Do you think this new restaurant in town is going to make it?

Given your review, probably not.

Hm. Nope.

The only restaurants that can really afford to close early in the day are those that serve some REALLY damn good breakfast and already have a good standing in the town. So, probably not.

I’m going there tonight!! no

Small businesses in my opinion should focus very hard on customer satisfaction and what they want.Building a good reputation and repeat customers is the best way to start for them and showing people in the area that this is their “town restaurant” would help them. Bigger chains of restaurants can get away with it to an extent honestly because one bad customer review won’t ruin them. In this case it seems that lost one customer already(you), and if they are hardly getting business as is…well it is not good.

Assuming this place is run by local people not a big business, they will likely be on there way out if they go this route.

@Val123 What kind of town is this? What is the morning crowd like there? What is the amount employees they have?

Get back to me in 5 years.

Drat! Wanted to fix my “relieved” to “received” but my edit window was closed!

What dumb hours. A lot of people don’t go to lunch until 1pm during their work day. I wouldn’t darken their doorstep again either, if I were you. I think people could deal with the weird business hours, but the rude staff? That will probably kill it faster.

@Steve_A Its a small town (12,000 pops) in Kansas. From my understanding, the guy who opened the place moved his really successful original restaurant to this new location, in town, but he changed the name, so I wouldn’t have known it was the same guy unless my husband had told me so. I don’t remember the specific hours of the old restaurant, but it was always packed. Not so this new place, at least not when we went there.

I don’t know the amount of employees, and I have no idea what the morning crowd is like. I just think that if you offer lunch, you should be open at least through the whole lunch hour!

@knitfroggy Yes….I mean, I could understand the impatient looks if it was a couple minutes before 1:00, but it was 12:30 and, in fact, we were out by 12:55…..Having owned a small business in town myself, I know what it’s like, and I feel bad for anyone who starts one when it’s so obvious it’s going to fail. At one time we had a bridal store here in town. She made it a year or so, but every time I went past the store I just had to shake my head. What kind of demand is there for bridal stuff in a small mid-western town….with Wichita (and cheaper prices) just 60 miles away?

Well whatever “it” is they can shove “it” up there ass.If you’re a believer in hearsay that is.

@ucme What?

@Val123 “I don’t know the amount of employees, and I have no idea what the morning crowd is like. I just think that if you offer lunch, you should be open at least through the whole lunch hour!”

I agree, I am not sure what he is thinking…seems to be a lose for him.Maybe he will change the hours once he has settled in?

@ChazMaz I don’t give it that long. 18 months, maybe. Just like the gal who ran a restaurant in that location before them. Another one of those, “What are you thinking situations….”

@Val123 Yes, with Wichita even closer to my town, we have a lot of business come and go. We can get to Wichita in about 40 minutes and pay way less. It’s really sad, but it’s true.

I love hamburgers at 5am! I can’t wait to go! ~

I would imagine that they might change their ways a bit as they soon realize that they aren’t getting many customers. Whether or not that saves them, only time can tell, but it sounds like they are destined for failure if they remain as is.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities I don’t know if it’s the case with this guy, because if what my husband told me is true, he ran a thriving restaurant before, but I think sometimes people open a small business for egotistical reasons. Like, the person who had a restaurant there before….she was just a strutting little bantam rooster, impressed by her own “importance” (in her mind) in the town. Totally closed off from any suggestions for improving.

@Val123 No! Which was perfectly clear in my answer.I only have your opinion of the place therefore any answer can only be given based on hearsay from yourself.Easy really.

@Val123 I’d be curious to see what happens or what he does in the upcoming months, keep us updated?

@ucme Well, it was the facts, ma’am, except for the last about my not wanting to go there. It’s not like I made up the hours! What I was asking about was your comment “Well whatever “it” is they can shove “it” up there ass.” What “it” are you talking about?

