Meg
Great couple good product, but they were sold a false bill of goods.
Nice, talented, ok product.
1) First restaurant. Generally an eye opening experience.
2) Started because friends told him his ribs were good and he should open restaurant.
Friends, and back yard smoking is light years from restaurant in strange town.
3) Location, Location, Location. They were told though the rent is high you will make it big
in DowntowN Lakewood and they were steered into that location by the planning department.
They were excited that they would "have access to all of the students at the
University of Akron." You know the students that flood the streets on this college town.
A hideous location for walk in traffic. NO restaurant should be in that building. Not
All of the places on that block are complete undeserved by the location. Eddie Cerino is
making it only with Valet Parking, so the crew is paid to run the 1.5 blocks to parking.
4) They were broke months ago, not enough start up cash to fall back on.
Where chains can come in and last out competition, single restaurants cannot they have
to make it or die quickly.
5) 243 places to get prepared food in 5 square miles might be over kill, and destroying the
once fertile waters called Lakewood. A mom and pop shop has no way to compete with
chains. Look at Taco Bell, FREE Breakfast! Now go ask The Place To Be, Coffee Pot, West
End, Street Burger, etc how many customers a day can they lose and still stay solvent. I
think the low number would shock everyone. I believe if you want the best burger in
Lakewood you better start at The Coffee Pot on the east or The Westend on the west.
7) Product, the problem with "Low and Slow" while it taste good, it takes 8 hours to cook.
So everyday is a massive gamble if you are to prepare fresh food. The tendency with slow
periods of time is hold the food over, until dinner, or next day, or... Refrigeration and
reheating tends to take ribs and brisket into a weird texture.
8) No delivery. In a restaurant no one can get to, you have to deliver. It is the only thing
keeping Jimmy Johns alive, which thrives on real college campuses and places where there
is parking. By the time I spoke with the couple, they could not afford to hire delivery guy
they were running that low, back in January.
If you remember back the best ribs ever served in Lakewood was Chicken and Ribs
Galore, which was lost in an accident, the "winner" ran it for ten years with pretty much
the same consistent quality, which is huge in food. Wild swings in quality frustrates customers.
A guy bought it, screwed it up and eventually tried to sell it before being thrown out for
back rent. The last offer I was given in buying it was $5,000 for everything, and having
to pay back rent, but lease was up.
The next best ribs to appear was Carlucci's the old Chef at The Blue Fox. Mediocre pizza
good Italian and great ribs. Until they started slowing down and the ribs were kept
overnight or longer, a couple months of that closed.
Lakewood needs ribs, but the place has to be given a fair chance. Whoever from Planning
that sealed the deal telling this couple that were risking everything that they could "count
on the students from Akron University should give them back their money.
For some reason Planning can't seem to see past food and dollar stores. I believe we have
reached a saturation point. Once again I know of about 4 well known places fighting for
their lives, and while we can talk about natural selection and free enterprise and consumers
vote with their wallet. There are some exceptions. One competing against people with
unfair advantage. Let's look at the "World's nicest Taco Bell" allowed to rebuild where it
would be illegal to build a drive through, Planning helping them around the laws, and
around spending an extra $150,000. Which is $150,000 more in their "war chest" than
Eddie Cerino, the Deagen's, Coffee Pot, West End etc. But it does not matter, they have
massive war chests, so why not offer FREE BREAKFAST, which manifests itself in less
people at Coffee Pot, Around the Corner, and even Burger King.
New, people will try new, and it costs others, even if the "new place" is worse. People like new.
Running a restaurant is really not that tough. It is a ton of hard work, and it takes nerves
of steal, but it is not rocket surgery.
Good Food
Good Portions
Good Service
Good Location
Good Parking
You only really need hit 70% on any of them. But if you fall below on any, you have to
make it up in one of the others. Bad parking 50%, then Good Food needs to be 85%.
Or Good Server 75%, and Location 75% and Good Food 70%.
If you have a terrible location, and terrible parking, you better being hitting 100% on the
other three. It makes it a nightmare, and breaking even really doesn't work except in
hobbies, and rarely are restaurants a hobby.
Right now interesting beef ribs(not my favorite) at Mama Lola's, in the recent home of
Tommy's Ribs and Pizza. Perfectly cooked, interesting flavor from the rub, and the sauce
hits the marks as well. They were tasty. I am not a fan of beef ribs, but would get them
again. They also have good salads and sandwiches. I have not tried the pizza.
Mark and Linda waiting for customers that rarely came. Good luck in whatever you do next.
.