When people ask me about entering the restaurant business, the same conversation always follows:
Do you have a fireplace?
Yes.
Here’s what to do:
Light the fireplace.
Get a large bag of cash. Dump it in.
Same result. Much faster.
It’s hyperbole, but not by much. Almost no one who opens a restaurant for money succeeds. Why? Return on investment. Investors soon learn that a restaurant’s meager margins are attainable elsewhere with far less effort, anguish, and sacrifice.
Then why do some restaurateurs succeed? For the same reason others fail: return on investment. The difference is that, for successful restaurateurs, the measure of return is not just monetary. It’s what my father called “non-financial income.”
They endure the same hardships as anyone else in the industry: long hours, constant stress, and relentless criticism. But their reward is far greater: the joy of serving. With a passion for hospitality grounded in empathy, their guests’ happiness is their own. That happiness is the return. Those who don’t experience it are nearly certain to fail.
Few have captured this better than Gabrielle Hamilton, who once wrote:
I’ve been driven by the sensory, the human, the poetic and the profane — not by money or a thirst to expand . . . I still thrill when the four-top at Table 9 are talking to one another so contentedly that they don’t notice they are the last diners, lingering in the cocoon of the wine and the few shards of dark chocolate we’ve put down with their check.
“More Work for Less Money”
But passion has its limits. And in 2026, those limits are being tested. Inflation, a staffing crisis, and other post-pandemic pressures have conspired to squeeze margins that were barely sustainable to begin with. Again and again, I hear the same refrain from those still hanging on: “More work for less money.”
Some have closed their doors, concluding that the math simply no longer adds up. As one industry veteran said when closing: “I can’t stress enough how much I commend those who have been able to succeed in this environment. It takes a special person to be in the full-service business right now and be successful and be willing to put in the work to do it.”
There are only two kinds of restaurants in the world. Those with love, and all the rest. For those with love, we are blessed.
Maybe do what we can to keep them around.
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