STARTING A RESTAURANT BUSINESS WIT FOCUS ON KERALA CUISINE

Starting Your Own Restaurant  

Working for yourself is a great and bold decision—stick to it.

I suggest it is better to have a service industry background to start a restaurant business. If you are only a promoter, it’s fine when you have an expert team to take care of your business.

You need to have a strong plan and make several decisions before you take your first step. Once you have made your decision, never look back, whatever hardship it may take to make your plan a reality.

“Any remarkable journey starts with a single step.”

Style of Restaurant Service

You should decide the type of service according to the clientele you wish to cater to. Clientele can be varied according to your restaurant’s location.

A city centre restaurant in a commercial hub can be best suited for fast-paced, informal dining service.

A site close to a residential area with a wealthy clientele crowd around can be a good place for a formal fine dining restaurant.

Casual Dining

In casual dining, the service is maintained at the required level to meet the customer’s expectations.

Most casual dining operates with a lower staff-to-guest ratio. In this service style, you do not need to maintain a high level of service standards.

You can run a casual dining service with employees of minimal service industry experience. However, train the team in the service you want to deliver.

Fine Dining

In the fine dining style of service, the guest is offered the full service option. Staff members are required to be well trained and highly professional in attitude.

The fine dining service style is costly in day-to-day operation. However, you can demand the price for the service and food you provide with confidence.

In India, stand-alone fine dining restaurants are less common compared to other similar European metropolitan areas. The reason is the cost involved and high standards to maintain. However, many five-star hotels have at least one fine dining restaurant, and most of them serve Indian cuisine.

When you want to provide fine dining service and food, everything you select for your restaurant should be of high quality, from the colour of the paint used in your restaurant to the staff uniform, and from the plates used to the meat selection in the menu.

Hard work and dedicated passion to excellent food are required to maintain the stature of the restaurant at the top level.

For fine dining food presentation and cooking methods, chefs give extra care that adds to the value.

Fine dining restaurants provide a memorable experience of service and food.

There are many unwritten rules of fine dining restaurants, including concept-based menus, amuse-bouche before any orders, and tasting or degustation menu options.

Chefs come up with their own ideology to be competitive enough in today’s fast-paced culinary revolution.

Pre-Opening Stage

Once you have decided which style you’d like adapt, start planning backwards from your ideal opening date.

All your strategies and ideas can be put down in black and white; this will help later when you’re stuck somewhere. The first thing you need to prepare is a detailed business plan.

A business plan can be explained as a detailed list of steps that are required for starting up and smoothly running any business.

People often think a business plan is only essential for start-ups to secure financial assistance. This is incorrect; since a business plan is a detailed version of a business’s vision and strategies, it will always be relevant.

A good business plan must contain detailed background information about the business, the operational plan, the marketing plan, the financial plan, decision-making criteria, and so on.

Based on your business plan, create a checklist that contains the task, the person responsible, the time frame, and the status of task. The checklist is very essential in tracking your business development.

An ideal task list can include naming the restaurant, developing a vision and mission statement, finding a location for the restaurant, identifying and applying for the licences required, pre-opening marketing plans, advertising for job vacancies, recruiting, training, and procurement of hard and soft items.

A large and detailed list ensures that all areas are covered and that you can peacefully work through the list without being distracted by other opinions.

Recruiting the right staff with the right attitude is the key part in the pre-opening stage. Your staff has to believe in your restaurant’s vision.

When all your hard work is in place and the opening day comes, give your best service, which the customers may not expect from day one. Keep an eye on competition and market trends, and always cater to your loyal customers’ expectations.

Create your own marketing strategies by involving local community and charity organizations and organizing events for them. Remember that  word of mouth is always the best, cheapest, and most long-term advertisement method—use it wisely.

Best wishes for your venture. I will be privileged to help you.