The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on August 17, 2010, 09:30:27 PM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9466471
Oh my.
Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-16-10 04:30 PM
CHIEF S ITTING BULL, THE BIRD-SMACKING STONED RED-FACED PRIMITIVE
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO THE 3rd QUARTER FUND DRIVE FOR SKINS'S ISLAND!!!
Original message
We're thinking about buying an Inn / bar / restaurant.
The numbers are promising, the price of entry is cheap. The current room rental would cover the monthly mortgage payment.
Our team: -Mrs R, the best cook and the hardest-working woman on the planet.
-Her friend, who has experience in large-scale cooking (she cooks and manages the kitchens for two nursing homes now, and has run a pizza/Italian restaurant in the past.
-Our son, who has lots of experience running the banquet / event business for national hotel chains.
-Me, who is a lunatic but also well-seasoned in the marketing business. And I can do maintenance / renovation stuff during my slack time. (Really. It may be hard for you to picture me with hammer in hand and nails in lips, but I can replace a window or do plumbing or wiring with the best of them. And I can build furniture, too.)
How's this for a marketing idea? There's a vintage steam-train ride right down the road from this inn, and the train stops at a place by the River that is VERY photogenic. We could offer a wedding package that includes a train ride, a wedding ceremony next to the River, then the reception at the Inn. Is that romantic, or what?
My son and I are going to check out the place's physical plant tomorrow. Only if it passes our muster will we let Mrs R and her friend go there, because they have a tendency to get too worked up.
Oh, and the other thing? We could live there, since there are apartments as well as single rooms. I know, that's both good and bad, but mostly good from a financial standpoint.
I'd have to keep running my advertising agency for at least a while, but what an adventure would that be, doing innkeeping, something I've never done before? At my age, you don't get too many chances for an adventure...
Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-17-10 03:57 PM
CHIEF S ITTING BULL, THE BIRD-SMACKING STONED RED-FACED PRIMITIVE
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO THE 3rd QUARTER FUND DRIVE FOR SKINS'S ISLAND!!!
Response to Reply #9
26. It's in Ivoryton; I don't want to post the name, but I bet you can figure it out.
In Connecticut, I bet.
And then this downer shows up, being a Fat Che in the punch bowl:
pitohui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-16-10 07:58 PM
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO THE 3rd QUARTER FUND DRIVE FOR SKINS'S ISLAND!!!
Response to Original message
14. what happened to your house? can you sell it in this market?
trust me to be the little voice of negativity
seriously, tho, i'll tell you what i tell everyone -- work in the restaurant business for 2 years as an employee and if you still want to own a restaurant, go for it
everyone i know who followed this piece of wisdom, starting w. myself, opted NOT TO
i know, this place is for sale "now" but you know what? there is ALWAYS a place for sale "now"
another thing we've observed, it's the 3 tries rule, there are locations where one guy has a restaurant, fails, another guy thinks it's cute, still fails, another guy thinks it's cute, still fails...those particular locations, and i don't know why, will ALWAYS fail, the biggest predictor of a restaurant failing around here is if there has been another restaurant before, on that site, if there has, and it failed (i'm not talking abt the owner dies, i'm talking it never made money) then the new restaurant is also destined to fail
don't know why, but it seems to hold good around here
however, "around here" being louisiana it is EXTREMELY competitive because we have so many top restaurants out there for tourists to choose from...it may be the case in your restaurant that there's nowhere decent to eat
speaking of "nowhere decent to eat," i've noticed this is a problem linked to "hard to get a liquor license," some places up north you apparently have to pay someone off for a v. limited number of liquor licenses (i'm told this is the case for pennsylvania hence why you run into areas in that state w. really shit restaurants)...check and see how hard it will be for you to sell liquor, there's a huge mark-up on specialty martini's these days, it can make your bottom line if you can sell a $14 martini, it can break you if someone walks in, wants a beer, and gets told, "oh this is a BYOB place..."
