Customer Reviews

Starting a Small Restaurant, Revised Edition (Non)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Starting a Small Restaurant" gives any novice a good starting point for considerations in this fast-paced world. The Author, Daniel Miller, has had mixed career employment, not all of which are in the food service industry. Danial co-founded the Grey Fox Inn, a large undertaking. I gave the book 2 stars because on some subjects Miller is simply vague or incorrect in my experience. For instance, Miller states that "People steal food from restaurants." Not necessarily true, but only gives solutions of locking storage areas (ludicrous), or deal honestly with employees, whatever that means. Another subject I found unenlightening was the equipment discussion on a deep fat fryer. Dirty and dangerous was about as far as the text went.

It is a good book, just keep in mind that there are other solutions than the ones Miller advises.

Overall, this is a good book for someone who wants to open up a small restaurant. There are a lot of good tips in the book, but the author does a poor job of going over the financial difficulties that most new owners face. The menu design tips are also poor--the author recommends that a menu list item prices from cheapest to most expensive--which goes against industry advice--this just makes it easier for a customer to find the cheapest thing on your menu. But the nuts and bolts are there. If you're a small time operator and you want a good overview on how to open up your own restaurant, this is a concise read.

After many years working in and running other peoples restaurants, I had the knowledge of what was needed but this book helped me to put it all in a clear consise order. I would have been all over the place but by following the advice and making a checklist of the info in this book I was able to have a smooth easy opening to my own place.
After 5 years I still keep it handy and refer to it all the time.

Now in a new and substantially revised edition, Starting A Small Restaurant: How To Make Your Dream A Reality by Daniel Miller (co-founder of the Grey Fox Inn, a successful small restaurant in Cambria, California) is an encouraging, informative, and practical guide to opening a successful small restaurant. Informing the reader of many necessities, tactics and strategies involved in opening, maintaining, and publicizing a restaurant, Starting A Small Restaurant is an easy-to-use and comprehensive reference replete with every "must-know" detail of opening and operating a new restaurant business. Starting A Small Restaurant is very strongly recommended for anyone anticipating beginning their own restaurant business no matter their degree of previous experience or expertise.

I bought the book for a friend for Christmas. He is very happy with all the information it provided.

If you are part of the restaurant biz already then this is a great way to be sure all bases are covered.

If you dont know a thing.. this will help you out alot. be ready for a lot of work with your biz plan!!

this book gets 5 stars (bought book after library rental)

If you're thinkg of starting a small restaurant or cafe, wait until you've read this book!

This book looked like the most comprehensive book for a teenager that is interested in starting and running a restaurant.