One of the Most Popular Jobs in the Gastronomy Industry Recently; "How to Open a New Restaurant?"

Coord. Chef Ahmet ÖZDEMİR

 

If I have to say at the beginning of the work, especially after the pandemic process, the idea of ​​opening a restaurant is not on the agenda all over the world, but in Turkey, new restaurants are opening one after another. If we take into account some of them, restaurants of famous chefs, restaurants of famous businessmen, restaurants of artists or newly opened restaurants of popular personalities…

 

I recommend you to consider this article on opening a new restaurant in international standards, only in the administrative offices, kitchen and service departments inventory, excluding construction costs and main decoration costs, in budgets of 1,500,000 TL in Turkey, 200,000 $ in Asian countries, and 250,000 $ in European countries and more. ..

 

But one of the issues to be examined is “How many of the newly opened restaurants are still open in recent years? How many of the restaurants opened in recent years are doing well? For example, is there a portfolio of guests that have been settled within 2 years? Are the guests who come to the new restaurant really satisfied with the service they receive and the food they eat? In the financing aspect of the business, does the investor still continue to pay staff salaries and rent?

 

Some of the Most Asked Questions for Opening a Permanent Restaurant;

 

So how do you open a restaurant? What are the tricks of opening a restaurant? What should be considered when opening a new restaurant? What kind of corporate restaurant infrastructure should be built in order to have the best restaurants in the city? Is finance alone sufficient to open a good restaurant? 

 

This article will be a little long because there is a lot to be told about opening a new restaurant… I will try to briefly touch on the topics within my current knowledge. I will also try to give tips on opening a new restaurant.

 

One of the most important rules of opening a new restaurant is to understand this demand. In other words, having at least 10 years of experience in the service or kitchen departments in the food and beverage sector will save you from many losses and will enable you to achieve success more quickly.

 

If you do not have a certain experience in this field, starting a new restaurant business (Restaurant Consulting) with someone who understands the restaurant business and restaurant management will still be beneficial for you in many ways, although not to the same extent. This person can be your salaried employee manager, partner or profit partner. But don't forget to put his hand under the hammer along with yours. 

 

First Beginning of Opening a New Restaurant; Feasibility Detail and Budget Studies of the New Restaurant You Will Open… (This Is Not The Restaurant Budget)

 

As in many other issues, there were those who fastened the first button of the shirt incorrectly. Of course, when the first button is buttoned incorrectly, the others will follow. These mistakes are like the rings that a stone thrown into a goal makes in water and progress towards infinity. Infinity here is related to the size of your budget. 

 

If you want your investment to turn into a permanent and successful restaurant;

 

In the first place, after making an estimate in your mind and taking into account your life experience, the quality, size, concept of the new restaurant , the property belongs to you or rent, in which city it should be, then consult a specialist who has done this job before and tell your thoughts. If he is an expert in his work, he will present more details in some of the tips I have given below, "within the limits you have drawn", by preparing the relevant documents in detail as a feasibility. The prepared feasibility will shed light on opening a new restaurant for you… (if properly prepared…)

 

Some of the details that should be in the feasibility of opening a new restaurant are as follows;

 

How many restaurants are there in total in the city where you want to open a restaurant? How many restaurants are there in the city with the concept you have in mind? What are the guest capacities and employee numbers of these restaurants? How many years have these restaurants been operating? In which group are the guest portfolios of the considered restaurants? What is the distance of the examined restaurants to the city? In which group is the economic situation of the regions concerned? What is the population of the districts with restaurants? 

 

How many company buildings, banks, public offices, hotels etc. etc. are there? If the region is in a tourism city, how many resident foreigners live there? What is its population changing in winter and summer? What is the ratio of population by country? What is the value or annual rent (square meter prices) of a property of the size you have in mind?

 

Is the region or city 'cottage'? Is it winter? Or is it 'fixed' in both summer and winter months? You must know the answers to some questions such as, and you must calculate the steps you will take according to these data.

