I have a 5 year plan. If some of the stuff I'm working on doesn't pan out in the next 5 years, I'm going to open a small, franchise-able restaurant. A QSR (quick service restaurant) and I like to the idea of it having like 10-12 versions of grilled cheese sandwich. -You can have meats, but the vegetarians would love the place too. Food cost would be low and by adding premium cheeses, high quality side items etc, you could command a premium price. Its one of many ideas I'm throwing in my notebook. Even if in 5 years, I'm rolling in cash, I'd like to open something like this, just in a more hands off way. I always had the notion that I would open a fine dining restaurant/bar but that seems like so much work for such a small return. If i could open a place that could have 20 locations in the first 4 years, that'd be sweet. who knows... someday maybe.
That's cool tng. I recently came across an excellent grilled cheese recipe that is apparently a restaurant 'trade secret'. It has revolutionized my grilled cheese making skills. Now I'm make some killer stuff and I'll never go back. The secret? Instead of spreading butter on the outside of the bread, use real mayonnaise. Sounds weird I know, but it's really tasty.
Bleh. That spoiler is ruining my will to eat. I won't spoil your spoiler -- it'll spoil all by itself as soon as you open the jar. Nevertheless my wife and I use that as a safe word because we hate it so much.
Alton Brown fan? Have you ever noticed how many "unitaskers" he uses on a daily basis? Or how his most cherished dishes can't be made without one? Yes. You are looking at a picture of a camping iron. It has one purpose: put stuff between bread and throw on a fire. However, that one purpose is fucking awesome. Much like popover pans only make popovers, much like tagines only make tagines, much like paiellas only make paiellas, it is a device of limited utility. Yet each example listed has been the subject to its very own edition of good eats. As a gentle reminder, you were espousing the virtues of a fucking waffle iron not 12 hours ago... and if ever there were a useless does-only-one-thing device for the kitchen, it'd be the salad shooter. But beyond the salad shooter, the waffle iron.
Netflix has about 25 of them online. Unfortunately Food Network realizes that their programming is low-rent no-tail stuff that you flip through and if it weren't for cable they'd have no audience so there isn't any. Amazon Prime, on the other hand, has Julia Child's "The French Chef" as well as Julia and Jacques, where Julia Child and Jacques Pepin get loaded on wine and cook something.
Never done that. Do you mean more like a panini press? Isn't a waffle maker more of a manifold surface, used for pouring batter?
No, I mean a waffle maker. And that is exactly what it is. You need to do some squishing to get it to close with the bread in there, but it melts and toasts better than frying, I've found. It's quicker, too. You need to cut the crusts off though.
Here in Columbus we have and have had several "gourmet grilled cheese" restaurants. A couple have failed and closed. One was literally charging, for example, $11 for a grilled cheese sandwich the size and thickness of my (small) hand with a couple thin slices of ham. It wasn't even filling. No wonder they failed. The markup on that must be nauseating. I confess I've enjoyed some of the cheaper options, though. There's certainly a market for it!
The thing with a lot of restaurant owners is that they're forced to follow a lot of dumb sub-laws, mostly for food safety, but many more arbitrary ones like minimum square footage in the kitchen; which ends up costing tens of thousands. My grandfather opened up like 3 restaurants during his lifetime, all of them failed within the first 2 years, because he didn't try thinking outside of the box. I hope one day the laws for small restaurant owners will change so your type of small, franchise-able restaurant will become easier to manage.