again, my advice may not be much good for your location but it's something i would look at HARD before i purchased -- you won't be able to sell many wedding packages if you can't sell champagne, to be butt obvious about it -- you may have already thought of this but i'm just saying
people don't usu. sell profitable businesses, not really...there needs to be a pretty good story such as the owner is 89 and dying to explain this... :-)
at the end of the day, i will confess that i would really have to be on my last leg financially before i'd buy a restaurant/B&B, your life is no longer your own once you do that, i have some good friends in the business, but it's 24/7 work BECAUSE you live there, and because it's a B&B rather than a "big" business for some reason everyone wants a special price, sheesh
oh, and don't forget, how easy will it be for you to accept credit cards? a lot of credit cards now are giving cash-backs, esp. discover -- that money doesn't come from discover, it comes right out of the seller's pocket
finally with B&Bs you need to be comfortable requiring NONrefundable reservations, because unlike a large hotel or motel, you can't fill the room at the last minute if the bride backs out, wedding is cxl'd and so on...you don't want to cheat anybody but if they don't show, you cheat yourself if you don't get paid for the empty rooms...one of my friends has compromised and still advertises NONrefundable reservations but if the "no shows" aren't assholes & understand they're the ones who didn't follow the policy she will give them a credit for a future visit...you could try it that way
good luck whatever you decide, i've decided it ain't for me, i'll sleep in a tent under the trees first!
I dunno.
The "'Indian'-giving" Chief S itting Bull likes to break things.
That could be expensive.
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Hmmm- a guy who breaks things and a head chef of nursing home cuisine. Sounds delighful.
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Not sure if he realizes how difficult something like this is, and even though he thinks his wife is a good cook doesn't mean everyone else will.
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Wait until he gets a good dose of government inspections,licenses and insurance fees associated.
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Wait until he gets a good dose of government inspections,licenses and insurance fees associated.
Ya had to go and ruin it! Damn! :banghead:
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Wait until he gets a good dose of government inspections,licenses and insurance fees associated.
Especially in a lovely liberal state like CT.
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Ya had to go and ruin it! Damn! :banghead:
I didn`t even mention having to become a sales tax collector (CT is relentless) and has to start writing checks every month or quarter to the state.
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Wasn't it Walter Mondale who went into the hospitality business after politics? I believe it was him, and he said he had NO IDEA how hard it was to deal within the realm of the state, or words to that effect. The taxes, regulations, very burdensome.
Now, I have a small takeout joint business, so I'm in it on a small scale. It's been quite successful, but man, is it hard work. And, even when you're tired and maybe overwhelmed, you've got to put a cheerful, smiling, welcoming face on, no matter what. I can see Chief S itting Bull snapping at the guests and throwing stuff in the kitchen.
Here's our formula:
Restaurant quality food at fast food prices and pace, achievable due to extremely low overhead.
Location, location, location. Heavy traffic + paper mill nearby.
Cute chicks in tank tops (Hooters on a Mom&Pop scale). The contractors come out in droves.
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Wasn't it Walter Mondale who went into the hospitality business after politics? I believe it was him, and he said he had NO IDEA how hard it was to deal within the realm of the state, or words to that effect. The taxes, regulations, very burdensome.
Now, I have a small takeout joint business, so I'm in it on a small scale. It's been quite successful, but man, is it hard work. And, even when you're tired and maybe overwhelmed, you've got to put a cheerful, smiling, welcoming face on, no matter what. I can see Chief S itting Bull snapping at the guests and throwing stuff in the kitchen.
Here's our formula:
Restaurant quality food at fast food prices and pace, achievable due to extremely low overhead.
Location, location, location. Heavy traffic + paper mill nearby.
Cute chicks in tank tops (Hooters on a Mom&Pop scale). The contractors come out in droves.
Hey, Carl . . . looks like road-trip material, eh?
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pitohui and redstone should try running a dairy farm for a while. At least in the restaurant business, you can get time off.
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Hey, Carl . . . looks like road-trip material, eh?
:cheersmate:
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Wasn't it Walter Mondale who went into the hospitality business after politics? I believe it was him, and he said he had NO IDEA how hard it was to deal within the realm of the state, or words to that effect. The taxes, regulations, very burdensome.
