Five Courses of Reality

The year is nearly over, and from my desk, 2006 looks like a year of retrenchment after a very ambitious 2005. There have been bright spots, from Chambers Kitchen to Town Talk Diner to Cue. But the losses have been momentous—Louis XIII, Louie’s Habit, Tiburón—not to mention the ousting of the Woodmans from Five. Here are the year’s major lessons for local restaurateurs:

Size Matters if Food Matters: Despite awards, attention, and pedigree, several notable restaurants are struggling to stay relevant. In October, normally a very good month for restaurants, I drove by many of our most acclaimed eateries to find them eerily quiet on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Conversely, 112 Eatery was always packed. Owner Isaac Becker believes staying small is the secret to his success—it keeps his dining room full, allows him to control quality, and creates buzz. The restaurant can take culinary risks because it does not carry the rent and labor costs associated with bigger venues. Large, ambitious restaurants such as La Belle Vie and D’Amico Cucina only work in the context of larger restaurant groups with additional profit centers and would be hard to sustain as stand-alone businesses.

Little Burgers, Big Profits: John Rimarcik owns several restaurants in town, such as Café Havana and Monte Carlo, but his burger joints are the big guns in his holster. “Havana loses money, and Monte makes money,” he says. “But Convention Grill is the most dependable. [It is] open the shortest hours. The staff is easiest to train and manage. We bring a little less than 20 percent to the bottom line.” And Convention does well, earning in excess of $1 million a year in revenue.

Star Power Is a Myth: Who is the chef at Convention Grill? Many restaurants dream of employing a star chef, hoping that awards and magazine covers will mean swelling bank accounts. Goodfellow’s tried that, then closed. And just months after Food & Wine named Stewart Woodman a top ten chef, he was shown the door at Five. “Which gave us an opportunity to stay in business,” owner Buzz Dachis insists. He acknowledges a very slow summer of business, and says he and Woodman did not agree about kitchen staffing levels, but there’s got to be more to it than that. Dachis says he can make money without a high-powered chef if he can bring in $1.5 million in revenue. Maybe he needs to add malts to the menu.

There Are Second Acts: Patti Soskin closed her ambitious Golden Valley dining room, Patti’s, nearly two decades ago. “It devastated me,” says Soskin. “I tried everything and it didn’t work. Kincaid’s worked in an office building, but Patti’s didn’t.” So she adapted to the marketplace and came back with a new idea, Yum!, an all-day neighborhood bakery/cafe. Soskin says the concept is working, but it hasn’t been a slam-dunk and is not without ongoing challenges, including labor costs. Stewart Woodman will be back too, but he will need to decide if there is really a market for additional high-end creative dining in the Twin Cities. If he’s not sure, then he’ll need to adapt or ply his trade in a place where his vision is more congruent with the marketplace’s.

Safe Harbors Live Up to Their Name: Middle-of-the-road menus usually equal a risk-free experience for both customers and owners. Eateries such as M&S Grill, enjoy!, Stone’s, Kozy’s, Copper Bleu, and many others thrive grilling salmon and flipping steaks. “Innovate or perish” is the buzz phrase in some restaurant towns. Not here, where you fill 200 seats by appealing to a broad section of public taste with sophisticated décor and far less edgy fare. If The Cheesecake Factory can do it, can’t we? Or so the thinking goes.

For more foodie conversation, tasty recipes, and fun photos, check out Andrew Zimmern's new blog, Chow & Again.