<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ElmhurstNick:
So, we get the full national chain conglomerates such as Brinker (Chili's, Romano Macaroni Grill) and Darden (Red Lobster and Olive Garden), or the regional multi-concept chains such as Lettuce Entertain You here in Chicago.</font>
I don't mind local chains like lettuce entertain you in Chicago or McCormick & schmick's in Portland OR. It's when they get too big for one owner to keep track of that they get out of hand. A perfect example is UNO's pizzeria. Once a defining bulwark of 'Chicago cuisine', they have gone so corporate that the product has become irrelevant. It might as well be Pizza Hut.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ElmhurstNick:
In some of these situations, new restaurants get funded by rounding up forty guys that want to invest $30k each to say they own a restaurant. The management firm makes it money by getting exclusive contracts for supervising construction, providing HR and quality control services, marketing, accounting, operations, etc. If that restaurant fails, the management firm might still have even made a profit.</font>
Exactly. Not to mention the supply problem. Mom & pop can buy their foodstuffs from local merchants and farmers who take pride in their products. The corporates buy from other corporates, so they serve Kraft and Oscar Mayer instead of buying locally. They don't have a choice because they are too big. one local farmer can't grow enough to supply every Bennigans. So the corporates go to the corporate machine farms where the ethic is that one bad apple DOESN'T spoil the whole bunch, it just ends up in your hot apple McPie.
[This message has been edited by HigherFlyer (edited 10-30-2003).]