The restaurant that NYC needs

[Sharon Bowman]

What are disco fries????

Asking for a friend.

 

[Kay Bixler]

originally posted by Vincent Fritzsche:
You really can't do this in NY. Either it's a hit and no one can ever get in, so the Disorder type would still wish NY had such a place. Or it fails for all the reasons described here.

NC sounds like a good place to do it. Or Oregon for that matter.

Or "Upstate" NY where these types of places are popping up like mushrooms.

Tasty, tasty mushrooms.

 

[Sharon Bowman]

OMG, can confirm. Kay's part of the world is a fungal El Dorado. Yellowfeet! Hedgehogs! Black trumpets!

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Shhhhhh!!

/llamas

A llama bit my sister, once...

 

[Andrew Zachary]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Shhhhhh!!

/llamas

A llama bit my sister, once...

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*
-- Ogden Nash

Love the restaurant concept, but think it's a three-l lllama.

 

[Chris Coad]

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
What are disco fries????

Asking for a friend.

American poutine.

 

[Sharon Bowman]

My eyes!

 

[Jay Miller]

originally posted by Andrew Zachary:

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Shhhhhh!!

/llamas

A llama bit my sister, once...

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*
-- Ogden Nash

Love the restaurant concept, but think it's a three-l lllama.

Here's a llama
There's a llama
And another little llama
Fuzzy Llama
Funny Llama
Llama Llama duck

Llama llama
Cheesecake llama
Tablet, brick, potato, llama
Llama llama mushroom llama
Llama llama duck

I was once a tree house
I lived in a cake
But i never saw the way
The orange slayed the rake
I was only three years dead
But it told a tale
And now listen little child
To the safety rail

Did you ever see a llama
Kiss a llama
On the llama
Llama's llama
Tastes of llama
Llama llama duck

Half a llama
Twice a llama
Not a llama
Farmer llama
Llama in a car
Alarm a llama
Llama duck

Is that how its told now
Is it oh so old
Is it made of lemon juice
Doorknob, ankle, cold
Now my song is getting thin
I've run out of luck
Time for me to retire now
And become a duck (x6)

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Collin W:
The restaurant that NYC needsLong time reader. First time poster.

Small, 20 seats. Cozy. Wood. Unpretentious. Tiny menu, say 5 dishes a day. Fish, meat, veg, salad, pasta and soup. Changing often on no whim, just what is fresh and good. Yes local and market driven, 100% homemade. But without the in your face or pretention. Just doing it because it's whats right.

Wines btg a la verre vole. No list, open anything if you commit to a glass.

The place you could celebrate at or go on a cold winter Tuesday.

I actually didn't mean to rain on your parade before, Collin. It sounds lovely; reminds me a little of the now-closed but much loved "360 Van Brunt." Many of us here remember that quite fondly.

Anyway, to return to reality, I'd look at your model and plug in leases in terms of $ per sq foot, mapping out specific areas in the city with the help of a commercial real estate broker, plugging in improvements paid for by the owner, kitchen from scratch vs leasing a place with an extant commercial kitchen and then on a block by block basis you can narrow your search. Make sense?

 

[Noel Sherr]

Whoa VLM, does that mean I can get anything I want from the list BTG next time I eat at Rue? Awesome!

 

[Jay Miller]

originally posted by mark e:

I actually didn't mean to rain on your parade before, Collin. It sounds lovely; reminds me a little of the now-closed but much loved "360 Van Brunt." Many of us here remember that quite fondly.

God I miss that place.

 

[Brad Kane]

originally posted by Jay Miller:

originally posted by mark e:

I actually didn't mean to rain on your parade before, Collin. It sounds lovely; reminds me a little of the now-closed but much loved "360 Van Brunt." Many of us here remember that quite fondly.

God I miss that place.

We need to convince Arnaud to leave his Caribbean paradise...

 

[JasonA]

Ruffian

I haven't been but from what I hear it's right out of your playbook.

 

[evan hansen]

originally posted by mark e:

Anyway, to return to reality, I'd look at your model and plug in leases in terms of $ per sq foot...

If you're serious, Collin, Mark is correct -- but it's not terribly hard to run the numbers here.

Obviously, you can figure out total sales and cost of goods sold by multiplying a conservative estimate of guests per service times projected price point, ideally separating beverage and food so you can make calculations for each separately, as you'll need to do. From there, there are plenty of books and guides that give you reasonable estimates of utilities, insurance costs, etc. Roger Fields' book (Restaurant Something-er-other By the Numbers) is a a decent place to start. You can quite literally copy his tables as a starting point and update the numbers as you research lease costs, local utility and service costs, and so on, and you'll end up with a surprisingly accurate picture of where you figures ought to be and whether your concept is viable.

I will say, a 20 seat restaurant would have to have pretty high prices in any city to be viable. Even here in Detroit, anything less than 35 or 40 seats would seem incredibly tough to me if you're aiming to be doing scratch cooking. The closest thing I can think of here is Mabel Gray, which is 45-50 seats and only open 5 days a week only for dinner in a perfectly nice but very inexpensive, less traveled part of town. Since the rent there is definitely less than in the city center or most of the notable burbs, I've got to imagine the rent there is a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what you'd pay anywhere in New York City. So it'd be a serious uphill battle for a place of that size.

 

[kirk wallace]

originally posted by Noel Sherr:
Whoa VLM, does that mean I can get anything I want from the list BTG next time I eat at Rue? Awesome!

I might be in your 'hood in April, Noel. Maybe we should team up on this.

 

[Suzanne Camhi]

I wish this could work.
I would be there.

 

[Brad Kane]

originally posted by Suzanne Camhi:
I wish this could work.
I would be there.

Just cook for 20 of your closest friends, Suzanne. :-)

 

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

originally posted by Collin W:
The restaurant that NYC needsLong time reader. First time poster.

Small, 20 seats. Cozy. Wood. Unpretentious. Tiny menu, say 5 dishes a day. Fish, meat, veg, salad, pasta and soup. Changing often on no whim, just what is fresh and good. Yes local and market driven, 100% homemade. But without the in your face or pretention. Just doing it because it's whats right.

Wines btg a la verre vole. No list, open anything if you commit to a glass.

The place you could celebrate at or go on a cold winter Tuesday.

Petite Crevette at Union Street by the BQE is a restaurant in a similar spirit, and BYO. Very simple but fresh and decent food, mostly fish. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't come up on this board before.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

originally posted by Collin W:
The restaurant that NYC needsLong time reader. First time poster.

Small, 20 seats. Cozy. Wood. Unpretentious. Tiny menu, say 5 dishes a day. Fish, meat, veg, salad, pasta and soup. Changing often on no whim, just what is fresh and good. Yes local and market driven, 100% homemade. But without the in your face or pretention. Just doing it because it's whats right.

Wines btg a la verre vole. No list, open anything if you commit to a glass.

The place you could celebrate at or go on a cold winter Tuesday.

Petite Crevette at Union Street by the BQE is a restaurant in a similar spirit, and BYO. Very simple but fresh and decent food, mostly fish. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't come up on this board before.

I remember its original incarnation on Atlantic Avenue. The new location wasn't as good, back in the day when they first moved there. Could be all different now.