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s po t l i gh t
W
ould-be restaurateurs often
approach Josh Grapski to “pick
his brain.” That’s not surprising.
Grapski is president of La Vida Hospitality,
which owns and operates Nage and Big
Chill Surf Cantina on Route 1 in Rehoboth
Beach, as well as the Taco Rehoboth food
truck and Crooked Hammock, a brewpub
under construction just outside Lewes.
Grapski can generally separate them into
three categories. There are the home chefs,
who want to share their recipes with the
masses. Others are attracted by the lifestyle.
“Man, your business looks like so much
fun,” they tell Grapski. “I would love to
work in a restaurant — it wouldn’t feel like
work.” Then there are those who think their
concept is “a home run.” The proximity to
the sea sweetens the appeal.
They all have one thing in common: “They’re
thinking of one small aspect to a business
that has a lot of components,” says Grapski,
who has a bachelor’s degree in hospitality
management from Cornell University and is
also a graduate of The Restaurant School at
Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia. “They
might have a great apple pie, but they don’t
know how to market it, or how much
money they need to run a business or how
to operate it.”
Yet some will still plunge into the business
— and plenty will fail. According to research
by H.G. Parsa, a professor in Ohio State
University’s Hospitality Management
program, one in four restaurants close or
change hands within the first year. Over
the next three years, the sell-or-fail rate
soars to three in five. The “good” news:
The numbers are standard with most
new businesses, according to the Small
Business Administration and Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
Before you breathe easy, remember that a
resort town can heighten the challenge. As
Carrie Leishman, president and CEO of the
Delaware Restaurant Association, advises,
“Buckle up and go in with your head
on straight.”
Like any other career, you must train for
the profession, says Grapski, who helped
open restaurants in Palm Springs, Calif.,
and New Orleans before joining mentor
Kevin Reading at Nage in 2004. (He
became the sole owner in 2010.) “My first
piece of advice is don’t think about owning
a restaurant until you’ve worked in a
restaurant for at least one full year,” he says.
Mike Clampitt, who in 2013 purchased
Po’ Boys Creole & Fresh Catch in Milton,
gained solid experience in bookkeeping,
inventory and management while working
as the executive chef at Baywood Greens,
a public golf club in Long Neck. A former
chef at the Blue Moon, he’s been in the
restaurant business since he was 15.
Inexperienced owners need good managers.
When Eden changed hands in 2006, much
of the staff stayed on, says Meghan Gardner,
who with husband Lion and two other
partners own the Blue Moon in Rehoboth
Beach. Lion was the executive chef at Eden
at the time the new owners, who were not
experienced, bought it.
Grapski says a staff of full-time residents
is key along the coast, given the many
small communities. “Community relations
are much more important than an ad in
the paper.”
Locals are important in other respects.
Tucked in a tiny strip center, Po’ Boys gets
90 percent of its business from Milton-area
By Pam George
So You Want to
Own a Restaurant?
The demands are a recipe for failure unless one prepares well,
say those who’ve risen to the challenge.
