The Restaurant

I came across a brilliant blog yesterday by a New York waiter,
Waiter Rant. Again, it humbled me and reminded me of the tremendous value of the Internet in that it allows such genius to express itself to the world and flourish almost without constraint. I understand and appreciate what the blogger has to say as I am myself a waiter (one of my many hats in being a restauranteur). If only I had the self-discipline to write down all the stories.

Today is the start of the week for my restaurant, Amazing Thai, which my wife and I have operated now for three-and-a-half years. By restaurant standards, our week is rather short in that we close on Sundays and Mondays and are open only for dinner on Saturday. We made the choice when we opened the restaurant, to allow ourselves some time. And naturally, part of that time off is spent on other restaurant matters (bookeeping, planning, purchasing, cleaning). In addition to my wife and I, we have a staff of four -- three cooks and a waitress/kitchen helper. The latter helps us on Friday and Saturday nights when it is really busy, one of the cooks serves as assistant manager and primary cook, and we have one lunch cook and one dinner cook. Normally, two cooks and one server (my wife or I) staff the place.
The restaurant has done exceptionally well since day one, with a devoted customer base that appreciates our great food and service. We are small -- only eight tables -- but cozy and classy. The atmosphere is very Thai with the walls filled with Thai pictures and the shelves with Thai mementoes. Our prices are mid-range, which opens us to customers from all strata. In many ways, our cuisine is comfort food and we are a neighborhood restaurant.

The interesting thing is that before we opened the restaurant, neither my wife nor I had any restaurant experience (other than as diners). Friends feared for our failure, aware of the stats on business failure in this field. I, however did have small business experience from ten years back, plus a business degree. And my wife is a terrific cook. We are both teachers, which helps immensely when it comes to training the staff, particularly the cooks. It has helped also, that we have had no direct competition since we opened the business. We are the only Thai restaurant in town.