Few things in life are as risky as opening a restaurant. According to one study, published in the Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, something like 60 percent of new places fail within the first three years.
OK — that’s not really as risky as, say, running for office in Texas on an anti-gun, pro-fuel efficient vehicle platform. In fact, three out of five from the free throw line would be hall of fame numbers if you were an NBA center. Still, the failure rate for new restaurants is enough to catch anyone’s attention.
In order to improve the odds a bit, smart restaurateurs use a cautious approach. Tim and Alex O’Meara of O’Meara Bros. Brewing Company, scheduled to open in Lakeport on Saturday, spent three years testing beer recipes and another six months fine tuning the menu. Before they welcome the public, they also set aside three full days for a “soft” opening.
“With anything new there are wrinkles,” Alex O’Meara explained. “You have to iron them out.”
In a soft opening, the restaurant invites guests — friends, family, casual acquaintances and a few folks willing to offer criticism — to sit down and order from the menu. It is, in other words, an opportunity for the kitchen to expedite orders under fire, for wait staff to engage with customers and bartenders to learn their way behind the taps.
It’s practice run, certainly, but one O’Meara Bros. takes seriously. They engaged Mt. Konocti Facilitators to consult on the process. Following each seating, the staff gather to discuss the wins, the losses and the areas in need of improvement. A single bad experience and a customer might not return. Even worse, they will likely tell others of the night of mishaps.
“You can talk all day about what should happen,” Alex O’Meara said, pointing out the need for live training, “but the real thing is looming.”
On Wednesday afternoon, for example, the kitchen was tested when a group of nine arrived, occupying the large table near the brewpub’s fermentation tanks.
“We missed a little,” observed chef Roy Iversen. “For the most part it went well. We’re still learning,” he added with a dose of realism. “It will take another two weeks for us to get where we want to be.”
Of course, his goal is elusive: a flawless flow between the front of the house and O’Meara Bros. line. Yet if Wednesday is any measure of the place, the kitchen has already mastered the menu. Fish and chips featured a brittle beer batter and cool, incisive tartar sauce. The mac and cheese bites — an appetizer — proved difficult to resist, even after the main course arrived. And the beers … well, the brothers straightened out those kinks long ago.
For opening day, they will pour five different styles: Bottlerock Blonde Ale, Elk Mountain IPA, Bevins Street Brown Ale, The Idle Irishman Stout and a special hefeweizen.
Nick Ross, one of the servers, said the crew was gelling well.
“I’m a little rusty,” he admitted. But, he added, with a few dry runs “you figure out what you need to work on.”
O’Meara Bros. Brewing Company opens to the public on Saturday at 11 a.m. The restaurant and microbrewery is located on Bevins St. in Lakeport.
If the soft opening plan worked, the place will clear the three-year threshold.
“It’s gone pretty well,” Alex O’Meara said after Wednesday’s practice. “We haven’t had any major catastrophes.”
