How Successful would a fine dining restaurant be?

missymoon said:

Hi everyone, my family and I are starting our paperwork for residency there. My husband is a chef so we have been researching how profitable for us owning a fine dining restaurant would be versus a more bistro type restaurant. Can anyone shed some light on this? It may help to know what area we are looking to live and it is Sousa.

Thank you :::cheeky:

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Firstly, welcome to the family of DR1. When are you looking to move to Sosua - can only assume that is you are seeking residency before you arrive, you must be planning to come here to live permanently. Have you found a property to rent or buy here yet? More on topic regarding your question is how do you define 'fine dining', what sort of prices would you charge for this type of establishment and where, more specifically, would you anticipate the location?

missymoon said:

Hi everyone, my family and I are starting our paperwork for residency there. My husband is a chef so we have been researching how profitable for us owning a fine dining restaurant would be versus a more bistro type restaurant. Can anyone shed some light on this? It may help to know what area we are looking to live and it is Sousa.

Thank you :::cheeky:

Click to expand...

In my mind - definitely bistro-type. You will orient your business on tourists mostly as with current prices expats practically stopped eating-out with very few exceptions.

Tourists still do but with the deepening recession it will be lucky enough to have them keep coming for vacations at all, without any "fine dinning". The most "fine dinnig" restaurant in Sosua Pierre Georgio is empty practically all the time.
Cheap faster food will be much more popular. Like Tom`s Scandinavian Bar.

If you are generous and will offer "happy hours" like Brittania ( $99DR a complete big hearty meal !!) you will be very popular and loved. In this case I guarantee support of myself and of my numerous friends and guests/visitors. Good unselfish ungreedy businesses deserve support.
Greed deserves dust.

Nicely as missymoon asked her original question, it doesn't appear that she really wanted feedback or certainly didn't acknowledge it or answer my previous questions in Post 2. I asked about the whereabouts of possible premises for this 'fine dining' establishment merely because I believe that restaurants of this type (and many other businesses) are successful or fail due to one major aspect, i.e. location, location, location.

With respect, I disagree with AK74's comments in that I do believe that for special occasions we will happily pay the extra price for 'fine dining' - when I say we, I mean ourselves and many of our friends. I believe Embocca is in this category in that the quality of the food and service is unsurpassed in this area (IMHO) but the location is undesirable in that it will never get passing trade but I sincerely hope that the recommendation 'by word of mouth' will ensure its ongoing success - it deserves it.

Location , location, location does not equal Guaranteed success.

There are several new Restaurants and Bar openings and closings each year in Sosua.

This is not new.

Whitehorse was just opened accross from "Central Park" and the owner and son sit there all day and I have never seen more than two tables being occupied at the same time.

I could go on and on but the bottom line here folks, is simply this "Market research"

There are not enough expats to support these establishments.

If you are to rely on tourism, then buy an all Inclusive Resort and sell food that way.

Or you can also do your own research and find this link to the best Restaurants in Sosua and draw your own conclusions.

Sos?a-News - Restaurant Guide

If you have not already found this, then the odds of you being successful are

well.....in the mix !

To open a fine dining restaurant in Sosua you would have to have an air conditioned dining room. This will cost a ton over here. To make up the cost the price of the food would have to be very high. Also if you have a restaurant like this and things are slow what do you do with the food that no one ate for two or three days?

There are just not nearly enough clients here to support something like this.

I remember a former DR1er that tried this. The result is well known to the veterans here.

Bottom line, "You pays your money and you take your chances. "

simply do a restaurant where the food is good and different, also think we are in DR and all the ingredients are not available, or only sometimes...

Why respond to a post from 2008! Close this thread.

deleted (how do you actually delete?!) - I didn't realize the post was 5 years old.

Does anyone know what the result of this was? Did missymoon and hubby open a bistro? Was it successful? Are the still in the country?

closed 5 years old