# Why do so many people want start their 'own restaurant'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706 "2008-06-29T23:17:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/41 "2008-07-01T03:42:35Z")
Meant to type: …one must have **controlled** food costs and labor costs and overhead costs\*\*,\*\*… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/42 "2008-07-01T04:27:15Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] If doughnuts are an Asian thing that I don’t know about—wildly popular in Seoul or Bangkok or elsewhere—I don’t know about it. [/QUOTE] Doughnuts are wildly popular in Bangkok. We have the Dunkin’ Donuts and Mister Donut chains, plus some more, both local and international. Especially the ones near schools, you’ll find them crammed with Thai students munching while they study. Now you know about it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/43 "2008-07-01T04:38:11Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Doughnuts are wildly popular in Bangkok. We have the Dunkin’ Donuts and Mister Donut chains, plus some more, both local and international. Especially the ones near schools, you’ll find them crammed with Thai students munching while they study. Now you know about it. 😉 [/QUOTE] Sorry to hear this. IIRC there was a survey of doctors where the question was, “What is the single most unhealthy thing to eat that you can think of?” You guessed it, doughnuts. So we have exported them to those lovely people! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/44 "2008-07-01T04:47:01Z")
[QUOTE=scrambledeggs] I notice that people have a tendency to sort of dream about owning their own restaurant. I’ve constantly heard people promise that their dream was to open their own restaurant, and such. Any reason why this seems so popular? I would think that waiting tables, dirty dishes, health inspections, would be the last thing I would want. ??? [/QUOTE] A lot of folks dream about opening their own business. However, most folks are realistic enough to know that they aren’t going to build computers or anything high-tech. They aren’t going to start a bank. And they don’t have professional qualifications to strike out as an attorney or accountant. They don’t build model railroads or have enough interest in books to sell those. So food service jumps out there. Its easy, right? They already know how to cook. They take a cursory glance at numbers and see that you can make a cup of coffee for 10 cents and sell it for $1 or turn 50 cents worth of sandwich ingredients and sell it for $6. The idea is dripping in pure gold. Then reality sets in… Same reason that so many people tried to get into real estate investing in the last few years. Any dumb schmuck can do it right? Buy a condo for $150K, rent it for $1,200 a month. When values increase, use equity to take out some cash and invest in another property. And the cycle continues ad infinitum until you are a mini Donald Trump. Then reality sets in… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/45 "2008-07-01T04:53:45Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Sorry to hear this. IIRC there was a survey of doctors where the question was, “What is the single most unhealthy thing to eat that you can think of?” You guessed it, doughnuts. So we have exported them to those lovely people! :smack: [/QUOTE] Each region of Thailand has its own particular major health problem. In the North, it’s iodine deficiency. In the Northeast, it’s liver fluke. In the South, it’s hookworm. Do you know what it is in Bangkok and the Central region? Obesity! Really. Especially in Bangkok, we have most if not all of the Western fast-food chains, and they’re always filled with these little porker children. Of course, it’s heaven for me, because I can still grab a pizza or Starbucks whenever I want. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/46 "2008-07-01T08:11:40Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] They have a secret desire to be a party host and everybody will rave about. [/QUOTE] I agree with this. The ability to cook, provide good food, and entertain is generally held it pretty high esteem in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/47 "2008-07-01T09:39:16Z")
[QUOTE=Shamozzle] Anyone who has any interest in the reality of restaurant ownership/operation _must_ watch [Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay%27s_Kitchen_Nightmares). It’s absolutely brilliant and serves as a harsh wake-up call to those who are naive to the restaurant business. Gordon Ramsay is simply mesmerizing as he lays down the tough-love like a drill sergeant in his attempts to rescue people from themselves as they hurtle down the path to financial ruin. I worked in the industry for 15 years and learned that in order to float a restaurant, one must have food costs _and_ labor costs _and_ overhead costs _and_ good food _and_ good prices _and_ a good market to survive. If any one of those factors is lacking, it’s over. [/QUOTE] I wanted to recommend this show as