Do you ever dream of owning your own place??

Who out there is dreaming of owning there own restaurant??? Or is it just me :)
Imagine this....Diner Nine. Nine is my favorite number, a diner...comfort food and someplace you can call your second home. Everyone knows everyone and the cup of Joe is piping hot,strong and hearty. The menu is set in nines as well. Nine different entrees, nine different kinds of pie and so on. After each meal before the check comes you get to roll 2 dice and if you roll a "9" your food is half price!! (Remember this is a dream...I can't go bankrupt) So, who's with me??

I have often dreamed of having my own place.. as you say "comfort food".. I have yet to eat anywhere in this state that even serves casseroles!

My husband once built a restaurant from the ground up............it turned out to be a massive failure. It was finally sold to the local Moose for their lodge. We took a real beating I dream only of going to new restaurants and not owning one!

Hell no! I'd have to cater to the likes of Roadfooders like Seafarer John and me!

I love the idea in concept. In reality, I'd probably go nuts from the nature of the work. But, for a brief moment a few years ago, after a trip to Canada where I was reminded of how much I love crepes, I actually considered the possibility of opening a roadfoody (non-fancy) crepe restaurant in New York. Of course, a month later, someone opened a so-so one to modest fanfare, and as it was I couldn't find anyone else who was interested in partnering with me. I met a couple of guys with a crepe movie theater concession which was very good, but unfortunately not enough other people thought so, and they went back to France, crepe pan between their legs.

You see the occasional crepe stand here, and they drive me nuts. When I lived in Paris more than 20 years ago, you could get a crepe wrapped in a way that enabled you to eat while you walked down the street. Twenty years later, anyone who serves crepes here serves them on paper plates with a knife and fork. How the heck am I supposed to eat that on the street?

But I digress...

I'd love just to open a hole in the wall place in Orange, VA. Just hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches, but do everything homemade and have Chicago style dogs and good hot chili in winter.

And of course free stuff to all card-carrying Roadfooders!

I even have a spot picked out...

The Sundancer believes that the joy of owning your own restaurant is ONLY more overated than natural childbirth which of course the Sundancer has never experienced but could only imagine.

No offense to anyone who prefers natural childbirth but the Sundancer certainly winces at the thought.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I have thought about having a place, restaurant and bar, and calling it "The Library".

quote:

Originally posted by Spudnut

I met a couple of guys with a crepe movie theater concession which was very good, but unfortunately not enough other people thought so, and they went back to France, crepe pan between their legs.

Now there is a graphic.

Cakes

I often dream of owning my own restaurant - but then remind myself that cooking for pleasure (even for others) is quite different from cooking for business. A few years of working part-time in retail has shown me that people will find anything to complain about just to get something for nothing, and are generally unappreciative. I don't think I could handle day after day of killing myself to create meals for people, ending up with something I felt really proud of, only to have it picked apart by some over-critical twit.

My husband, who loves my cooking (bless his heart) talked about it for years. Anytime he saw a business-zoned piece of real estate for sale, he'd comment "That would be a great place for a restaurant!" Or bakery. He finally laid off when I told him (well, more like yelled, I guess) that I was sick of listening to him try to figure out ways for ME to work myself to death to make HIM rich.

This is the definition of a "Mom and Pop" type restaurant given to me by a pro a few years ago when I was talking up the idea of a BBQ:
"Your'e just buying yourself a sixteen hour a day job for the rest of your life"!

But I still have a recurent dream of rescuing that forlorn little diner
in St Pete, serving breakfast only, and only to those I approve of, and a very short menu -"Take it or leave it, that's all I'm serving this morning" !

Cheers, John

Three little words to anybody even THINKING about this. "DON'T DO IT!"

sundancer, having lived through both, believe me when i say, natural childbirth, though painful, comes to an end. owning a food business is pain with a half life. my family briefly owned a catering service, with my dad at the helm. he was a chef trained in the air force, as well as the fact that his dad owned a very popular restaurant.. not that we weren't a sucess, just an unreal headache we lived with twentyfour seven. i would still like to open a place, but it's a dream. the reality is how much better it is to work for someone, and leave them the headaches.

