School me on the restaurant business?

Real close friend of mine. His wife's parents own small dinner in our little down town called,Coney Island. It a basic small dinner, with the basics. Ice cream. Coneys,burgers fries etc. Nothing fancy and also breakfast. They have owned it for 30 years and are just looking to get out. The price to me seems extremely reasonable. I don't know numbers yet as far as revenue,will find that out later. My thought is if it makes good money. Which my friends wife says it does.I could get my mother in law out of her stupid job and she would run it. she would love to do it and would absolutely do a fantastic job at it. But, don't know much about the food industry. So pile it on me. What questions should I be asking.

 

Make sure to change your username before word gets out that you're the new owner

 

Wasn't there a thread on this 2 months ago?

 

Sure was. PJzocc(?) for an Italian place in Syracuse NY. That should make it easy to find. Not apples to apples for a diner but good information nonetheless.

As an aside I don’t think he’s been seen since!

 

Yes, very similar discussion just happened.

 

Makes sense...he started a restaurant

 

Run away unless you are young and want to throw a lot of hours at it. Just a out everyone in my immediate family has owned or ran restaurants from diners to fine dining and it requires a lot of time and the patience of Job to deal with regulatory issues and those that come with the hospitality industry staff.
The money isn't worth the stress and hours to me.

 

The hours are 7am to 2pm monday through friday


Big morning and lunch crowd

Opened in 1926
These owners have had it for the last 30 years . Ill google some pics and post it. When I say small diner it is small .

 

Here is some pictures.

 

Food costs are rising daily, wages are being dictated by others, inflation is cutting into disposable income at an alarming rate, food shortages are predicted to increase.

There are four examples that have an uncertain affect on the profits in the food business which are miniscule even in well run restaurants. If it is a small place with limited hours as you say your ability to expand your customer base is limited, limiting your earning potential. I remember doing food cost calculations in school and it truly opened my eyes to how much most mom and pop places leave on the table. Many private owners take money out of their own pockets for everyday essentials that they grab on their way in to work. I have seen it many times, hey Joe can you grab salt and 10 pounds of ground beef on your way in tomorrow? They pick it up with the cash in their pocket and never get reimbursed. This gains momentum as owners tend to think the money they have is the diners anyway so what is the difference. It is huge when the accountant looks at the numbers and the essentials that keep the place going day to day are not there. Then everyone is trying to figure out how they have no money in their pockets anymore as the food cost to selling price meets the magic number so how can we be broke?

Restaurants that have been in the family for years are big offenders to this. The older family members want to keep it going for the next generation to carry on and then the next generation steps in without a pocket full of cash and the longtime "family" restaurant is closed.

Be very careful, look at the hard numbers on the percentage of restaurants that are shuttered yearly. Ask your friendly banker for a loan, then tell him it is going to be used to open your own restaurant.

 

My son lived in small town PA for 3 years and they had a place very similar to this. I had to go every time I visited and the place was always packed. Food was typical diner, which was always good but nothing fancy. And like the hours you've listed, they were always closed buy early afternoon. If I was ever to get into any type of a restaurant, something like this would be it, but I'm an early morning person.

This is it. Damn I love this place https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/columbia-pa/food-drink/prospect-diner-columbia-pa

 

literally the toughest business to ever be in (pretty sure there are stats out there about restaurant business failures) ... think long and hard before taking plunge.

 

Yea, I will get real hard numbers before I even think about what we can do. But that brings up a good topic. All the littles things, mustard, salt, straws etc, is there and inventory on all the little things and how there ordered.

 

Why do you have 55 browser windows open on your phone?

 

Cause I can fool!

 

Only way I would do a restaurant is like the old school Greek families did a Coney island.

One brother takes breakfast and lunch. The other takes dinner and closes. The wives clean in the off hours and do books and ordering on the weekends.

If you think you can do all of that by yourself then buy it.

If not make sure you have 2 other people you TRUST willing to work all the hours for less pay, less retirement, and less health insurance than literally ANY corporate job out there.

EDIT- just saw the pics. That looks pretty manageable. I was thinking one of the huge coneys like we have around here now

 

Dont listen to all these negative nelly's with "experience" and "data". Thats all just fake news. People have to eat. And they hate to cook. That is a fact.

Owning a restaurant is sure fire way to print money. All those failures are "strategic bankruptcies" to try and keep the tax man from getting this grubby hands on all that cash.

This is a plus for you as you can keep the MIL out of your hair for 12 hours a day. If your lucky the long hours and stress....I mean large cash spending sprees will kill her off.

Dont wait for data...you'd better buy it ASAP. Before Motion & Bird LLC do. And then you know what happens after that....

 

Damn. I just looked at the menu. You'll definitely make money there. I mean who wouldnt stop in for a $4.99 chicken sandwich, or a cheese burger for $4.75.

You'll print money....just print it I say.