Hospitality
Frank Bennett
The DNA Required to Clone a Successful ...

Successful full service neighborhood restaurants are rarely duplicated in a second location, even by their original founder. I have observed this phenomenon over and over throughout my forty years on the New York restaurant scene. Whenever a successful restaurant in one neighborhood tries to expand to another location, it rarely enjoys the success of the original restaurant and often fails completely after a short stay in business. Why? Why can't successful restaurateurs do it again? The failure rate for duplicating successful restaurants is too high! What goes wrong when industry leaders try to repeat their success?

 To find the answer, I decided to interview 25 independent restaurant owners who had tried to open a successful second restaurant and had met with varying degrees of disappointment.

Hospitality

The DNA Required to Clone a Successful Restaurant

Successful full service neighborhood restaurants are rarely duplicated in a second location, even by their original founder. I have observed this phenomenon over and over throughout my forty years on the New York restaurant scene. Whenever a successful restaurant in one neighborhood tries to expand to another location, it rarely enjoys the success of the original restaurant and often fails completely after a short stay in business. Why? Why can't successful restaurateurs do it again? The failure rate for duplicating successful restaurants is too high! What goes wrong when industry leaders try to repeat their success?

 To find the answer, I decided to interview 25 independent restaurant owners who had tried to open a successful second restaurant and had met with varying degrees of disappointment.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: A Dream Is A Wish......

Restaurateurs are typically hands-on business activists who largely ignore the classic business-school approach to business. Most know how to draw up a financial plan and utilize an operating budget, but few restaurateurs understand the value of the strategic planning process.

 STRATEGIC PLANNING: The title alone makes us groan. But, perhaps, with a little reflection, we might see the value of strategic planning especially when we are about to open a new restaurant.

URBAN ROOFTOP GARDENING: ARTICLE

Alice Waters opened her legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California in 1971.
Consistently ranked among the World's 50 Best Restaurants, Chez Panisse is famous for its
organic, locally-grown ingredients and for pioneering California cuisine.


While studying in France, Alice lived at the bottom of a market street where she shopped for
local produce and prepared simple fresh foods in order to enhance the experience of the table.
She eventually returned to California and opened Chez Panisse. Realizing the difficulty in
sourcing fresh, high-quality ingredients, Waters began building a network of local farmers,
artisans, and producers.