Posted on 06/07/2015 10:44:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Giorgio Kolaj should have stuck with pizza joints.
The co-founder of the international Famous Famiglia franchise racked up millions in debt, at least two lawsuits and a giant case of agita after he ventured away from his slice-and-a-Coke comfort zone five years ago to open his first fine dining restaurant — Valentino’s on the Green — an 8-iron away from the ninth hole at the Clearview Golf Course in Bayside, Queens.
Located on city land in the former mansion of silent film actor Rudolph Valentino — and used later, in the ’40s, as a summer retreat by then-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia — Valentino’s was a $5 million flop, closing after just two years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
More than half of all new restaurants fail.
True, when I was a kid my Dad and uncle ran a frozen food distributing business, their customers were restaurants and night clubs around NYC. That business was tough enough, but running a profitable restaurant is even more difficult.
Most new restaurants don’t even operate in the black for the first year.
My Mom and step Dad were in the restaurant biz and so I grew up working and learning all about it from the inside.
Is this one of the city-owned buildings that REQUIRES Unionized restaurant employees?
See what happens when you don’t pay your employees a living wage?
Bad spot, this the third owner that hasn’t made it.
In Manhattan, there’s a ton of 99 cent pizza joints that sell nothing but pizza slices and Coke. I don’t know how they pay the rent but the lines are out the door and the pizza is not that bad.
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