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Thats right...I read a few months ago somewhere on here that this town doesn't have a steakhouse. I visited Sheridan last year and saw a lot of potential in the place. I love the west, and I would love to reside there. I have been in food for over 10 years, and exposed to numerous styles of cuisine. I love cooking, I love giving people something great, I love being original and creative. A pizza place is also in my interest, either one could work. What do you think ? The likeliness of this right now rather slim, but in time it will become more and more realistic. Within 10 months, I will be completely out of consumer debt. I have excellent credit, but no collateral. Any self employed people care to share some thoughts on the idea ?
Having had a vicarious contact with the restaurant industry through family members that opened up a family oriented italian place ... and a friend who had a restaurant management degree and multiple experiences with creating new restaurants for others, as well as his own partnership in a place that was a huge success for several years ...
as well, I watched multiple restaurant operators come through a place a friend bought in Dubois WY. It had been a going operation for many years, the owner wanted to retire and my friend bought the property with a thought that it would continue to be so even under the restaurant management of others. Looked to be a piece of cake (pun intended!), it was a down-home 'merican breakfast/lunch/dinner place with a basic menu ... nothing fancy ... of diner type food. Great main street location, high traffic count, plenty of off-street easy accessible parking, good street signage, and an energy efficient building that was very attractive. Coouldn't be simpler, could it? eggs & fixings, pancakes, the never empty coffee pot ... basic sandwiches for lunch ... and basic diner type food for dinner. In tourist season, even a sizable take-out business for folk who wanted to pack lunches for their day's activities in the area. Super kitchen, had all the equipment you could ever want in good working order, proper code compliant food stations, proofing and baking ovens for your own breads, cakes, pies ... ovens for baking potatoes, deep fat fryers, you name it ... a proven true turn-key restaurant operation right down to the tableware, paper goods, janitorial supplies, cleaning supplies, cookware, cash register POS system, everything! Home made soups, pies, cakes ... the place was well known for these and folk flocked to it for years; I'd been there a number of times decades before and it was always packed with patrons. Looked like the cook/owner had simply gone home for the day and didn't come back to work the next AM, even the bulk kitchen supplies were still there. Had a huge local year-round following for a long time in addition to the tourist trade in a town without much competition and a lot of tourists for much of the year. In succession, each and every would-be cook/restaurant manager failed in short order to make the modest lease payments on a totally turn-key restaurant operation. Even the successful menu and recipes were included; all you had to do was sign the lease and order the food and you didn't even have to print a new menu, although you could change it if you wanted to do so. There was even the spare parts supply ... right down to light bulbs and repair parts. Experienced wait and kitchen staff who knew the place were already in town and waiting to come back to the place that they knew and the clientele that they loved. Simply way too easy to make it work, but that's what didn't happen ... all of the wanna be's didn't want to do the work and all the tasks needed to run a business. My friend lost a lot of money on the place and was thrilled when an offer came through to buy it from him.
I'd say that you need to be well funded to seriously get into the restaurant biz, and you need to have full experience with the whole range of management, food prep, HR, commercial food service, and a willingness to work a lot of hours in your own business.
If you don't have the funds to open the doors, get your overhead, supplies, wages and all the incidental costs covered up front, then you'll not have any lenders helping, either, for this type of business venture, even if you have excellent credit. No bank is going to invest in an unsecured venture of this type where you have no "skin in the game"; I'd bet in today's business/banking environment, they'd want you to have at least 50% of the money into the business and they wouldn't lend the rest unless it was secured by easily liquidatable assets far in excess of what they'd lend.
On top of that, you'll need to have set aside a source of personal living expenses until the restaurant spins off enough money to make a living. Depending upon your circumstances and scope of restaurant operation, that could be a couple of years. Are you financially prepared to do that?
Bottom Line: if you don't have the resources to open up a place, then you're just setting yourself up to be another restaurant failure, which is the business sector that has the highest rate of business failures of all business starts.
Even if Sheridan was dying for another place ... and in my experience, it needs some good alternatives to the restaurants that are there now ... you'll need a lot of business background, hospitality background, and a good menu to survive opening up a new place there, whatever the cuisine. Sheridan's a very nice town, a wonderful place to live ... but you'd best be doing your due diligence as to why there isn't a steakhouse in town right now. Another pizza joint would have to be a standout given the number of franchise places in town today.
There is a steakhouse in Sheridan. Wyoming Rib and Chop. It stays quite busy during the summer and does a decent business during the winter. It's mediocre in many people's opinion.
Seems that one thing that makes it difficult to excel is that all food, to every restaurant arrives from only a few suppliers. Everyone is serving the same product. The same truck that delivers to our restaurants is the truck that brings the food to the nursing homes and hospitals. Those of us working in healthcare laughingly consider our respective places of employment the best restaurants in town.
