Having narrowed down the area where you wish to run your business you must then decide whether to buy or rent a property. First you’ll need to contact commercial property estate agents who will offer you their considerable wealth of local knowledge. For example:

• What are the trends in the restaurant trade?
• Will you need planning permission?
• How do you negotiate the property ladder?

You will also need to talk to environmental health officers about required standards for running a restaurant.

This chapter deals with these subjects and also provides tips for scrutinising properties, buying, renting, franchising and leases. It also deals with:

• local government issues;
• refuse collection;
• alcohol and public entertainment licenses;
• fire regulations;
• disabled law;
• the Sale of Goods Act;
• the law concerning Sex Discrimination and Race Relations Act;
• the Hotel Proprietor’s Act;
• water supply and pest control advice;
• kitchen layout;
• ventilation;
• the vexed question of music and smoking;
• and a final check list.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The popular conception for a truly successful restaurant is that the three Ls are sacrosant. In a city this is true as customers are close by, whether they live, work or are staying in hotels near to your restaurant.

By contrast, some of the most successful restaurants are in remote areas. So how do they create a good, solid customer base? Thanks to the superb ingredients cooked to a high standard and the sheer beauty of the location, people will make the detour to a well-run, perhaps seasonal, restaurant.

Compare the restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London’s Chelsea where you need to book months in advance and the highly popular The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye, a 40-seater restaurant down a single track. One is about as remote as it gets on the British Isles, the other by contrast one of the most central.

Whatever the location, what really matters is how the business is run once the right location has been chosen.

Narrowing it down

You’ve decided on your area and are thinking of buying or renting a property. Visit it a number of times on different days and times of the day. This will give you a better flavour of the area, the type of people, the activity, and will also give you a more informed view of the property. Does the lighting need improving, the decoration updating, the entrance made more welcoming and accessible?

If possible, sit for a time in the restaurants you have narrowed down and imagine a business working in the building. Does it suit your plans? Is it enhanced by a view, a character? Are the proportions right?

Outline your plans to friends or those in the restaurant business and talk over the space with them. They may be able to throw light on a particular problem that has so far eluded you. Or they may give good advice as to why not to open such a place in the area.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If competitors are based in the same area, are there too many of the same type of restaurant as yours? You may struggle for business unless you offer something quite different. But, equally, you may pick up overflow from successful nearby restaurants if the public see the area as a place for eating out.

There is usually a good reason for a gastronomic desert. Look at Guildford in Surrey. Very few good restaurants and nothing worth a mention in the Good Food Guide. Why? Easy commuting into London where many commuting residents prefer eating out is one explanation. Expensive property is another.

SPOTTING CURRENT TRENDS

Consumer education about food continues to increase thanks to travel abroad. The emphasis on food, drink, produce and hospitality in the media is also continuing at an unprecedented pace. So the question you might ask is ‘why can’t I get that here?’

Expectations are constantly rising. There are many price levels to choose from as well as styles of cooking, restaurant design and atmosphere. Who would have thought basement premises could be sold as desirable places to eat in? Step up Wagamama, the runaway successful slurping noodle chain which established their restaurants in basements. Their style of fast, casual and good food is a runaway hit. But a word of warning: few other basement restaurants do achieve this. Or upstairs restaurants. People like to see the whole place at street level.

Some current trends to look out for:

• High inner city rents, thanks to corporate businesses vying for hot property spots and willing to pay over the odds, have meant that restaurateurs are now looking at suburbs, smaller towns and the countryside for properties.
• Individual neighbourhood restaurants are making a comeback thanks to the public’s disaffection with branded restaurants and pubs as they are looking for a more personal approach.
• Due to drink-drive regulations and difficulties with parking, neighbourhood restaurants have the edge over their drive-to competitors.
• Conveyor belt ethnic food – Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian – is also gaining favour with younger eaters.
• Gastro pubs have been increasingly popular in London for at least 14 years and are making their mark in the rest of the UK and Ireland. There is more profit in quality food than in drink.
• Run-down pubs are popular premises to buy and turn into wine bars or cafes with the emphasis on bistro-type food.
• There is a big resurgence in developing inner city areas and dock areas such as Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle with restaurants opening up to fill demand.
• Small, simple, very casual, minimal comfort combined deli-cafes are opening in cities to attract the business crowd during office hours and early evening.
• Small niche restaurants are opening in medium-sized and large towns.
• Fast/casual restaurants are in great demand not only by customers but by venture capital investors.
• Contemporarily designed restaurants with clean lines, wooden floorboards, good lighting and music attract customers and will continue to do so, say agents. Carpeted premises, and not being able to see inside premises from the street, are big turnoffs.
• The first 24-hour cafes are to open once deregulation of licensing laws takes place.
• One in three Londoners eat out at least once a week. The rest of Britain is slower to react but this is set to change thanks to trends in working/leisure patterns and an older population who can afford to eat out.