I will second the 24/7 dinner idea. We need an american type dinner here, clean and good prices.
Now if anyone is thinking of opening up an american type cafe on the side walk like in tourist resort areas, forget it. Santiago is real dominican republic, not an off-shoot of sosua and cabarete. Things work differently here. No tourists to begin on top of that, the economy really sucks at the moment. No matter what business you will open up now, it will probably go under in short time. You need to speak good spanish to get anything done here. You need contacts here as well. There is a good chance, 3 more businesses like yourself would open up near you within a year. The copycats just wait around to see who is doing good, then copy the business and everyone goes to hell in the end.
A 24/7 dinner sounds good, but still a risky business. There are plenty of late night famous carts all over the city and then you have marchena who serves all dominican food plus sandwiches. You have super central that is also open 24/7 and serves real campo dominican food. If your prices are gringo, then forget it.
AZB
Hey where have you been. You were away for a while. Good post.
a very slick cafe. One that serves class A expresso and very rich cappuchino in a surrounding like NY, Paris that you mentioned. Maybe a place with an outdoor garden right off the side of the cafe. maybe a cafe with some dolce. Clean bathrooms and to top it off some world class art to sooth the soul. All at very low price and uncrowded in a modern building supported by some rich dude and his family. Now that would be something!
What do you think of that idea?.......oopps it already exists. Sorry. Be back with another idea later.
You have Plaza Lama on that street, the big Orange shop, Pizza Hut and McDonalds seems to do good. Why wouldn't a bar or cafe who sells cold beers survive there ?
AZB claims there are no tourist's in town, how does all the souvenir shops in the area survive ?
how does all the souvenir shops in the area survive ?
Hey John if that's what you want why don't you try the Leon Musuem???
I see that you don't know santiago well.
Almost everyone sells a cold beer anywhere in santiago. So no big deal about selling a cold one. Then people in this town actually work so there aren't any lazy expats siting around drinking beers at 1pm in the afternoon on calle del sol.
98% of the stores on calle del sol are all canal street type stores so no fancy stuff there, hence, no money people wander around there for shopping.
Now its correct Mcdonalds and pizza hut exist on the same street but remember, one sells burgers and other sells pizza. They have been around for many years and both places cater to 100% dominican customers.
Now if you are thinking of opening up a fancy street cafe, I am not even sure if you can put chairs on the sidewalk. It may not even be allowed on that particular street.
Anyone who lives in santiago will tell you that we almost never see any tourists. very very few people come this way. The simple reason: no beach here and one has to speak spanish.
Now calle del sol is no hot spot to open up a business like this anyway. apart from pez dorado and francifol, we have nothing else of this type. These 2 businesses have been around for many many years. they have established their names a long time ago (in the good days). The santiagueros do not think of calle del sol for party atmosphere. Only the tourists, when they do come here, end up in calle del sol. The trendy santiagueros have nothing to find in calle del sol, unless they want to go to francifol bar/cafe or pez dorado to eat. No one goes there to hang around at a street cafe. Francifol bar/cafe only comes to life at night anyway.
So please spend some time in santiago before think about opening up a business. Learn what people want and then react.
AZB
LOL! How true.All you gotta do is open one place and as soon as you're successful the whole street will be lined with cafes. That's the typical Dominican MO (copy whatever is doing well) In the end it gets saturated and then nobody does well...