I've owned several conscience stores and a truck stop. Obviously not restaurants but some of my c-stores and the truck stop averaged over $60k a month in restaurant/deli sales.
One of my cousins owns a very successful micro brewery and they serve some pretty good food. They are rated 4.5*s on Yelp.
Despite their sales success they are just breaking even in year 3. This is when he reached out to me for my $.02 opinion. The things I was taught was:
- measure everything related to sales, margin and expenses
- you can get these variables with a little research. Obviously food cost as a % of sales, shrinkage, controllable expenses, wages/salaries, overtime, your well/bar margins/ratios. You have to have this down to a science.
- you need to have a couple of signature food items. This is the biggest thing my cousin is missing (IMO) he has good food but nothing like "they have the best tacos or the best nachos or the best chicken fried steak or kale salad or whatever, but you have to have a solid food lineup but a couple of signature items that knock the skin off the ball. From what I've seen of some friends that have done this successfully, food prep/execution bleeds over into the rest of their menu and all of their food options are better.
It's a tough business and requires a unique personality to be really successful. People with ADHD generally do well in the restaurant business because of the late hours, creativity, the ability to hyper focus during a rush and the constant change involved in the businesss.
If this is something you are considering take a part time job and work ~ 20hrs a week in the kitchen, learning how to manage food costs, wait staff, the bar etc. for about 6 months.