Post #90875 by Rattiki on Wed, May 12, 2004 5:28 PM

On 2004-04-25 17:48, Primo Kimo wrote:
Well Alo-F*ing-ha to you doctor KILLJOY.

I don't know anything about restaurants except how to eat and drink, but I sure know where I like to do those things.

Thanks for the support Ratfink!

Well that was a bit rude.

Soooo.........Just because I know what cars I like to drive and can drive them well doesn't put me in a position to own a dealership or be a mechanic, or even be a professional race car driver. Never the less a professional designer and manufacturer!

If this is your 'dream' then learn how to make it happen first. A succesful professional learns his trade from the ground up. A Tiki Bar & restaurant is more then your personal taste in tropo decore and nachos. Take a job as an assistant manager at a chain bar and grill for 6 months (TGIFs, Chilis, etc.), learn the ropes. Learn how to order and control stock, schedual employees and maintain labor costs, food costs, liquor cost, portion controls, how to deal with inspecters, VIPs (self proclaimed or otherwise), broken toilets on a Sat nite, a puker, a runner, a fight, you just ran out of WHAT! Where's my order for table 6?! etc., etc., etc. Learn the meaning of words and phrases like 'SLAMMED!', "In the weeds","didn't turning to","86ed", etc., they do not have pleasant meanings. Find out with someone else's money the million ways you can be scammed from double clocking employee hours to purveyors shorting you, 'bait and switch' on dry goods pricing, steaks stashed in the garbage for the dishwashers to take home, and on and on and on it goes. It normal takes 5-10 years of pratical ground work training to learn the BASIC management skills needed, never the less the artistry of cooking etc.

I spent 20+ years across the country and in 3 other countries doing this (as well as have fooled around in the front and back of the house of restaurants in a large % of the 40+ countries I have been to). From dishwashing at local Lums to head chef in fancy Sydney ala carte restaurants, to slinging hundreds of thousands of racks of ribs in one of the busiest B&Gs in Amsterdam (I was the cook, then chef, then GM there, eventually for their THREE outlets).

So I was (and am) giving you some FRIENDLY, FREE, PROFESIONAL advise. This is something that your 'buddies' will not do as they want to live the fantasy too (and drink and eat your profits). Read a Kitchen Confidential (by Anthony Bourdain) to try and get a clue. And if you don't like, or want to hear the truth, tough, it doesn't change the reality of the frequency of amature run bar and restaurant bankruptcies.

In the end I don't post this for you, since you seem to not want to hear it. I post it for all the others who dream the dream, but haven't a clue.

Now you all know the words:
Bali Hai is calling, any night, any day......

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-05-13 05:53 ]