Your restaurant business is booming—you’re making a comfortable profit, and your patrons keep telling you how much they enjoy your place. Naturally, your thoughts turn to expansion. It’s a major decision that many owners face, but one that comes with quite a few considerations. Three local restaurant owners who have been in similar situations offer their words of wisdom on expansion and relocation.
—Emily Kern Hebert
Stephen Hightower
Director of Operations, City Pork Brasserie & Bar, City Pork Deli & Charcuterie, Bottle & Tap
We are blessed to have two successful operating restaurants within City Pork Hospitality, and like the entrepreneur in the case study, we are now faced with the opportunity to expand. We’ve been very fortunate in that expansion has always been in our focus, and we have tried to lay our infrastructure with that in mind from the beginning.
This question, though, assumes that expansion is the next logical step after “packed tables,” but that’s not necessarily true. You must be able to fully trust the people, product and processes that are the backbone of your operations before even beginning to entertain an expansion opportunity. We feel that we have that opportunity right now, but just the sheer fact that our tables are filled isn’t the reason. The reason is that we trust our people, our product and our processes.
If you, as the owner, are confident that you can leave town for a week and your customers’ experience will not change, then maybe it’s time to consider expansion. Otherwise, you need to take advantage of your packed tables and try to “hone” your operations to a point where you can fully trust your operations to run independently of you.
Mitch Rotolo
Owner, Rotolo’s Pizzeria
If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing—diversify risk and expand into a new market, seizing the opportunity to multiply operations and introduce a successful concept. With every new store comes new challenges, but also plenty of excitement.
Expanding operations provides you the opportunity to duplicate success while contributing to economic growth. Having the second restaurant allows the owner/operator to increase customer size, double the market base as well as provide twice as much support to the local community through fundraising efforts and job creation.
Every time I hear about someone having a good time in one of my restaurants I feel rewarded. Having multiple locations has given me the opportunity to feel that sense of pride more frequently.
Will Edwards
Owner, The Kolache Kitchen
When the tables are packed, you know you’re doing something right. Many of my customers were constantly asking me when I would expand to other parts of town. Once I saw the potential to expand, I immediately decided that a second location was the best decision for my business.
Baton Rouge is a huge, unique city with much to offer. I knew that if I brought my concept to another part of town, rather than moving to a larger location, I would gain exposure to an entirely new audience.
My most important piece of advice when opening a new location is to take your time and do it right. I patiently waited until I found the perfect location that would be conducive to my concept. I didn’t rush to open my second store, so that I could be careful to uphold the same quality as the first one.
