8 things you really want to know before opening a restaurant

Suppose you can cook brilliantly. Christmas dinner was perfect, your dinner parties are always incredibly enjoyable, and your friends tell you: you should do something with this. So why not open a restaurant when the hospitality industry reopens? Wow, that’s a fantastic idea! WHOA! Hold on! Michelin-starred chef Phillip Foss gives you the tips he wishes he’d had before starting his restaurant.

Phillip Foss is the chef at restaurant EL Ideas in Chicago. He knows what he’s talking about, because he has worked at a high level for years, experienced his share of setbacks, and by now understands how it works. Not surprising, in a business where three out of four restaurants close again within a year and a half… In the online magazine The Take Out Foss shares the eight most important lessons he learned the hard way.

Don’t try to do everything on a shoestring

Make sure you have enough money. Everything is more expensive than you think. The renovation runs over budget, the extractor hood breaks down, and the grease trap is full at exactly the wrong moment. Foss: ‘In your calculations, assume that you won’t make a profit for six months to a year, and base your financial planning on that. Do you have enough money for it?’

Don’t count on the bank

Most banks aren’t keen to lend money to newcomers in the hospitality industry. So you need a private investor. Foss: ‘Just as in a marriage, you don’t go into business with the first investor who comes along. And make sure you have the business agreements legally checked before you sign.’

Being able to cook brilliantly isn’t enough

Managing, ordering supplies (always too much and sometimes too little), planning, training: you’re responsible for everything. ‘You’re an accountant, marketing specialist, therapist, mediator, banker and head of customer service all at the same time, and I’m probably forgetting a few things,’ says Foss.

Staff come and go. Quickly.

‘A revolving door,’ Foss calls it. Hospitality staff sometimes seem to change jobs more often than they change underwear. Good employees let you know in time if they plan to move on, but not everyone does, so as a restaurant owner you’re left with kitchen staff who simply don’t show up. And yes, that’s always when the entire restaurant is fully booked.

Fewer guests will come than you think

Expecting forty people per evening? Foss warns: it will probably be ten. Base your calculations on that: how much do they spend per evening, and how much purchasing and staff does that require? Your own salary still has to come out of that. Black figures on the bottom line? Then the tax authorities come along…

Some guests are assholes

Think the open-plan office is a jungle? You should take a look inside a restaurant. Most guests are nice, some are a little strange, and a few are outright assholes, Foss has learned by now. ‘They think they can treat us as if we were their personal footmen, just because they’re paying for the food. They’re mistaken.’ And that can be pretty tough when you have to deal with it regularly.

Your family hates you (at least your partner does)

Of course, you don’t work nine to five. ‘Some people think they’ll never have to cook again if they marry a chef, but that’s a lie,’ says Foss. ‘Your wife gets to cook for herself every evening, and eat it all by herself.’ Your family will never see you again unless they come to eat at your restaurant, and you can draw a thick line through your high school reunion, nights out with college friends or romantic candlelit evenings.

Your work becomes your life

Your private life and work become completely intertwined when you run your own business. Let alone when that business is a restaurant, because that work is incredibly intensive. ‘Learn how to keep a healthy distance from your work and how to take an evening off without feeling guilty,’ Foss advises. ‘And then let me know how you do it, because I’ve never managed it.’

Philip Foss doesn’t give up; he’s absolutely crazy about his work and can’t imagine any other career. But be warned: one fantastic dinner and one perfect casserole don’t make you a successful restaurant owner—not by a long shot.

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