Going to "War"! -The Restaurant Turf War Begins!

So, A little background. The family restaurant that I took over has been the most dominant game in town for about 20 years. There's another competing place about a mile away that's really small and does a small amount of Take-out business. We allow it. But by and large, we own the block and thus the neighborhood. It's nice to be the big dog. We closed for a few years when we had a fire in 2019-2021, but since we've been back, we've been busy. We've had the option to dictate a lot of how we do things and hope the customers adjust. We started the 6 day work week while closing the afternoons, and are now doing the 5. We decide when our New Year's celebration is and when people think Chinese food, they think of us. Nice!

But today, I find out, all that's changing. We no longer are the Big dogs around here. We may be the OLD Dogs, but there's a bigger dog coming and they're coming for our turf. Another Chinese restaurant group has announced that they'll be moving into our neighborhood, a mile away. Starting next month, they're going to start doing take out and deliveries while they remodel an old fast food joint. They're opening across the street from the other small Take-out place, which I think for them is going to be the beginning of the end.

Am I worried about losing business? Yes. Will we lose some business? absolutely. I think foreseeing that and saving money now is probably a good idea. Those dreams for a fishing boat this summer will have to be put on pause unfortunately! But more than fear of losing money, I'm frankly just a bit offended by the whole thing. It's not that because our families know each other and they've done this that offends me.... it's the idea that a group of people scouted the area, did their research and got together and said "We can go in there and take their turf"- Welp... Challenge accepted.

The fear and dread I felt this morning, that this more experienced group with more money was coming to invade MY town and try and surf MY Wave has been transformed to a defensive war like mentality. I've already alerted the troops. I've gathered my staff, my soldiers and told them of the incoming invasion. I've told them that they have banded together, analyzed the landscape and feel like they can come in here and try and take our land and surf our wave. They must feel like we're weak. I've told my staff that we have no choice but to blow them out of the water. The preemptive counter offensive begins now! There are no half measures in war. We will pull out all the stops! We will go above and beyond to claim and defend what is rightfully ours.

If you haven't figured out by now... i'm not a very conventional guy. I've always just marched to the beat of my own drum, and for the most part, it's worked out. One major thing I learned during the remodel of the business was the idea that I just need to "do me" and be true to me and hope the people will like what I've done as an expression of me. And they do. I spent so much time going back and forth trying to predict what designs and color schemes that the customers would want. It's impossible. But ultimately just decided to go with my gut and build something that I liked and just hoped at the end of the day the customers would like it too. "If you build it, they will come" - I did, and they have, and they love it. It makes me happy to hear it every time. One of my biggest victories in life, and one of the best lessons I've learned.

So what's next? Well, the fire under my ass is burning. Myself, my staff (my soldiers) have a renewed vigor and sense of purpose. We can no longer sit back on our laurels and ride on our reputation. We must dominate through merit and execution. I've had lots of dreams and ideas about how I envision my restaurant growing. None of which are conventional. I think our best course of action is to play to our strengths and innovate, explore, and dare to be different- because we aren't ordinary. We're special. What we have and what we're doing and where we are is not cookie cutter cut and paste like that other group. We're 1 of 1 and I think being able to try new things and push our vision with precision and agility will allow us to keep our stronghold in our little corner of the world.

So, 2023 - That's what's in store for me. With the changing of the guards this year (my uncles in the kitchen are retiring) and now the new challenger in town, this will be the most difficult business year of my life. It is do or die. Lets hope it's the former, not the latter.

Lets Fucking Go!!

-Much love and many thanks!

LawN