It all depends. In Cincinnati here, for a small city we have a LOT of great (foodie/fine dining) restaurants, most of which are at least in part chef-owned.
Our most famous local chef is Jean-Robert de Cavel, and his chef tree that he spawned at the Maisonette (the longest running Mobil 5 starred restaurant in history) is strong and vital in the city. What really happens here is that you generally get a loyal staff of younger culinary grads that work for shit pay in order to learn from the best chefs. It’s pretty common in the industry, actually. Then those young garde manger troops go on to be someone else’s sous chef for awhile, or chef de cuisine before finally becoming a head chef for someone else for good money (but still long, hard hours) or getting investor help to open your own place.
My neighbor was and what he said was it WAS a geat job because you can always find work anywhere you want to move to plus all the great experiences. He says he still gets calls from rich people who want him to cook on their yachts.
He said its all good until you hit around age 40.
Then he said most chefs just get burned out on all the long hours and they cant stand to even look at food anymore. So for him he switched to a career in real estate and he says he gets calls from alot of chefs who also want to quit and switch to a different career.
So bottom line, its a great skill when you are young because you can always find a job. But hit age 40 and have a family and want a regular life - time to change.
Same where I live. There are several Chinese restaurants that have been around for decades. That’s why I don’t deal in absolutes. And I did say there are exceptions where I am. It’s just that most Chinese and Mexican restaurants near me (and pizza places too) come and go quickly.
Oh, and used car lots near me do the same thing. They come and go, usually in the same lot. Different names, and sometimes different businesses (one small lot was a used car lot, then a temporary staffing agency, then another car lot (it went out of business), then another car lot, even a used tire lot (that lasted about 8 months).
Frankly, it’s those who stick around for years and never do any business I worry about (where’s that thread about mob fronts?).
I understand the sentiment, but plenty of restaurant stocks (Darden, Ruth, Texas Roadhouse) have doubled over the last couple of years. I do note that Famous Dave’s and Noodles and Co. have cratered, which gives me some hope for humanity.
This. When I was in San Jose thirty years ago The Velvet Turtle chain was a big favorite,* especially with the women in the office. I got inveigled into eating lunch there, and the lunch menu was huge, at least twenty entrees. When I got to studying it to see how they could do this, it struck me: There wasn’t a single entree that could not be frozen. A single restaurant could not do that.
*It started in Menlo Park and peaked at about 20 locations so non-Californians have probably never heard of it. They’re all gone now.
I did a decent range of restaurant work in my younger years, and a lot of it is very enjoyable. The people (who are not the owner) tend to be very cool, the energy is electric, and if you’re lucky enough to get into a position where you’re making decisions in the kitchen, it is incredibly rewarding to watch people eat and enjoy and pay money for what you’ve created.
It’s the last part that’s the most compelling. I put serious thought into culinary school, but in the end decided that I don’t have the right personality mix to make a serious go at the restaurant business. Years later I think it was 100% the right decision.
If a genie offered me that kitchen job back - the same work but somehow with a livable wage, my current retirement plan, and workable benefits - I’d take it in a heartbeat. But an actual career isn’t in the cards for most people who work in restaurants, and getting to the point where it is a career requires many years of what is almost indentured servitude.
This is at least partly true, especially in high end restaurants where people like you come in with ideas and ambitions fresh out of culinary school and many quickly learn that the old adage “Those who can cook, cook. Those who can’t, teach.” is at least partly true. Not that many culinary school teachers can’t cook, but many can’t necessarily hack the fast paced, high tension setting of the “yes Chef!” indentured servitude model.
But it can work out in many ways. My brother is a culinary school grad, worked as a roundsman at the Maisonette, worked in several kitchens, and now he’s the head chef of the most prestigious country club in our region. His salary and benefits are good, the club is member owned and exists solely for the pleasure of the members and not for profit, so he never has to worry about food costs, labor costs, etc…as long as the members like his food. He still works a lot of hours, but he loves his work, and his wife is a corporate chef for celebrity chef Michael Symon in Cleveland, operating out of his flagship restaurant Lola, and she’s doing really well, even if she’s in Cleveland year round and my brother is here.
They have no kids, so they make it work and visit one another often. And their combined income is really good. They’re socking away money to open their own place, a pizza joint of all things, in the coming years. I am sure with their combined acumen and HUGE group of friends in the business that they can make it work.
Also, one of my SIL’s claims to fame (aside from providing all the cookies and pastries for the RNC convention in Cleveland a few years ago…and she’s a Democrat, but that was the job) are the RIP cookies that she made for Lebron’s Halloween party from 2016, which set twitter afire for a few days.
Sorry, poor phrasing. I meant the experience you referenced as to having gone to culinary school, presumably as a young person. Coming into an intense kitchen out of culinary school can be overwhelming for many people.
