Richton Park Herald

First I heard that LA Cafe in Richton Park went out of business. Then I heard Bixby's in Park Forest went out of business. Then I heard someone took over the LA Cafe space and opened up Richton Cafe about 5 months ago and now they closed their doors! Its a very hard time for restaurants. In October of 2008 I sold my restaurant, Burgundy Bistro. The housing and stock market were crashing, the auto companies were in trouble, lots of people out of work with a lot more on their way out of work, yet somebody was brave enoiugh to jump into the restaurant business. And now they are out of business! Another victim of this incredibly serious downturn( and maybe a few other things, but that's another story).

Well I, being the previous owner of Burgundy Bistro, had first crack at coming back to take over the now closed restaurant. I met with the landlord on a Friday and told him "Burgundy Bistro is dead". I felt that the concept of high end, quality food with a high price tag was not going to work in this area anymore. I explained to him what I wanted to do and what I needed as far as rent goes. We left with him supposedly going to get back to us on Monday.

Before I tell you what happened, let me explain a little about the plaza where Burgundy Bistro is located. Its in Olympia Fields,IL. at the southeast corner of Governors Highway and Vollmer Road and is called Olympia Square Plaza. Its a busy intersection all day long, but especially during the morning and evening rush. When I first moved in 17 years ago, the plaza's landlords at the time set up offices in one of the vacant stores to be onsite for leasing the empty stores. These landlords were the only ones to do this. In a year's time all the stores were leased! We were on our third set of landlords when we sold. They had so many empty stores for so long the landlord decided to open his own upscale grocery store. That took up five or six stores, but there were still other empty ones. Now this was like this before the crash of 2008. So, things were relatively good economy-wise and this plaza was still having a hard time holding onto stores. Suzie's Hallmark moved out, a long time resident of the center, among others. And its all blamed on the shopping center being L-shaped, which puts the stores far back from the streets, so people driving by can't see the signage. They've tried everything from putting gaudy a-frame signs on the streets to putting those used car lot flags flapping in the wind over the plaza's parking lot. And don't forget the "Grand Opening" flags that have been up for over a year. How long is a grand opening anyway?! 

I don't know how you go about shopping or go out to eat, but I don't drive down a street aimlessly (especially 45mph streets), looking at signs on building facades and then on impulse go into a store just because I can read its name from the street. If I'm going to a store for the first time, I usually have an address in hand. I go to the store, and if I have a positive dining or shoppng experience, I go back. So why have store signs at all, you might ask? Well, once you've gotten close to your destination, they help you zero in. They are good for people to see who might later come back to check it out more closely. And they mark your territory, so they are good to have, but don't get fixated on them. You can read the "Bizios Fresh Market" sign from the street, no problem. So, if signs were that important, they should be doing a good busines. If not, what's the problem? How about a neon orange colored sign on the side of the road with "Iceburg Lettuce 59 cents"? Would that make you do a u-turn and go shopping in a food store you've never been in? I wouldn't. Now maybe a direct mail campaign with a nice full colored postcard of the beautifull food available with "Free Carrot Cake with $10 purchase" might get me in there. And if you do the whole experience right (internal marketing, see below), I might come back! In the meantime, all these signs including the cheap vinyl signs on the facade of the plaza and the flapping "used car" flags flying overhead have turned this once upscale shopping center into just another cheap looking strip mall desperate for business.

So, with all they've tried, is signage the problem? I don't think so. There is what is called external and internal marketing. The external type is the signs and other advertising like newspaper, direct mail newsletters, etc. The internal marketing is what's inside your four walls or in the case of the shopping center, how does your shopping center look? You'd better have that at a top notch level before you start doing any external marketing. When one hears bad things about a restaurant or any type of store, people stay away. To think that larger, bigger gaudier signs will solve the problem is dilusional. What's your facade look like? Does it have holes in it from signs that have been removed by the stores that have gone out of business? Fix the holes! Paint over the test paint colors on your facade over ChiroOne that have been there for three years! Does the parking lot need patching? Patch it! Are the windows dirty on vacant stores? Wash them! Are birds nesting on signs and pooping everywhere? Take care of it! Don't wait until somebody complains about it, just do it!

So after that introduction to the plaza, why would I even want to go back there? Well, I don't and here's what sealed the deal. The landlord never got back to me. Instead I received a registered letter two weeks after our Friday meeting explaining that the deal is as is! He is not negotiating! He wants me to take over the existing lease and still pay $8,000 a month rent and pay the back rent of $29,000 owed to him. In this economy and with a poor performance record for this plaza and with stores that have been empty for years, he must be crazy! I offered $2,000 a month with 10% over $50,000 in sales for up to $6,000 in total rent. and the lost rent is his problem. But apparently, no go. Same thing happened with Hallmark, no give and take, gone, buh bye. So he gets all the stuff in Burgundy Bistro and good luck to him. Maybe he has another relative that wants to open a restaurant. I should have moved all that stuff out in Dec, 2007 when my third 5 year lease was up. You'd think the landlord would have been grateful of another year and a half of rent coming in, especially when he apparently can't rent a store if his life depended on it. I'm sure the space would still be vacant today. But the equipment is old. Some goes back to 16 years ago and its going to be a miantenance problem. So, I'm not going to take it back. The only thing I'll miss is the 22 foot long Mahogany bar. That looks like its still in good shape.

If you're looking to open a restaurant in these tough economic times, be prepared to have some capital in reserves to hold you over in lean times and these are definetly lean times. If you take over an old restaurant, be prepared for high maintenance costs too. I always took care of my equipment, but that euipment looked like it took a beating in the last 8 months. So good luck to you whoever takes over Burgundy Bistro, you're going to need it!