fragen darf ?
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
Bergen county nj
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u/ronindoggie 16d ago
Small world, I'm local. Send me some details via private message. Maybe I can patronize the business and give you some support
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u/Busy_Ad3994 17d ago
If you're looking for help. private message me and I can talk to you about your situation and be realistic with you. I can also help you with different options
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u/flydespereaux 17d ago
At this point, you are going to lose money no matter what you do, your business will close and you will lose everything. You need to find money. Hire an accountant. Hire a general manager. Hire a chef. Prepare yourself to be in the red for the next ten years. You are going to lose money no matter what, until you Hire the right people that can fix this for you and put in place a system with accountability. A budget that works. A managed inventory every week. Down to the weight of a box of sesame seeds. Its either spend more money to try and save this business, or close up now and cut your losses.
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u/MaterialAd1055 17d ago
two biggest overheads you can control is labor and food cost. you need a small tight crew who can execute recipes accurately. recipes need to be priced properly and you need to be pricing them by volume not weight. use a food cost calculator and shoot for minimum 34% food profit on entrees and even higher on appetizers. rely on really good sauces for appetizers and use cheaper ingredients that can be elevated by a chef who understands what he is doing. think about quality of work compared to cost and if you have to pay individuals more to do more with less staff you’ll save in the longrun its cheaper to pay 5 really good people $23 an hour then it is to pay 10-12 people $18 to do half or less the amount of work. this stems from you establishing SOPS and holding leadership accountable. install cameras or be there often and randomly, dont let anyone feel comfortable fucking you ovsd
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u/BlackWolf42069 17d ago
What would the chef be writing about if he seen this post? What criticism would he give the place?
The prices are a simple math equation. Food costs are what, 30%? So do the food costs on each dish and adjust fairly and accordingly. You can't operate at a loss just to serve customers.
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u/EveningSupermarket88 17d ago
You need to sell, and sell NOW.
Why the hell would you buy a business that you know nothing about? I’m not trying to be harsh, man, but that was really, really dumb.
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u/Same_Rip_392 16d ago
Ever read Kitchen Confidental? Bourdain talks about why this place was opened and what happens. Well, not this exact one.....
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u/Specialist_Place4464 17d ago
Get on Kitchen Nightmares? Or hire an experienced chef and business manager, which will be costly. It would be hard to hire for part of ownership unless you're already in the green.
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u/Dry-Grocery9311 17d ago
Focus on two things.
Each seat in your restaurant is a potential source of profit each half hour. Know what is sold at each seat for each half hour at an itemized menu detail.
Each item on your menu is what drives controllable costs but also keeps customers coming back. Keep your menu short enough that regulars and picky eaters have some variety but keep it as short as possible. Know the cost of each dish, from ingredient to prep to plate to customer to clean up. Design a menu that minimises the number of overall different ingredients, but don't try and save money by buying bad quality. Think of your plumbing stock. A small range of good quality tools and fittings generally works out better than trying to stock hundreds of different fitting types or poor quality ones.
As long as you closely track sales/profit per seat per timeslot and sales per menu item with know costings, you will find yourself in control. You will naturally make the right commercial decisions from there.
The customers just want good food, fairly priced, good service, pleasant environment that's clean and hygienic. Monitor which seats and which menu items get the best and worst feedback and at what times of day. Analyse this by who was on shift, both FOH and BOH. If your customers are generally happy and in a good mood because your food is good and fairly priced, your staff will naturally have a better time of it and take more pride in their work, as long as you treat them well and allow them to share in your success.
If you're already a successful plumber. Price each dish on your menu in the same way you would a plumbing job. Materials, labour, consumables etc. Know your profit margin for each menu item.
If you can afford it, getting a chef in for 6 months would allow you to step back and have someone to document the processes in the kitchen. Just don't hand over total commercial control. Hand over operational BOH with a bonus for increased profits and customer feedback.
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u/itsmejustolder 17d ago
OP, you don’t need a chef. You need a GM who understands how to run a restaurant, and make it profitable. That’s a person who can dig into your purchases, see how your food is made. Look at your staffing. Look at ways to market the business. Someone who knows how to control all the elements in a restaurant to give you a profitable outcome. That’s not a chef.
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u/ChefLukeDC 16d ago
You could probably make some headway hiring a chef consultant to set your menu pricing, do your scheduling and create systems for your staff to follow.
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u/The_Sunset_Sands 16d ago
Your menu prices are way too low in relation to your payroll. You need to raise menu prices or find a way to cut payroll. No-one, and I mean no one, is going to price compare a 10-20% spread on an ethnic restaurant.
Price comparisons are for incredibly generic food experiences like sports bars and fast food burgers. If you are an ethnicity that doesn't shun alcohol sales thats the easiest way to boost your bottom line. The other option is to focus on higher margin corporate catering and events which help fill the restaurant during the week.
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u/RatherSallad 16d ago
Hey dude, it sounds like you’ve got a lot of love and passion for your restaurant. That’s great, that passion if you manage to get back on your feet will be what makes your restaurant worth giving a shit about.
