North High in Columbus?

Cool place that could make money depending on the market. I went with a group a couple years back for work and it was fun (wasn't around when they eventually labeled and bottled). Definitely more event driven... I didn't and probably wouldn't pay for it as the center of an event personally. If I remember right, not including your bar tab, just the brewing and bottling runs minimum like $400 though I guess is cheap entertainment for a big group. I remember doing mental math on how they make money charging what they do and decided it was precisely because their location wasn't great.

If I'm going into that business plan, I'm not doing it in an area that has a lot of bars with good taps readily available... so like I wouldn't touch that business in any of the big Texas cities... maybe in one of the suburbs though.

Seems like an extremely crowded market

The Wonderer said:

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Key metrics:

• food cost ratio
• booze cost ratio
• location, location, location
• lease agreement terms - is there is percent rent above a certain threshold?
• online reviews (this can kill a bar/restaurant nowadays)

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... 3 of those aren't metrics...

to be fair Dickey's BBQ seem to be a terrible investment to begin with. I've seen several in particular fail in the Houston area, not just the one in CS.

BigPuma said:

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to be fair Dickey's BBQ seem to be a terrible investment to begin with. I've seen several in particular fail in the Houston area, not just the one in CS.

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That's because calling Dickey's BBQ subpar would be generous. Sooooo many better choices. It seems that Rudy's and Pappa's BBQ (not a fan) are the only 'chain' BBQ places that have ever thrived in Texas.

Dickey's is sort of in the same category as Bill Miller's, and Bill Miller's seems to be doing well.

Not quite. BM is centralized in just the Hill Country area with a few Corpus locations. Dickey's has locations across the country and they suck in every state.

I think you should run from this opportunity. Seems like a good way to ruin your relationship with SIL and your daughter. Too much risk of it ending badly.

IrishTxAggie said:

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BigPuma said:

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to be fair Dickey's BBQ seem to be a terrible investment to begin with. I've seen several in particular fail in the Houston area, not just the one in CS.

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That's because calling Dickey's BBQ subpar would be generous. Sooooo many better choices. It seems that Rudy's and Pappa's BBQ (not a fan) are the only 'chain' BBQ places that have ever thrived in Texas.

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Eh... plenty of Dickey's exist even with their BBQ being subpar. Burger King and Jack in the Box both make awful hamburgers... you know why they continue to pop up though? As a franchise, when somebody goes to one they know exactly what to expect. In my experience with Dickey's as a consumer, they are wildly inconsistent across locations both in service and flavor and that's probably a good indicator of why so many go belly up so quickly... lack of standards. Standards and quality are different things.

A buddy of mine has consulted on opening bars and restaurants in Houston and owns a restaurant he's franchised around Texas to a few different people and there's about a dozen of them now. He told me the secret to the food and bev hospitality industry is that it has little to do with quality. It is about consistency. For the most part, you are selling fatty salty foods and alcohol for a mark up... here's really not much more science to it than that just make sure that product is the same every time and not piss poor and people will come back and buy it from you. Make sure the taste and prices don't change and are reasonably good, that you are friendly and that you keep your places clean and it's easy to lure repeat customers. He's told me to make money, your first focus needs to be on leading indicators like how many tables you turn in a night, revenue per table and what you d to maximizes that. Any sort of cool concept or spin you put on a product needs to add revenue to an experience and not just be a gimmick to get people in the door.

Cyp0111 said:

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8th row flint in the Heights is an example of how to operate a bar/restaurant.

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I love Eight Row and spend way too much every time I step foot in there, but I don't think it's a replicable model. The food is good, but the whiskey selection is what makes the bar great. Not everyone is willing to put in the effort to create the type of program that Morgan has.

The place the OP is talking about sounds a bit like the old BrewU near greenway plaza.

it was a cool concept but failed in short order.