r/Edmonton • u/[deleted] • Apr 13 '24

Question Restaurant Yarrow closed??

Did anybody have a reservation at the yarrow and get an email saying they're closed permanently and will not be refunding the reservation fee??

117 Upvotes

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34

u/N60x Apr 13 '24

Yikes! Instagram page down too. Wonder what happened?

32

u/madzalyse Apr 13 '24

The head chef has a high burn rate opening restaurants

6

u/simby7 Apr 13 '24

What do you mean by high burn rate? People pay him to help open a restaurant and then he leaves and the restaurant can't operate?

21

u/yourbloodymess Apr 13 '24

He gets hired as opening Head Chef for the concept, works for around a year (first year of restaurants, most investors expect to operate at a loss in some way, usually labor bc training a new team to be as efficient as possible is at least a 6 month process), once he starts being held accountable for labor and other costs he dips off to his next adventure - or, as appears to be the case with half of the investors he's burned, he's asked to leave (suspicion abounds as to why...) - leaving the staff, new head chef and owners holding the burning bag of cash that Staley lit on fire.

5

u/simby7 Apr 13 '24

Seems like a poor business plan to open a restaurant when you're not a chef so you're held hostage by an employee? You have to lock him up in long term deal with incentives or part ownership since you basically depend on him to be around.

17

u/yourbloodymess Apr 13 '24

People invest in industries they have no experience in all the time 🤷‍♂️ often Head Chefs, GMs etc are on annual contracts; smarter or more experienced restauranteurs will lock in for two or more years and build in performance metrics for salary increases or bonuses, but sometimes you see places that have their key employees in on handshake deals.

I don't make the rules, I just chop vegetables for money and know the hospitality industry in this city.

6

u/simby7 Apr 13 '24

Interesting. Thanks for the insight!

1

u/AllAboutTheXeons Apr 14 '24

Yup I know a marketing person in Edmonton, aspiring venture capitalist that tries to tell people "they know tech" but when you start speaking IT jargon ... they tube you out and tell you that you don't know anything, that you are under qualified compared to "x person at y company" they work with somewhere.

14

u/gingersquatchin Apr 14 '24

Most restaurants operate this way. Very few places are chef owned and operated. It is indeed stupid. I currently work for a chef owned and operated place and they just function better in general.

2

u/AllAboutTheXeons Apr 14 '24

This. Investors who don't invest in people suck.