The situation
Nobody hired me. A partner and I took over a dark landmark restaurant, 50/50, for effectively nothing, because the town still wanted it back and the lease came with everything inside the walls.
Shuttered after a fire. The business, the brands, the equipment, the bars and the stock were ours; the building was not. The former staff were scattered and there was no operator.
A launch, not a restoration. In order: a lease term long enough to earn a renovation back, a room rebuilt around live service, the people who carried the regulars' trust, the reopening run as news, and one person who could hold the standard on a slow night.
Extend the lease before spending a dollar; phase about $600,000 of renovation around service rather than go dark; rehire the former staff; run the reopening as a campaign; keep changing chefs until the problem turned out to be the floor, then back the general manager who carried it.
About $2.1M a year at a 4.8 star standard by the time I exited in January 2022, after keeping it open through COVID.
Read on
The decision and the reasoning
Why we did it this way, told first.
ReadWhat we did and what it produced
The work, decision by decision, and the result.
ReadA slice of the project list
A few related projects.
ReadPrivate side
The full report, the source files on record, the timeline and every figure with its source. Password.
Enter