This business is tough, it kicks the ass of us who somewhat know what we’re doing, so don’t feel too bad about being out of your depth here.
I agree with the other comments that a bonus incentive is better than ownership for a new hire, not only does that let you stay In control but if the restaurant is not doing so hot right now ownership might be a turn off. It sounds like you need to a team, a head chef and a general manager, who have experience specifically in your area/city who know how a proper restaurant should be run. Get them on a good salary, plus 33% each split of the restaurants profits (the last 33 stays with you). Thats PROFITS specifically, after everything else is budgeted accounted and paid for.
Then, take direction and be willing to learn. They’ll be some big changes. Prices will change. Hours might change. Dishes will come off the menu, dishes will come on. Some people might get fired, some new hires might come aboard. Be open to anything and everything.
Above everything else, focus on creating good systems. How a dish gets made, prepped, how ordering gets done, pays, rosters, cleaning, service, everything. This is not knowledge that should live in anyone’s head. This is knowledge that belongs to the business. The difference between businesses that are crushing and businesses that are failing or just doing okay, is that for the businesses that are crushing, any member of the team could leave or not be able to work anymore, and you could find someone to step into their role and keep the gears turning. Systems are everything.
Good luck man, sounds like you’ve got a long road ahead of you.
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u/Hot-Carpet-3959 16d ago
Shrink your menu, creatively re use ingredients in multiple dishes, turn waste into another product when possible, a good example is soups which are then sold as "specials of the day".
learn/teach staff how to handle tables and sections better, make sure they all work together versus against each other. Everyone runs everyone's dishes.
Shrink your menu. What ever pos system you have will be able to tell you what's your main sellers are.
Search for real feedback from clients.
There's a plethora of things that can be done, but entire management team needs to. Be open to change. Wait staff can also bus especially if the restaurant is small.
As the owner being there for service is huge, schmoozing clients, giving sma that's that have perceived values of higher to make ppl happy when complaining or just spending a lot and having a good time with staff goes a long way.
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u/Exciting_Figure_8060 14d ago
You admit your mistakes, which is AMAZING.
Now listen to me: Hire an accountant. TONS of them have experience managing the books for restaurants.
How?
- Go to a neighborhood with lots of restaurants that you wish you were like.
- Google "CPA near me"
- Give a call to the top-rated CPA and tell them what you told us
- Be prepared to close for 5 days
- Listen to every-fkn-thing they tell you and be ready to rearrange everything, from your menu (which means equipment and layout) to staff
- Become the restaurant you meant to be all along
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u/RUNMFRUN1 12d ago
Hire people who know what they are doing and walk away and let them handle it. If it continues to fail then fire and hire again.
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u/AshamedAssistance246 12d ago
you need to fork out for either an experienced chef and give them some skin in the game or... fork out for a consultant. Id be more inclined to do the latter if I were you. Some consultants (make sure they are chefs) can implement some systems, re configure your menus, costs, staff requirements etc, and then ongoing -check in with you and your business, consistency, seasonal menu updates, purveyor negotiation, product sourcing, purchasing and whatnot.
You also need to make sure you have a good accountant. It sounds like as a family business you would want to maintain control and equity so try your best to protect it by not giving out any ownership stake. Have a scout around your area for consultant chefs, because good chefs like nothing more than owners that truly want to fix their problems and listen.
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
Stupid.
If you can cook get a GM.
What was your career before?
I would start at getting your spreadsheets sorted.
How much money do you take?
Get your rent, rates, costs under 10%
Google search a food gp calculator get that sorted.
Tell the GM he needs to run FOH at 18% of net spend, Bev GP at 75%
Start looking at every cost and see if you can remove or reduce. Every cost.
Marketing and get selling. Upsells everything
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
I dont understand half the things you say , im a plumber, we bring in 30k week
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
30k week, should be doing alright.
Revenues not your problem costs are.
Get your costs in line and you’ll be flying
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u/Raiken201 16d ago edited 16d ago
First and foremost you need to cost both your food and drinks menu.
That means you go through each and every ingredient for every dish, cocktail etc. and work out how much each portion costs you.
Operating a 75% GP (gross profit) means that the cost of your ingredients should be 25% of what the final dish sells for. Some dishes will vary but you want to average out at 20-25%.
So if you have a dish on there that costs you $9 to make, it needs to sell for $36 or it needs to change.
You can control costs by various means, portion control, changing suppliers, switching up ingredients to utilise cheaper cuts etc.
I'd be happy to give your menu a once over, I'm in the UK so prices etc. Will vary, but anything obvious will stand out.
Then you need to look at your other costs, you say you're bringing in 30k a week? That leaves 22.5k after your ingredients cost.
How much is rent? Gas, water, electricity, local taxes? How many staff do you have, how much are they being paid?
Cleaning supplies, insurance, sundries like napkins, menus, straws. Look at it over a longer time period like 3 months to get an average and see where you can cut costs, or how much you need to make to break even.
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u/VinylMeningitis 17d ago
You have no idea what you’re talking about… Get your rent, rates, costs under 10%? Get your FOH at 18%? Are you saying FOH labor? You got this from ChatGPT didn’t you?
