Another piece of possibly worthless advice from a non-restaurateur: LIMITED MENU. Decide what you can do well, and then improve it and make it better than anybody else. Zeek reminded me with his Gordon Ramsey reference. He never wanted more than 3 or 4 entree selections on the menu.

I also think of some of the most successful chains - Raisin Canes sells chicken strips, fries and slaw. In-N-Out sells burgers, fries and shakes. Freddy's sells burgers, fries, hotdogs, and ice cream. Most mexican restaurants make different combinations of ground beef, grilled beef, grilled chicken, tortillas, rice and beans.

The limited menu concept makes it easier and quicker to prepare orders. But even more importantly to you as an owner is that it limits the amount of inventory items you have to stock and use before it spoils.

Which is while he'll be Bus Boy #1 at his family's new restaurant/saloon once we give him advice. Pay attention, Jay.

My son opened a place in Dallas. It did really well, but it will beat you down over time. I think the people that do well are generally people that grew up in the business and understand all the goods and bads. Recently he sold the business. He will make far more money when he sells the real estate than he ever did operating the restaurant.

See if you can intern in a commercial kitchen somewhere. Get your food handling license first. It�s damn hard work, think KP in the service.

How many bars last more than 5 years, you can count them on one hand pretty much, most bars are open about 7 minutes give or take.

We opened one that had been 3 different concepts prior and all failed. Wasn't ideal, but we had no money for anything better. Absolutely horrible location too! Barely made it the first year and with hard work, great people with tons of passion for what we were doing... we made it work. Took that location from 25k a week to 120k a week in a little over 3 years. That [censored] location was the springboard to 20 locations today. It can be done with the right people, right plan and a chit ton of luck!!!

What�s the name of your restaurants?

A lot of the time this is correct but Jake's in Flower Mound opened in location where 3-4 restaurants failed and they are doing quite well.

Correction; *Server #1*

Razzoos.

I left that group after 11 years with another partner to development a concept called Bone Daddys. Still doing it today along with two other developing concepts.

Excellent! I�ve always liked Razzoos.

I like to hear success stories like that, especially in the bar and restaurant business

Thanks. I can tell you some painful stories too unfortunately. Last 2 1/2 years have been brutal with BD's , but things are slowly improving thank goodness!

love love love the rat toes. I wish they still had pan seared frog legs on the menu. they were to die for.

After spending almost 5 years in Iraq working for a defense contractor all my drinking buddies tried talking me into opening a bar but there�s one thing I learned while earning my business management degree, bars and restaurants have a 100% failure rate. It may be a year, decade, or a century but they all fail eventually

I'll go to Razzoo's just for rat toes and cold beer, so good