Now, I have a small takeout joint business, so I'm in it on a small scale. It's been quite successful, but man, is it hard work. And, even when you're tired and maybe overwhelmed, you've got to put a cheerful, smiling, welcoming face on, no matter what. I can see Chief S itting Bull snapping at the guests and throwing stuff in the kitchen.
Here's our formula:
Restaurant quality food at fast food prices and pace, achievable due to extremely low overhead.
Location, location, location. Heavy traffic + paper mill nearby.
Cute chicks in tank tops (Hooters on a Mom&Pop scale). The contractors come out in droves.
BSS, Carl, and myself will be conducting "inspections" to assure "quality of service". :hi5:
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BSS, Carl, and myself will be conducting "inspections" to assure "quality of service". :hi5:
The funny part is, I just may be taking a road trip, for work, up in that area in October.
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I didn`t even mention having to become a sales tax collector (CT is relentless) and has to start writing checks every month or quarter to the state.
I'm not going to mention that both Chief S itting Bull and his wife are self-admitted lushes.
Big time, apparently.
If the place has a liquor license, or even just a beer license, the inventory's going to melt faster than snow in July.
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The funny part is, I just may be taking a road trip, for work, up in that area in October.
Sure. :naughty:
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No doubt his current neighbors are in favor of him doing this.
.
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No doubt his current neighbors are in favor of him doing this.
I'm still wondering about the "back story" on Chief S itting Bull leaving his comfortable house in northeastern Massachusetts (somewhere north of Boston) for rural Connecticut, about a year and a half, two years, ago.
I mean, surely the IRS can track one down no matter where one lives.
I don't think the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive has enough credit to buy a business like this.
Sometimes it's easy to forget Chief S itting Bull is 60 years old, maybe 61 by now.
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I'm still wondering about the "back story" on Chief S itting Bull leaving his comfortable house in northeastern Massachusetts (somewhere north of Boston) for rural Connecticut, about a year and a half, two years, ago.
I mean, surely the IRS can track one down no matter where one lives.
I don't think the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive has enough credit to buy a business like this.
Sometimes it's easy to forget Chief S itting Bull is 60 years old, maybe 61 by now.
Only way to make a buck in that industry is to take a page out of the 1930 gangster resorts.
Met a family in Tenn. the male was a biker that did some hard time and became born again.
He saw that his fellow bikers were in need of the Word and he managed to live hand to mouth preaching the story and showing up in schools to warn the kiddies of following a life of crime.
One day he somehow came across a piece of property, perhaps 10 acres with nothing but a 3 car garage on it, plumbing and electricity installed.
The owner themself was about to spend 20 years in prison so selling everything they the family had, gave the owner enough money to bug out before the trial.
This family with the help of biker friends turned that garage into a Church---stolen goods for the transformation into a so called house of God of the Iron Horse.
He never realized just how easy it is to put a REV. in front of his name or get the town to OK his new Church.
Meanwhile his wife got an OK to set up a hot dog stand by the side of the Church in order to feed the hungry travelers, no charge, free food.
No license to sell booze so it was a bring your own bottle. Every Friday and Saturday they had a service where the biker bitches brought in casserole dishes or some one would donate ribs and chicken.
He spread the word of God with the help of the county sheriff in the jails and about his church to the inmates. He received Clergy status at the local hospital and took to wearing priest clothes.
Meanwhile back in the woods, bikers on the lam were building shacks of tin and plywood in case of need, the agreement was that if the builders were not there the shacks could be used by others in need.
This new Rev did charge rent to the shack builders and if they forgot to pay it, the Rev. would rent it out to someone else.
This Man was a pip, really something from the past.
His rules were that no one would do any stealing or even bar hoping in the town or those surrounding it, no speeding, no contact with any police.
No planting or manufacturing of any drugs on the property. He even went so far as to buy a freaking horse to ride about his property to check for garbage or any kind of rule breaking he found. If people wanted to do pot or other drugs they had best behave themselves.
With all the tax breaks he received on the land, his church and his wife's work feeding people for nothing, milage on cars used to take him on errands of mercy, the rent on unused shacks in the woods, and the discounts the professionals give to a REV and family, within less then 10 years he had a bank account that most of us dream of.
