Friday, January 2, 2009
Bites / Restaurants / Tombstones Restaurant by Green Hills Regal Cinema Shuts Doors
Posted by Nicki Wood on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:59 PM
In the first restaurant closure noted in 2009, Bistro 215 in Green Hills shut its doors this week, according to a story on local news website NashvillePost.com. The restaurant was a natural destination for moviegoers, as was its predecessor, Princeton's Grill. Calls to the ownership were not answered right away.
Read the full story at this link, available to nonsubscribers on Saturday.
http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2009/1/2/so_long_bistro_215
Comments (20)
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Did you see this quote over there?:
"The major money behind the Bistro pulled out, I am told, thus forcing the place to close. I always enjoyed myself there."
Ummm - the only 'major' money behind any business is the cash flow from sales. No?
If not, please, get with me, I have got a *super* idea for an eatery. A sort of non profit restaurant, so to speak.
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I was thinking it was a cash flow issue -- needed the money person to fund cash flow when receivables were down.
Drank there once (in 06),ate there once (about 3 weeks ago). I found the wine lists knowledgeable and deep if excessive and insultingly overpriced. The food was perfectly fine, but I just had a salad.
I wonder if it ever occurred to the landlords in those spots around the cinema have ever considered that their real estate is overpriced. I'm no genius, but if 7 restaurants in 8 years failed, some of them pretty good, it might be worth considering.
I am going to hijack this thread. One thing I noticed about 215 when they first opened was that they added the 24.25% tax for alcohol (9.25% sales and 15% sin tax) on after the menu price. In other words, if you bought a $100 bottle of wine it would be $124.25. This is technically against the law. There is actually a tax law that says restaurants must include the tax in the price of the drink. In other words, if you bought that $100 bottle of wine and nothing else, your bill would be $100 and the restaurant would net about $75. Has anyone else noticed other restaurants doing this? And what are your thoughts on it? Should the tax be included or tabbed on afterwords?
Bubba, thanks for the comment and the info. I wasn't aware of this law and don't recall my tab from 06. Altho illegal, maybe it was a way for the eatery to show patrons the real price of the bottle before taxes. (But not before the 125 percent mark-up.)
I used to work at Bistro 215, back in '05. The wine tax issue was always a big one. Basically, the management chose to include the tax price with the price of the wine, as opposed to it being added on the check after the fact. Most restaurants and bars build that cost into the cost of the drink. So when you pay $6 for a Jack and Coke, the tax is included and the business nets $4.55. As far as I know, while the restaurant has to pay the tax on the liquor sold, there's no law preventing that cost from being passed on to the consumer, either before or after.
As far as the spaces nearby go, I know rent at Bistro in '05 was over 25k a month...
My concern with all of these restaurants closing, is that all these people out of work. January is notoriously a hard time to seek employment in the restaurant business, regardless of the state of the economy.
Any restaurant owners willing to chirp in with available positions at their establishments??
Yikes, $25K per month? That's 5,495 Jack & Cokes (at $4.55 profit after liquor taxes) per month needed to make rent, not including paying the employees / ownership and your normal overhead.
I've got a vacant house at the moment, has a kitchen and plenty of hungry neighbors. Rent it out and start serving food for only $2K per month, that is a monthly savings of $23K right off the bat.
Chris is correct What Bistro 215 did with breaking the tax out in the menu was not against the law. They were trying to educate (mostly unaware) consumers on the extraordinary cost of drinking in this state.
Actually, the law requires the 15% LBD tax to be included in the price. The sales tax can be included or added onto the price.
Sarah, it is very unfortunate that so many will be out of work. However, I have to assume that the job market for restaurant employees is good, as I just had a hell of a time staffing my new place with quality people.
And, FYI, 25K/mo pretty much guarantees failure.
Speaking of restaurants closing. Does anyone know if the White Trash Cafe closed? I tried to go there on Saturday for lunch and the doors were closed, windows covered, and all the "white trash" stuff out front was gone (e.g. bathtub).
White Trash closed over a month ago. I am not a meat 'n three eater (or even meat 'n two) but I am a huge fan of Lynn's, who owned White Trash and ran it firmly tongue in cheek, and wish him the best wherever he goes. His humor will be missed.
Unless she came back recently for an encore, Stretch left White Trash several years ago.
I think the headline of this post really says it all: "Restaurant by Green Hills Regal Cinema Shuts Doors." Because if it had said "Bistro 215 Shuts Doors," no one would have known what you were talking about or where it was. It never did quite work.
I had an almost perfect salad lyonnaise there right after they opened and every time I ordered it after that there'd be something off or wrong with it...in that way that always makes you think the kitchen must have a constant turnover because you never got anything the same way twice. And I always thought there was a disconnect between menu and environment; it still felt exactly like Princeton's.
The tax-on-tax wine pricing was misleading, and the "pre-tax" prices on wine were in line with other comparable restaurants. After a bad experience with this, I vowed never to return. I broke this vow in deference to a group's wishes one night and ordered their pasta primavera for dinner. Overcooked pasta, swimming in oil, with soggy microwaved frozen vegetables later, I renewed my vow. Claudia's comment was too kind. The location is great, the bistro was bad.
The tax-on-tax wine pricing was misleading, and the "pre-tax" prices on wine were in line with other comparable restaurants. After a bad experience with this, I vowed never to return. I broke this vow in deference to a group's wishes one night and ordered their pasta primavera for dinner. Overcooked pasta, swimming in oil, with soggy microwaved frozen vegetables later, I renewed my vow. Claudia's comment was too kind. The location is great, the bistro was bad.
White Trash Cafe is gone? Boooooo. Used to eat there when I was in undergrad at Belmont. Best Mac N'Cheese in town.
I don't blame the Bistro closing down. There is a Cheeseburger Charlies across from them and every summer as well as weekends, parents drop off their teenage kids and they hang out at that place while the adults tried to eat their dinner outside at the Bistro outside. (during the summer months).