@Steve_A K, I can do that. I mean, gosh. If they offered something spectacular like an amazing variety of waffles, and emphasized that they specialize in breakfast I think it might be different. But it’s just a regular run-of-the-mill truck-stop-in-town of which we have two others, both of which are very successful.

I would give this restaurant one more chance. if the same conditions remained, then at least you will know the conditions there were the same as before and your conclusion was correct. they may just have had a bad day, the time you visited.

This reminds me of a movie from… the 80s? early 90s? ... The Experts. The premise was a few guys from New Jersey duped into relocating to a Russian spy training facility in Siberia set up to look like “typical American small town”. They were told it was Nebraska, and they believed that. Their purpose—which they didn’t know—was to be the ‘typical American’ who would verify that the Russian spies had a valid patter and way of life, so that the spies could infiltrate the USA and pass as Americans. Their first day in town they went out to get something to eat and came to the only restaurant in town to see the sign “Closed for Lunch”.

Pretty good movie, actually. Maybe your restaurant is run by spies.

Perhaps you can contact this owner and convey your comments. Every restaurant owner values customer feedback and your observations could help him make this new venture better serve his customers needs.

@john65pennington Well, the first time we visited, again looking for breakfast at 1:15 after a lazy Saturday morning, they were closed….so we went down the block to the other place which was packed with breakfast (and lunch) eaters…..

@CyanoticWasp Um…did they have to go to great lengths to hide the fact that they were in Siberia?? I mean, Nebraska’s weather isn’t quite like that!

@Cruiser Maybe I will. But…it just seems common sense to me to at least stay open until 2….

If they are listed on Urban Spoon, then give them a bad review.

@erichw1504 I’m not gonna do that! No need to. And that would just be catty, IMO.

@Val123 So, you’re going to let other innocent breakfast eaters try this place out and have bad experiences like you did? That’s just flat out rude!

@CyanoticWasp I loved that movie! I had forgotten about it. I think it may have been what started my love of John Travolta! May have to see if I can get it on Netflix…

@erichw1504 Yes! My eating experience wasn’t bad….the waitress was pleasant enough after that first exasperated glance when we came in, so it’s not like anyone is in danger! The main thing is the closing at 1:00….

@Val123 Nebraska’s weather isn’t always so different from Siberia’s. (Siberia is a big place; it’s not all frozen tundra.)

@knitfroggy thanks; I thought it had Travolta in it, but I was too lazy to look it up on IMDB.

@CyanoticWasp I guess I wouldn’t know!

You can’t tell much from a place that’s just opened. Go back in a month and give it another shot. Plenty of places around my house close by 1pm. Some of them by 3pm. The hours don’t bother me and usually a crappy staff does not bother me if the food is good and it’s not an arm and a leg to eat there.

This is a wonderful discussion and topic of interest to all. Thanks so much.

From what you’ve said, it doesn’t sound promising. Just wondering why the customer’s kid throwing a ball at the window is in your bullet list of reasons why the place stinks.. it’s not like that’s a regular feature, nor is it really the restaurant’s fault. I’ve waited tables for long enough to tell you that people let their kids do really annoying stuff in restaurants.

Since you have no idea whether this restaurant is being used as a tax write-off or to launder money, then I would say that nobody’s guess here means a thing.
Is this in an area where organized crime is pretty heavy?
Like New York, Chicago, Kansas city, Detroit, L.A., Houston, Dallas, Miami, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon…..etc…etc…etc..

LOL! No! Small Midwestern town, of about 12,000. There IS a business here I wonder about though. It’s a dirty little thrift store outside of town that’s been “open” for at least as long as I’ve been here…14 years. Nobody shops there. I went to drop some stuff off once, and the guy told me my “shit wasn’t worth shit because we only take clothes!” and I never went back. No clue whatsoever how they could have stayed open, unless it’s for the reason you suggest @davidbetterman. The restaurant…I doubt it. If it’s still there 5 years from now, with apparently no business, I’ll rethink it though!