Question for the business owners out there...

I had a weird situation with a local business this past weekend and was looking for some opinions from anyone who owns a business or has knowledge of owning businesses



I have been going to this bar & grill for a long time, it is always crowded, the food is great, prices are reasonable and their loyalty "comp" program is fantastic.

They just started a new Sunday brunch buffet, a cowboy themed Friday night, and they have been advertising heavily for Football season specials.

I just received an email for loyalty club specials Sept 1 and Sept 2.

I was there Saturday Aug 31st watching the UFC fight and a few of the waitresses that know me came over and were telling me about the new menu they were debuting on Sept 4th and this new burger that is supposed to be phenomenal. I also saw the hostess loading the new menus into the plastic covers and such...

I left after the fight and told the waitresses and the manager I know that I would see them tomorrow for brunch...they said ok see you then.



So we arrive Sunday morning and while walking to the door are intercepted by one of the new managers that we don’t know too well. He says "sorry guys we are closed...forever"

We say "FOREVER?!!! We were just here last night..."

He told us that he got a call that morning that they were closing the doors...

That’s all we got...no details...no nothing.


So my question to y'all is...What could have happened overnight that would cause then to close the business??

Seems so weird that they got all new menus, have these deal emails go out, start the Sunday brunch and Friday cowboy night and then close the business...

 

a lot of those types of business, the "owner" that you see on the surface is only a partial owner. the money is in the background and never seen. they can come in and decide to pull their money out at any time regardless of what the owner/manager is going with promotions, etc. also things happen where owners skip town with the money and that's why businesses close suddenly.

 

Or somebody died or somebody is going to jail or went bankrupt or......

A problem with the kitchen (eg health department failing inspection score) probably wouldn't lead someone to say they were closing "forever" but you never know - if it was the straw that broke the camel's back.....

 

Wow!!!

I am a business owner in the health care field, so there could be different reasons why a food service vs. a health service business company would close.

My initial thoughts are either the owner died last night(doubtful), decided to close at a certain date and told no one or only the general manager(terrible move), lost liquor license, decided the business was not profitable and just closed shop.

If the restaurant is part of a national chain, maybe corporate shut them down for a reason.

Maybe the owner only rents the space and the land/building owner decided not to renew them.

Maybe the owner is skipping town and knows the FBI is after him, it happened to a rehab facility next door to my office about a year ago.

 

Having been in the bar and restaurant business for close to 10 years (just got out in Dec. 2012) I had a very similar situation with one of my stores. On location # 1 I was in a 5 year lease that was up in January 2013, and had planned on renewing the lease, but wanted a new rent structure, and a decrease in my common area maintenance fees. New restaurants were popping up everywhere, and I was feeling the heat, thankfully store 2 was booming and it wasn't too painful. The landlord was absolutely deadset against re working our rent or CAM fees, and in fact told me he was going to raise BOTH and try to force another 5 year lease on us. No way jose. I was informed of this on December 15th 2012. I told him we would not be renewing - and a few other things - and was told to have the space cleared out by Jan. 15th or he was going to bolt the doors. So my last day at location #1 was Dec. 26th. One week prior to that I had just installed a wall of 40 beer taps and had planned that week to start a Sunday brunch - didn't happen - and I was still out almost 25k for the taps, lines, etc. However, on Christmas Eve a customer came in and offered to buy all my equipment, pay for license transfers, take over leases, and keep on all my employees, at both locations!!...Talk about a Merry Christmas!!! So, to answer your question things like this happen in the restaurant world all the time. It sounds to me like it probably was a landlord tenant issue, also could have been he was behind with vendors, and they may have cut him off. Also, take a look at Health Department records. That's public info and available on the interwebs. Maybe they had a bad inspection, or were going to be spotlighted on the "Dirty Dining" segment of the 6 o clock news. You never know. However, I had notices on the door, and on all the tables about the coming changes, posted it on facebook, and paid for several radio spots during our final week of business, letting people know that that was it for our restaurants. I would say probably about 80% of my customers knew. We certainly didn't surprise a lot of people. It's a funny, life draining, life consuming, ass busting, pain in the ass business to be in...The owners may have simply had enough, caught a case of the "fuck-its" and just quit. God knows I felt like that many times during my time in prison..err.. mean the bar and restaurant world.

 

I ran various food/bar businesses on behalf of a bankruptcy trustee for some time and this was not an unusual occurrence. In addition to the info above, which I agree with, it's not unusual for a business to decide privately, for whatever reason, to shut things down, yet keep employees and the public in the dark. It's impossible to run a place when you announce that you're closing in 30, 60 or whatever days. The employees all look for other jobs and rightly so. Vendors get squirrely on you as well. If it was for financial reasons, it's best done swiftly and quietly if possible.

