…First of all, a big thank you to all the posters here for their generous gift of free advice-wisdom hard earned in dollars and heartbreak freely given away for nothing but the asking.I have lurked here and read thousands of posts as I worked thru my plan for my first buisness venture. It is a go and I open in less than a month after 2 years of effort…a little background….
2 years back I bought an 6 year old, 18′ Wells Fargo purpose built food trailer with the intention of taking a leased site at the town commons based on the prior lease specs and rental fee…long story short,the powers that be changed the requirements from the prior years contract and specified the trailer must be moved from the site EVERY NIGHT-and the deal broke up…the year was lost.Last year with help from my mentor who runs a successful sports bar here, I met and negociated the summer away with the operators of our local airport,and last December we signed a 3 year lease.Now let me tell you about my location….at the airport but outside the security gates alongside a state highway….weekday traffic count 18K…halfway between two cities with populations of 25K each with a regional hospital located in each (during their transit health professionals and patients are called "customers")…nearest food service in either direction is 1 1/4 miles north or south and that is coffee shops only-1 dunkin’s and 1 independent coffee only drive through…oh yeah,and there is a major and expanding industrial park behind the airport-current employees 250-300…Trailer contains the basics plus twin 23 cu ft fridge/freezers,6′ cold prep with refrigerated storage under,2’grill,double fryer,2pot hot ring,double steam table,microwave,cheese melter,and dual 12" pizza oven…beverage prep is bunn/crathco/oasis/3 bin cappuccino machine…the sucker is loaded….An interesting point for those held up by red tape in dealing with the locals-the airport,though located within the city limits,is exempt from a lot of local bullshit-the controlling authority here is the state DOT…in fact the town master plan will actually keep any competition from building nearby since they didn’t want any new food service in this area…the hope was that by keeping locations limited they could draw more traffic to the recently rennovated downtown area…So instead of these clowns telling me "no", they asked if I would "as a courtesy" give the city planning board a "letter of intent" as to what my plans were.My only actual dealings with the locals was to obtain a "dig-safe" permit to drop a power pole to the site (which they also fucked up-but what’s a water main break amongst friends?),an electrical inspection (and when they screwed that one up and refuse to approve the installation,the main state inspector with the DOT cleared that up by phone in 30 seconds,and my final contact comes in about 2 weeks when I get my final restaurant inspection by a guy who socialises with my mentor-I believe we’ll do OK….Menu is set-basics-burgers,dogs,pizza,chili,soup,chicken sandwich,chicken tender,fries and onion rings….specials as the inspiration strikes.
So there it is-no more questions-just nerves and hope-it has taken a lot of time and a TON of money and by fall I’ll know the good, bad and the ugly of my dream…so again thanks to all of you who without even knowing it advanced the dream of a guy you never met.I’d also love to hear any advice or answer any questions other posters might have,,,Regard,Cat.