How to open a restaurant

The opening of a restaurant and its subsequent management is a huge event in business, which raises many questions, the solution of which depends on the success of the new establishment.

To open your restaurant, you need to know not only the general technology of creating a catering enterprise, but also take into account a lot of aspects: how to choose the right location and premises, how to design a restaurant so that every meter of space gives income, how to choose the services that visitors need, how to find a professional the team, how to make the restaurant famous, etc.

A well-thought-out concept is 50% of success

First, you should decide on the target audience of the institution. According to the advice of professionals, for a win-win choice of the location of your establishment, it is necessary to determine the tastes of the audience of the future restaurant. If you want to open a restaurant specializing in a certain cuisine, you should define its price segment.

Do not forget that in the restaurant business there is also its own competitive struggle, as a result of which the "strongest" wins. It is always useful to know about the weaknesses of competitors, determining for yourself what you can surpass them in.

Choice of restaurant location

Correctly chosen location of the restaurant is one of the most important tasks, and in some cases it is the dominant success factor. For each type of catering enterprise, there are generally accepted locations. If we open a fast food restaurant, it is better to choose places with a constant crowd of people, for a restaurant with an average price policy, it is better to choose a place near business centers.

Expensive restaurants also depend on the location, for example, an expensive restaurant in an industrial zone has almost no chance of success. Potential customers proceed from the fact that an expensive establishment must be in some presentable place.

Creating a menu

The composition of the menu largely depends on the concept of the restaurant, since the general direction of the kitchen is thought out in the concept, recommendations are made regarding the number of dishes and price policy.

The development of the final menu must be entrusted to the chef of the restaurant. The chef must be hired no later than 2 months before the opening of the restaurant. Because the menu is his domain.

Recruitment of personnel

Professionally selected staff is half of the restaurant's success. It's no secret that the main people in the restaurant are the director and the chef. The formation of a full-fledged team depends on them, the efficiency of which affects the general atmosphere of the restaurant, so the manager and chef must be selected in advance. It is also better to choose the rest of the staff some time before the opening, so that there is time for the necessary training.

Of course, these are not all the ingredients for opening a successful restaurant. It is also necessary:

•  to think over the features of external design and design,
• draw up a kitchen project with technological processes,
• list of inventory and equipment,
•  draw up a restaurant business plan,
• calculate costs for the organization.

Usually, if explained in a simplified way, the project of a restaurant kitchen should include:

1. Hot shop
2. Cold shop
3. Washing of kitchen utensils
4. Dishwasher
5. Vegetable shop
6. Warehouse/warehouse
7. Meat or meat and fish shop
8. Shower room/bathroom
9. Ventilation

Workshops can be placed not as separate rooms, but as zones in the integral space of a professional kitchen.

Which restaurant to open profitably

 This is one of the first questions that many people who have a desire and an opportunity ask themselves.

 Let's look at the indicators on the basis of which you can draw a certain conclusion about the opening restaurant.

The price level of the restaurant

Many people, wanting to open their own restaurant and having sufficient financial opportunities, definitely want to open an elite and expensive restaurant.

But the number of buildings, premises and locations for elite restaurants is limited, and the plus is that there is already a sufficient presence of elite restaurants in this service market.

 This means that it is difficult, although possible, to make your own elite restaurant with its own "highlight". But significant financial costs for its opening cannot always be reflected, even for a long period of time, i.e., more than 5 years. So, nowadays, opening an elite restaurant is more a matter of prestige than a highly profitable business.

 Further. Few people now pay attention to the "reverse side of the coin" that in elite (more precisely, expensive) restaurants, significant discounts are increasingly practiced for high prices on the offered menu; almost became a rule up to 10%, for especially frequent or well-known guests there are discounts of up to 50%. This situation is the first sign that there are enough elite restaurants, especially since many of them have introduced a club system. This system also has a reverse side - on the one hand, it is a way to keep the client at this establishment, and on the other hand, it cuts off the so-called "one-time" guests from the street, who can bring considerable benefit to the restaurant. At the same time, today some recognized elite restaurants in the pursuit of additional profit, and more precisely and more often for the client, reach the point of absurdity, introducing the provision of "business lunches" into their services. This is really either an elite dining room or a not-so-elite restaurant.

 It is in the presence of such facts and in the current situation that it is worth making a very balanced decision: to be or not to be another elite restaurant.

There are much more mid-level restaurants opening in number. Such institutions require significantly less money when opening and are more popular with visitors due to their democracy.

Another question is what should this restaurant be like? The answer is also simple - either on the model of a beer pub, or in the European democratic style. In addition, the average level of restaurants is affordable for the wallet of the vast majority of people.

 Another important aspect of mid-level restaurants is that they always strive and can raise service to a higher level, without changing the price policy, which only increases the profitability of the establishment. If it was not possible to improve the service, it will still correspond to the democratic average level of a middle-class restaurant, that is, the principle of "if you didn't get it, you didn't lose it" is maintained.

So, write a business plan, look for investors and grants, make an estimate, and open a successful Ukrainian institution!