CUISINE: Modern American with a southern flavor, but changing seasonally
PRICE RANGE: Appetizers, $3.50$7; main courses, $8$14
RESERVATIONS: Accepted for five or more (and it helps to say you're a friend of Norm Brodsky's)
CREDIT CARDS: All major cards
SEATING CAPACITY: 40 inside, plus 24 on a new backyard deck
THE CONCEPT: A hip neighborhood restaurant serving good but not fancy food to upscale customers at down-home prices
THE DEAL: Brodsky puts up the entire start-up capital of $110,000 and gets 100% of the stock (as well as 100% of the losses) until the principal is repaid. His stake then drops to 25%, but he continues to earn up to 33% of his initial investment ($36,300) yearly
Norm Brodsky (brodsky13@aol.com) is a veteran entrepreneur whose six businesses include a former Inc. 100 company and a three-time Inc. 500 company. See The Norm Brodsky page for other columns.
This column was coauthored by Bo Burlingham.
Touched by an Angel
For David Schneider, it's as if he died and went to Brooklyn
By Bo Burlingham
It's 5 o'clock on Friday, and one of the assistant chefs has just stormed out in a huff, but David Schneider appears unfazed. As he returns from calming the troops he raises his hands and shrugs. He's been through worse, after all. There was the day, for example, when he came in and discovered that his number one chef had quit, taking all the cookbooks and recipes with her. He got through that crisis. No doubt he'll get through this one, too.
He says he's happy he can turn to Norm Brodsky for advice on such occasions. His only regret is that they haven't been able to spend more time together. The restaurant has been too successful, and Schneider has been too busy. "I'd really like to go over the numbers with Norm," he says. "I'd like to get his ideas as a good businessman on expenses, margins, that sort of thing."
It was Brodsky's business expertise that made him an attractive investor to Schneider in the first place. "Norm didn't come across as someone who was just looking to own a restaurant so he could come in and say, 'Hey, look at me,' " says Schneider. "He was interested in the business end. He wanted to get a return on his investment. That was part of the appeal. I really liked the idea of having somebody I could go to who cared about this place as a business.
"Then there was the autonomy he was giving me to run my own restaurant. In other places, I've always had partners who demanded a say in everything. You could never get everyone to agree. This time I wanted to run it my way."
Schneider says he had no problem with the terms of the agreement he and Brodsky came to. "My attitude was, 'I have nothing.' And he said, basically, 'Money aside, it's your business to run. I'm not going to meddle.' He said, 'I'll call. I'll check on things. I like to be kept informed. If you have any big decisions to make, come to me. I'll give you advice. But it's your business.'
"And that's pretty much how it's worked. I go to him all the time for his opinion, and he has never said to me, 'This is what I want you to do.' He might ask, 'What about this?' but he's never said no. In fact, he's been incredibly supportive. When our first chef quit and I had to go into the kitchen to cook, I told him I didn't mind--I enjoyed it. And I do. His immediate response was, 'Why? Do you want to be doing that in 10 years?' It's like he's always pushing people to better themselves. He wants you to move on, expand, and grow."
Schneider says he had only one anxious moment--when he had to ask Brodsky for an additional $25,000 (above the initial $85,000) because the restaurant building turned out to require more extensive renovations than he'd projected. "He was understanding about it, but at the same time he wanted me to know there were limits. He said, 'It's not a question of money. The money's no big deal, but I'm wondering if there are any more surprises. Should I question the rest of the numbers?' I told him I was standing by the other numbers, and they have held up pretty well--or they would have if we hadn't done so well that we blew away all our projections."
As for the future, Schneider is operating on trust. "Everything's been done on a handshake," he says. "I mean, we both have notes, but I don't really care about having a contract. It's a piece of paper. It means nothing unless you're willing to go to court over it, and I'm not."
Does he ever regret taking Brodsky's advice to drop the idea of doing a restaurant in Manhattan? "No," he says. "I'm very happy I did this place. It's three blocks from my house. I see my wife and daughter more than I would anywhere else. And it's brought a whole lot of new life to the restaurant business for me. I was getting fed up with it, fed up with the clientele you have to deal with in Manhattan. It's so different here. Like the other day, my wife and I were walking down the street, and some guy comes out of a store and sees me. He says, 'Thank you so much for opening that restaurant. It's so wonderful to have a place nearby where I can bring the whole family, and the food's great, and you treat us so well.'
"Listen, the first six months have been a great run. I'm hoping we'll still be going strong 20 years from now."