well. It’s been extremely educational (not to mention fun to watch, the UK versions are on YouTube), as Ramsay goes into painful detail of what they’re doing wrong\* and what they need to do to fix it. Plus, unlike Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsay really does (or seems to, at least) want them succeed and tries to get them pointed in the right direction. \*most frequent problems seem to be: - they don’t really know how to cook - they know how to cook a dinner, but aren’t remotely prepared for 30 people all ordering lunch at once - their menu is way too complex for what they can handle (which leads to the point above) - their menu isn’t what anyone would want to eat, even if done well - they haven’t defined who does what, so there’s no organization (head chefs who aren’t allowed to set the menu, the owner wants to save money by not letting the head chef come in before opening to prepare the kitchen or buy supplies, managers who don’t communicate with chefs and servers, etc.) - they don’t track where the money is going - they let their girlfriends pick the decor (don’t know why that’s a big problem, but it seems to come up a lot) ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/48 "2008-07-01T17:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Shamozzle] Anyone who has any interest in the reality of restaurant ownership/operation _must_ watch [Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay%27s_Kitchen_Nightmares). It’s absolutely brilliant and serves as a harsh wake-up call to those who are naive to the restaurant business. Gordon Ramsay is simply mesmerizing as he lays down the tough-love like a drill sergeant in his attempts to rescue people from themselves as they hurtle down the path to financial ruin. [/QUOTE] I’ve seen this a few times and I’ve enjoyed it. It’s interesting how much resistance the owners put up against the changes he suggests. It’s almost like they’re thinking, “It’s my business. Who is he to tell me how to run it?” In a couple of episodes, when he does the follow-up visit, they’ve reverted back to what they were doing in the first place. I guess that kind of stubborness is needed to make a restaurant successful in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/49 "2008-07-01T19:12:44Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] According to the book Kitchen Confidential, those places generally go out of business pretty quickly. [/QUOTE] This is one of the two books I recommend to people whenever they eat my food and ask me why I don’t open a restaurant. The other is Michael Ruhlman’s _Making of a Chef._ His _Soul of a Chef_ is also quite good, though not as directly on point for this topic, as is the first half of _Heat_ by Bill Buford. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/50 "2008-07-01T22:57:49Z")
I think people who want to open restaurants just want to please other people. My son has been a chef for almost 10 years now, and when I see how hard he works and ask him why he does it, he says, “It’s the look on their faces.” That’s why he insists on cooking for us whenever he comes home. (Imagine being a landscaper and insisting on mowing the lawn when you visit Mom and Dad!) But he loves it. He enjoys seeing the looks on our faces when we love the food. Imagine that times 200 people a night – it’s kind of like being a rock star, I think. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/51 "2008-07-01T23:14:27Z")
It seems the majority opinion in this thread is that people enjoy cooking so they start a restaurant so they can enjoy what they do. In my experience having worked in my fair share of restaurants, I’ve yet to see the owner get in the kitchen and cook anything, unless it’s a meal for himself, and even that’s rare. ---
**Author:** ![where\_s\_the\_subscription\_info](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@where\_s\_the\_subscription\_info](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/where_s_the_subscription_info)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/52 "2008-07-09T10:11:37Z")
… everyone wanting to be a ‘photographer’ at some stage in their life? They’ve all done it! They come to the end of one career/stage in their life and when casting around for their next move, it’s ALWAYS photography. I’ll bet working p’togs are sick of it… except that they’d probably done it themselves. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706/53 "2008-07-09T15:01:54Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] It seems the majority opinion in this thread is that people enjoy cooking so they start a restaurant so they can enjoy what they do. In my experience having worked in my fair share of restaurants, I’ve yet to see the owner get in the kitchen and cook anything, unless it’s a meal for himself, and even that’s rare. [/QUOTE] Probably because the ones you see are usually the successes, rather than the clueless wannabes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-want-start-their-own-restaurant/454706.md?page=2)