Help St George Area (Provo, Sandy: rent, insurance, house)

[Ronp100343]

We are thinking about starting a fast food restaurant in the area. It will be a 50's theme with some Chicago type food and 50's music and muscle car memorbilia etc. I don't want to be too specific at this time but does this remind you of the good old days.
http://www.officialbigbopper.com/i_media.htm

Question: We are non LDS. With that being said my wife was born In Leighton, and we lived in Midvale, and Sandy with no problems for 8 years. However we worked for someone and didn't own a business.
Does anyone see a problem not being LDS and owning a business?


I have a real funny story. In 1990 I visited SLC from Wisconsin to visit a friend who was a bartender for me before moving to Midvale. I had owned a restaurant and bar there. She took me to the temple to visit and it was summer time. I had on shorts and a Jose Cuervo T-shirt and a pack of cigarettes in my pocket and couldn't understand why people were hawking me everywhere we went. That was my first taste of the religion there. I just laughed when she told me of the reason.

A week later I moved to Midvale and never had a problem with the Mormons in 8 years. I think they have great morals, but we are just not religious. We do believe in God and that is good for us.

I was a manager for a Pizza chain there and I had many employees that were Mormons and I think their work ethics are superior.

Any opinions would be appreciated along with a recomendation of a reasonable area for starting a business, as I know St. George area has many small towns nearby.

[coolcats]

I don’t think it would be a problem. At least in Northern Utah (including Salt Lake and Provo) I have absolutely no idea about the owners of the various businesses I frequent. I don’t see why people in St. George would be different. Just make sure your fry sauce is up to par!

[SergeantL]

I know of several establishments in California using the theme you propose; all of them are very successful. One in particular, Mel's Drive In, located in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, are always packed. Yes, it’s the same Mel’s from the movie American Graffiti. Considering Saint George is becoming a Mecca for retirement, I can envision where the older generations would flock to such an establishment; although, the three in San Francisco attract people of every age.
If your food is good and you work hard on developing the 50s theme, I think you would have a winning business plan.

I can’t imagine how being non-Mormon would be of any hindrance to the success of your business. Since you have been in the restaurant business before, you know the killers, bad food, bad service, filthy bathrooms, well, and, location, location, location.

I have included the Mel’s Drive In website.

http://www.melsdrive-in.com/aboutus.html

[Ronp100343]

"Just make sure your fry sauce is up to par!"

I forgot about that. I think it is the only place that has fry sauce.

Thanks for the link also.

Here in New Mexico we got a new Chic Filet store, I have never seen a busier place ever. Mc Donalds doesn't even come close. And you could tell the employees are Mormon because they are well groomed, smart, courteous, and know their job. I can go in and there maybe 20 - 30 people waiting in line and still get out in less than 10 minutes.

I know the importance of location, however if you give a good value, something different, service, and really care about your customers, they will find you. It is just a slower process to build a business. If you have the best location and serve poor food, bad service, and a dirty place you will only get a customer once.

[mommy3]

One thing St. George lacks are unique eateries with good food. Most of the places here are food chains, and the few that are not chains do pretty well. If you had a place like that I would eat there. There is a place called Sonic that sound a little like what you've described but the food and service are terrible, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had to shut down soon. If the service is fast and the food is good as well as big fries and fry sauce you should do pretty good. My husband is from Boston and he always complains that there is no place where you can get grinders, and it sounds like the Chicago food might be similiar. As far as the LDS thing goes, I don't think you would have any problem at all. The majority of business and people coming here are non-LDS. The only problem you might have is finding people to socialize with. Most LDS people have church in which they can meet others, so there isn't a huge effort to meet those outside of church. I'm LDS and would love to make friends with anyone regardless of religion the problem is there just isn't anywhere you can go to meet others. I do feel bad for the few non-LDS in our neighborhood because I know people don't go out of there way to befriend them, the problem is that it's just easier to make friends with people you see every Sunday and are all in your neighborhood. If you are outgoing and make the effort to meet people where you live you will be pleasantly surprised, just don't expect people to come knocking on your door and welcome you to the neighborhood( This is usually done in church if you are new) I live in the Washington Fields and it is a wonderful place to live. It's only 10 minutes from downtown St. George and much of it is still farmland(the farmers have refused to sell to developers) and you get a range of homes from 250K to about 1.5 million. The majority of the home are around 350K. The people are pretty humble and nice. We've had several people who moved up and out to St. George and ended up moving back. Apperently the people in the neighborhoods they moved to were very uppity and extremely rude and judgemental. This can happen anywhere. I do love this area though. Well, I wish you luck. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