Ah, I see. To clarify, I did not go to culinary school. I thought long and hard about it but eventually decided that I don’t quite have it in me to try and make a living as a chef.
Lots of people think: “I’d like to be my own boss” and “I like to cook” so “Why not make that my job?”. Which is like thinking that since you like having sex being a prostitute should be fun.
The barriers to entry are typically quite low as far as businesses go. This makes for a lot of incompetent entrants who never really had a chance. Even the ones that do have a chance have to split the available demand while contending with largely young unskilled employees, perishable materials and customers who are impatient, fickle and have a readily available substitute in making their own food. Apparently restaurants which are part of a franchise do better, presumably because you’re starting out with better capitalised and prepared entrepreneurs who are given brand recognition and a long list of SOPs by HQ.
Nice analogy. I hear people say “wouldn’t it be fun to own a restaurant (or bar)”? I always think “absolutely not”. Just because you like to eat out or drink in a fun bar, or you like to cook or mix drinks doesn’t translate into owning or running a business. A business with incredibly long hours, high-drama employees and non-steady demand. But, that’s just me.
And why turn something you love (cooking, eating, etc.) into a chore/job? I like to cook, but I don’t want to HAVE to do it all of the time. No thanks.
I just found out that a local restaurant sold. The same guy owned it for 30 years, and I doubt it made much money. But I heard that a couple in their early 60s bought it because they always wanted to own a restaurant/bar. I’m thinking they are nuts, and will find out how much work and how many hours are involved only after they’ve bought and run the place for several months. I wish them luck, and look forward to stopping in to see what they’ve changed, but I think they bit off a lot at an age where energy is in short supply.
My brother went into the restaurant/chef career for several years, and quit the life. He loved the technical side and the busy atmosphere. What ultimately made him leave were the people. His explanation was that 99% of the people are either assholes, screw-ups, no-shows, addicts, or good enough to soon leave for better work.
It’s the best job in the world if you get a good crew of coworkers. 1st Law of Restauranting: You will never get a good crew of coworkers.
Yeah. I think one of the bigger issues with people of means that decide it would be “cool/fun/whatever” to own their own restaurant often envision themselves hanging out much of the time, drinking in their bar, eating the food and maybe doing the books every week. They think “I’ll hire the best chef and the best manager and sit back while the money starts rolling in!”. Problem is many fold, but chiefly that they aren’t involved or knowledgeable enough to really have a good grasp of how to oversee such a venture and often get taken advantage of by staff, fail to see warning signs, etc.
Malaise breeds itself and starts at the top, so owners need to be tough on themselves and on their staff when appropriate. If your staff constantly sees you getting drunk at the bar, they’re going to take cues from you and fuck off too.
It’s a common theme pervading Kitchen Nightmares with owners that don’t also try to be the chef/manager, often with disastrous results.
The nightlife part of it when you’re single and in your twenties and early thirties is certainly a draw. Everyone I have worked with by and large was of the “work hard, play hard” mentality. You fucked off after work, and not before then. It is also true that there are plenty of addicts, although most of that is alcoholics that get hammered every night after work, especially front end staff. I was one of those people for a lot of years.
My husband is a chef and, honestly, he doesn’t have the personality/temperament for office life. He needs the fast-paced, creative type work that being a chef provides. Yeah, it’s hard work. Yeah, it’s crappy hours. But he genuinely loves food and loves that kind of an environment. It’s where he thrives.
I worked for years in the front of house at restaurants (waitressing/bartending/hosting). I like the work in general; I like helping people have fun, etc. But I disliked the low, variable pay and terrible hours. Plus, I’m smart and I needed a career that used my brain more than remembering what kind of dressing to put on the side. I liked the restaurant life, but I wasn’t called to it like my husband is.
My father was a small business agent with the University of Wisconsin Extension for several decades, and advised a lot of people who owned (or wanted to own) restaurants. He told me that what you describe was the single biggest issue – people who have a romanticized concept of what owning a restaurant is like, and no idea of the amount of work that’s really involved in it.
The other scenario he described to me is the restaurant that is successful, because the owner does put in the hard work and crazy hours – but, once things have been successful for a while, the owner can get tired of killing themselves at their job, and decide to step back a bit, and entrust more of the day-to-day operations to managers or employees. What seems to happen way too often is that the managers either aren’t as skilled as, or aren’t as dedicated as, the owner, and they run a successful operation into the ground.
Back when I was a line cook, we had just finished rocking out a very busy lunch and the owner comes back to the pass and says to us “Great job guys. I have come to realize that it takes brains to work the kitchen but clearly not the part of the brain that gets killed by alcohol.”
It’s just that most Chinese and Mexican restaurants near me (and pizza places too) come and go quickly.