What has been lost and why others endure

I have noticed two restaurants fade for relocating to the east side… Chicos was doing well in the SW end of town but decided to move to the richer side of town. They lost their customer base and had to start a new one in a higher rent district then failed. Kim’s moved from E. Market to the higher rent district on Frankfort Ave. They also lost costumers and much money to rent then eventually moved back losing their new customers from Frankfort Ave.

OK, what should a restaurant do? Expand or relocate? I know over expanding thins out the oversight but can add to the revenue. Relocating also has its issues.

Do you feel mathemetics, probabilty, and organized chaos can be used to help develop and maintain a retail concept

I'm sorry for my drunk rants on Friday-the responds were funny! Everyone-STAY In School!!

I'm sorry for my drunk rants on Friday-the responds were funny!

A fine example of a concept that moved closer to their "fan base"(with better parking) is Cafe Lou Lou....The place has been packed constantly since the move...
Clay and staff haven't changed much from the original!

[Robin Garr]

A fine example of a concept that moved closer to their "fan base"(with better parking) is Cafe Lou Lou....The place has been packed constantly since the move...
Clay and staff haven't changed much from the original!

Asiatique would be another good example. And for that matter, Mazzoni's itself, which had been a downtown landmark (at several locations) for about 100 years before it moved to Taylorsville Road.

Frankly, although this goes waaaaay back and my memory isn't vivid, I'm not so sure it was the move from the Southwest to Hikes Point that did in Chico's. It was a big success, probably the best "Mexican" (actually New Mexico) in town for many years, and survived for at least 20 years in the Hikes Point location. My recollection is that it lost serious Mexican food enthusiasts when the owners shifted from authentic New Mexico (green chile stew! posole!) to generic Mexican-American, and if I recall correctly, it eventually succumbed more to lease issues rather than poor business.

Do you feel mathematics, probabilty, and organized chaos can be used to help develop and maintain a retail concept

Esse from Pestos and I talked about this. He believes that if your main clientele are a lunch crowd, moving far away from the current location would kill a restaurant. Most of the customers walk for lunch and you would lose their business moving too far away and would have to gain new clientele. If you are doing well at lunch, why move away? A close local move would not damage the business. If your business has mainly a dinner location, people tend to travel a distance for a dinner and are not constrained by the short lunch hour trip. If a dinner restaurant finds a better location, it would not hurt the business too much to move other than a few local costumer losses and initial costs on the renovation of the new place.

The Mathematics of it all: Demographics/Economics… Is the area saturated by restaurants? Would the neighborhood enjoy the cuisine? Any other restaurants serve the same food nearby? Crime? Cost vs revenue gain? If you are expanding, can you afford the extra time or have someone you trust to run the new location? Can people find it and how is the parking?

Organized chaos: It would hold a high failure rate.

Just a few thoughts,

Understanding that intelligent mangement is a given, I am amazed at the timeless concepts, like Pats and Linings to name a few, that seem to have changed very little over time and flourish were most retail concepts need constant evolving to stay active in the market. What do timeless concepts that change very little have?

With all due respect to timeless concepts, I've seen plenty of hometown gems go down when neighborhood real estate prices started to escalate. I wonder if Pat's and Linnig's own their own buildings or if they rent. Most restaurants do rent their space, and therefore operate under costlier and unpredictable overhead.

The recent saga of the Second Avenue Deli in NYC is just one example. Despite their fame and a massive, loyal clientele - not to mention their terrific food - they could no longer afford to continue their lease on 2nd Avenue. The happy end to their story is that they bought a building in Murray Hill and reopened there. Few independent restaurants can pull that off.

Robin, your recollection about Chico's is correct. It was lease problems that took them from the Richland Avenue location to the "Sandrella's" (how's that for an oldie?) store, and then the extra expense at the last location put the dagger in. Bob Coleman either brought in some partners for extra capital, or sold to them, (or, both, in stages) and that was pretty much the end of things. Sure do miss it, though. My now 22 y/o son still hasn't gotten over losing his Chico's cheese enchiladas.