We spoke too soon. Yesterday's Fat City post about the Family Table restaurant in Bonner Springs stated that "Downtown Bonner Springs doesn't have the greatest track record for restaurant shelf life."
What an understatement! Today, Family Table owner Carl Robison announced on the restaurant's Facebook page that he's closing the restaurant -- today.
I liked the small-town diner, but it had a "let's play restaurant" quality; it reminded me of the "pretend" restaurants I would create in the basement of my parents' home when I was a child. It even had some of the same dishes that I served (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, root-beer floats)!
Cook and owner Carl Robison told me this morning that the restaurant's closing was "a big disappointment."
"Our landlord just wouldn't work with us," Robison says. "But I'm looking around at different locations, probably outside of Bonner Springs. This restaurant was the kind of place that Bonner Springs needed, but the people just didn't support it."
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Yeah, this isn't a real surprise to me. I ate there once when they opened and people were seriously telling me not to order certain things because they were so bad. I still stayed and ate, and the people were nice but they just weren't very good at what they did. They claimed to have home made desserts but it was just instant out of the box stuff from what I could tell. So that was a let down. There's no where to eat in Bonner besides fast food anyway. The Tea Room was the only place I ever went in downtown and now that's gone so I probably won't visit much anymore, maybe just to go to DQ or something.
Starting your own restaurant based on being a good cook is like saying, "You wrote a good book report. You should start your own publishing company." It takes more than good food to make a successful restaurant. It isn't about cooking food, but about running a business. Unless you have a successful background in marketing, accounting, human resources, and public relations or are incredibly well financed your restaurant will most likely fail. You have to be prepared to pump your own money into a restaurant for two years without making a dime of profit while you build up a loyal clientelle. If you can weather that storm, you will still most likely fail. It is a tough business and you have to compete with massive corporations that can buy their products for less, have figured out how to eliminate any waste, and have years of marketing to build their reputations. Even some of those fail.
This is why I still wear an apron.
Completely agree, jjskck. If it were just what the town needed, it wouldn't have closed. There are several "home cooking" restaurants in the area. And, if I want "home cooking" I'll stay home and cook. I don't need someone to mash potatoes or open and heat a can of green beans for me.
The Red Fortune and Freseros do a brisk business, offering foods that would require an extensive pantry for me to prepare. I will spend my $$ there.
"This restaurant was the kind of place that Bonner Springs needed, but the people just didn't support it."
Unfortunately, the second clause in that sentence contradicts the first. It always makes me cringe when a business owner finds fault in the clientele rather than the business model.
I don't wish the guy ill, and I'm probably taking it out of context...
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