This is a pretty good thread. Maybe I'll print it out and send it to Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema.

Here's 2 things that bug me that may or may not contribute to a restaurant's demise. The first is a silent dining room (i.e. no background music). I find this most often in ethnic restaurants. If the restaurant's not full, and there's absolutely no background noise (I'm not asking for loud music) then diners are acutely aware that everything they say will be overheard at other tables, thus everyone is nervously quiet. If there's a slightest of background noise, folks will have conversations, creating the din that restaurants need to seem energetic. Once this is achieved, no one will be able to hear the music.

I was just in a very good Chinese restaurant here in Charlotte with just this problem. While the food and service was great, there was an air of uneasiness amongst the diners due to the quiet. I wonder how many of them will be back.

The second is when the restaurant keeps one of those gawdawful noisy registers/credit card printers out in the open. I notice this even in some nicer restaurants. Who wants to hear the "chhchhchh . . .chinchinchin...chhchhchh..." everytime someone pays their bill? An instant way to cheapen the atmosphere. How hard would it be to put that in the back somewhere?

Well, reneeiva, they think when it comes to food, we're barbarians who have no appreciation for fresh, wholesome ingredients prepared with a personal touch.

Go eat in Italy sometime. Then compare it with the OG/Bennigan's/Friday's/Whatever experience. You'll see what they mean.

I watch his show "Hell's Kitchen" sometimes...the thought of one of those folks getting their own restaurant is scary.

Al_laCarte

Fresh and frozen are not the same thing. They are opposites.

All food starts out fresh - what else could it be?

When it's fresh and cooked and put on the plate - that's fresh.

When's its cooked and frozen and stored and reheated - that is the opposite of fresh - ie Olive Garden.

In a word, undercapitalization.

SusanM--LOL! I had forgotten about that OG discussion between Andrew Firestone and what's-her-name! I laughed about that one for about a week after it aired. You're right. The expression on his face...you knew that man has never set foot NEAR an Olive Garden!

too funny!

we were on a tour bus in NY and skirting Little Italy and the guide was saying if you liked Italian food there were so many good restaurants in a small area.
One of our fellow travellers asked where Olive Garden was, his reply was are you from California? She acknowledged that she was and he said thought so, try Times Square!

My guess is that running a successful restaurant is like writing a best-selling novel. Everyone wants to have done it, but nobody wants to do it. The late Isacc Asimov (who certainly did it) once reported on the number of people who believed a realistic business proposition was to sell him their 'idea' for a novel; he, Asimov, would design the structure, toil at the typewriter, and together with his (already established) publisher and (already established) reputation, market the thing. Idea Person would share in the profits and educate whomsoever asked on the fine art of how to produce a successful novel. :)

My other bet is that like mass-selling novels, chain restaurants succeed for reasons other than substance, and those reasons are not as easy to satisfy as one might think - if they were, as Elaine points out, everyone would be successful at the business. As Barbara points out, people who patronize chain restaurants aren't necessarily ignorant of better cuisine, anymore than people who choose to travel in a tour group do so because they are unsophisticated rubes who don't know any better. (Don't get me started, I already voiced a strong opinion on the tour subject only this week, when I should know better). Anyway, it is simply that people know themselves, and often know that in certain circumstances Dan Brown or Judith Krantz or whoever is the more suitable choice than Leo Tolstoi. I don't particularly care for Dan Brown's 'cooking' but I can't dispute that together with his publisher, he devised and marketed an idea that captivated millions, on both sides of the Atlantic. (so much for the American-European thing.)

I've never been to an Olive Garden (there is none in my hometown, and I've never run into one elsewhere) but I've been to McDonald's, along with about several million other people. The day McDonald's dropped its five-star cleanliness standards (and yes, one can see not only their washrooms but their kitchens for oneself) I suspect they would fail. This is not to say that that is the make-or-break factor for every restaurant, but it likely is a critical one in a chain restaurant.

Not sure how we wandered into the tour group/trashy novel argument when the subject was restaurants. And I don't see the comparison as valid.

There are many reasons why people go on tours -- convenience, unfamiliarity with the area, and unwillingness or inability to research and plan, etc.

