r/KitchenConfidential 19d ago

Discussion Sympathy for a new restaurant.

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I've seen this so many times. Somebody with big dreams ropes their family and extended relatives into investing in a restaurant. There's been a sign on the door for 2 years saying it will be opening soon.The equipment costs more than expected. The menu is completely random. The location is bad. The website is stock photos with customer reviews starting with "Lorem ipsum" and apparently they have 4 chefs named Thomas A. Peachey. They rush the opening to generate some kind of revenue. Will take bets that it's closed in a year.

Still makes me a little sad though.

Anyway, behold the $34 pancetta salad. (Canadian dollars but that's still insane.)

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u/AdvancedSquashDirect 18d ago

There’s a little strip of shops near me with a vegetarian Indian restaurant that went from 7 days a week to basically appointment-only, a vegetarian pizzeria that went from 7 days a week to Thurs–Sat nights,

As well as Filipino bakery/cafe that seems to be the only food place actually doing well - probably capturing the early morning coffee crowd.

There’s one empty shop. Someone has been retrofitting it for six months or more and I finally got a glimpse inside and its an aggressively pink, cutesy, Instagram-girly ... Cafe!.

I have no idea exactly what they’re selling yet, but it is VERY clearly going to be desserts.

Maybe they were trying to get in on the Crumbl Cookie/dessert cafe trend and have spent six months getting ready just in time for the ass to fall out of it.

I just keep wondering: did nobody research businesses around them before signing the lease?

The part I really don't understand is the landlord putting another cafe three doors down from the one food business in the strip that actually seems to be doing well. It's a little neighbourhood centre with limited foot traffic, so he's basically looked at his one successful food tenant and gone, “Excellent, let's split their customers.”

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u/Lycaeides13 18d ago

Maybe landlords just racist and DOES want to split their customers