Like Father, Like Son?

However open-minded you may be, the one question that haunts any 'Son Of...' restaurant venture is: will it be as good as the original? Perhaps all those crafty Victorian advertisers who splashed 'The Original And Genuine' across their packets have had a result, and after a slow burn 'New And Improved' may finally be losing the battle. Where restaurants are concerned, the opening of a second is a ticklish business.

Will there be enough inspiration to drive two kitchens? Will the men, or women, who matter spend more time at number one or number two? Strangely, as soon as the restaurateur shows his hand and opens a fourth, fifth or 20th restaurant, all these considerations fade away - expectations are very different for a chain restaurant. Furthermore, if you kid yourself that a particular restaurant is your personal discovery, you can grow to like it as it is and to defend it irrationally. So you end up feeling slightly aggrieved when the proprietors just replicate the place in another location. Was that distinctive menu and laid-back charm just slick salesmanship? Underneath the polished veneer of urban sophistication are you an easy touch?

On the restaurateur's part, 'Son Of...' establishments have a very different appeal. If all goes well, doubling the number of seats can mean doubling the turnover of the business. The only teensy-weensy cloud on this golden horizon is the question of 'Where?' Plonk your new restaurant down near the first one and it will leach business from it. Better to make a clean break and set up some way away. After all, what works in one place will probably succeed in another (unless you have unrealistic ambitions such as opening the second string to a Hackney fish-and-chip shop in Mayfair or replicating a Knightsbridge oyster bar in Ilford).

Will there be enough inspiration to drive two kitchens? Will the men, or women, who matter spend more time at number one or number two? Strangely, as soon as the restaurateur shows his hand and opens a fourth, fifth or 20th restaurant, all these considerations fade away - expectations are very different for a chain restaurant. Furthermore, if you kid yourself that a particular restaurant is your personal discovery, you can grow to like it as it is and to defend it irrationally. So you end up feeling slightly aggrieved when the proprietors just replicate the place in another location. Was that distinctive menu and laid-back charm just slick salesmanship? Underneath the polished veneer of urban sophistication are you an easy touch?

On the restaurateur's part, 'Son Of...' establishments have a very different appeal. If all goes well, doubling the number of seats can mean doubling the turnover of the business. The only teensy-weensy cloud on this golden horizon is the question of 'Where?' Plonk your new restaurant down near the first one and it will leach business from it. Better to make a clean break and set up some way away. After all, what works in one place will probably succeed in another (unless you have unrealistic ambitions such as opening the second string to a Hackney fish-and-chip shop in Mayfair or replicating a Knightsbridge oyster bar in Ilford).