Potential Buisness Idea

[Fishman2004]

Ever since freshman year of highschool I have been in the restaurant industry, Im in my sophmore year at a culinary college, Im the head line cook at my place of employment "people call me chef, though I feel I do not yet deserve the title imo" Basically the head chef still does ordering and whatnot but can't cook on line for a whole work day unless hes shitfaced...Anyways, I ask myself where I see my culinary career going, I definately want to be an entrepenuer. I was thinking of finishing college and learning as much as I can about food now while Im young. So heres my idea, I really like the concept of stew, goulash and some soups. I want to open up a stew restaurant. All stock would be made in house, like good freaking stews. Some turkish recipes, traditional Irish, creole infusion, some portugese stews and some soups aswell. All of them I would make sure were **** tasty. I have began my career not limiting myself to one aspect of food but definately oriented in moist cooking methods and products of such. I would have a bar and small dining room. Daytime service would be oriented on the bar, and specialize in to-go orders for the employed, at night the restaurant would be festive with traditional earthen cookwear, a creative, welcoming yet cavernous atmosphere. I have thought about this alot, I figure in Ireland it rains alot, and wetness and sometimes cold weather might make stew a desireable food. I already have tweaked with many worldly recipes to develope a good 50 Items that could be featured at some point. All of them have proved delicous. All I have to do is finish school, but Johnson and Wales sucks...

[CoffeeKitten]

I definately love your idea, i would like to see it in a large urban marketplace though. I can see it being a destination stop for travelers. Maybe a high end airport hotel restaurant. Although make sure you have summery items included for your hot days, maybe gazpzacho or vicsisious(sorry i dont know how to spell it). But all in all its a very unique idea.

[Fishman2004]

From my brief travelings of Ireland my mind is set on county waterford. You can drive ten minutes from the city and be in the countryside. My idea was to live in the fishing village of dunn moor, then just drive into the city each day. Best thing is the mussel farms are right down on the shore, I could go with a cooler down to the ocean and the mussel farmers will sell portions of their catch. They have mussels, scallops and a myriad of other Irish shellfish. What I love about Ireland is the countryside, but both Dublin and Waterford are booming cities with people from all over the world.

[Pierre]

THE MELTING POT!

I like the idea of all soups and stews. go for it!

[panini]

Fishman2004,
You know there is always going to be one old fart around here to add to the con side of your vision.
I just want to add that your stews and menu are about 15-20 % of being sucessful in business. Unless J&W has changed in the last 30 yrs. , it may be benificial to add some business education in there before you go for it.
The concept sounds great.
Good luck with it

[Fishman2004]

Thanks for the insight yes, being the son of a successful entrepenuer I am aware there is much work and bullshit beyond the desired aspects of the field...I'd say the food is the part that excites me the most, and probably what I know most about, this is the dreadful period of my life where I have to start learning the bullshit...

[KAYLINDA]

Learn the bookwork! Remember in the end that will keep your doors open because it will give you the little nudges of what is going on beyond the smiling faces you'll be serving. I love your concept! However, if I were to bet on it...I'd bet within the year you'd be adding sandwiches and salads to your menu. Your love for cooking is showing!

[Mezzaluna]

Some thoughts from a non-professional....

We have a place in my neighborhood called Stewps. They serve stew and soups, as the name suggests. They've had to add sandwiches, salads and small desserts to their menu. Frankly, I'm worried the traffic isn't supporting it and it may close. Their menu of soups is FABULOUS, but I don't think they do much business in the summer. (Personally, I wish they'd have gazpacho on their summer menu as a staple, but the beef stew and chicken soup remain daily offerings- no cold soups.) Take a look at their site.

Second, there is a chain of fondue restaurants in the U.S. called "The Melting Pot". I don't know what the extent of their copyright is, but it's worth checking into before using that name. Here's their site.

I'm a person who eats soup in 100 degree heat, so I'd be standing in line at your door, waiting for your place to open! Just make sure you do some market research before launching the enterprise.

Good luck!

[Fishman2004]

I like Duxelle, A. its a cooking term B. its catchy, C. it means from the earth. I would feature desserts. There are some great cold soups that would be appropriate, champagne honeydew puree, passion cantelope, any sweet fruit can be made into a puree, in addition to the cold soups I would not be opposed to other desserts aswell. Another good focus would be bread, because bread can be the biggest compliment to soup and stew. A multitude of fresh baked breads. This seems like it could cost alot to have fresh baked bread every day, but nothing looks better than a buisness that donates product. I would see to it there was no "waste" , granted if your not making money on a product that is sort of a waste, but the PR you can get from donating food this day and age is huge. My boss did it for a while and that drew in a good 20 too 30 regulars which is indeed a valuable asset. There are soup shops around here too, I think the difference is this would be a soup/stew restaurant, except instead of entrees there is just kick *** stew, or rather the stew is the entree. Extension on the menu could vary depending on the type of buisness the place draws in. As far as adding menu items, I would rely on some customer feedback assuming there are customers to take feedback from. I think as an experiment I might want to start things off as a small soup shop in rented space, see how people like my stuff, then maybe consider upgrading to a bigger facility...I dont know, I have all the time in the world to think about this stuff, im not even in my twenties yet.