We’ve got a Fazolis and several Dairy Queens here, all still going strong (well, most of the DQs are closed for the winter, but they’ll be back).
Restaurant longevity is a funny thing. Not to the owners, I’m sure, who work long, hard hours and don’t typically make a fortune, but there’s just no quick answer to why some things work and some things don’t. We have a restaurant row outside one of our malls … Red Lobster, Pizza Hut, Village Inn, Arbys, so a variety of options. Also in that row is a space that hasn’t kept a solid tenant for years. It was originally a Chi-Chis, but the building burned about the same time that Chi-Chis was closing up nationwide. It was a couple of other things for a while … some Caribbean-themed wrap restaurant that didn’t last long, then a Ruby Tuesdays. Suddenly both Ruby Tuesdays in town closed within a few weeks of each other some months back. Now it’s a Chik-Fil-A, and judging from the lines at the drive-through, it looks like it’s going to stay for a while.
As to the comment about the DQ copycats who still have Blizzards, I would imagine DQ would be defending their trademark if they knew about it. There was a BBQ/ice cream place in Rochester, MN, when I used to live there that sold “Bad Winter Storms.” Blizzards, of course, by another name.
Sure markup on food is usually in the 500%-600% area - in other words the burger & Fries you just paid 10$ for cost about 2$ to make, IF you don’t include the rent, the local, county, and state licenses, the electric bill, the maintenance of the interior, the liquor license and tax, the water bill, a dozen other things, plus the loss from theft which can be huge (any cash business is gonna lose a good deal of money to the employees skimming, it happens).
When it’s all said and done a restaurant operates on a very tight margin.
There is not even close to that markup on actual food. Restaurants often follow a pricing model based upon “protein cost” (i.e. the cost of the meal is driving by protein times some marginal factor for the other items in attendance) and the protein cost is generally somewhere between 30-50% of a plate cost. Lease, labor, and other overhead is above that. You are correct that restaurants often operate on single digit margins, which is why fast food (with high volume) can succeed while pricey places (with low volume) often fail even if they are popular.
But it the case of the Soup House, they have a combination of a small, otherwise unusable storefront (it is not near any other retail outlets, and is too small for a “real” restaurant), food made in volume with minimal finish prep, essentially no staff, and word-of-mouth advertising. It is a pretty special case, which is why I cite it as being exceptional, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find the margin somewhere around 50%. I once worked it out (literally, on the back of a napkin) and figured that their $6 pint of soup and bread could be made for around $1.25 per serving for food cost (probably less for vegetarian items). Taking the square footage at the going rate their rent was probably less than $2500/mo, and even factoring in utilities, taxes, et cetera on a standard basis it could comfortably clear 40% or more, before the owners take out salary and benefits.
Here in Cincinnati, a long-established restaurant (Ground Round, IIRC) reportedly closed right in the middle of dinner. One minute, people were eating, the next minute a guy came around and told everyone to pack up and leave. This included both the patrons and waitstaff.
Denny’s needs to close. I have never been to one that had anything resembling customer service. 2 hour waits for food in the middle of the night when it’s not busy, waitresses leaving in the middle of our meal because their shift is over and not turning over our table to anyone else, and once, a large group of us just didn’t get served at all, although we were seated directly next to the hostess’ stand, then they bitched when we left, telling us “order something next time” to which we responded “come take our order next time”. A server literally never came.
So I can see why one in a good location would still close.
Never, ever, ever go to the Denny’s that is at the foot of Highway 17 coming into Santa Cruz. Very long story, but they get EVERY hungry family who has been driving in for the last 1-2-3 hours. They get NO repeat business, ever. I was told by the manager of the Denny’s just up the road in Scotts Valley that they are ranked 3452 out of 3452 stores in quality, and make more money than all but a handful of other locations. It’s hell within Denny’s, which is already a level of hell.
Denny’s used to be decent. Not great, but you could go to one and be pretty sure that you’d get some food that was edible, and the service was at least adequate.
Then they decided that they were competing with fast food restaurants, and dropped prices. Of course, the food quality was dropped, too. And with lower prices came lower tips. So the servers became less than enthusiastic about serving.
There’s a Denny’s within a tenth of a mile of my house. We’ve gone a couple of times, and it’s just not worth it. Apparently, it is possible to mess up hamburgers and fries.
How long were you guys there before you decided to leave thanks to those who didn’t care to wait on y’all?
God bless you always!!!
