How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant [Paperback]

Christopher Egerton-Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2005

If you're thinking of opening a restaurant, you have a lot on your plate!

Dig into this comprehensive guide from successful restaurateur and author Christopher Egerton-Thomas, who dishes out good advice on everything from coming up with a winning concept, choosing a location, and equipping a kitchen to designing the menu, decorating the dining room, and managing a staff. Whether you want to open an upscale restaurant or a diner, a bistro or a burger joint, specialize in ethnic cuisine or go with an established franchise, How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, Third Edition gives you the essential information to do it right.

The Third Edition of the celebrated soup-to-nuts classic is updated for today's competitive marketplace and features an expanded examination of the franchise system, in-depth discussions on customer relations, and a wealth of information on staff training-one of the most important ingredients for success. It covers:

• Guidance on financing, taxes, insurance, health and safety, legal issues, and more
• Marketing research, including evaluating local competition to refine your concept
• Evaluating franchise opportunities-the pros and cons of going with an established concept
• Effective staff training-both initial and ongoing
• The "feel-good factor"-that intangible quality that keeps customers coming back for more

All this proven, practical guidance is served up in Christopher Egerton-Thomas's flavorful style and seasoned generously with real-life anecdotes and restaurant lore from around the world that are instructive and entertaining. This is a must-read for those considering the restaurant business and a ready reference for restaurateurs who want to improve their operations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

If you're thinking of opening a restaurant, you have a lot on your plate!

Dig into this comprehensive guide from successful restaurateur and author Christopher Egerton-Thomas, who dishes out good advice on everything from coming up with a winning concept, choosing a location, and equipping a kitchen to designing the menu, decorating the dining room, and managing a staff. Whether you want to open an upscale restaurant or a diner, a bistro or a burger joint, specialize in ethnic cuisine or go with an established franchise, How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, Third Edition gives you the essential information to do it right.

The Third Edition of the celebrated soup-to-nuts classic is updated for today's competitive marketplace and features an expanded examination of the franchise system, in-depth discussions on customer relations, and a wealth of information on staff training—one of the most important ingredients for success. It covers:

• Guidance on financing, taxes, insurance, health and safety, legal issues, and more
• Marketing research, including evaluating local competition to refine your concept
• Evaluating franchise opportunities—the pros and cons of going with an established concept
• Effective staff training—both initial and ongoing
• The "feel-good factor"—that intangible quality that keeps customers coming back for more

All this proven, practical guidance is served up in Christopher Egerton-Thomas's flavorful style and seasoned generously with real-life anecdotes and restaurant lore from around the world that are instructive and entertaining. This is a must-read for those considering the restaurant business and a ready reference for restaurateurs who want to improve their operations.

About the Author

CHRISTOPHER EGERTON-THOMAS is a restaurateur, caterer, and writer. He has appeared on numerous television programs and has authored four previous books with Wiley, including the Second Edition of this book and How to Manage a Successful Bar, as well as articles that have appeared in Vanity Fair and the New York Times.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 3 edition (October 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471698741
• ISBN-13: 978-0471698746
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Hospitality Businesses

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly hits on every topic necessary., March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

As a would-be restauranteur with plenty of general business experience and only limited kitchen-time, there were many, many areas where I felt deficient when gauging the scope of my business plans. But "How to Open & Run a Successful Restaurant" not only hit each of those topics, but managed to offer alternatives, incite, history and trivia as well. Thomas offers not only information as regards opening a restaurant, but also outlines the types of personalities often associated with the business and the pitfalls that await the snobby, the paranoid, and the burnt-out. Great tips for decorating inexpensively as well as a few suggestions regarding high-profit menu items punctuate what is, at its most basic, a thorough look at the middle-class restaurant, from foyer to kitchen, from management to staff, and from profit to poor-house.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars And the restaurant?, July 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Mostly trivial chit-chat on which liquors to purchase assorted with obvious stuff, like an item list including mustard! This book is not only parochially American (and this might perhaps justify the very heavy stress on beverage sales) but also essentially irrelevant to anybody who would like to start a gourmet restaurant, being instead perhaps useful to somebody who'd like to open a greasy spoon for heavy drinkers. If there were a money-back guarantee I sure would have used it, having made the mistake to purchase it.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars waste of money waste of time, December 14, 2002

By 

Misty-Roze Carnell (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Open and Run a Successful Restaurant, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Wow, I bought the book thinking it would be a helpful how-to-guide, it was more like a BAD novel of someone who had spent too much time in the deep under belly of New York. Don't waste your money or time on this one it's not one bit helpful. Amazon[.com] sells better books for a successful restaurant, I know I found one and this one was not it!