Damascus food scene

[Lone Wolf]

a few changes. Cowboys Exxon is closed. drug bust. In the Country is closed. Hey Joe's is closed but a new owner is renovating the building and i hear it's going to be a diner of sorts. the building formerly known as Dot's Inn has new owners and renovation will begin soon. i'm hearing wood fired pizza will be on the menu. i hear Bobos will be leased out. don't know if they'll keep the name or what the menu will be. that's all for now

[hobbs]

Z

LONEWOLF whats the deal with all the things in Damascus this year? Not enough business?

[Lone Wolf]

Z

LONEWOLF whats the deal with all the things in Damascus this year? Not enough business?

there's plenty of business, just poor management

[Tennessee Viking]

Does Food City Café or Pizza Plus count? Or not being on the edge of town.

A small walkin Pal's location would go in good with all the AT/Creeper traffic. <wishlist>

[kf1wv]

Thanx for the updates, LW.

[Gambit McCrae]

When I walked through this area I ate at Dots, they even let my dog in and he slept on my feet under my booth. The next time I came thru here Dots was closed, but the BBQ place was open seasonally, well I heard they are closed now for good as well. I would consider Damascus to be a pretty happening little town, and would have to agree that for the food market it has just been poor management. Several outfitters have stayed open successfully over the years so what gives? lol

[AllDownhillFromHere]

Did Cowboy still bring food each night to The Place?

[Puddlefish]

When I walked through this area I ate at Dots, they even let my dog in and he slept on my feet under my booth. The next time I came thru here Dots was closed, but the BBQ place was open seasonally, well I heard they are closed now for good as well. I would consider Damascus to be a pretty happening little town, and would have to agree that for the food market it has just been poor management. Several outfitters have stayed open successfully over the years so what gives? lol

Lot's of people think "I can cook, I like people, I'll open a restaurant!" Add in under capitalization, seasonal customer base, competition, taxes, payroll, hiring a manager, so you can sleep once in a while, inflation, dealing with vendors, rent, trash removal, employee training and turnover, and a hundred other little hurdles to deal with every day.

I'm a retired Revenue Officer (think business analyst) and I've seen a hundred different ways that people have failed at running restaurants. From inventory theft, to not even knowing what the cost/profit was for their highest selling meal, to highly perishable inventory kept on hand for rarely served meals. It's a difficult business, and a lot of owners are learning on the fly, while others never learn.

[MuddyWaters]

I have at least 4;personal instances I can think of where highly succesfull , long running, popular restaurants I frequented were ruined by new ownership.

Even handed a success, many can ruin it. Never enough to just leave things alone for some.

Then, I have one where original owner lost his business in civil lawsuit (drunk driving accident). The new owners didn't touch it and it's 75% of it's heyday 30 yrs later. Like stepping n a time warp. Same pictures, menu, etc.

[BillyGr]

I have at least 4;personal instances I can think of where highly succesfull , long running, popular restaurants I frequented were ruined by new ownership.


Then there are also occasions where the old ownership is the cause of the problem. This would be those local type places where someone has run it for years but only done very basic upkeep on the place, thus allowing them to continue offering prices that are a bit lower than they really should be.

When they decide to sell, the new buyers see that it has done well and buy in, but wind up getting stuck with more than usual costs (for the things that should have been fixed but weren't) which causes them to raise prices to cover that and all those "locals" to complain that it's now too expensive to go there, causing the business to fall off and no longer be profitable.

[MuddyWaters]

Then there are also occasions where the old ownership is the cause of the problem. This would be those local type places where someone has run it for years but only done very basic upkeep on the place, thus allowing them to continue offering prices that are a bit lower than they really should be.

When they decide to sell, the new buyers see that it has done well and buy in, but wind up getting stuck with more than usual costs (for the things that should have been fixed but weren't) which causes them to raise prices to cover that and all those "locals" to complain that it's now too expensive to go there, causing the business to fall off and no longer be profitable.
I wouldn't say the old ownership was the cause of the problem. I'd say the old ownership didn't have the debt to service that the new ownership did, and that's a lot of the reason for the new ownership to have to raise prices.

In one of my instances we had a restaurant near my house my wife and I ate it once a week for a year after we built our house. Excellent rib eyeswith a salad, for outstanding price . In 1995 it was $6 for a ribeye and a salad there. Anywhere else would have been $9 and not as good. The owner would come around and say hi to you while you were eating .

Owner sold out and retired. New owner of immediately started serving cheaper cuts of meat and some kind of nasty salad pre-mixed with house dressing .We only had to eat there once to know we would never go back and never did. The place had been there for 20 years, a neighborhood Eatery. The new owner ran into the ground in under a year.

In a few years another place opened up there, and has been there ever since known for great food. Handed a great location and a great business someone managed to not make it work.

[Lone Wolf]

Did Cowboy still bring food each night to The Place?

he passed away a coupla years ago. he stopped doing that many years ago

[warren doyle]

Hey Lone Wolf,
I'm sure glad Subway is still there (hint, hint).