Customer Reviews

The Restaurant Dream?

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Having been in the equipment side of the foodservice industry for over 25 years, I am aware of the pitfalls novice restaurateurs never anticipate. Lee Simon captures these and more in his down-to-earth, in-depth overview of restaurant development. The Restaurant Dream? should be required reading for anyone who dreams of owning his or her own restaurant -- the book serves as "boot camp" for early stage developers.

This book is full of real people and real examples dealing with opening your own restaurant. Most of this book is written as a chronicle of the opening of a restaurant, which makes it very interesting to read and learn from. Learning from someone else's mistakes can make your restaurant opening smoother and more profitable for you.

From dream to creating a menu to opening night, if you are considering a restaurant as your business, you will find this book to be full of timely and informative tips and hints for you to become a restaurant owner. The last chapter is great as it goes over the lessons that the author had learned through opening their own restaurant, which can help others in opening their own restaurant.

From the beginning when the restaurant is only a dream to the end when you are a restaurant owner, you will find this book helpful. I highly recommend it if you have a restaurant dream of your own.

Every year thousands of people venture into the restaurant business, either establishing their own independent restaurants or through purchasing a franchise from one of the established restaurant chains. What sets "The Restaurant Dream?: An Inside Look At Restaurant Development, From Concept To Reality" apart from the many "how to" books about starting up and operating a restaurant is that it is written in the form of a story, interweaving educational material with real-life experiences, including all the unexpected twists and turns that author and restauranteur Lee Simon personally encountered. Laid out for the reader are the aspirations, emotions, planning, deceptions, camaraderie, frustrations, risks, and lawsuits that were a part of the restaurant development and operations experience. Readers will see the strategies employed, the logic engaged, the successes and the failures that any aspiring restaurateur can learn and profit from, thereby improving their own prospects for success. Although specific to the restaurant business, The Restaurant Dream? has much to commend it to the reading lists of anyone considering an entrepreneurial venture in establishing a small business regardless of the product or services to be provided the public. Very highly recommended and invaluable reading!

I recently finished reading my copy of The Restaurant Dream?, and it's not quite the book I was looking for. I am considering opening a restaurant in a few years, which is why I purchased this book. According to the project description, "The shelves are full of books about restaurants. ... Others share the details behind one concept or individual's success story. But comprehensive information available on the restaurant development process is limited."

In my experience, this book is not a source for comprehensive information and it does, in fact, share only the details of this one concept restaurant. The restaurant in question was started by a group of people, most of whom are professionals in the cooking world. Some of them even teach at culinary schools, and the author of the book has a strong background in restaurant design. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the book focuses so much on the design and construction phase of opening a restaurant. Although he also touches on creating the concept, the logo and the menu, the rest of the book is all about selecting the site, designing the interior, dealing with the contractors, problems with the construction schedule, etc.

I think this book has some value, but would not recommend it to anyone looking for information about the business side of starting a restaurant. This book essentially ends when the construction is complete.

I am not much of a reader but I can honestly say that this book was incredibly difficult to put down. If you're like me, and you've had a life-long dream of opening a restaurant...take a look. We've all heard that the restaurant biz is "a lot of work" and "not as glamorous as you think." But we're different, right? Our concept is too good to be unsuccessful, right? Not so fast! At least not without a good understanding of what it really takes. Sure, a good concept, good food, and good location are crucial. But what about the not-so-glamorous details, like dealing with contractors and landlords, kitchen layout, food inspection, etc..? The list goes on and on and what Mr. Simon brilliantly does is give you a very honest and detailed description of the trials and tribulations of such a venture. He takes you through his emotions and tasks from concept through development of a restaurant venture he and his team took on and does it in a way that is easy for anyone to comprehend. Mr. Simon doesn't encourage you nor does he discourage you from your dream. He merely educates you on what is essential to know before beginning the pursuit. This is certainly a MUST-READ for any entrepreneur or aspiring restaurateur.

Overall, I definately learned something.

The book itself, as far as being informative, doesn't need any explanation. The book is informative by it's nature. Although some of the 'technical' details were a bit dry (expected) it was written in a down to earth manner, clearly and consisely, with personality and emotion (I could see and feel your emotion as you emailed the Harbor Commons landlord in reference to unacceptable delays).

Overall, it's a book that really needs to be pushed harder and more effort should go into marketing it. It's important for people in any business to study the past before venturing into the future. Unfortunately, as insane as it is, there aren't more books on this exact subject. I mean good God...what restaurant virgin would have ever thought about air conditioning or HVAC?? A single oversite with a $30,000 price tag??? Priceless!!!)

Of course, I could write 10 pages on all of my thoughts and the individual things I've learned but who really cares. :-)

If you're looking for a book on anything AFTER the opening of the restaurant you will not get what you're looking for. However....

If you're looking to learn from others' mistakes from the moment of conception to opening the doors then this is definately for you.

While reading the book be sure to 'read between the lines'. When I read the book it would make me think of a whole slew of other things not mentioned but related. If a new restauranter can't spend $21 to save tens of thousands of dollars opening a restaurant then they've taken the first step to failure!

BUY THIS BOOK! HELP YOURSELF AND HELP THE HUNGRY!!!

Most books of this type just focus on 'what to do' but this is one of the few that is based on 'how to do it' - and he actually does it for a living! Well worth purchasing...

This book provides a valuable, unvarnished look at what it means to be an entrepreneur -- with riveting accounts of the successes and the failures it entails. Among the many lessons the book provides, perhaps none is more valuable than the challenge of working together with partners, no matter how accomplished each may be. This is a refreshing and rare business book: rather than simply explain and "promote" the success of the venture, it educates the reader about what it is "really like" to pursue the dream millions have of starting their own business, whether it is a restaurant or not.

The book read nicely and backed up with Mr. Simon's own personal experiences.
I have read other books and it was so dry that I couldn't finish them.

I've started and owned 4 restaurants and I found this book to be very interesting. It is really easy reading and covers several areas that I wish I had known more about when I started my restaurants. The lease and building chapters I found hugely helpful. I'm looking to open a new one and will definitely be using the author's suggestions to help things along. If you are interested in opening a restaurant, this will DEFINITELY help you in a lot of important areas. Absolutely buy it.