Dance Like a Restaurateur

If developers want to work with a local restaurateur, they better be ready to dance. (All those years of going to weddings is finally going to pay off.)

Aria Restaurant's Gerry Klaskala says being a restaurateur means you gotta know how to balance risk with passion. “I'm on a panel and a room full of risk takers,” Gerry tells our audience during last week's first ever Bisnow Atlanta Restaurant Summit. "A restaurant needs to return a good investment. If you're not doing that, then it's just a waste of time,” he says. “You can probably get your money back but you can't get your time back."

And those investments in restaurants are definitely getting more expensive. Castellucci Hospitality Group's Federico Castellucci told our audience of more than 200 industry pros that he opened The Iberian Pig for less than $100k. That can't be repeated. “At this stage in the game, construction costs have risen to a level that really makes it difficult to do a restaurant for under $1M,” he says. Partly, the two new stadiums are prompting subcontractors to raise prices, inflating construction costs.

Gunshow's Kevin Gillespie says construction costs on eatery spaces will ultimately be transferred to the customer. Hence he made Gunshow off Glenwood Ave in Downtown Atlanta in a space that had its own “idiosyncrasies." But he did so in order to prevent having “looming debt” hanging over his head. Hear what Kevin had to say about his family traveling into Atlanta to eat by clicking here.

While Federico expressed skepticism that a chef-owned restaurant could make money in the suburbs—families have lives that prevent them from staying out late or going out much during the week—other of our panelists say it's all about the restaurant. “I don't need to like it or agree or disagree. Just come to one of my restaurants on a Wednesday and I'll prove you wrong,” Downtown Roswell's staple Table & Main's Ryan Pernice retorts. “What I think we bring in spades is people looking for authenticity.”

Our all-star chef panel lineup included Ryan, U Restaurants' Riccardo Ullio, Empire State South's Hugh Acheson, Gerry, Federico, Kevin and CohnReznick's Stephanie O'Rourk (who moderated and concurs that costs to start restaurants have jumped in recent years). Fast casual is what has been growing in the suburbs—but it's a style of restaurant that requires a lot of traffic since average ticket sales are lower than more intensive restaurants. And as Riccardo puts it: “Guests are spending an increasing amount of time playing with their stupid phones at the table,” he says, taking pics of food and posting to Facebook or Instagram. “The thing that fast casual does is it takes away that from you. You don't stand there and waste all this time.”

Perhaps Gerry summed up best the experience and duty of a restaurateur: “Restaurants are providing the new frontier. You have to choose to be excellent. We're in the hospitality business. We sell food. We sell beverage. We sell hospitality. That's what makes us special,” he says. “Our success will be deemed on how well we deliver hospitality.”