Need some help.... (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley: sales, rent, how much)

[happysam]

Hey,

My husband recently graduated from an extrodinary culinary school in New York in September. I stayed in Michigan with our kids while he completed school. Since he has graduated, he has not been able to find work anywhere in Michigan! It's awful here! We are trying to find a new place where we can call home asap and where he can find job opportunities in fine dining. We are considering Philadelphia where he can spend some time staying with a friend until he finds a job and we can follow shortly after. I have no idea what the culinary industry currently is in Philly or anywhere else. If anyone out there can give us any kind of feedback on where he can find decent work and gain some great experience, please let me know. We are getting desperate......

[DMenscha]

I would think the wine country north of SF has some great restaurants for folks like yourself.

[clongirl]

I agree with dmensha.. the Napa Valley/Sonoma area would be a great start for a culinary career. The little town of Yountville in particular is full of upscale, and wonderful restaurants and also has an excellent culinary academy nearby as well (in case your husband wanted to further his knowledge at some point). San Francisco would also be a great choice, but the cost of living of course, can be prohibitive. Also, look into the Berkeley/Oakland areas- plenty of nicer restaurants there as well.

[tennis368fan]

In Oakland, Rockridge is what comes to mind. There are many upscale restaurants that are always busy during lunch and dinner.

[edwardius]

I would be looking more at Atlanta, Houston and Dallas.

You actually have multiple criteria that made this task difficult to solve. First you need to find a place with a wealthy enough customer base to support an active restaurant scene. While the bay area might have that, the local economy isn't doing so hot right now because the local housing market is falling apart and people in the finance industry are losing their jobs. In the Bay Area, right now its more likely that sales are down than up at most restaurants, so most places probably aren't expanding and that many new restraurants launched.

In Houston, Atlanta and Dallas, the local economies are much stronger. Housing prices never got that expensive in the first place, so they haven't fallen that much either. High housing prices elsewhere just made these places grow even faster as businesses and people relocated from more expensive locations elsewhere.

The other advantage that these three cities have is that they are pretty cheap. In terms of supporting a family, rent will be cheaper in these cities, housing costs when you are able to buy will be lower and if at some point, the two of you plan on opening a restaurant of your own, the cost of doing so will be much cheaper.

Lastly there is the issue of competition. The Culinary Institute of America, has a campus in both NY and Napa. My hunch is that people in Napa will help other people from Napa to secure jobs in the bay area, but I don't know how much they will bother to help someone from the CIA branch in NY. Nepotism might be working more against you than for you.