Dear PoPville – Reality Check: How Hard is it to Open up a Bar?

Photo by PoPville flickr user Lauren PM

“Dear PoPville,

If the readers were to open up a bar, restaurant or food-related establishment (e.g. like a Cork Market) in DC, what neighborhood would you do it in? What kind of startup capital goes into something like that?

And thinking of that, if bars and restaurants are such bad business investments how come so many keep opening up? Are they all losing money? Why is it that all the seemingly sane advice that I ever heard growing up was that opening a restaurant was like throwing money down the toilet – that the likelihood of success is so small that it is not worth it. Has that all been a lie?

Obviously I ask these questions because I’m one of “those” people who hates their job, has always dreamed of doing something with food and thinks that, if the right mix of things comes together, that I could make it work. Reading the Duplex Diner post and linked-to Blade piece made me think that it isn’t such a pipe dream to do these things but I would love a reality check from the PoPville readership.”