Author Archives: vlm

Taught by Harris Eckstut of Eckstut Consulting

• Course Title: The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant
• When: Monday, October 26nd and November 2nd
• Where: The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College
• Contact: Stephanie Battistone – communityed@walnuthillcollege.edu
• Phone: 267-295-2367
• Session: Fall 2015
• Time: 6PM-8:30PM
• Fee: $95.00
• Target Audience: This Two week course is geared towards those individuals who dream of one day owning and operating a restaurant – as well as those interesting in investing in one.

Harris Eckstut shares his knowledge from over 30 years as a successful Philadelphia restaurant owner. He provides insights that can only come from long-term accomplishment and commitment. Eckstut is not only an expert in restaurant ownership and consulting, but is a lively presenter who incorporates his restaurant business knowledge and depth of experience with learning methods that keep participants actively engaged.

From a recent class attendee, and longtime restaurateur,

“…Harris Eckstut is outstanding. He is the most knowledgeable restaurant consultant that I have met in my career in Philadelphia. His lecture was a tour de force. In a low key fashion, he covered a great amount of information….”

Another grateful attendee shared this thank you note:

“The information you gave us was beyond useful! We now have a more realistic perspective about the restaurant business.”

Greg Vernick, Chef/Owner, Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia:

“Vernick Food & Drink would not be as successful without the help of Harris Eckstut.”

Connie Correia, owner of the Pop Shop in Collingswood, NJ:

“Harris took us by the hand and taught us all the things about the restaurant business that we didn’t even know we didn’t know! Because of him, we are still in business and now thriving instead of floundering.”

His professional services include: leasing and development, sales and purchases, operational analysis and planning, “turnarounds,” and “start-ups” for the independent or prospective restaurant owner. He also evaluates business plans, operations and budgets for lenders, investors, developers, community organizations, and urban and suburban Main Street planning.

Harris owned the legendary MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street for 25 years and has over 30 years experience in the independent restaurant industry. His many clients include award winning: Vernick Food & Drink, Circles Thai, Sang Kee, Le Virtu, 320 Market Café, Green Line Café.and many other award winning independent restaurants as well as lenders, investors, landlords, attorneys, community development organizations, and developers

The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill

4207 Walnut Street,
Philadelphia PA 19104
267-295-2367

Taught by Harris Eckstut of Eckstut Consulting

• Course Title: The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant
• Where: The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College
• Session: Fall 2014
• When: Monday, October 20th and 27th
• Time: 6PM-8:30PM
• Fee: $95.00
• Target Audience: This Two week course is geared towards those individuals who dream of one day owning and operating a restaurant – as well as those interesting in investing in one.

Harris Eckstut shares his knowledge from over 30 years as a successful Philadelphia restaurant owner. He provides insights that can only come from long-term accomplishment and commitment. Eckstut is not only an expert in restaurant ownership and consulting, but is a lively presenter who incorporates his restaurant business knowledge and depth of experience with learning methods that keep participants actively engaged.

From a recent class attendee, and longtime restaurateur,

“…Harris Eckstut is outstanding. He is the most knowledgeable restaurant consultant that I have met in my career in Philadelphia. His lecture was a tour de force. In a low key fashion, he covered a great amount of information….”

Another grateful attendee shared this thank you note:

“The information you gave us was beyond useful! We now have a more realistic perspective about the restaurant business.”

Greg Vernick, Chef/Owner, Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia:

“Vernick Food & Drink would not be as successful without the help of Harris Eckstut.”

Connie Correia, owner of the Pop Shop in Collingswood, NJ:

“Harris took us by the hand and taught us all the things about the restaurant business that we didn’t even know we didn’t know! Because of him, we are still in business and now thriving instead of floundering.”

Harris Eckstut of Eckstut Restaurant Consulting offers his professional services: leasing and development, sales and purchases, operational analysis and planning, “turnarounds,” and “start-ups” for the independent or prospective restaurant owner. He also evaluates business plans, operations and budgets for lenders, investors, developers, and community organizations.

Harris owned the legendary MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street for 25 years and has over 30 years experience in the independent restaurant industry. His many clients include award winning: Vernick Food & Drink, Circles Thai, Sang Kee, Le Virtu, 320 Market Café, Green Line Café.and many other award winning independent restaurants as well as lenders, investors, landlords, attorneys, community development organizations, and developers

The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College

4207 Walnut Street,
Philadelphia PA 19104

Taught by Harris Eckstut of Eckstut Consulting

• Course Title: The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant
• Where: Montgomery College
• Session: Fall 2014
• When: Wednesday, November 12th and 19th
• Time: 6PM-8:30PM
• Fee: $95.00
• Target Audience: This Two week course is geared towards those individuals who dream of one day owning and operating a restaurant – as well as those interesting in investing in one.

