The Ways People Are Funding Their Restaurants

Findings from an article on Eater, and from me

One of the questions I like to ask restaurant owners is, “How did you raise the money to open your place?”

Through the years, I’ve gotten many different types of answers, and I’ve also met the investors who help restaurants come to life. It has probably never been more expensive or more daunting to open the doors, especially given the supply chain hiccups that linger after the pandemic.

Even a storefront can cost $150,000 to $200,000 to open; a full-service restaurant can range from $400,000 to millions, depending on the location and the scope of the project.

To put it bluntly, the restaurant business is not a cheap proposition, which explains why franchises, with their lower cost of entry, can be so attractive.

Eater recently posed that question to a series of owners and received a variety of stories. I’ve got other impressions to add to their findings.