 

What Should I Consider When Opening a New Restaurant?Now is the Time to Decide on Opening a New Restaurant. Now I will create this section in the form of questions. Those who are sincere in their thoughts will surely understand me…

 Should I open a slightly smaller restaurant?

 There are not many restaurants in my opinion in this city, but there is no "fish restaurant", what if I open my fish restaurant?

 I guess my budget is not enough. Do I need to change the restaurant architecture?

 Would it be better if I open a restaurant with a garden for the nightlife and dinner of the city?

 The restaurants that do the most work are in the concept I think. Can I have the best restaurant in the city if I add the features of “…………” to the restaurant I will open?

 If I consider the population number of the city, would it make more sense to open a summer restaurant only?

 What if I open a white-collar restaurant with both affordable prices and a rich menu?

 The location of the ………………….restaurant is very nice, but the owner has no financial means. If I become a partner and make a serious investment in that restaurant, can I change its concept and name and make it the best dinner restaurant in the region?

 I got Culinary Consultancy for the new restaurant , I am a very good chef and my kitchen team will come to my new restaurant just for my taste, even if it is in a quiet place a little far from the city.

  

 There is no need for any of these, I already have a guest portfolio, I will open my new restaurant “…………” but maybe I should just do some research on Menu Consulting and Operator Blindness .

  

 What Should I Consider When Opening a New Restaurant , which is prepared in line with your own experience and your instructions and advised by an expert in restaurant management, food and beverage consultancy ? You will be able to make a much healthier decision on their subject. If you take into account the investment you will make if this research is carried out by a knowledgeable person, it will be a small amount for you.

 

Now is the time to decide for your new restaurant as a person or institution. What should the concept of your new restaurant be?

 

Considering the feasibility prepared for you, and even after examining the details that are on your mind with 2nd or 3rd parties, the first thing you need to do is to decide on the concept of your new restaurant. After deciding on your restaurant concept, "Italian cuisine, French cuisine, Turkish cuisine, Ottoman palace cuisine, international cuisine" etc. etc. It means that you have come to the architectural dimension of the business.

 

Deciding where to open the restaurant you are going to open, that is, deciding on the location of the restaurant property.

 

Deciding on the location of your new restaurant should be determined in line with the feasibility or personal decisions prepared in this regard. Because the shape of the building must be connected with the district or city where you will build the restaurant. 

 

Decoration suitable for the concept by interior architects and exterior architects and the shape of the building are important.

 

A new building on your own property, a rental property in the city center or a vacant lot… whatever it is… you must have an architecture. Working with people who are knowledgeable about the subject, such as interior architects, exterior architects, decorations, will save you from the considerable expenses wasted by doing a job many times. In addition, your menu concept and your decoration will be more compatible with each other. In particular, you should definitely examine the Example restaurants that can be your own competitors in this regard , and you should definitely isolate yourself from the architecture of your new restaurant to a large extent in all its features.

 

What Should I Consider When Opening a New Restaurant?You should never take an example from restaurants of your own peer. What you will do in your new restaurant and old restaurants should take examples from you.

 

It's Time to Plan Your Menu and Create Your Restaurant Menus in Your Plans for Opening a New Restaurant Step by Step …

 

You will say, my chef, there is no restaurant yet, what menu are you talking about? Well, I would like to answer this issue about the kitchen and kitchen service inventory of the new restaurant with some questions…

 

 How will the kitchen be built while my new restaurant is being built?

 What will be the dimensions of the kitchen equipment in the restaurant I will open?

 What equipment will be in the kitchen according to the food menu?

 I wonder if my new restaurant should have an oven? 

 I wonder how many square meters of kitchen should be for the fixtures in the kitchen inventory?

 What size should the tables in my new restaurant be?

 Will my restaurant have a lounge area?

 Does every person who comes to my restaurant have to buy food?

 Can business people come to my restaurant to talk business or make a meeting or deal?

 How many people should the waiting room seat in my new restaurant?

 If I am opening the best restaurant in the city, should there be seating in the service section?

