Cabarete Restaurants For Sale

According to an article in yesterday's Puerto Plata Digital it's the macuteo
Puerto Plata Digital

The reason so many are for sale is that they are looking to sell before the next influx. I know restaurant owners both in Sosua and Cabarete and it sounds like a tough business. Specifically in Cabarete, the good restaurants do OK, the bad ones fold up after a couple of months. Please, if you are interested in the business, talk to the neighbors first.

the ones on the beach do well ...but some of the food is decidedly yukky and insubstantial...... but well presented lol

Very easy to know why so many restaurant for sale.
Count how many seats available.(offer)
Count how many people in restaurants and looking for a restaurant.

a hight % of vacancy seats every days all the long.

Why the dichonomy Land/business.
It is an excellent investment for landlord.
They ask for maximum rent in US$ , explaining you the tenant before did not know how to manage.
You do not ask for the tenant before the tenant before because you do not want to know you want to buy a dream.

The one I love is Seafood World Restaurant & car wash for sale near the entrance to Callejon. On the market for $1.6 million! Never had a client there that I could see.

There are a few successful ones. But right next door are ones that have never hit it. Success of restaurants here is best judged

Without seeing the books, I'd say in no particular order and not listing all...
Doing the best: Jose O'Shays, Lax, Casanova, La Casita de Papi, Onno's, Friends, Bliss, Marabu, La Cosita (drinks only at night-no food), Locos d'Enfrente, Hexenkessel, Pomodoro
Doing okay: Ocean Taste, Bambu (drink sales at night), La Campagna
Not well: Miro, Blu, Calamar, new Steak house

Blu was dismantled this week... not sure if new owners or existing owners doing the remodeling

Onno's is rumored to be closing down in a couple of weeks for a 2 week period & re-opening 'new & improved' under new ownership.

Lot of other little restaurants around, also went to En Bocca this week for the first time. Atmosphere good, steak excellent, other dishes +/-... at 20% less price, would be fantastic. At 400-700 an entree & 300 for a salad, it should be better.

Most properties along the beach you'd be buying the business, but not the land. You'd pay a lease to the property owner.

Also, I've been led to believe that some of the properties' ownership has been in dispute in the last year or so with court cases going on (down around the Onno's, Bambu area and westward for a few restaurants). Not sure if that's been resolved.

Would really pay to spend some time in the town (a year or so) living, working, and learning. You're not going to pick up all the idiosynchrosies of doing business in this town with a few holiday trips or real estate exploratory trips. There's a lot to know & learn about how the business owners do and do not get along, how promotions are or are not coordinated amongst them, how issues such as late night drink sales are resolved and paid for, etc, etc.
There's also a lot to learn about how to successfully deal with Dominican employees. Lots of tricks that make sense & work well - but you won't intuitively know them.

Then, if you're dealing with not just a bar, but a disco - well there's a s**tload of other concerns.

Not sure you'd get good books from anyone to see how they've truly done - or that other restaurant owners could begin to fill you in on all the little issues even if they were inclined to do so.

Now... people have been successful - but they've worked really hard, were very smart, and probably had pretty deep pockets to get themselves started. When Jose O'Shays moved in after replacing New Wave, their business was slow for 12-18 months. Wasn't helped by 9/11, but it still took a while for them to build up their clientele.

Good luck... we could stand to see some new restaurants with quality food and good prices!

Yup, the more I think about it... if you have deep pockets to buy a restaurant, sock that money away, rent an apt here, and become a manager at one of the existing restaurants. 6 months later if you want to go out on your own, you'd be better prepared and less likely to lose your shirt. It's a small investment of time & delayed earnings before starting your own restaurant venture.

jose o shays is great if you want to stay at home.....not awfully caribbean and that rock music is in dire straights lol

naturelover said:

jose o shays is great if you want to stay at home.....not awfully caribbean and that rock music is in dire straights lol

Click to expand...

The thing is, a lot of folk do want exactly that! To go somewhere 'unfamiliar' and yet be familiar too. Great beach, great weather and pretty girls mixed with something 'safe' feeling. If that's enough to part the tourist from their dollar, then my only problem is, it's not my bar!

I agree with the comments about Jose O'Shays as it's the most glaring example of a foreign themed restaurant. However, if you think going to Lax, Casanova, La Casita, or any other restaurant on the beach in the center of town is any more Dominican - you're kidding yourself. There's not a Dominican restaurant on the beach in the center of Cabarete. None of them qualify in terms of menu. American or European, yes. Dominican no. In a few you can order la bandera, but that's it.

majority of staff on the beach restaurants appear not to be dominican either...which is a shame

Had just one meal at lunchtime at Jose O'Shays since we came to live here, thought it was overpriced and had to send my ribs back as they were still frozen in the centre - would not recommend it to anyone and certainly would not take my family or friends there. They did cook the ribs a little more after I sent them back but did not even present them on a clean plate - not even a one star rating from me!