[Blondie-Rabbit]

Beware of rents for your business. I helped a man find space for his business a year ago, and it was unreal what they want down here. Some really crappy places you would have to build out and also put in A/C and heating (you have to have both of those here) will run you from 85 cents to 95 cents a square foot. The nice areas, and the newer buildings will run you from $1.25 upward. Now being a resturant type business, you might get hit with higher fees, and also a percentage of your gross, not the net. Another friend is trying hard to find a place to put in a Thai resturant in Cedar City, and once he ran the figures, he found that he wouldn't make money on the size of operation he would have in most given locations. It is not the rent that got him, but the percentage of his business the owners thought they were due. So words of wisdom, be very careful when you look around for a location. Run the figures and see what the margins will be. Too many resturants fail due to margins not being high enough.

BNesides that, I welcome your idea and would be the first to eat there.

[dogmom]

Originally Posted by Blondie-Rabbit

Beware of rents for your business. I helped a man find space for his business a year ago, and it was unreal what they want down here. Some really crappy places you would have to build out and also put in A/C and heating (you have to have both of those here) will run you from 85 cents to 95 cents a square foot. The nice areas, and the newer buildings will run you from $1.25 upward. Now being a resturant type business, you might get hit with higher fees, and also a percentage of your gross, not the net. Another friend is trying hard to find a place to put in a Thai resturant in Cedar City, and once he ran the figures, he found that he wouldn't make money on the size of operation he would have in most given locations. It is not the rent that got him, but the percentage of his business the owners thought they were due. So words of wisdom, be very careful when you look around for a location. Run the figures and see what the margins will be. Too many resturants fail due to margins not being high enough.

BNesides that, I welcome your idea and would be the first to eat there.

I think an establishment like that would be a big hit here..you would need to serve something besides burgers, fries and fry sauce...oh and onion rings.. We are from Southern Cal and we loved a place in Upland and Rancho Cucamonga called Legends. Next time we head down there I would be happy to grab a menu and send to you. They had breakfasts like breakfast burritos, omelettes, french toast, etc.. hamburgers, cheeseburgers, also patty melts, blt, pastrami...fries onion rings fried zuchini, cheese fries. and it was decorated in replicas of old posters of james dean, marilyn monroe, elvis, etc. and running along the ceiling was a track with old classic cars, like a train, and they ran all along the track...very cool. Walls were covered with old licesne plates from all over the country..

Blondie Rabbitl maybe a good place for that would be where the old blue bunny was? Negotiate a good rate, something like that would be a real boost to downtown. My opinion, sounds exciting..

[Ronp100343]

Unfortunately things have changed, relatives in SG are thinking about leaving in the summer because of the heat. I didn't realize that it got that hot there and don't want another seasonal, tourist restaurant. I owned one in Northern Wisconsin for 8 years and it didn't matter how good your food was you were a slave to the weather. Never again!! It got so bad between the fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling you had about 10 weeks that you had decent business, the rest of the year was a loss.

We are now thinking of moving somewhere between Sandy and Eagle Mountain for a more stable, non tourist environment.

And yes rent is also a big hurdle to overcome. Housing in Eagle Mountain is cheap, but from what I understand there is nothing there.

Our house here in NM is sold and just waiting for the buyers to sell theirs and we will have to figure out what to do. We need to find my wife a job with a decent wage ($15.00) an hour and good health care insurance, (I'm retired) but still want to do the restaurant somewhere. Once the business got going she could quit and help in the restaurant.

I have a solid business plan with low food cost, but the rent can still eat you up. I honestly don't know of any restaurant with my concept, with food costs of 18 - 20 %, so I think it is doable.

We'll see.

Thanks again for your input.

[dogmom]

Rats! I was hopeful....yeah it gets beastly hot in the summer, but residents stay here for the most part..not like palm springs that used to close up in the summer...and the fall, winter and spring are prime tourist time..lots of snowbirds. I still think it would be a big hit...good luck!

[Blondie-Rabbit]

Actually summers have lots of tourists that go to the parks funneling through St. George. The heat doesn't stop the tourists around here. The old addage of, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"