If you could start a restaurant...

[The Real Satan]

Most food people I know have at one time or another fantasized about owning a restaurant, even when they know they know almost nothing about the actual hour-to-hour and day-to-day mechanics of actually making such a fantasy real.
Assuming start-up costs were covered, what sort of place would you, well, start up? What would your focus be, in food, decor, marketing niche, etc.? What would you actually do in terms of operating/running the place? Would you start small and expand? In other words, what floats the boat of your restaurant fantasy?

[nicjean]

Its funny you should ask....
I`ve been working on this one idea for some time, its a bit of a pipe dream, but maybe one day...
There is a 10 acre parcel of land out in the country where my folks live (and by country I mean 2 miles outside a mid sized town in Virginia). I`d love to rip down the ramshackle house there and build a nice, but small restaurant. The focus would be on fresh, organic food prepared simply, but extremely well. The restaurant area is wooded but there is a nice 5 acre part that gets a lot of sun. It would be great to grow as many veggies and herbs as possible there and then cultivate relationships with other purveyors for the rest (a la Thomas Keller).
The inside would have an open kitchen and probably hold about 45 people. We`d maybe do a simple lunch and then 2 turns at dinner. The staff would have to be small as well, maybe three people in the kitchen (two cooking, one prepping/washing) and two people on the floor. We`d have 2 tasting menus consisting of 6 - 10 small courses (again, a la Keller or Michelle Richard) and a very simple a la carte listing. While the goal is great food in a somewhat rural (and cosmopolitan challenged town) I`d really like a B&O sound system with trendy "mood music" and a projector projecting mood lighting onto mostly white walls with black and white photos of food (I`m a tech geek too!).
I dream about this place more and more every day- I write menus, have dinner parties based on this theme, etc. However much I read and learn, I still have not been to culinary school (outside of some classes in Paris) and do not know if I have what it takes to quit my lucrative computer job at the age of 25, ditch my social life and pour everything into a restaurant. I`ve been doing some high-end catering on the side to get a feel for the work, and I truly love it...so maybe one day I`ll post about the opening of new place in Virginia...

[Kzial]

in Provence. The place would be in one of the little villages like Mouries in the Bouches du Rhone: http://www.provenceweb.fr/f/bouches/mouries/mouries.htm or St, Saturnin les Apt in the Vaucluse: http://www.provenceweb.fr/f/vaucluse/stsatapt/stsatapt.htm
I`d rent or buy one of the old stone buildings and leave the walls as they are. The fantasy is already expansive enough, so it stays a small operation.
I`d be the pit man, smoking briskets and ribs. Anybody know if you can smoke meat with olive wood? modom Bring a sandwich and relax.

[Kzial]

modom Bring a sandwich and relax.

[phishphairy1977]

Philadelphia has too few barbecue restaurants. Second, I like barbecued food.

[nicjean]

There is a place VERY similar to that called Texax in Monaco... a bit pricy (as all things in that outragious country are) but a neat idea. I don`t think their food was as good as what you are suggesting, but after being there for 2 months, their margaritas hit the spot!

[anim8ur]

I`m from Phoenix, and I am amazed that everyone out here thinks cheese is a liquid. Or that corn tortillas are always stale. (and yes, it`s so bad out here I make my own tortillas, however, it`s getting harder and harder finding Quaker Oats Masa out here, the always have some brand that tastes like plastic....)

[nicjean]

Dyuob- Enjoied your St. James Infirmary!

[Marija]

Somebody step up and cover this guys start-up costs...

[asunshine]

of female customers... I`d say 99% of your clientele will be obnoxiously gay men... ~john!