How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant

By Christopher Egerton Thomas and Christopher Egerton-Thomas

Book Overview

If you're thinking of opening a restaurant, you have a lot on your plate Dig into this comprehensive guide from successful restaurateur and author Christopher Egerton-Thomas, who dishes out good advice on everything from coming up with a winning concept, choosing a location, and equipping a kitchen to designing the menu, decorating the dining room, and managing a staff. Whether you want to open an upscale restaurant or a diner, a bistro or a burger joint, specialize in ethnic cuisine or go with an established franchise, How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, Third Edition gives you the essential information to do it right. The Third Edition of the celebrated soup-to-nuts classic is updated for today's competitive marketplace and features an expanded examination of the franchise system, in-depth discussions on customer relations, and a wealth of information on staff training-one of the most important ingredients for success. It covers: Guidance on financing, taxes, insurance, health and safety, legal issues, and more Marketing research, including evaluating local competition to refine your concept Evaluating franchise opportunities-the pros and cons of going with an established concept Effective staff training-both initial and ongoing The "feel-good factor"-that intangible quality that keeps customers coming back for more All this proven, practical guidance is served up in Christopher Egerton-Thomas's flavorful style and seasoned generously with real-life anecdotes and restaurant lore from around the world that are instructive and entertaining. This is a must-read for those considering the restaurant business and a ready reference for restaurateurs who want to improve their operations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471698741
• ISBN13: 9780471698746
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.7" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

For Every Restaurant Start-Up

I found this book got right to the core of starting a restaurant in a logical and easy to understand way. It contains a useful practical approaches to tasks that must be dealt with in a restaurant start-up. It also suggests ways to cope with if not avoid many typical problems, and presents numerous strategies for increasing chances of success. Very good and useful.

Truly hits on every topic necessary.

As a would-be restauranteur with plenty of general business experience and only limited kitchen-time, there were many, many areas where I felt deficient when gauging the scope of my business plans. But "How to Open & Run a Successful Restaurant" not only hit each of those topics, but managed to offer alternatives, incite, history and trivia as well. Thomas offers not only information as regards opening a restaurant, but also outlines the types of personalities often associated with the business and the pitfalls that await the snobby, the paranoid, and the burnt-out. Great tips for decorating inexpensively as well as a few suggestions regarding high-profit menu items punctuate what is, at its most basic, a thorough look at the middle-class restaurant, from foyer to kitchen, from management to staff, and from profit to poor-house.