I will always take an excuse to repost this. This guy bet on himself and took a break from his dull cubicle existence to follow his dreams. He massively fucked up, should not have done that. torontolife.com/food/restaur...
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How well-thumbed was this copy of Kitchen Confidential exactly - there's a whole section about precisely this scenario
aug 1, 2025, 2:45 pm • 35 0 • view
Apparently he just thumbed it and didn't read it.
aug 1, 2025, 4:28 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s been over 25 years since I read that book but that passage about how a guy who opens a restaurant “for love” is the one most doomed to fail has always stuck with me
aug 1, 2025, 3:42 pm • 15 0 • view
Also how the ideal restaurant owner is an insane little gremlin person who knows the price of every meal to the cent, can cobble together a working refrigerator from parts for three different models, and manages two dozen meth addict personality conflicts at each of his four locations
aug 1, 2025, 3:51 pm • 27 0 • view
Concur 100%. Also applies to workboats. Not taking questions at this time.
aug 1, 2025, 4:51 pm • 5 0 • view
Cubicle jobs often require a lot less reading comprehension than you'd think. It's one of the main reasons people stuck in them should think twice before leaving.
aug 1, 2025, 4:41 pm • 0 0 • view
That was my first thought! Bourdain clowned on people like this in that book. They must have thought they were “different”
aug 1, 2025, 3:59 pm • 1 0 • view
There are two chapters in completely different sections of the book about NEVER EVER DOING THAT.
aug 1, 2025, 4:29 pm • 1 0 • view
sometimes if we have a hobby we're passionate about that brings us joy, it's ok to simply keep being passionate and joyful about a hobby.
aug 1, 2025, 4:15 pm • 10 0 • view
There's no better way to kill your passion for your hobby than to try to convert it into some kind of paying gig.
aug 1, 2025, 4:49 pm • 6 0 • view
That article is so great. It's a prefect fractal, every bad decision the author makes is made up of like five other bad decisions, and that chain continues to infinity.
aug 1, 2025, 2:45 pm • 26 0 • view
aug 1, 2025, 5:46 pm • 9 0 • view
Feels like the same psychological phenomenon as kids watching an anti-war movie and then going to the recruiter
aug 1, 2025, 3:35 pm • 7 0 • view
When I started my small business I did a class through the SBA about how to get funding and multiple representatives of multiple banks stood in front of us and said they'd write blank checks for almost any coherent business plan but no restaurant would ever get a loan from them.
aug 1, 2025, 2:57 pm • 19 0 • view
The best part is that you don't really feel bad for him because he comes of as an insufferable douche.
aug 1, 2025, 2:37 pm • 12 0 • view
least hateable Toronto Life longread subject
aug 1, 2025, 3:32 pm • 6 0 • view
I asked an industry friend once what the cost would be to open a place and was blown away. And that was like 10 years ago. I cant imagine now
aug 1, 2025, 3:38 pm • 4 0 • view
i think i’m going to throw up. he cashed out his pension? he sold his fucking house??
aug 1, 2025, 5:02 pm • 3 0 • view
I've never run a restaurant, but reading this article gave me a palpable sense of dread at all the mistakes he was making. The restaurant finally starts turning a profit, and he decides that is a good time to close the place for a week? And he's surprised that this is a bad financial decision?
aug 1, 2025, 3:21 pm • 16 0 • view
"I needed a chef so I placed an ad on Craigslist' Oh no!
aug 1, 2025, 4:29 pm • 5 0 • view
honestly from reading it the staffing seemed like one of the few good decisions he made
aug 1, 2025, 8:17 pm • 2 0 • view
I've read many accounts of people starting a restaurant without thinking it through, but this guy REALLY takes the cake
aug 1, 2025, 4:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Opening a fancy sit-down restaurant is an especially insane decision. They have really high baseline costs and need enormous amounts of capital!
aug 1, 2025, 3:30 pm • 51 0 • view
Were I interested in trying out professionally cooking for other people, I would simply start a food stand at the farmer's market.
aug 1, 2025, 3:31 pm • 40 1 • view
He seemed to genuinely enjoy his experience at the food festival!
aug 1, 2025, 3:36 pm • 4 0 • view
Low overhead, high turnover is the best chance you can have at success. But it's extremely stressful to pull off if you aren't an industry vet, and the kind of people who want to own restaurants typically want a high-end experience.
