What Makes a Great Restaurant? And Why did Tavern on the Green Fail?

Today’s economy is turning the restaurant world upside down. Diners are more careful with their dollars. They are looking for the total experience so competition for the reduced dollars is fierce. The Restaurant News Service reported that in the US, per NPD forecasters “After five consecutive quarters of traffic declines through September 2009, the [restaurant] industry will remain weak at least through the first half of 2010” and that “not only has traffic been lost but spending has declined as well”. It also reported that during the third quarter of 2009 total traffic declined by 4% with fast food representing the largest decline. They reported that diner’s checks were down by 2%.

The numbers don’t shock you? Remember that this industry traditionally carries a very small profit margin and are quite often small family run businesses – either local restaurants or franchises – and are providing the only source of income for many families. Chain Store Guide reported that in 2008, 4.1% of restaurants went out of business. Still doesn’t sound too bad? Consider the impact – the fast food restaurant segment alone reportedly had over 89,000 restaurants in the US in 2008 so 4.1% represents 3,649 restaurants.  At an average of 13 employees per restaurant, this represents 47,437 employees in the fast food industry alone that were without a job. Now multiply that by the various segments of the restaurant industry and you begin to understand the overall impact.

So how is it that bakery cafe chains, places like Panera Bread, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Au Bon Pain and Paradise Bakery & Café are being reported as faring much better in today’s economy? Not only are they positioned well with lower cost, upscale meals but they are conventionally in nontraditional locations and in urban areas. Is that all?

No, say the experts.

Excellent hospitality is paramount to any restaurant. While chains are too similar for most to consider it a wonderful dining experience, familiarity does provide a degree of comfort and therefore in today’s upside down world, can mean “security” for dollars spent – you know what you are going to get, you know the environment and you know the treatment the staff is going to provide. Bakery café chains provide not only the upscale “brag” factor and the “security” factor but also generally oversee the hospitality factor with an iron hand.

In this writer’s opinion, hospitality is the subjective factor in the equation and is too often not researched by restaurateurs. Food quality and presentation can be measured in scientific terms, hospitality – the vital element – is in the eye of the beholder. What is accepted in the Northeast may not work in the Southeast or in the Midwest. What works in California may not work in other parts of the western US. Everyone, however, wants to be remembered, wants to be treated as a special person and wants to relax – especially if they are paying for the experience.

But what else? Excellent hospitality includes a fresh, clean environment, a touch of specialness for each diner who walks through the door and a staff that lives up to the niche that the restaurant is catering to. Recently the writer had cause to visit a midline restaurant that had been taken over three years prior by an individual who had a long history of working in various chain restaurants. The food was outstanding …with prices to match. The décor however was pathetic – plastic table cloths, an aging Formica counter edged one corner of the dining room, the only waitress was in jeans and a faded tee-shirt. The menus were plastic holders with uninspired inserts, the floor was scratched linoleum , the walls were haphazardly decorated and the lighting was too bright and uninviting, nothing that inspired a relaxing atmosphere. However, the food and the presentation on the plate was fantastic, the fellow diners quiet and respectful, the wine selection was excellent and the interaction between the employees and the diners was friendly, considerate and lighthearted. Certainly this chef had learned his craft well and yes, it takes time to make a restaurant profitable but the surroundings will be a hold back.  The restaurant just didn’t inspire that “special feeling “. It had the effect of leaving our party feeling let down, willing to return but at the top of no one’s list. The group had paid top dollar for their dining experience but felt they had been eating in “Ma’s Diner”. How sad, here was a master chef that had mismatched the elements and without realizing it, his restaurant may never live up to its potential.

Matching the objective measures with the subjective expectations is what makes a restaurant great.

On the flip side, recently we learned that NYC’s Tavern on the Green had filed bankruptcy in September and closed its doors December 31, 2009. This was a tragedy in the restaurant world. The restaurant opened 75 years ago and cycled through a history of grandeur to barfly prominence and back to grandeur. When Warner LeRoy took over in 1973, he turned the ailing restaurant into a stunning place of honor as the premier gathering place for political, corporate and private functions as well as incredible daily dining on the eastern seaboard. The newswires are touting the fall of TOTG as a mixture of government lease problems, union problems and the economy. However upon more intense research we find that the family members that took over the restaurant when LeRoy died in 2001 did not move with the times. The menu remained heavily invested in general meat and potato fare with a side menu of lackluster seafood and a bare nod to foreign foods. To make matters worse, several recent diners have touted a decline in service. It appears the restaurant was skating on nostalgia, not using both the objective as well as the subjective data available to them. By continuing to offer only higher priced meals of uninspired American fare in a town that prides itself as being the “melting pot of the world” and which is also one of the 10 most expensive cities in the world and to do so without a true sense of hospitality by the staff is a recipe for disaster.

And in a final study, recently a popular chain restaurant closed its doors without warning in a small coastal, family town. It had closed after just four years in the market. Later it was learned that the local owner of the franchise said he owned several franchises and this one just wasn't profitable. He hoped to open it in a different location at a later date. Looking at the big picture may have made a difference. The food was standard for the franchise, the “calling card” of the franchise was in place but the additional party atmosphere that the owner created actually ran diners away. In a family orientated town, with a location that attracted family shoppers, the owner had created an environment that attracted more drinkers and revelers than actual diners. Even take out became difficult when trying to pick up orders after pushing through crowds of loud, boisterous half drunk patrons. The hospitality factor was too lopsided. Again, by not considering all of the elements, the owner had missed an opportunity and lost in the long run.

Matching subjective expectations with objective measures makes a great restaurant. There is room even in today’s economy for a great restaurant to succeed but taking any one of the elements out of the equation can spell failure without the owner even knowing why.

• Rate it up

• Share it with your friends and networks

• Leave a question or comment