Let’s Pretend We’re Opening a Restaurant

[WheelieBinPrincess]

Following on from the overrated meals and restaurants thread.

If you had a big budget (and no money worries if it failed!) and were going to open your own cafe/restaurant/pub, what would it be like?

I’ll start. If I was opening a pub, I’d do away with a long pretentious wine menu and month or so I’d source say ten different reds and ten whites at the same cost mark and they’d all be sold at £20 a bottle. Obviously I’d still make a profit on this but the point is you actually get to choose a wine properly and not just go for the ‘house’.

Cheese boards would always be sold individually so you can order them for yourself as a dessert. I don’t like sweet things but I bloody love cheese. I hate it when the cheese board is double the price of all the other puddings because you’re supposed to share it. You could pick and mix the cheese too.

I would do roasts but a very small window of about 3 hours (so just one sitting) so they’re all fresh and no heated up Yorkshire puddings and roasties.

Free gravy refills.

It’s just fantasy so it doesn’t have to be anything that would necessarily make you the most money!

Add yours.

God yes in smaller portions of every dish. My kids are foodies but can't manage an adult sized meal but hate std child menus.

My restaurant would like so many others have said , will have lots of veggie choices not only vegan. I'm SICK of goats cheese and halloumi. I used to love halloumi. Not so now.
I'd like the light wood, foliage and sparkly and twinkly lights decor, clean and fragrant toilets and sensibly priced wine by the glass and a small option too.
I'd like a lovely roast with more sides than you can shake a stick at. I'd like real puddings with hot custard - not in something where I can't pour the custard.
I'd like easy card games/ colouring for whole family and the offer of doggy bags without feeling ashamed. I don't want to be asked constantly if I'm ok, be called guys or be served ridiculously priced food I could cook myself. I want something a bit different.
I'm hungover and want treacle sponge and custard now

Roasts with lots of parsnips. So many roasts don't include them.

I’d go for a gluten free restaurant with as much as possible locally sourced. I’m not coeliac but my mum is and I know she does worry about eating in restaurants sometimes. It would be nice to just be able to choose anything off the menu and know it was all ok. Agree with everyone who’s said about proper kids meals not just chicken nuggets etc, even if it wasn’t mini versions of main courses but anything that was a bit healthier and more interesting!!

When I was at sixth form my friend and I came up with a concept for a cafe we used to go to a lot, we were going to have beds instead of sofas, I can’t remember what our other ideas were but that one seems a bit grim now

I’d have a long trestle table for people who want to mingle and I’d encourage people to sit there by offering free or cheaper refills for tea, soft drinks etc so that it’s not the option of desperation for the lonely but a genuinely more desirable option. There would also be smaller, more private tables.

Absolutely NEVER would a teapot be smaller than the mug provided.

@Otherpeoplesteens I've seen food courts in shopping centres but they are always junk, glad to see the street idea is being used somewhere.

Oh and decent coffee, an actual choice of coffee beans and you can choose flavours / cream / milk.

There will not be a long list of 'coffees' with fake Italian names, you want a cappuccino, nope you want a black coffee with milk and steamed milk.

Leeds has Trinity Kitchen where they crane in a few street food trucks and there's also about half a dozen permanent restaurants. There's tables that can used wherever you get your food.

It's not fine dining but everything is fresh and good quality and you can usually choose between about 10 different cuisines, each doing a small menu of things very well and there's usually a good proportion of vegetarian and vegan options.

@julieca

Roasts with lots of parsnips. So many roasts don't include them.

You can have all of my parsnips, julieca, I hate the fuckers