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Okay, I am a total newbie to this post, so go easy on me if I seem a little long winded, but I want to give as much info as I can so that I can get the best info back from you guys. The wife and I are thinking of combining our two passions (hers: cooking, mine: making beer) into an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet restaurant with a small brewery/bar on-site, much like a brewpub. After all, everyone loves pizza and beer! We live in a booming resort area on the East Coast that attracts 13.8 million visitors per year to the area, which is made up of a number of smaller municipalities (the regional chamber of commerce pools all visitor data for a fairly large area). The particular area we plan to serve has about 5 million of those visitors per year during the summer months, and our tourist season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Many restaurants are so profitable during this season that they are closed the rest of the year! All of our area’s visitors are primarily families (which would be our target market), 66% of which are mid- to high-level income earners ($45k-100k+) Our particular business model will be unique for the whole area, as there are no other pizza pubs to be found in this state. In fact, the only other pizza buffet restaurant is a locally owned/operated one in the next city (~10 miles), which has been in business for 30 years. We ate there last nite and the food is always good, and they do an excellent business. Their average price point for pizza buffet + drink is ~$8, and when we were there, they had about 60 patrons. As we were leaving, some moms were coming in with balloons and boxes of trophies, so they were getting ready to get a lot busier, and this was only 5:30pm. I’m sure they had a good night. There are of course a number of independent eat-in and delivery pizza restaurants as well as the Big 3. There are two other restaurants with breweries nearby (one a steakhouse and one with sandwich/steak/seafood menu), both chains and both in the next city. They both stay packed.
We have about 150k of our own money to invest, but I don’t think we can set the place up for that, and will have to seek outside funding. My main concern is that banks will reject us for lack of recent food service industry experience (we both have some restaurant/bar experience, but none in the last 10 years). I do have business management experience as I ran my own business for 10 years, then decided to go to Pharmacy school. Being a pharmacist is ok, I make good money, but my heart is not really into it. Just not passionate about it (who could be passionate about pharmacy?). I have a great business plan I am working on, laying out various revenue streams besides the pizza (I can brew beer for 0.30/pint and draft sells around here for $4/pint), but really don’t know if this is a worthwhile pursuit. It seems like a good idea in theory, but I guess I am worried about the financing, and after that, the execution of the business plan, setting up a whole new restaurant from scratch, dealing with licenses/permits, contractors, the city/state bureaucracy, etc. Any thoughts/opinions on how to proceed (or if I should proceed) will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
We have about 150k of our own money to invest, but I don’t think we can set the place up for that, and will have to seek outside funding. My main concern is that banks will reject us for lack of recent food service industry experience (we both have some restaurant/bar experience, but none in the last 10 years). I do have business management experience as I ran my own business for 10 years, then decided to go to Pharmacy school. Being a pharmacist is ok, I make good money, but my heart is not really into it. Just not passionate about it (who could be passionate about pharmacy?). I have a great business plan I am working on, laying out various revenue streams besides the pizza (I can brew beer for 0.30/pint and draft sells around here for $4/pint), but really don’t know if this is a worthwhile pursuit. It seems like a good idea in theory, but I guess I am worried about the financing, and after that, the execution of the business plan, setting up a whole new restaurant from scratch, dealing with licenses/permits, contractors, the city/state bureaucracy, etc. Any thoughts/opinions on how to proceed (or if I should proceed) will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!