Solitary chef in a commercial kitchen
Dear Dara,
If I open up a string of Seattle-style teriyaki shops, will these midwesterners care? I’m ready to empty out my 401k and I believe in teriyaki. I know I’ll eat there every day, but will anyone else?
-Michael H.
Dear Michael,
Let's talk about some of the most successful restaurant start-ups in the last decade of Minneapolis. There’s Hot Indian, where you can get soft roti tacos. There’s Hola Arepa, where you can get overstuffed mega sandwiches on corn-meal-cakes, in a modern version based on something that originated in northern South America. And then there’s Mucci’s, home of the fried pizza.
Was there persuasive market research that the Twin Cities wanted roti tacos, mega arepas, or fried pizza? Of course not. All of those places went by instinct. Meanwhile, we briefly had a hole in this local market proven by market research, and it was for crudo, and so many places opened to fill it—and most closed. Market research can only tell you the current state of affairs, it can't tell you whether four other businesses are about to do what you're about to do.
Meanwhile, we people of the Twin Cities eat sandwiches night and day, but alas alack, beloved Be’Wiched Deli and very tasty Original on 42nd both closed. Tragically. Awfully. I bring this up as proof that: Life is fickle! Especially restaurant life. Now, as to Seattle-style teriyaki specifically. Jonathan Kauffman wrote the definitive history of Seattle teriyaki a few years ago, and as such, I’m assuming you’re going for this grilled-meat-beside-rice model. Now, do I think people around here would eat some tasty grilled, soy-glazed chicken or pork beside some rice? Absolutely!
But that's never the question. The question is really: Can you find real estate that would make the math work—the right rent in the right neighborhood, the right labor, and so on. I know several accomplished restaurateurs with long track records eager and ready for such a space—finding it is harder than you'd imagine. If you could find it, the next mega-question: Is the restaurant lifestyle for you? It can be hard work around the clock, with crabby customers and flaky employees. Or, it can be totally wonderful with adoring customers and hilarious and loving employees! You won’t know till you try.
Some options to test the waters: What about a used food-truck? As of this writing the good old Home Street Home truck is on the market for $65,000. Got more in your 401K? Why not get Chameleon to build you something from scratch. A food-truck is a good way to find out if people want to shell out for your food, and if you want to actually spend your days this way.
If you want an even lower buy-in, maybe a pop-up is for you? That’s where you sell your food using someone else’s commercial kitchen, like at City Food Studio. You’ve likely read about other pop-ups, like when a busy restaurant or food-truck hands over their space to an aspiring chef. However, an established restaurant or food-truck owner will typically need to trust you before they’ll hand over their food truck or keys, and be reasonably assured you’re not going to burn the place down and will make a profit. So we are back to the math! My best advice is to either volunteer to work for free, that is, to stage, in a restaurant you admire. Write a persuasive letter and most restaurant-owners will allow you to volunteer for a day—and whether you get invited back for a second day will depend on how annoying/useful you are.
Staging is pretty standard practice, and best of all after a couple weeks you will know pretty clearly whether the Seattle teriyaki lifestyle of actually working in a restaurant is for you. Best of all, if you’re a nice and reliable person with a good work ethic, after a few months you should have all the contacts you need to actually do a pop-up in someone else’s restaurant. At that point, you will finally know the answer to the question you asked, as well as the massive string of questions I added.
It’s not whether Midwesterners care about teriyaki, it’s about whether you have what it takes to make it happen, when ‘having what it takes’ means ‘actually enjoy the work’ and ‘can make the math happen.’
Good luck!