Harris Eckstut shares his knowledge from over 30 years as a successful Philadelphia restaurant owner. He provides insights that can only come from long-term accomplishment and commitment. Eckstut is not only an expert in restaurant ownership and consulting, but is a lively presenter who incorporates his restaurant business knowledge and depth of experience with learning methods that keep participants actively engaged.

From a recent class attendee, and longtime restaurateur,

“…Harris Eckstut is outstanding. He is the most knowledgeable restaurant consultant that I have met in my career in Philadelphia. His lecture was a tour de force. In a low key fashion, he covered a great amount of information….”

Another grateful attendee shared this thank you note:

“The information you gave us was beyond useful! We now have a more realistic perspective about the restaurant business.”

Greg Vernick, Chef/Owner, Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia:

“Vernick Food & Drink would not be as successful without the help of Harris Eckstut.”

Connie Correia, owner of the Pop Shop in Collingswood, NJ:

“Harris took us by the hand and taught us all the things about the restaurant business that we didn’t even know we didn’t know! Because of him, we are still in business and now thriving instead of floundering.”

Harris Eckstut of Eckstut Restaurant Consulting offers his professional services: leasing and development, sales and purchases, operational analysis and planning, “turnarounds,” and “start-ups” for the independent or prospective restaurant owner. He also evaluates business plans, operations and budgets for lenders, investors, developers, and community organizations.

Harris owned the legendary MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street for 25 years and has over 30 years experience in the independent restaurant industry. His many clients include award winning: Vernick Food & Drink, Circles Thai, Sang Kee, Le Virtu, 320 Market Café, Green Line Café.and many other award winning independent restaurants as well as lenders, investors, landlords, attorneys, community development organizations, and developers

The Dollars and Sense of Owning a Restaurant

The Culinary Arts Institute of Montgomery County Community College

1400 Forty Food Road,
Lansdale PA 19446

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Harris Eckstut – harris@eckstutconsulting.com
Phone – 267-474-8101 / Fax – 215-922-7774
June 16, 2014

Eckstut Restaurant/Small Business Consulting
Returns Home to South Street

Harris Eckstut restaurant business consultant/adviser/educator of Eckstut Restaurant Consulting announces his return to South Street rehanging his commercial broker license with long-time friends at Plumer & Associates, Inc.

Starting in 1980 with the opening of the iconic MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street through two and a half decades of operations as well as being the founding Chair of the South Street/Headhouse Business Improvement District, Harris has been a part of the South Street business community. After a brief 2 year hiatus in Center City, Harris has come back to South Street offering his services in restaurant and small business advising and sales.

Harris Eckstut, as the principal at ECKSTUT RESTAURANT CONSULTING, offers his professional services leasing and development, operational analysis and planning, restaurant “turnarounds”, and business plans for the independent or prospective restaurant owner. He also evaluates business plans, operations and budgets for lenders, investors, developers, and community organizations.

Harris owned the legendary MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street for 25 years and has over 30 years’ experience in the independent restaurant industry. His many clients include recent projects with award winning restaurants and markets: Vernick Food & Drink, Philadelphia; The Pop Shop, Collingswood/Medford, NJ; 320 Market Café, Swarthmore-Media; Le Virtu, Philadelphia; Circles Thai, North Liberties/South Philadelphia; Han Dynasty, University City, Philadelphia; Sang Kee Peking Duck House, Philadelphia/Ardmore, Cherry Hill. As well as business communities, non-profits, urban developers and planners: Allegheny West Foundation, Philadelphia; BAF Developers, Germantown Ave, Mt. Airy; The Merchants Fund, Philadelphia; Struever Bros, Eccles & Rouse, Baltimore, Durham, Winston-Salem, Providence; Prudent Investors (a SBA Community Development Corporation); PEC- Cares in West Philadelphia; Capitol Broadcasting, Durham; EE&K Architects in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Shanghai; and many others.

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College
C/O Community Education
Attention: Stephanie Battistone
4207 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

414 West Main Street
Lansdale, PA 19446-0148

April 2, 2014

Dear Stephanie,

Monday night I finished the class that Harris Eckstut teaches at your college. His class brought me to your school for the first time and I was very impressed. As a career restaurateur and consultant the class was taken because having met Harris and getting such a favorable opinion, I was curious to see how it went. To say the least Harris Eckstut is outstanding. He is the most knowledgeable restaurant consultant that I have met in my career in Philadelphia. His lecture was a tour-de-force. in a low key fashion he covered an incredible amount of information. The students about to start out with their own restaurant could not help but have been impressed. Their interaction with him was warm and professional. Anyone that I know starting out in the restaurant business will be referred to his class and your school. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if I can help you or the school in any fashion.