A chef can turn mediocre products into greatness...Mediocre is a great word to describe a lot of the food I've experienced out west, which really saddens me. I come from an area that is so competitive, contemporary and always pushing the limit with food, and I wish more areas were like that. When we visited Utah a few weeks ago, we tried to stay away from chains, but after awhile, it was like...ok, spend 15-20 bucks including a tip and get something thats ok, decent at best....or go to subway and get something you know is going to be what you want, for 6-8 bucks...I love supporting small local places, but I didn't have one single dynamite meal while I was out there. I'm not difficult to please, if you can cook a burger medium rare, you'll more than likely please me.
There is a steakhouse in Sheridan. Wyoming Rib and Chop. It stays quite busy during the summer and does a decent business during the winter. It's mediocre in many people's opinion.
Seems that one thing that makes it difficult to excel is that all food, to every restaurant arrives from only a few suppliers. Everyone is serving the same product. The same truck that delivers to our restaurants is the truck that brings the food to the nursing homes and hospitals. Those of us working in healthcare laughingly consider our respective places of employment the best restaurants in town.
It's unfortunate that I've had to be in the hospital, several times in the last few years. If there is anything good about it, it's the food. The hospital serves the best food found anywhere in Sheridan or the surrounding towns. My daughter works in the Arts building (Medical building attached to the hospital on the East end). They have approximately 15 employees in her office. All but a couple, go over to the cafeteria at the hospital to eat lunch every day. I've talked to several people that work in town that take time to go up to the hospital to eat lunch. Outstanding food and decent prices.
As a patient at the hospital, each morning you are given a menu for the next days meals. There are wonderful selections to choose from. You just circle each item that you want. For lunch, there are 2 entrees and you can only pick one. Same for supper. But all of the side dishes, you can choose whatever you want, and the quantity. I was surprised when I jokingly, circled an item and put x2 on it. Sure enough, I got two of them. But, I do not recommend being hospitalized, just to do that. Go to the cafeteria, same food.
For those in Sheridan that have been here for a while, where the Rib and Chop house is, used to be a custom car dealer. He also handled Uhaul. There was a fairly large lot for the UHaul part of the business. Finally, he got rid of the UHaul and the lot stood empty. Some enterprising group came into town with a catering service. Ribs, loose meat, sandwiches, coleslaw, potatoe salad, etc. They really had no base, so they set up the business in a large trailer, much like a roach coach, but 40+ feet long. They run the catering business out of the trailer, but they also sold, to go items. You could walk up to the window and order what you wanted. They had outstanding ribs and such. My daughter had just had a baby and there were about 20 people visiting her. I asked the hospital if I could and they approved. I went and purchased about $200 of their various products at the trailer and took it to the hospital. (The people in the trailer told me I should have called them, they would have fixed up the stuff, and delivered it, then set it up). The nurses brought in some extra tables and we set it all up in my daughters room. Paper plates, plenty of napkins, plastic forks, etc. Everybody helped themselves. I even went out and asked the nurses to come on in and fix a plate, they did. My daughters doctor even came in and brought his wife and they sat and enjoyed sloppy ribs, and such.
That trailer was there for about 6 months was all and it left. There was always a line of people waiting. I don't know if that was the same people that eventually set up the Rib and Chop house over at the Sheridan Inn, or not. The Rib and Chop house grew and eventually moved to a really poor location down town. They were not there very long until they built at their current location. They do have a great meal, but I think they are a little pricey for what they have.
15 years ago, Sheridan was famous for it's steak houses. There were a couple, one of them being the Cattleman's Cut (Originally in the building where Oley's Pizza is now). The place was busy, every night of the week. A very large parking lot and sometimes there wasn't any place to park because they were so busy. People came from miles, to have a steak there. There was also a place on Main (don't remember the name, where Main and Fort Road meet. Now it is a computer image outfit in front and Kennon Enterprises in back. They were very busy, all the time and served a wonderful meal. Both of these steak houses eventually closed because the owners wanted to retire and absolutely nobody wanted to buy and carry on. The owner of the Cattleman's Cut did open another place on Brundage (Chinese Restaurant now) but did not do well at all and closed after only about a year in business. Those that went there said that the owner was more retired than he was business and didn't maintain the standards he once had and as a result, had fewer and fewer customers.
I think Sheridan is ripe for a good steak house. The biggest problem you have is that Sheridan is surrounded by very large ranches and some of the best beef in the country. That beef is also sold locally, so people have the ability to buy and cook at home. In order to draw them out to eat, you have to have the atmosphere and I am not sure what that atmosphere needs to be. Reasonable prices, decor, and probably the most important is the staff and consistancy of the meals. It really sucks when you have a visitor and you brag about a place and the fine xxx they have so you take the visitor out to eat and what they get is completely different than what you had the last time you were there.
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Go to the cafeteria, same food. 
