Thread: Favorite Cafe
View Single Post
Old 07-02-2012, 08:17 PM   #15
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
When we put our boat in Bellingham there was a wonderful dockside restaurant overlooking the north basin called Luigi's (IIRC). Extremely popular, always full, had great basic food from French onion soup to pizzas, everything could be taken out and back to your boat if you desired. There was an outside deck that was extremely popular when the the weather permitted. Luigi's food wasn't fancy but the menu was extremely varied, the quality was high, and the prices were acceptable. No matter what your budget, there was something good on the menu that met it.

Then the people that owned it decided to quit the business so they sold the restaurant to another couple who had dreams of creating a more upscale waterfront restaurant with a more sophisticated (and expensive) menu.

The food was good but the whole approach just wasn't "right" for the environment and the restaurant failed miserably. It was purchased by a fellow who has another restaurant up in Blaine and while it is doing better, it is still a far cry from the old Luigi's.

All this in the same building with the same view. I know nothing about the restaurant/pub business but it's obvious there are "forumulas" that click and ones that don't. Correctly identifying the customer base is a major factor as others have said. From our waterfront experiences here, in BC, SE Alaska, Maine, and PEI, capturing the locals (commercial fishermen, yard workers, floatplane pilots, etc.) seems to be a real key to success. The best places we've eaten in Petersburg, Ketchikan, Maine and PEI all had mostly locals from the various waterfront businesses as their customer base. And this popularity with the locals made the establishments interesting and intriguing to the visitors.
Marin is offline   Reply With Quote