Sincerely,

D. Alan Armstrong

Drexel Hosts Philadelphia’s First-Ever Conference for Chefs, by Chefs

Harris will join world renowned chefs and restauranteurs in a conference to discuss the issues facing the restaurant industry, food trends, products, and techniques.

Click here to learn more!

We hope to see your there!

My Advice

It’s expensive to actually live your dream of owning a restaurant.  Don’t be skimpy on your business advisers:  professional and personal.  This is usually the most important part of the investment.

A Restaurant of Your Own

Americans love food, and dining out is a favorite pastime.  And those who are excellent critics and have great confidence frequently reach the conclusion that the American dream of owning a restaurant can be theirs!  It’s the perfect “glamour” business!  People know what constitutes good food, service and atmosphere and oftentimes they know they can make a better meal and presentation, provide better service, create a much more appealing dining room and even have a clean and attractive menu brought to each and every customer.

But, can they make a living doing it?  There’s a lot more to owning a restaurant than being the king and queen of quality.  It’s a unique and complex business.  Probably the most unique characteristic is that a restaurant both manufactures and retails its product at the same time.  Most product-oriented businesses do either one or the other; no one goes into a dress store, for example, looks at a selection of dresses, orders a size 6 without the ruffles, but with extra glitter on the hem and expects it in less than 10 minutes.

A restaurant is first and foremost a business and follows the basic rules of business. It’s often said that restaurants are “risky,” but, that’s not exactly true.  The “riskiest” businesses, as experienced business people and economics academics know, are the under capitalized ones, and it’s true that a restaurant can be opened without significant capital, due to its labor-intensive nature and relatively limited inventory.  The key is to know how to reduce these risk factors.

Before you jump head-on into opening your own restaurant, I suggest you heed a few cautionary words from someone with 30+ years of experience.  The first part of the equation for success is bringing in the revenues.  A great concept with a good location and exceptional marketing from point-of-sale, websites, group packaging, advertising, guerrilla marketing et.al. will bring the people in.  Excellent food, service, and ambiance will bring them and their friends back.  It is the understanding of the hidden risk factors that will balance the rest of the equation.

Manageable Cost of Success

The first thing to acknowledge is that there are a multitude of costs involved in operating a restaurant, but most of them are fixed or relatively stable.  You can massage them here and there for better profits or, heaven forbid, fewer losses.  These include such basic costs of operating a business:

• utilities (3%)
• legal and accounting (1%)
• credit cards (1.5%)
• maintenance and repair (2.5%)
• marketing (5%)
• etc.

Thus, it is the other costs of operation that the owner must control in order to make a living. Two are controlled after the front door is opened for business:  product and labor costs. Excellent organizational and management skills, smart buying, menu pricing, etc. will control these costs.

The Restaurant Cost that Seals A Restaurants Fate

Special attention must be paid to the most significant controllable cost, the one with the potential to create risk, which is fixed before you even open the restaurant,

THE RENT AND DEBT SERVICE THAT IS INITIALLY NEGOTIATED.

Once this restaurant cost is established, it is practically etched in stone.  In other words, before designing and building your visionary restaurant, before you hire personnel, before you buy food and liquor, before you open the front door and start living your dream, you must have negotiated a rent and loan that is not onerous.

Have you often wondered why those great restaurants that were always so busy suddenly closed?  It’s simple.  They probably never had a chance to succeed; the rent and/or debt service was so high that the owner could not afford to pay them no matter how much business could be squeezed into the space.  In other words, the fate was sealed when the owner signed the lease, before the front door ever opened!

If a business has cost control problems in the operations labor and/or product the problems can be resolved, although not necessarily without a good bit of angst and pain.  If a business has a revenue problem, this too can be resolved with good sound marketing, pliable owners, and management and usually an infusion of new capital – to grow the business.

But the rent and debt service cost, the one that is established before opening, is a completely different matter.  So often, operators, investors, landlords and/or lenders needing to evaluate struggling operations call me and I have to report that the rent and debt service needs to be restructured.  Hopefully the “fate controllers” (landlords and lenders) want the operator to make a living and be successful, so they can and will accede to the changes; otherwise, I get a hardy handshake and a “thanks anyway.”

My Advice Revisited

The moral of the story?  It’s expensive to actually live your dream of owning a restaurant.  Don’t be skimpy on your business advisers:  professional and personal.  This is usually the most important part of the investment because this will ensure that the costs you can control before you open are in the proper range for success.

Eckstut Consulting clients are included in Craig LeBan’s (food critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer) Best New Philadelphia Restaurant 2012.

Seven clients win Best of Philly 2012:

• The Pop Shop – Best Milk Shakes
• Circles – Best Thai
• Le Virtu – Best Pasta
• Rotisseur – Quick Lunch
• Han Dynasty – Best Chinese
• Pitruco – Best Food Truck
• Queen Village Art Center – Best New Art School