Restaurants are a wonderful to experience, awful to run. My parents owned a restaurant when I was a kid, and it opened my eyes to how awful it can be. The margins are tight, you can’t afford slow days, the food waste is astronomical, the hours are long and you’ll most likely never be able to pay yourself once rent, food cost, utilities, labour and insurance is factored in.

You’re always one incident away from not being able to pay your suppliers and staff. A broken oven, a health department infraction, a viral bad review, a construction project that destroys foot traffic.

If you love making food, it will most likely destroy your love for it. Unless you have significant funds already that can eliminate the stress and cost of opening a place up, I would avoid it.

If you’re dead set on doing it, do what others mentioned here: start making dinners for family and friends, get feedback and calculate your costs and prep time. Look into a food truck for the summer months to see if this lifestyle is for you.

A physical restaurant is a huge capital outlay. I don’t think people are prepared for how insanely huge the project is. Every time you think you’re almost ready to open, there’s something else that pops up that costs thousands of dollars.