Hey guys my two best friends and I are thinking about starting our own food business place. It would be more like a place to get indian snack foods and fast foods, not so much the sit down type. Just wanted to know if anyone here has experience in the food/restaurant industry and maybe some of the things we need to look at beforehand, thing we may not anticipate before. We havent selected a place yet we have a few areas in mind but will be going down to their city halls to try to get demographic information and zonal info about where we could potentially have it and costs. equipment wise i dont think we would need any special types of ovens and all since the place is more snack food and fast food onto go type stuff. Initially the three of us would be doing the work and we would employ some of our family friends moms who are retired/homemakers to come up with an appropriate menu and we'll learn from them how to make the items and at least for the ones that may live close to the location we finally decide on hire them to help with the cooking. there is still a lot of ground work and research to do but any advice from the ground floor would help. thanks!
read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" - will give you all the info you could ever need, or at a minimum/if inapplicable, be very entertaining.
You're thinking of Hot Breads, an Indian fast food chain that has stops in a lot of US cities. They have a pretty solid model and opened one in Austin very recently. Good food that is quick and tastes quite authentic. You could perhaps look at buying into the franchise. The only piece of advice I have: please don't add food coloring. I think people prefer non electric-green/luminescent pink chutneys.
I would think that you'd start a "Taco Stand" place, since you know so much about Mexican food, yo. If your approach is unique, we would flock to it, sort of like "100% Taquito" near the old Clutch City. Also, if you are to start an Indian food place... would you be the cook? Wouldn't that be up to the cook or chef running the place? I'd try a fast-food Indian place if it's really fast... but what could be the main food? Also, I couldn't help but think about this... (sorry).
Start small and focus on one particular product and make it the BEST one around. Try a Food truck or small stand. That will keep your overhead low. I'm also thinking about opening up a Pupuseria soon.
this and this construction of a small place can cost from 50K to 100K (think 50% for construction and remaining 50% for equipment etc) there are lots of cafes/small restaurants which have closed down and are right now vacant.. the improvements are still there and if you're lucky the equipment are too.. checkout commgate.com and loopnet.com for locations
The Restaurant Manager's Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation 4th Edition
thanks guys I dont think we'd actually build a place for it but maybe take over a place that has already been built that has a reasonable lease to start and go from there. A food truck would not be out of the question though I guess would need to start looking into those as well. There is a lot of indian/chinese fusion but mexican? that may be difficult considering that two staples in mexican food (beans and cheese) are not very common in indian food (though you can easily substitute paneer for cheese) Never heard of Hot Breads probably not out here and I will look into getting that book to read
There are a lot of places like this here in Houston, off of Hillcroft. I agree with an earlier poster when he said Hot Breads seems to be the model you want to follow. They are doing very well here, and the food is always made fresh, with a wide variety of options. The taco truck idea will work, but only if you get word out to your main demographic.
Don't really have much advice, but here's the book for $6: Link Good luck with your venture. ClutchFans discounts ftw? Pugs
He's not going to open an ASPIRIN store, man. COME ON, stay on topic! Spoiler I kid... you know what? This [making dumb comments] keeps me from falling asleep at work... sorry, man.
Just a few things off top of my head... - 2 Choices: go small and keep overhead low OR go guns blazing with all out marketing. If you are looking at this as a long-term business that you want to expand on, go guns blazing. If this is a completely new idea and your target market doesn't even know how indopak food taste in general (product category awareness), go with the low overhead option (truck stand is great as you can move around the city to create product awareness) - Be careful about nutrional info laws. Slowly but surely, lots of cities are making it mandatory to provide nutritional info on all items on the menu. Indopak food....you're going to have to get creative with recipes. - Provide one of those wetnaps thingies (taco bell has them now) with each meal. A lot of folks love the food but hate the mess. Even with grilled items. Cheap way of keeping customers. - Keep the spice level as a function of sauce. Don't have the most of the spice built in (i.e. marinated in meat). - If you ever end up with a sit-down spot, PLS FFS, DO NOT SELL SOFT DRINKS BY THE CAN. Nothing worse than eating spicy indopak food, ordering a coke, and getting a can and cup of ice.
oh yeah i dont live in Houston so will not be looking to open the place up anywhere in Texas - when it does there will be a clutchfans discount for the ones that visit of course they would have to send me a PM before hand I cant have 15 people coming in claiming to be SwoLy-D I'd go insane
you've never eaten rajma (red kidney beans) before?? other beans that are common in indian food: moong beans, garbanzo beans {chole}, etc...
i guess this goes without saying, but location is very important... It sounds like you're not sure of the physical location, but it sounds like you're down to a truck or a stand, like a mexican refresqueria? These are pretty popular in hispanic neighborhoods, but usually the original one or two are the only ones that last.