aug 1, 2025, 5:25 pm • 1 0 • view
(I have considered this as a retirement gig. Let's go breakfast sandwiches let's go pljeskavica)
aug 1, 2025, 3:31 pm • 29 0 • view
Baezhnev Balkaner Theory
aug 1, 2025, 3:39 pm • 5 0 • view
The place will be called "Druzh Tito"
aug 1, 2025, 3:41 pm • 8 0 • view
Yee-haw for pljeskavica
aug 1, 2025, 3:32 pm • 4 0 • view
I would do three breakfast sandwiches and a proper pljeskavica, all on lepinje. Cold sodas and bottled water. That's it.
aug 1, 2025, 3:35 pm • 6 0 • view
The Classic (bacon egg and American cheese), the Signature (beef sausage, spicy mustard, cheddar, pickled red onions), and the Forager (grilled mushrooms and kajmak).
aug 1, 2025, 3:38 pm • 4 0 • view
Extra ajvar on mine, please
aug 1, 2025, 4:27 pm • 1 0 • view
Spitting hot fire word for word
aug 1, 2025, 3:39 pm • 2 0 • view
The pljeskavica is chopped tomato, shredded cabbage, pickled red onions, kajmak, and the mixed beef-pork patty.
aug 1, 2025, 3:39 pm • 3 0 • view
aug 1, 2025, 3:40 pm • 2 0 • view
Add ajvar to the breakfast sandwich and you're golden.
aug 1, 2025, 3:39 pm • 3 0 • view
Of course. Ajvar available for all of them
aug 1, 2025, 3:40 pm • 3 0 • view
If the only thing the place achieves is introducing more non-Balkan people to the joy of ajvar, dayenu
aug 1, 2025, 4:31 pm • 0 0 • view
😙🤌
aug 1, 2025, 3:40 pm • 2 0 • view
There's a Taiwanese bun place here that started as a food truck and carry out-only ghost kitchen a few years ago that's only now transitioning to an actual restaurant this fall. Seems like a good approach to me.
aug 1, 2025, 3:34 pm • 8 0 • view
This or starting as a bar and then adding food once you establish a clientele/presence seems like a better way to go
aug 1, 2025, 3:48 pm • 7 0 • view
Bars are also really hard given the licensure issues.
aug 1, 2025, 3:51 pm • 9 0 • view
can directly state from experience that licensure is hard even for places like a big franchisee of a [TOP 5 FAST FOOD CORPORATION]. it takes expertise, can't just throw money at it. we put a spot in the middle of a bar strip in [COLLEGE TOWN] and even then still opted to skip on serving alc bc of it
aug 1, 2025, 3:58 pm • 4 0 • view
we decided it was easier if the clientele simply got their booze from the bars on either side of our lot and then came in for drunk late night grub. and we still had to place an extra security guy for night shift. that's not exactly cheap on fast food margins
aug 1, 2025, 4:00 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah. In WA at least it's nearly impossible to get a straight liquor license. Licensure generally requires 30% of revenue comes from food, so you're basically required to launch the full service kitchen simultaneously.
aug 1, 2025, 4:02 pm • 2 0 • view
This seems like it makes it a lot harder to soft launch anything.
aug 1, 2025, 4:12 pm • 0 0 • view
They are, but you have to get the licensure anyways if you want to turn a profit as a restaurant and I can see some advantages (easier to get away with shorter hours, starting with the highest margin products)
aug 1, 2025, 4:10 pm • 3 0 • view
Certain hygiene, personnel and wastage issues are much easier to work with.
aug 1, 2025, 4:33 pm • 1 0 • view
Something north of 50% of all sitdown restaurants fail within 5 years!
aug 1, 2025, 3:31 pm • 4 0 • view
I feel like I need a drink just from reading that, and coincidentally, it’s almost 11am
aug 1, 2025, 2:53 pm • 5 0 • view
I don't want to pile on but "Kitchen Confidential" is a series of lessons about why you don't want to cook in, much less own, a restaurant.
aug 1, 2025, 2:41 pm • 24 0 • view
Unles you are A. a total nutjob, or B. a fool.
aug 1, 2025, 4:44 pm • 0 0 • view