Holly
P.S. When you left, you should have told the people who had the nerve to jump on you that the person in charge of the table you were at should be fired.
Maybe the drop in prices and quality of food (2, , $6 specials) DID have something to do with Denny’s closing (and the fact that it attracts an inebriated bad element when the bars close). I’m no great fan of Denny’s, but it was OK to take the kids or get a quick bite. It’s always just been there, and now it’s just…gone.
There’s a beautiful old inn that has gone through multiple openings and closings, always the same thing, serving country-club type food (only it’s out in the middle of nowhere and no golf course or even body of water nearby). The last reincarnation was a fancy French menu (in an Italiano red sauce city), which didn’t last a year. THAT closed abruptly, too, and they left a very snotty fuck-you-and-goodbye-forever message on their website, blaming the public for not supporting their endeavor. I felt bad for them,
but that nasty message was uncalled for.
The Dairy Queen here is still going strong and doesn’t close down for the winter. I don’t really like going there though because it’s always so dang cold in there.
We had a Hardees that changed to something called Z’kota and now it’s back to a Hardees.
The two local Burger Kings were owned by the same person and one day a sign appeared in the window that they were closed. Nobody knew anything until that sign showed up. One was a stand alone and the other was in a gas station. The stand alone one was renovated and reopened with new owners.
I’m assuming this category includes delis/restaurants in office buildings? They seem to clean up in every building I’ve ever worked in, regardless of food quality.
A local sushi place “closed for renovations” unexpectedly early last summer. Chefs and waiters were told when they arrived that day that they were laid off, effective immediately. The owners put out big signs, “Reopening this fall!” but it still hasn’t reopened.
A local steak house that opened in 1997 just closed for good after a big, pre-announced New Year’s Eve farewell-and-thanks-for-your-business bash. Nobody seems to know why. I miss it already!
Huh - there’s a Burgers and Shakes in KY where I grew up; I don’t think it’s a chain though.
Here in Chicago, we had the opposite happen. There was a place that was a rip-off of IHOP operating for 10-15 years, same menu, building looked the same, and it was called International House, without the Of Pancakes. It shut down suddenly and opened about a year later as an actual IHOP. Food awful but it doesn’t matter- the bulk of their business is drunks looking for something to eat after the clubs close.
The one attempt to open a Fatburger in the San Francisco area was “closed for renovations” for months while the owners tried to find some additional money, or at least another partner, to keep it open; eventually, it was “renovated” into a Five Guys.
A Mexican restaurant opened up in a downtown storefront here a few years ago. They named it … “Chile’s”. And their logo looked almost exactly like the Chili’s logo. No idea whether or not the menu resembled Chili’s, though, as I’ve never been in a Chili’s (none around here). Actually, never went into Chile’s, either. They didn’t last long.
It makes me wonder why people think they can get away with that kind of thing. Somebody else here opened a pet supply store and called it “Beds, Bones, & Beyond”.
In my area, there used to be a Denny’s right on one of the busiest intersections in town. One day, it abruptly changed to “America’s Diner” and kept serving the same menu. Then about a year ago it was closed and boarded up, and nobody else has set up shop there since.
In another case, there was a restaurant in town which I bought a Groupon for - and when I drove there two days later to use it, the door had been locked and “OUT OF BUSINESS” had been soaped onto the window. It’s now a pho restaurant - an odd choice, in that it’s directly across the street from a vacant building which had also been a pho restaurant before it abruptly went out of business.
On the other side of town, there was a Georgio’s Subs that set up in a new mini-mall across the street from a newly-opened Walmart. When I stopped by there when it first opened, it had a very unique style to it - punk and New Wave on the speakers, a bunch of punk shirts and record sleeves and CBGB memorabilia on the walls, and a big chalkboard by the booths for doodling on. I stopped by there a few months later and it was no longer a Georgio’s, but it had the same menu, and all the punk memorabilia was gone. The next time I stopped by, it was a Pizza Hut franchise.
We were there a good two hours. It was a group of about 5-6 and we were talking animatedly and having a pseudo-club meeting. The second time we waited, it was a much larger group, the wait was over 2 hours, but we stuck around that time because it was kind of like a party.
If it were just my husband and myself, I wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes for food, unless it’s a high-end place. And to compare/contrast, we’ll never go to Applebee’s again because our food came out faster than it should have taken to actually cook it (chicken breasts), and it came out at the same time as our appetizer (cheese dip and tortilla chips). At least pretend you’re not using a microwave, sheesh.