 

being that it was a Saturday to Sunday type of deal that does make it strange

but Sat was August 31st and Sun was September 1st so there is a very good chance the lease was lost and the landlord was allowing them time to clear out the coolers and all of the perishables and anything that was not leased property VS the landlord having to clear out a bunch of spoiled food after locking the doors at midnight the 31st or at 5am the 1st

I would say it is probably more complex than that with the whole "new menu" thing going on as well and probably what happened is there was a restructuring in an ownership partnership and the person that thought they were taking over was not able to get financing, not able to get a liquor license, not able to get the lease to where they wanted it to be or some combination of those factors

again with the 31st to 1st being Sat to Sunday I would imagine the one "taking over" and making the menu changes and the like was probably doing so with a deadline to get collateral for the loan in place or to get loan approval in place to extend the lease being the 31st and negotiations went into Saturday and fell apart and ended fully

it could have been the bank that ended the financing options at the 31st when the new primary partner or owner was not able to satisfy their demands, it could have been the landlord that ended the discussions about leasing to a new entity/primary partner or it could have been the other partners or main partner that was walking away not being willing to negotiate past the 31st because they do not want to carry the business another month or they are not able to carry it another month because of their own financial issues oe because of other business/new business obligations outside of the restaurant (in other words keeping the restaurant open and running with them as the main partner or owner gets in the way of some other new business deal because it stretches them too thin)

watching some of the "save this restaurant" TV shows lately it is a pretty common theme for a former manager, a former frequent customer (like Gino just talked about) or others to desire to take over a restaurant they work at or frequent if they hear the current owner is wanting out

in the case of the management buying out they are almost always under capitalized and need to pretty much turn a profit from day 1 or they will be done in 6 months and in the case of the frequent customer they usually have the cash, but know nothing about the restaurant business and think they can run it from a bar stool while buying shots for hot girls and friends while the "management" makes them money

usually the management taking over leads to burnout from the business aspect of restaurant ownership as well and they start letting the management of the actual restaurant falter and that leads to pilfering and declines in quality and service and in the case of the frequent customer taking over they are so hard headed about being a "successful business person" (which they may well be outside of the restaurant business) that they are loath to take advice from their "paid managers" and "underlings" and again the managers just start slacking of or leave and quality and controls suffer along with profits and customer counts

 

Thanks for all of the replies!

Everything said makes sense...


I am hoping that it was a misunderstanding or an exaggeration by the manager and it might just be a name change or management change...

Would be a bummer to have to find a new hangout spot...

 

I just got really lucky. The expense of moving my store would have been in the thousands. I had a walk in cooler and freezer, hood system, ovens, fryers, 3 compartment sinks, bar, ice machines, etc etc etc...Trust me, had the situation not ended so shockingly well for me, I would have taken the drywall, the lights, hell even the fucking ceiling tiles out of the space, and left my prick of a landlord with a useless shell. But, again, I got really lucky. I survived 9 and 1/2 years. I made a little money, I expanded - in this terrible economy - and watched numerous places like mine get shuttered, change owners, go under new management, change concepts, get swallowed by big box franchises, and just close up shop. It's a hard business. I never, ever want to go back. I'm finally enjoying life again. The story above is a sad sad ordeal, and takes me back to a place I was pretty close to, and am grateful I'm far away from now.

 

Could be anything. Doubt you'll ever know.

 

Man is that ever the truth!!! Before running the businesses for the trustee, I owned a couple franchise pizza operations for close to 20 years. When, I turned 40 and decided to get out and get a "regular" job...

I still remember the great feeling of waking-up on a Saturday morning knowing that no one was gonna call and tell me the drawer was $200 short or the toilets were all over-flowed or 5 people called in sick for the day, cause they got drunk at a party last night! The day was truly my own... as you know being in the business, you may not be at the location, but you're never really "off".

I have SO much respect for small-business owners in general, but food & beverage purveyors in particular!

 

no doubt about that. but I still would never trade the flexibility for the rat race.

 

The owner probably overheard your Vegas stories and got really excited after which he took all the money and went to Vegas that night.
Could happen.

 

I got the skinny...

Lease was coming due and the revenue wasn't there to support renewing the lease...

 

I had this happen at a place I used to work part-time. (I ran poker tournaments for qualification into real tourneys at the local casino.)

It was a nightclub in the front and bowling alley in the back, with a middle area that was another bar. The true owner was WAY behind on everything, but no one else knew. People from the bank came in and told manager on duty and employees on like a Tuesday morning that they needed to get all customers out immediately.

The bank people told the employees that the owner had been foreclosed on about 6 months ago and he was supposed to have it closed up by then. They had to leave and the place was padlocked up. Employees that were not present at the time weren't able to go back until almost a month later to get there remaining belongings.

The bank kept everything.

Sometimes owners will know more than they admit because they are trying to get every last dime they can.....