Granville's, 2865 Devine Street: December 2009 4 comments
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope your holidays were great, and that Santa was good to you!
Anyway..
I first did a closing on this building when it had just ceased being Tiffany's Bakery in 2008. The place was vacant a good while after that, then Granville's moved in.
This story from The State suggests that the place opened in July of 2009, so it had about a six-month run. While generally upbeat, that story also has some ominous IRS issues to be worked through mentioned. Whether that had an impact on the place closing, I don't know.
Commenter Mike D. gave the initial notice in Have Your Say and when I drove by to take these pictures, the place still had a hopeful Closed For Private Partysign in the door. He reports that since these pictures, a For Sale sign has gone up. Too bad!
(Hat tip to Mike D., obviously)
UPDATE 4 Jan 2010: Fixed typo in street address.
UPDATE 8 Jan 2010: Added a picture I forgot earlier.
UPDATE 13 April 2010 -- It's now Conrad's:
4 Responses to 'Granville's, 2865 Devine Street: December 2009'
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pssst! I think this address is actually 2865 (and the same for "Tiffany's" et al.).
badger
4 Jan 10 at 11:23 am
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D'Oh! And I took that picture specifically to make sure the number over the door was visible! I guess I made the typo once and then just kept copying it into the other listings..
Fixing..
ted
4 Jan 10 at 12:20 pm
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This is now Henry's.
I did work next door at Cantina 76 for a few months. Granville's seemed to have a steady flow at lunch and at dinner. But I think what happened happens to most restaurants... they fail to do the math prior to opening.
Take the number of seats in your building. Remeber that rarely does a 4 top sit at a 4 top. If you are lucky, you will get a 75% occupancy. Multiply this number by what a lunch or dinner entree cost plus a beverage. This gives you average max sales per seating. Then remember this type concept at lunch may do 1 seating. At dinner, maybe 1 1/2. This now gives you an average of what your best case scenario is going to be.
Now you can weigh that number agaisnt fixed cost like rent utilities and salaries. Then figure in that the National Restaurant Associantions average profit margin for a restaurant is currently around 8%. Even with a steady flow of patrons, the math doesnt add up to be able to stay open. I wish more operators would do the math prior to opening.
It appeared Grannvilles did like other establishments and hoped catering would offset the sales that couldnt be generated on premis. Again, look how many restaurants added "Now Catering" in 2009. Maybe to keep up with the times, "Now Catering" should be added to the "Signs Your Favorite Restaurant is About to Close." There is a difference between offering Take Out in bulk to having a seperate catering staff, vehicles, and equipment. Disposable sheet pans loaded in the trunk of a car is not catering.
The articles in the The State prior to Granvilles opening predicted its demise before the first guest was served.