Lavar Arrington's Restaurant Goes Bankrupt

I have a buddy whose dad owns a Five Guys, they are not easy. Ground beef is expensive and leaves very little room for error. Espically when you don't freeze our meat, if you over order you could be dumping a lot of money in the form of spoiled meat into the trash can a few days later.

Love 5 Guys,doesn't hurt either when the Prez and the Mrs stop by .:food-smil

Restaurant business is probably one of the hardest business to be succesful in. Food cost kills you.

Especially the cost of cheese in the last year or so. Insanely expensive. Pizzerias are getting killed.

My dad used to always tell me "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should". Just because a celebrity can open restaurant/club/bar, doesn't mean he should. Crispy Cream and Starbucks could have learned that lesson too.

My question is why did Lavar even want to open up a restuarant in the first place? I am not sure how much Lavar made while with the Redskins and Giants, but lets say on the low end he took in $30 million total. So after taxes lets he has $15 million in the bank. You can take that $15 million and invest in something super conservative making 5% and pull in $750,000/year before taxes - if someone can't live on that without lifting a finger they need some serious financial help. So I would like to know - who is advising Lavar on his financial investing and why do we see countless stories about athletes and high profile entertainers who invest in businesses and are now practiclly broke? I mean look at Mike Vick - why on Earth is he in so much debt with what he made?

Cause family members and friends talk them into this crap.

I was speaking in turning a profit but yes those are major headaches as well. You basically want to run with a 30% food cost, this is very hard to do when folks are stealing from you (how many business can their products be stolen by swallowing them? ), mistakes, spoilage, etc...

Ever wonder why there are so many Pizza places? It is probaly the easiet restaurant model to run. A pizza cost like a $1 to make and they charge like what $13 for a large. As long as you keep a close eye on your cheese it would be hard to fail becuse of food cost, so much built in profit.I actually own a pizza restaurant as a side business. The food costs still run 26-28% (we do subs, pasta too). The cheese is the hardest to track and most expensive (although cheese costs are actually down over the last 6 months). Getting the cooks to consistently measure the cheese is difficult.

The actual labor costs when you figure taxes etc. runs about the same percentage as food. Making sure the employees are being productive even in slow hours is hard to do. Then you have drivers who like to stop by their buddies place between deliveries, frequent "smoke breaks", waitresses who like to talk all shift, etc. The fun never ends.

At the end of the day, even in the weakened economy we're keeping our heads above water, so we're very thankful.

I mean look at Mike Vick - why on Earth is he in so much debt with what he made?Repaying $ 6.5M, legal fees, weed, dog food, dog steriods, etc. That stuff ain't cheap.

I actually own a pizza restaurant as a side business. The food costs still run 26-28% (we do subs, pasta too). The cheese is the hardest to track and most expensive (although cheese costs are actually down over the last 6 months). Getting the cooks to consistently measure the cheese is difficult.

The actual labor costs when you figure taxes etc. runs about the same percentage as food. Making sure the employees are being productive even in slow hours is hard to do. Then you have drivers who like to stop by their buddies place between deliveries, frequent "smoke breaks", waitresses who like to talk all shift, etc. The fun never ends.

At the end of the day, even in the weakened economy we're keeping our heads above water, so we're very thankful.
Good to here your business is doing OK. What's the name of your restaurant and where is it located again?

Yes, please post the name and location of your restaurant - glad to support a skins fan.

I'll help Slingin' Sammy out. Here you go

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