His B&B worked out for him, he had no problem with rival biker gangs as this was their last resort-----Sort of like running for the Hole in the Wall gangs had in the 1800 in the mid west.
Yup-O I was there in the early 80's saw it and never want to go back again.
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Well if the "Chief" does this, I'll be expecting to see Gordon Ramsay show up........and say "Hell No!"
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I'm still wondering about the "back story" on Chief S itting Bull leaving his comfortable house in northeastern Massachusetts (somewhere north of Boston) for rural Connecticut, about a year and a half, two years, ago.
I mean, surely the IRS can track one down no matter where one lives.
I don't think the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive has enough credit to buy a business like this.
Sometimes it's easy to forget Chief S itting Bull is 60 years old, maybe 61 by now.
Any one hear a mention of a business plan?
Any person that would even venture a statement about buying a business like S ithead did WITHOUT conducting REAL market research, forcing a look at the current owner's books, even opening those books to an independent CPA and business attorney for review, coupling with a business plan, then showing the results, presuming they are viable, to a bank for potential startup financing, will be BANKRUPT in 48 business hours!!
DUmmy, indeed!
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:beer: Chief S itting Bull is fulla Bull if he thinks for one second that patrons are going to take his usual hate-filled, condescending treatment of others who don't agree with him.
I give him six months to complete financial bankruptsy, to go along with his complete moral and intellectual bankruptsy. :popcorn:
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Any one hear a mention of a business plan?
Any person that would even venture a statement about buying a business like S ithead did WITHOUT conducting REAL market research, forcing a look at the current owner's books, even opening those books to an independent CPA and business attorney for review, coupling with a business plan, then showing the results, presuming they are viable, to a bank for potential startup financing, will be BANKRUPT in 48 business hours!!
DUmmy, indeed!
Who needs all that for a crack/whore house?
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:beer: Chief S itting Bull is fulla Bull if he thinks for one second that patrons are going to take his usual hate-filled, condescending treatment of others who don't agree with him.
I give him six months to complete financial bankruptsy, to go along with his complete moral and intellectual bankruptsy. :popcorn:
Naaah . . . eight months. And it'll eventually get to what Johnny Reb suggests.
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His B&B worked out for him, he had no problem with rival biker gangs as this was their last resort-----Sort of like running for the Hole in the Wall gangs had in the 1800 in the mid west.
Yup-O I was there in the early 80's saw it and never want to go back again.
Holy shit, girl!!!! I smell an AWESOME movie script in there!!!! :bow:
I'm serious...I'm picturing a Sam Shepherd/Sam Elliot or maybe a younger guy like Chris Cooper.
Now you've done it...my muse is giving me a mental handjob. :rotf:
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:beer: Chief S itting Bull is fulla Bull if he thinks for one second that patrons are going to take his usual hate-filled, condescending treatment of others who don't agree with him.
I give him six months to complete financial bankruptsy, to go along with his complete moral and intellectual bankruptsy. :popcorn:
I'm hard put to imagine a DUmmie less suited to making a living through this kind of business than Redstone. Except of course for Bobo the Hobo, but she wouldn't want an inn anyway, just a roach coach.
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Holy shit, girl!!!! I smell an AWESOME movie script in there!!!! :bow:
I'm serious...I'm picturing a Sam Shepherd/Sam Elliot or maybe a younger guy like Chris Cooper.
Now you've done it...my muse is giving me a mental handjob. :rotf:
You actually made SENSE out of what she said?
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You actually made SENSE out of what she said?
Of course! Remember, I get paid to make shit up, just like the Mocha Messiah. Difference is, it's actually in MY job description.
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Update:
Redstone (1000+ posts) Wed Aug-18-10 06:22 PM
CHIEF S ITTING BULL, THE BIRD-SMACKING STONED RED-FACED PRIMITIVE
HAS NOT YET DONATED TO THE 3rd QUARTER FUND DRIVE FOR SKINS'S ISLAND!!!
Response to Original message
37. My son and I went to see the place today. It's amazing how many people who are now considered BIG STARS stayed there in the past, because they acted in the Playhouse around the corner.
