We promise, you don't have to expand your restaurant right now.

Author: Molly Stephens

You did it! You opened your restaurant/bar concept, built a stunning social media presence, hired a capable staff, and made it through your first year as a small business owner!! We are so proud of you! You’ve created a lovely space in your community that provides an amazing service, where friends and loved ones can gather, and maybe you’re even turning a profit! What’s next?? We know, you’re considering a second location, maybe that little cocktail bar you’ve always dreamed of, with the sexy lighting and velvet couch. 

DON’T DO IT. 

It’s easy to fall for the delusional notion of unbridled success, sitting the helm of a rapidly expanding restaurant group. We’ve all seen the write-ups in local publications about the local brewery that skyrocketed to top 25 national craft brands within a decade; they started in their basement! We frequent the dumpling spot that started with a humble stall in the farmer’s market and now has 6 brick-and-mortar locations, all a little different, yet delightfully cohesive. If it can be them, why not you? It’s not gonna be you, babe. 

Starting with the obvious, let’s talk about costs. Sure, a new concept in a new neighborhood could hit an untapped market, bring in more loyal guests, and expand your brand recognition. You already did it once, and learned so much from your original opening, there’s no way you’ll make the same mistakes again. And it seems statistically improbable that the issues you ran into the first time around (that delayed liquor license, the asbestos, the crooked flooring, the faulty wiring, the late shipment of your bar top, whatever, whatever) could happen again. They will probably happen again, in newer, stranger ways. I don’t really know what curse was placed upon this industry in the days of yore to ensure whatever may go wrong often will, but we must live within the realities of loving our careers in a cursed field. Openings cost a fortune, and while you may know how to do better research on locations, vendors, and materials now, it is still going to cost more than you think. Training a new staff, and training them well enough to set them up for success, is a large investment in itself, and one often overlooked. But the biggest cost in an expansion is that of your time and sanity. You simply cannot be in two places at once. No matter how well trusted your GMs are, or talented your staff is, there will be things you are simply required to attend to. The old saying is “opening a second restaurant is 2.5 times the work,” and that seems to be underselling it. From my experience (and the lived experience of many of my comrades in this industry), what happens more often than not, is you’ll be pulled in too many directions, too stressed about offsetting your newly-acquired debt, have more investors to satisfy, and less time to spend in your spaces or with your family. This line of work is already notorious for having no work-life balance, and choosing to expand too quickly will catapult you over that cliff. Running a small, local empire of off-the-wall concepts, and having multiple instagrammable spaces with your name on the door quite simply comes with too high an opportunity cost. 

I’m writing this from Cincinnati, Ohio, where of the 41 restaurant closures of 2023, a staggering 16 were local chains or part of a restaurant/bar group that has expanded within 5 years. Many were beloved, and heartbreaking to see go. We rooted for them when we heard about the new spots, spent our dollars there, and had wonderful parasocial relationships with their front of house staff. We, as workers, have such a nebulous sense of stability in this field, so this is the part where we pivot away from ownership to discuss what happens to the line-level folks who keep the dream alive as best they can. Those of us who work these bars and man these lines often report having seen dramatic changes in rapport with our bosses when expansions happen. What was once a helpful, mutually beneficial situation wherein everyone was committed to the same universal cause of success swiftly transmutes into fraught exchanges, micromanagement, or, alternatively, such a hands-off ownership style the staff feels as though we are flailing without support from the guy signing our checks. Resentments can grow from the reallocation of resources toward a new project, our crowds (and for front of house, tips) can dwindle as everyone flocks to the new joint to show support. We can feel forgotten. Almost anyone worth their Maldon salt in this industry has worked a new opening; there’s a dramatic hope there. If it’s a well-known owner, potentially even more so. Every new job can feel like the one we can stay with for a long time, and no one is immune from the allure of the brand new equipment and smell of fresh paint. But in reality, with the complete over-saturation of places to eat and drink, after opening weekend things may not meet projections. Unrequited expectations dash the prospects we built up with the enthusiasm of an anticipative owner goading them along. Often these new hires are led to believe this new opening offers the promise of financial security, a way to climb another rung on the extremely made-up ladder of clout in hospitality, the schedule we have been waiting for, name it, we’ve been sold it. Can’t blame us for having some hope left. 

This isn’t to say that maybe your community does have a space for your newest, innovative idea. Maybe your quirky flavors of ice cream will take the newly-gentrifying neighborhood by storm. But I implore you to deeply consider the following: Why?? Why stretch yourself thinner financially, bring more stress and less quality time upon yourself and your family, and sign up a host of new workers for a potentially tenuous employment situation? Do you have a message to spread, a gift to give, a passion to share? Or does this all boil down to your own ego-driven desire to be featured in a glossy photo spread in your city’s alt-publication that praises the photogenic nature of your bathrooms? Be where your feet are, celebrate your neighborhood, and keep doing what you’re doing. If the success is pouring in and you’re doing well, no one will ever turn on you for being loyal to your concept right now. Investing in your original ideas, the staff that’s been with you, and the community that’s making your wildest, weirdest dream come true is enough.

About the Author: Molly Stephens is a bartender and writer living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She draws perspective and inspiration from a lifetime in a bizarre career, being extremely online, and her strange imagination. Her current writing can be found in PR for Cincinnati hip hop artists, and she never leaves her house.