 How many independent dining halls should I have in my new restaurant where I can serve the Activity & Banquet Menus for special groups ?

 How many people should private dining halls have? 

 If anyone wants the Optional Menus in my new restaurant , which halls can I give to these groups?

 If they want to hold a VIP wedding in my new restaurant, shouldn't I have it done so that I can combine all the special rooms where I can serve the Wedding Menus easily?

 How can I protect my restaurant fixtures against material damages in private organizations with the Organization Agreement Text ?

 If I am building the best restaurant in the city, how many private dining halls should I build for holding managements, vip meals, private family dinners?

 I wonder which feature of my restaurant should stand out in the public?

 

There is a saying in our profession. We don't take the ox near the knife to slaughter it. We bring the knife to where the ox is. Because it's easier. 

 

As I said at the beginning of the article, if the first button is buttoned incorrectly, the others will be buttoned incorrectly. That's why I wanted to tell you. If the restaurant is to survive by selling its current menus, everything has to be built around the menus. If every equipment to be taken into the kitchen is to be purchased according to the existing menus, the dimensions of the kitchen should be built according to the dimensions of the equipment. If the restaurant's service inventory and fixtures are to be taken according to the menus, they should be made according to the measurements of the fixtures to be used in the menus.

 

But for some reason, I'm sorry to say that the most important resource of a restaurant in our country, the Food and Beverage Menu, is prepared last!!!

 

On your way to becoming the best restaurant in the city, try to make presentations of your restaurant at least 2 months before your restaurant opens, with your restaurant manager, public relations manager and kitchen chef on topics such as your food menus and the features of your Open a New Restaurant, at the beginning of the written and visual presentations. These restaurant promotions can be in the form of related articles, columns, recipes, interviews. It can be more reassuring if it is done by keeping the professional background of the managers in the foreground and promoting his professional career here.

 

What Should I Consider When Opening a New Restaurant?The opening of your new restaurant can be a success. But the real work, even the difficult one, starts now at the operational level. Small opening, grand opening and perfect guest satisfaction, service policies and much more… You can contact me for details .

 

1 month before opening your new restaurant, recruit all your staff and see your own concept , Restaurant Management Circular , Reports , Kitchen Management , Organization Agreement Text, Cost - Cost , Survey and Forms , Charts and Minutes , Restaurant Management ,  Gastronomy Consulting ,  concept consultancy  and experience in restaurant principles. Provide personal training. 

 

If we give an example, if one of the guests asks the waiter what the contents of the dish without paying attention to the menu description for the dish he will order, shouldn't he say "I don't know"?

 

You should evaluate the people you will train very well. Do not forget that the lack of knowledge can be eliminated, but the lack of character cannot be eliminated. I would definitely recommend you to make a contract for at least 2 years in order not to leave you after the trainings.

 

My personal advice is that I do not recommend getting a ready team for the service or kitchen section of your new restaurant. I suggest that you create your own team according to your own standards, principles and your own menu, by raising them from inclined people. For short-term (2-3 months) vocational training, you can benefit from the experiences of people who are familiar with the subject. Try to choose people in your staff that you can work with in the long term. 

 

Think 3 times about opening a new restaurant and try to do it once…

 

Don't start your business by saying "Let's open a restaurant" by following the phrase "Migration will improve on the way". Be sure to review everything on paper first. Otherwise, I remind you in advance that you will have to break many of the walls you have built and have them rebuilt, and that you will have to leave many of the fixtures you have bought to rot in the warehouse because you do not need them.    

 

I have a lot more to say on this subject. But that's all the details I'll mention here. For more, you should contact me. Knowledge is beautiful and multiplies when shared. It is my personal desire to have exemplary restaurants in my country. Because our country, the pearl of the world with borders in both Asia and Europe, deserves to have the best restaurants in the world in the Gastronomy sector...

 

*** You can contact me through my contact information for more information on the subjects specified by labeling, taking into account my professional background in the above article, and to get support for Gastronomy Consulting in the titles within my Service Areas. ***