I went with friends recently to an Italian restaurant that has been running for several years and had to stand outside in the queue waiting for a table. The restaurant is thriving but the original owner and founder who moved on to find his treasure in another local suburb is doing very badly, barely surviving.
When we sat down at a table eventually, our host who’s been eating at the restaurant for many years explained that the original owner got tired of running the restaurant and wanted something more exciting. He sold up and departed for a new suburb where he is battling to bring in customers and it looks like he’ll eventually have to shut his doors.
If you look at the location of the restaurant that he sold, it’s an unlikely place to find treasure from customer demand. The restaurant is stuck between two neglected shops in an ageing building. There is no outside signage. Yet customers queue up nearly every evening of the week to get a table. The restaurant itself only has about 20 tables, if that. But all this means is that the profit margin is much better because the overheads are so low. Continue reading “The tale of two restauranteurs”
