Restaurant Death watch

There's a building in the next town whose fortunes we've been following for a few years. It was a dinner club for decades, then it was vacant. Two fine dining restaurants came and went and then it was vacant again. About 3 months ago someone opened it up as a Mexican place, but the grapevine says they're not going to last long. They keep going to another chef in town to ask basic questions, like how to handle inventory. They're overpaying their staff. And recently they started food shopping at BJ's instead of through a wholesaler.

This has Dan (and I) thinking brave thoughts. The building is owned by the local university, and it seems that they want a good restaurant in town because they need a place to do entertaining. This is the same college that my MIL graduated from, that FIL taught at, and the Dan went to for 3 years. Plus, there are lots of family friends who have always wanted Dan to come back and cook in town.

With that in mind, we're going to start preparing a business plan for a restaurant. I don't know when (or if) the current restaurant will fold. I'd rather wait until the kids were in school, but if an opportunity comes up, we want to be prepared to seize it. Dan is excited about the idea of doing Southern food. We could have a lunch menu that is heavy on the BBQ for the college students, then go to a more refined menu for dinner.

I was going to post the menu Dan has knocked up, but I'm feeling proprietary. And they're Dan's recipes to share, not mine. Although, if anyone is interested in being an investor, I'll gladly send you a copy of the menu.