I have a lot of thoughts to process right now, but my (and my son's) initial impression is that the place is wonderful and has a ton of potential, but the owner is (in my son's words) a bit sketchy.
We're going to have to look at this very carefully. And I'm going to have to use my best hardheaded business judgement, not my emotions, in order to make a final decision. Though, God, I love the place.
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By the way, I'm starting to get an idea for another book.
There was a half-hour situation comedy on television during the 1970s, in which some guy played a retired psychologist who opened up an inn. My classmates and roommates used to watch it all the time, and comment upon it; I myself would just see split-second images of it while walking past the television on the way to the beer refrigerator, and so I'm not sure the story line it involved.
I'll be checking it out on Google.
Chief S itting Bull as innkeeper; now, that would make a great story.
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By the way, I'm starting to get an idea for another book.
There was a half-hour situation comedy on television during the 1970s, in which some guy played a retired psychologist who opened up an inn. My classmates and roommates used to watch it all the time, and comment upon it; I myself would just see split-second images of it while walking past the television on the way to the beer refrigerator, and so I'm not sure the story line it involved.
I wonder if you're thinking of "Hot L Baltimore?" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_l_Baltimore)
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By the way, I'm starting to get an idea for another book.
There was a half-hour situation comedy on television during the 1970s, in which some guy played a retired psychologist who opened up an inn. My classmates and roommates used to watch it all the time, and comment upon it; I myself would just see split-second images of it while walking past the television on the way to the beer refrigerator, and so I'm not sure the story line it involved.
I'll be checking it out on Google.
Chief S itting Bull as innkeeper; now, that would make a great story.
Frank -- you may be thinking of the second version of the Bob Newhart Show -- he retires and runs an inn in Vermont, I believe. I think it was in the 80s.
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Frank -- you may be thinking of the second version of the Bob Newhart Show -- he retires and runs an inn in Vermont, I believe. I think it was in the 80s.
Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of too, but he said the 70's, which of course got me intellectually "erect." :naughty:
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Frank -- you may be thinking of the second version of the Bob Newhart Show -- he retires and runs an inn in Vermont, I believe. I think it was in the 80s.
Now that you mention it, "Bob Newhart" sounds familiar.
I just never paid attention, but I'm sure it was in the late 1970s.....and if in the 1980s, it had to have been 1980 or 1981, no later.
I'm getting this story-line about Chief S itting Bull always getting drunk and fist-fighting with guests.
Much as the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive does in real life.
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Of course! Remember, I get paid to make shit up, just like the Mocha Messiah. Difference is, it's actually in MY job description.
:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
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Here's the wikiness:
LINK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhart)
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and his wife who owned and operated a historic inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was populated by eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990. TV Guide, TV Land, and other media organizations named its series finale as one of the most memorable in television history.
Bob Newhart plays Dick Loudon, an author of do-it-yourself books. He and his wife Joanna move from New York City to a small, unnamed town in rural Vermont to operate the historic Stratford Inn.[1] Dick is a sane, mild-mannered everyman surrounded by a community of oddballs in a town which exists in an illogical world run by rules that elude him.
Of course in Redstone's case, he'd be the eccentric . . .
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Well, damn, the memory's flawed.
I thought the show was on when I was still in college, but apparently it went on shortly thereafter.
Excresence happens.
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Hi I'm Larry. This is my brother Darrell, and this is my other brother Darrell.
Good stuff. :-)
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Hi I'm Larry. This is my brother Darrell, and this is my other brother Darrell.
Good stuff. :-)
That line pops into my head everytime someone mentions the name Darrell :mental: :-)
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That line pops into my head everytime someone mentions the name Darrell :mental: :-)
Me too. And the guys I know with that name, don't see the humor I do in it. :whatever:
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Not sure if he realizes how difficult something like this is, and even though he thinks his wife is a good cook doesn't mean everyone else will.
In this Bummer economy, I think a restaurant is a pretty lousy idea! From what I've seen around here, goin' out to dinner is pretty low on most peoples agenda. All the places around here are seeing quite a decrease in clientele.
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"bump" in memory of Redstone.