I worked in three resturants.

Even if I had the money, I don't think I would open a resturant, other than a pizza place, or a burrito place with a long lease. I heard the failure rate of resturants in New York City is 95%. Those odds might be wrong, but I wouldn't want to try to beat them.

I worked in three restaurants. I was a cook at two. I'm aging myself, they are called chefs now. I was making roux based soups, and bread, so I guess I was a chef? All the resturants I worked in failed, and I always felt like a cook.

If I ever owned a resturant, I would try to minimize risk.

I'm not a foodie anymore, so it would probally be a pizza/burrito place. My food costs would have to be low. And yes--the food would need to be good, and plentiful. I would want to have customers take the leftovers home, and remember why they ate at my resturant.

It would be located where young people interact/spend money. Example--near a university.

It would have a long lease, or a lease tied to profitability. The business would be a corporation for bankruptcy purposes.

Their would be no wait staff. (People can pick up their own food). Then again, I have seen a pretty face bring in masses. First dilemma!

I would definetly want a liquor licence. My place would only need a beer/wine license. Next dilemma! I gave seen little dives do great because they have a full liquor licence.

I would fire all my help every six months. Yes--gasp! Harsh, but I have read two of the better books on resturant managent, and both say this in a round about way. I don't belive everything I read, but this one rang true. There's a lot of theft in the business. A bad attitude by a server/manager can empty a place slowly. I would be upfront in the interview though. I'm not sure how I would verbalize the fact they they will get fired in nine months from now though. I might keep the right people? Then again, at the places I worked in, the nicest/wardest working person was usually embezzling money. I will say that I was accused in high school of embezzling money fron a resturant, and honestly, I wasen't. I just wanted to do a good job. After all I just said--I couldn't just fire good employees after a period of time. Then again, I will probally never open up a place. Third dilemma!

I would Never load my resturant up with cheap labor. I will walk out of any resturant that loads up their resturant with cheap help.

I'll get a lot of flack for this next one, but if I opened up a resturant/bar, I would load it up with pretty women. I am still shocked how much young guys spend in order to impress a pretty women. The demographics of the men were from 20's to late 30's--no wonder? I was one of those guys. "Oh Ari--the tips I gave you."

Isn't the resturant business lovely? It's too bad we have so many resturant positions available in America. It's a horrid job on so many levels. I feel bad for everyone, especially the owner because so many of them go out of business, and so many went in with the right attitude.

A lot of dilemmas? That's why it seems like every successful business owner I knew had a successful/helpful father. A father that can take on financial risk, and wanted to help his kids. I sometimes think success in America is comming from a enabling family that can take on risk?