I Know How to Open a Restaurant. So Why Haven't I?

 I've opened restaurants before.

I know how to negotiate a lease. I know how to design a kitchen that actually works. I know how to build a menu, manage food cost, hire a team, and keep a service running when everything is falling apart at once.

I've done it. Just not for myself.

That's the part nobody in hospitality talks about. The experienced ones — the chefs, the operators, the people who've spent decades inside someone else's business — are often the most hesitant to make the leap. Not because they don't know how. Because they know exactly how hard it is.

And in New Zealand right now, the news doesn't help. Restaurants closing. Cafés shutting their doors. Pubs that survived Covid folding anyway. You read the headlines and think — why would I put my own money into this?

But here's what I've learned from watching businesses succeed and fail from the inside.

The ones that close usually made the same mistakes.

They opened too big. They underestimated how long it takes to build a regular customer base. They didn't control their cost of goods. They hired fast and managed slow. They confused a full dining room on a Saturday night with a sustainable business.

Opening smart looks different.

Start lean. Your first location doesn't need to be your forever location. A smaller footprint means lower rent, lower staffing costs, and less pressure on your weekly revenue target. In Auckland right now, the venues surviving are the ones that kept their overheads manageable from day one.

Know your numbers before you sign anything. What's your break-even weekly revenue? What's your food cost target? What does your payroll look like at 60% capacity? Run those numbers until they're boring. Then run them again.

Location is everything — and in NZ, foot traffic is not guaranteed. A great product in the wrong spot will still fail. Look for areas with genuine daily foot traffic, not just weekend activity. Office workers, commuters, residents. Somewhere people have a reason to walk past every day.

Build a concept with staying power. Trends open restaurants. Consistency keeps them open. The cafés still standing in Auckland after five years aren't the ones that chased every food trend. They're the ones that did one or two things exceptionally well and didn't drift.

Control your labour from the start. Hospitality in NZ is expensive to staff. Roster tightly. Cross-train your team. Know your peak hours and build your schedule around them, not around keeping everyone comfortable.

And the hardest one — be patient with revenue. Most hospitality businesses take 12 to 18 months to find their footing. If your financial plan doesn't account for that runway, you're already in trouble.

The fear of losing money is real. I feel it too. But there's a difference between fear and preparation. Fear keeps you passive. Preparation gives you a reason to move.

I'm still thinking about my own place. But I'm thinking about it differently now — less about whether to do it, and more about how to do it right.

That's probably where it starts.

— The Chef