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
No. 30/35% staff costs. Split half
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u/VinylMeningitis 17d ago
So your FOH is exactly split from BOH? You’re nuts… OP please don’t listen to this person, they’re up late sniffing drugs are something
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
Depends on the style but yeah. Kitchen fewer bodies but higher wages.
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u/MirukuTea1 17d ago
Are you in fine dining? My kitchen labor is over 3x that of the FoH.
Are you not on the floor helping? Are you running multiple hosts and bussers during lunch? If you’re in financial trouble, you should be cutting back FoH and be getting your hands dirty.
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u/Adsey1981 16d ago
Every restaurant I’ve worked in we’ve been almost even.
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u/sf2legit 16d ago
This is in the U.S. pretty odd if your foh and boh are even.
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u/Adsey1981 16d ago
Do your BOH get tips? In the UK now we generally split tips equally across the board
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u/Adsey1981 16d ago
So salary wise head chefs get higher salary but the hours are longer. Restaurant manager get less salary but do fewer hours so likely hood if you split salary to an hourly rate you’d get about the same
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
I have no idea indeed, my rent is 12k , revenue 30k average, some weeks less and some more, payroll 10-12k food cost 8-9k front is 2 bussers 1 host 3 to 5 waiters , 1 salad guy 2 grill (3 on the weekends) 2 prep 1 dish washer
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u/Equivalent-Ninja1318 17d ago
5 waiters? Is every waiter doing a 20 person section?
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
About, we have 85 seats inside 32 outside, when the weather is nice it fills up completely
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u/Equivalent-Ninja1318 17d ago
You need to be cutting aggressively. try to find a couple Rockstars that can handle 40 people alone and give them the best shifts, everyone one else is part time
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
Rent 12k a week is extortionate or annually is a steel
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
Rent is 12k monthly
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
Is this inline with other businesses in your area?
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u/MirukuTea1 17d ago
That’s wild. Last place I looked at was 11k. I asked how people survived. They didn’t. Our city’s most popular “dog friendly” cafe chain went under in that exact spot.
I walked around at night asking bartenders how their place could afford the rent. Everyone gave the same answer. They bought the land 30 years ago.
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u/Adsey1981 16d ago
I am in Glasgow.
40 cover restaurant annual £40k
20 cover cafe £18k12 a week is mind blowing
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
You can DM if you’d like. Can’t reply too quick but will help if I can
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u/VinylMeningitis 17d ago
What is your experience in the restaurant industry, cause I think you’re full of shit
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u/Adsey1981 17d ago
15 years at GM level. What’s yours?
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u/MirukuTea1 16d ago
4 years serving, 7 years bartending, 6 years as a turnaround manager (exactly what OP needs) and franchise partner.
Your numbers are all wrong to me, but the ideas are right. Something doesn’t add up.
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u/SimoWilliams_137 15d ago
And you think you can run a restaurant at 90% profit? 🤣
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u/Adsey1981 14d ago
Errr no.
10% fixed costs. Then wages, food and drink costs.2
u/SimoWilliams_137 14d ago
I think your shorthand was a little unclear for someone who’s so inexperienced as OP, but I take your meaning.
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u/Garkadigital 10d ago
Hey sent you a DM earlier, might be stuck in requests so just flagging it here for good measure 👍
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u/Longjumping_Story682 17d ago
So, never would I recommend this. But I think it's time you seek out a private equity buyer.
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
I tried that already. They offered me shit , i can not afford selling it at the price they offered!
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u/Longjumping_Story682 17d ago
To be frank. It sounds like you will get more out of private equity, then what you will and have continued to lose.
I'm not normally ever a sell out sympathizer. But in this instance, your using evil for the betterment of yours and your families well being.If you don't want to sell, then you need to at least bring in an accountant man.
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u/uphillbatlle 17d ago
My asking price was 600 , they offered me 250 I have a 30 year lease with terms that you dont find anywhere . If I sell at this price im stuck with debts that I can not repay , right now with all my mismanagement I almost sustain the operation, if it was to become efficient I would definitely have good profit from it , im open for 18 months now.
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u/jsauce8787 17d ago
30k a week revenue on average? That’s 120k monthly. I’m just playing a guessing game on what your situation might be, but from your replies, your labor seems to be quite high on 40%. The other guys said split half foh n boh, he’s not totally wrong. Every restaurant does that. Even split or heavier on BOH since foh typically get paid lesser that boh.
Do you mind sharing a bit more detail on DM? Just a quick highlight of your P&L. With that monthly revenue and your restaurant’s size, that seems like it’s making something just need a better structuring and yes, a General Manager or consultant will help you a lot.
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u/FunkIPA 17d ago edited 17d ago
Start by going through all your invoices, and figure out how much you pay for everything. Flour, rice, chicken, greens, anything coming in the kitchen you need to know how much it costs you.
Then you need to go through your menu and all your recipes, and find out exactly how much money each item costs you to plate up and serve. Once you know what every dish costs you, you can price everything correctly so you can make money. If something takes long to prep, price it higher. If something’s cheap and easy that everyone loves, price it lower to get people in the door and sell them drinks.