Nemis,
Even without the tie-in of nine kinds of pie etc., I really like the name. Diner Nine rolls off the toung quite nicely, and is the kinda name that will stick in a persons mind. As for myself, I too am a glutton for punishment. I dream of the day I can my own little Hot Dog resturant, and never sleep again.

I'd like to open a hamburger stand. Very simple menu. Hamburger or cheeseburger, mustard or mayo, toasted buns, chips(no fries), bottled drinks. There's a place in Dallas(Roses)and that's all they offer and it seems to work for them.The only difference is I'd make mine flame broiled.
The ol' K.I.S.S. system.

My wife and I often have dreamed about starting a barbecue place in one of our favorite places on Route 66, which is Tucumcari, New Mexico. She has an idea to serve barbecued pork with Memphis-style dry rub and chipotle power mixed in, smoked/barbecued brisket and barbecued goat (the latter mostly for the big Hispanic population there -- plus we both love goat). That's something we may yet do years from now.

Having worked in restaurants, dreaming is as far as I get... hot kitchens and crabby chefs..no thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Jennifer_4

Having worked in restaurants, dreaming is as far as I get... hot kitchens and crabby chefs..no thanks!

Here! Here! Crabby chefs indeed! Maybe it's the hot kitchens makes us that way!

quote:

Originally posted by BarbaraCt

I have thought about having a place, restaurant and bar, and calling it "The Library".

Barbara, there was a small local Philadelphia chain in the 70's called The Library. They were set up with walls of books and sofas and chairs with coffee tables. They did primarily a bar business but with appetizers, burgers, etc. I don't remember that much else about them.

As I remember, those "Libraries" were located mostly in hotels- I remember one from the old Hotel Syracuse about 30 years ago. Never saw anyone take a book off the shelf...

Cheers, John

My hometown had a very popular bar, kind-of restaurant called The Library. It was heavily frequented on Thursday-Saturday nights by my age group at the time, which was the 18-21 crowd (18 was legal drinking age in NY State at the time.) There were books on shelves, but not lots of reading going on.

Thought about it with my two brothers, we even looked at a building once. Huge cobalt blue platters filled with cream smothered fettuccini is what I had in mind. A lunch that came with a heaping serving of fresh cut fries. BIG cocktail glasses, no need to order a double I think the problem with the town I live in is that there is one major employer. People get tired of going out to eat and running into the same people they work with. Many of the people that can afford a nice meal seek out places out of town. Maybe if I win the lotto.

Dream of opening my own restaurant? Heck no....it's more like a nightmare. I wouldn't want to put up with the likes of me as a patron.

I think it was Groucho who said "I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member."

Same premise....

Steve

There's this little restaurant/inn that was started by my great-great-great-great grandfather and one of his brothers back in Switzerland. It was burned down by the French during an unfortunate contretemps called the Second War of the Coalition (basically France vs. most of Europe, 1798-1803), and they rather rudely killed the brother. (Suppose the service was that bad?) After a while, my ancestor rebuilt the place under a different name, and it's still in the family today.

If it were a choice between watching this 200-plus-year-old family business go down the drain and owning it, then I'd choose to own it. Otherwise, no, I don't want to go into the restaurant business.

No desire whatsoever but when I meet people who are fulfilling their dream of opening their own place, I try to patronize their establishments.

I would like to have an old-fashioned type of drive in place, close to the local high school, with the menu themed around the team name, with specials for different groups on different days of the week.

Our town, just outside of the megalopolis that is Houston, is still small enough where It would fly.

Oh, just as soon as I hit the big lottery I'm going to!
I've had big plans since I was 8-9 to have my own restaurant - it's gone from a sandwich place to a German restaurant to sit-down family-style to any permutation of food I've developed a sudden interest. But it's much easier to just have friends and family over to the house a few times a year, produce a well-planned theme meal, accept the accolades, and just keep dreaming. I'm really afraid that if I ever took the big step, I'd totally lose interest in food preparation.