And for every Dan Brown novel, publishers come up with hundreds of clunkers that don't see. if you doubt that, go to the dollar table at any bookstore. It's just a question of trying a hundred formulas until one clicks. (And what the popularity of Brown novels in Europe has to do with food, I'll never know.)

People generally go to the OG (and stand in line to do it) for one reason: they like it.

In defense of Sue_xx_yy, there is definitely a comparison between mass market fiction and chain restaurants.

Substitute "to chain restaurants" for "on tours" in your second paragraph, and that says it all:

...There are many reasons why people go to chain restaurants -- convenience, unfamiliarity with the area, and unwillingness or inability to research and plan, etc.

Not buying it. Many, many people go to chain restaurants that are next door to where they live. Has nothing to do with unfamiliarity.

nytraveler,

I fully understand the difference. My tongue was firmly in cheek when I stated, "...many of you are right. Ingrediants are fresh, then frozen, then shipped.


AL ((d))

But it does. They go to restaurants that are next door because they're not aware of what else is out there. Many people stick with what they know and never venture outside the comfort zone.

A case in point: I live in Chicago. A group of girlfriends was planning to come here for a girls' weekend. One is a travel agent and volunteered to book the hotel. She then said, "And on Friday night we can eat at Maggianos." I politely nodded while cringing inside.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Maggiano's but how uninspired can you get? Being from out of state, that's all they knew. I agreed to it on the condition that I could pick Saturday night's restaurant.

Some people don't care about food. Maybe it's because they are unsophisticated, like Amber, the girl on the Bachelor whom Andrew Firestone was so condescending to about Olive Garden. Maybe they just don't care. I know people who actually forget to eat. (Me, I always think about where my next meal will come from). But my point is, there is room on the planet for chain restaurants. If it's not your type of food, don't go. But enough with the snooty attitude. You can always say to people, I wouldn't go to Olive Garden because (insert place here) has the same pasta dishes, only much tastier! Instead, this board seems full of posters who are so smug with how superior they are about where they go eat. Sheesh. Haven't you ever tried a neighborhood place that stunk? I understand completely why people might choose to stick with what they know.

There was an interesting restaurant situation in our neck of the woods: A few years ago, a new restaurant was put up in a great highway location, just outside a busy college town. No expense was spared on the building, and the interior design actually won some type of award in an architectural magazine -it was very high tech, with special lighting, running water, and one big open space. The food was good pan-Asian, and not too expensive. The place failed miserably. Why? Despite all it's high tech design, it just wasn't a comfortable space, and the whole concept just didn't 'click'.
The place was then turned into a very upscale French restuarant, with elaborate tapestries, chandeliers, etc,etc. The food was reproted to be excellent. It again failed after a few months. Why? Ah highway location is not the right kind of location for an expensive, upscale place - at least not here in this area.
Now, it's been turned into a mid priced Mexican place, with partitoned rooms, lots of interesting decor, and good (but nothing fabulous) Mexican food. The place is a smashing success. Why? - it's a comfortable place, moderately priced, with good food. I think the 'feel' and atmosphere of a restaurant have a lot to do with it's success. That's why Olive Garden is so successful - reasonably good food, in comfortable surroundings.

zootsi, I would also guess that Mexican food is much preferred to French or Pan-Asian by most Americans. A French or Pan-Asian restaurant would probably do best in a cosmopolitan, wealthy neighborhood in a big city and not along a suburban crossroads near a highway. Great post.

nytraveler, did you realize that all seafood is flash frozen or frozen at some point? Most fishing vessels have to freeze it in order to get back to shore and get to refineries.

As to why the big cavernous restaurant failed, it was big and cavernous. No one wants to eat in a restaurant that has the atmosphere of your 7th grade lunchroom.

Mr.GoTravel is in the middle of turning around a restaurant with that exact same problem.

Spent 3 million building a shrine to log cabins everywhere and it has the atmosphere of the cabin John Candy rented in The Great Outdoors.

Some of y'all are thinking way too much into this.

It kinda all goes back to:

Excellent customer service

Excellent food

Excellent management skills

Money.


Take away any of the above and you'll fail. Doesn't have anything to do with location.