Editorial: Starting lean
A restaurant only open for two days a week hardly seems like a model for the future of the hospitality industry, but maybe its owners realize something the rest of the world is just catching onto: Pre-pandemic life will never fully return, and it’s time for businesses to innovate in ways they may not have thought of before, embracing a changed future where they find success in new ways.
The co-owners behind the five-month-old Wooden Bar in Worcester have taken the concept of lean startup to an extreme. Christopher Ly and Spencer Mewherter took over the lease from a closed-down brewery and renovated the space by relying on their construction backgrounds and a network of friends. They have kept their food costs to a minimum, and the business is open when they’re available and have enough customers walking through the door to make the expense worthwhile.
As Staff Writer Kevin Koczwara points out in his “Playing by their own rules” story, in a business sector ravaged by the COVID pandemic, the restaurant industry is keeping a close eye on the Wooden Bar model. Rather than paying to staff, stock, and support a restaurant for long hours in order to squeeze out a net profit when they are really busy, Wooden Bar is simply open for those moneymaking times. The hospitality industry is still struggling with staff shortages, and the business lunch crowd is significantly lighter than it used to be. Rather than fight the rising tide, this new restaurant is starting small and seeing where it goes. Of course, it helps that Ly has a pedigree from marquee Providence eatery North and is supported by chef James Mark, who has been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award.
Not many businesses can operate on such a small scale, and even other restaurants will target different customers and different times of day, but the takeaway from Wooden Bar is to find a model that works for you and your business, eschewing the elements of the business not contributing much. Food trucks have taken this concept, too, to minimize the overhead costs while still delivering a great product. It’s a lesson in a way to launch a business when you don’t have much startup capital to burn, and you want to test if passion can be translated into a successful brand, regardless of the sector.
Wooden Bar’s minimalist model may lead to the restaurant opening more widely or more frequently, or it may lead to the eatery’s closure. The hospitality industry is notoriously difficult. Even North shut down after 10 years of reshaping the Providence restaurant scene. Maybe Wooden Bar will keep tweaking their plan till it finds its own version of success, opening only when its owners can swing it, creating food they care about to a small, but impassioned, fanbase
WBJ Web Partners
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