Meg Hudson stood at a crossroads. In 2011, while going through a divorce, she and her husband sold Domaine Hudson, the downtown Wilmington restaurant they’d opened in 2005. (He’d worked full-time at the restaurant while she worked at a chemical company.)
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TheGreen_03072014_NewRestaurants.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media News Director Tom Byrne's interview with Skipjack owner and chef Donnie Merrill.]
After traveling and taking time off, she wondered what to do next. “Friends asked me, ‘What do you love?’” she recalled. “I realized that I loved the restaurant business. I looked at other things, but it just worked for me.”
If all goes as planned, Hudson will open Lula Brazil in the old Cloud 9 location on Rehoboth Avenue in time for the summer season. (Lula means “squid” in Portuguese.) While Domaine Hudson was primarily her ex-husband’s project, Lula Brazil is her baby.
Hudson is one of several Delawareans who’ve been bitten by a culinary bug. Last June, Donny Merrill, formerly a chef at Krazy Kats in Montchanin, opened his own restaurant, Skipjack, in Newark. David and Donna Farrar recently purchased the Bellefonte Café in North Wilmington. It’s their first foray into the restaurant business. He’s a landscape designer; she’s a chemistry teacher.
Eric Aber, who owns Home Grown Café on Main Street in Newark, understands the industry’s allure. “The restaurant world is an amazing world,” said Aber, who with wife Sasha opened Home Grown in 2000. “You’re bringing people together through your art. But you have to consistently produce. There’s so much that goes along with it.”
Take, for example, this winter, which caused many restaurants to lose money. Owners face factors beyond their control. “There’s an old joke that if you want to make a million dollars in the restaurant industry, you start with $2 million,” Aber said.
Even a good idea and good food can’t always sustain a business. “Too many people underestimate the amount of knowledge that is required to be a successful restaurateur,” said Carl Georigi, who owns four restaurants in New Castle County. “You need to know what you’re doing before you open a restaurant—not figure it out as you go along.”
Location, location
[caption id="attachment_27314" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Skipjack owner and chef Donnie Merrill opened his Newark eatery last June.(Click to enlarge)"]
Few would argue that site selection is key. Merrill, who originally hatched the idea for a seafood-centric restaurant while spending time with his father on the Susquehanna and Bohemia rivers, initially looked in and around Chesapeake City. After three years of searching, he couldn’t find a site that suited his needs. A drummer, Merrill was about to give up and go on the road with his band when he found The Shoppes at Louviers site.
He was undaunted when he learned that several restaurants had opened and closed there. “I think it’s a great location,” he said. “There are a ton of people around Newark who want a good meal, and I’m far enough out that we don’t get the college crowd.”
Banking on a location was a leap of faith for Michael Stiglitz, who opened his first Two Stones Pub in Chesmar Plaza in Newark because “it was available,” said Stiglitz, now the co-owner of three Two Stones Pub restaurants. “It was a college town so I knew there was an appreciation for craft beer.”
Admittedly, the small strip center is outside the center of student life. It also houses a Subway®, a Sherwin-Williams and a tattoo parlor. It’s an unusual home for an establishment promoting craft beer, with prices that can elicit sticker shock. “It flies in the face of location, location, location,” Stiglitz acknowledged.
For the next location, in North Wilmington, he relied on demographics. Ulysses American Gastropub had already opened nearby to the delight of enthusiastic beer-lovers. The Kennett location, which opened in the fall of 2013, offers both craft brews and a casual meal to an affluent community starved for options.
Hudson, meanwhile, never dreamed she would land on Rehoboth Avenue, the central street. But when plans to convert the space into retail and apartments went south due to the economy, the restaurant became available. The drawback: the building required a lot of “TLC,” said Hudson, who recently had the kitchen floor torn up. “You know, everything takes longer than you’d planned.”
Money in the bank
Indeed, the restaurant industry isn’t for the faint of heart or the light of wallet. “There are always surprise costs you never expected,” said Merrill, who didn’t realize there was an annual fee for signage. He also had to repair equipment left by the former owner, who only lasted eight months of a three-year lease.
Stiglitz got a big shock when he went to fetch Sussex County permits for The Pickled Pig Pub, which he opened with partners before launching Two Stones Pub. He thought he’d shell out about $1,000. It turned out there was a $16,000 impact fee. “I called my partner and said, ‘How do you feel about selling your truck?’” (Fortunately, selling the truck wasn’t necessary.)
At his North Wilmington Two Stones Pub, Stiglitz had to grapple with New Castle County regulations requiring that new grease traps had to be buried underground and outside of the restaurant. Breaking through the parking lot and the granite below required heavy machinery. “It was a nightmare,” he said.
Once up and running, a restaurant must be flexible. When Home Grown Café first opened, the lunch business was brisk. Dinner was another story. Aber adapted the menu and the service style. (The restaurant originally offered counter service.)
Stiglitz recently added a drop ceiling to the Wilmington Two Stones Pub after patrons complained that although chic, the exposed ductwork at the site did nothing to reduce the noise level.
The case for support
Stiglitz said that after opening six restaurants, he’s learned that it’s easier to do when the community is welcoming. “Make sure you go where you are wanted,” he said. Merrill agreed. He credits the city of Newark with helping him plow through the permits and paperwork.
Hudson appreciates the close community in small town Rehoboth. Susan Woods, who owns The Cultured Pearl, has been generous with advice. Still, she’s the one making the decisions. “I’m learning to deal with vendors and holding people to account,” she said.
Some might wonder if her Brazilian concept will receive support in the resort town. Hudson, who was an exchange student in Brazil and has been back repeatedly, noted that the country offers more than meat on a spit – which she won’t feature. Brazil boasts more than 4,600 miles of coastline, and dishes with Portuguese and African flair.
[caption id="attachment_27314" align="alignright" width="300" caption="David and Donna Farrar hope to maintain the Bellefonte Cafe's quirky charm.(Click to enlarge)"]
In Bellefonte, the community warmly embraced David and Donna Farrar when they purchased the Bellefonte Café from founder Donna Rego. The funky eatery had developed a cult following for its menu and its live music. People were concerned that new owners would mess with success, and they were thrilled when the Farrars put those worries to rest.
“Our goal is to keep the restaurant like it has been,” said David Farrar, whose son, Nate, is running the 35-seat café. “It’s a real anchor of the community; we want to keep that anchor.”
Standard menu items, made fresh, remain. The service, however, has improved, said Farrar, who joked that it formerly took two hours to get a sandwich. His goal is to please the longtime clientele.
But whether an owner has bought an existing restaurant or is starting fresh, the work is hard. “There are long hours,” agreed Nate Farrar, a bartender-server turned chef-manager. “I get in at 10 a.m. and I leave around 11 p.m.” Merrill, who has a new baby, works up to 12 hours a day and handles administrative tasks at home. Hudson might not be in the kitchen, but she knows the benefit of having an owner onsite. One reason she chose Rehoboth was so she could hopefully close a few weeks in winter and take a break.
Georigi, who designed and handled construction on Eclipse, his first restaurant, sympathizes. “This is an incredibly hard business to have long-term success in, and those who find success make it look easy,” Georigi said. “Believe me, it’s not.”
Aber agrees. “It’s not just a business,” he concludes. “It’s a lifestyle.”