[nomass]

Somehow I can understand his frustration, but I do wonder if he actually draw the right conclusion from this failure. Because there is only one reason this couldn't work: He was under capitalized. Maybe initialy he had an intuition that there wasn't enough capital around but in the end convinced himself into this miserable situation.

So the question is why didn't he invested more time and effort into raising capital? He weakened his negotiation position right from start. The notion that you can substitute the lack of money with skill is naive.

[marak830]

That's an interesting way of looking at it. I don't agree though.

No matter how much he invested, it wouldn't change the fact that he wasn't profiting. You can't just throw money at restsurants, and expect a return.

For example: say he had paid off his bills then upgraded all the plates, cutlery, glasses etc, to make it seem more upmarket. Notw throw more cash to hire a trained high end manager, and build up his existing staff.

That doesn't change the fact that people were not spending what he needed to profit.

From the whole bullshit confit chicken, that he either a)had a bad head chef or b) was dictating what he wanted, based off of what he had seen, despite any actual hospitality sense (this I think is more likely, from the articles tone).

You can't just demand the highest quality ingredients, throw money as your staff, and expect patrons to flock in.

[greedo]

Sometimes customers don't want what your selling, no matter how good you think it is. Dreamers start up restaurants without being businessmen, then are surprised when the customers don't show up, or don't return.

The fact that this guy switched chefs pretty early was a tell for me. People aren't dumb, they know the price of chicken, and expecting them to pay $29 was just dumb/naive.

It's hard to go through a failure like this, I can sympathize with him. It took me 20 years to get over my restaurant, and I still daydream about all the "what-ifs" and "wtfs" that I experienced. Then I look back and realize that I was far better off getting out of hospitality and into IT. The burnout I was already experiencing would have killed me.

[marak830]

Hmm I'm willing to give him a go-through on switching chef's - I have seen some pretty bad head chef's haha.

$29 chicken is a . ... Difficult sell though.

Yeah I agree with the what-if's, i think everyone has them about their history though, try not to let it get you down. (especially about hospitality!).

Any recommendations for an ex-chef by :-p. (and re:burnout, yeah I have my collection of stomach ulcers :-p)