From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 1:14 PM
To:
Cc: rest;
James.Sunderland@risdonhosegood.com
Subject: RE: ...CITY HALL....lease - Seacrest...
Dave -
you have addressed most if not all of my concerns while confirming that you read and understood pretty much everything I
wrote.
With
that said, is it correct to say that the restaurant at the Red Lion continues
to operate, i.e. you did not lose your chef?
Do I
“rili” [sic] need to explain why “sum” [sic] would consider the base rent you
are going to be paying “cheap” when compared not only to what other restaurants
are paying but more importantly if your intentions are to “run the operation into the ground” whether or not you make the
35,000 pound investment fixing it up, not to mention our “lost opportunity cost” to sell the property-business during the
term of the lease, i.e. getting me to sell Seacrest to you “on the cheap” at
the end of the lease – you simply “following in the footsteps” of
others who have made it difficult for their “non-hand picked” operators of
Seacrest to succeed?
Please
proceed to read the draft lease and if you feel the need to speak it is best to
try calling me on my cell phone USA
1-858-SEL-NEXT [735-6398] or you can try my wife Marie's cell phone 1-858-WIL-NEXT [935-6398] not to
mention that while English is her third language, French her second and like
all of us, math her first, you will find that while an absolute pleasure to
make "conversation with" she is an exceptionally good, right-to-point
business person who the very best business people in the world, pretty much all
of whom I just happen to know rather well, the exceptionally few that there
are, would do well to listen to the advice of
BTW the
reception is not at all good here at our cabin in the
Ps – If you need a break reading through the lease
would you be so kind as to take a look at this 3929
odd word email I sent earlier to an important San Diego City employee and feel
free to share your comments as well as the important edits before I speed up
the broadcasting.
[Word
count 400]
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 5:19
AM
To: Gary S. Gevisser
Subject: RE: ...CITY HALL....lease - Seacrest...
incedently how far
are you from sedona or scotsdale
I suspect you know this but quite a few of the longer
established food and drink outlets in Minehead are changing hands or up for
sale and this I suspect is to do with the fact that the economy in Minehead is
in decline with local business reporting worst sales for 15 years Quite a few
of the pub/grub outlets finding it difficult to make it work as there overheads
are so high and have maxed out on there borrowings so they have to move/sell on
We have been at the Red Lion now for Two years it was
DERELICT and an absolute shit pit with dossas / tossas / drug addicts and
alcoholics it has had a bad reputation for 20 years
There seems to be approx 8500 people living in Minehead
with only approx 300 going out drinking in the area spread this around 13 pubs
and you only have a few per pub regulars which means that that the winters
are long and very hard to make a living
from the pub trade especially where overheads are high
What happens to the other people living in Minehead is
anyones guess but having looked at the Market here it seems that those that are
not down here to die go to retaurants on a regular basis
To define a restaurant down here is not as we would know
it and I would take the liberty to suggest that you would think the same
Therefore a pub with reputation going back 20 years of
being a shithole is always going to be a shithole no matter what you do and to
that end a restaurant in any guise would only work to a point and only to those
that will venture through the door and at a time when none of the leary
drinkers are in
The turnover at
the Red Lion has more than doubled in the two years we have been here with
about 60% being food sales > Year 1 200k total sales year 2 just compleated
230k ish <
It dont take a genius to work out which is the more
succsessfull part of the business!
However the food trade drops of at this time of year and
you need more of your regular and local drinkers through the doors hence the
need for local skittle teams ect
unfortunatly we do not have a functunal alley ( Enterprise Inns ) which
has deprived us of the ability to attract more custom moreover denide us the
ability to hold functions especcially at Christmas
Your informers suggest that the Red Lion is in trouble
well Its hard for a business to be in trouble when it owns every thing in sight
in the building and all without a bank loan or mortgage and as I paid cash for
everything I retain title
For more than a year now we have purchased all stock and
goods cash and as we run only cash accounts we have no debt ( My Choice ! )
I have around 35k to put into this project and I think
you need to know that that is also cash and not gold bullion
So to sum up
1 No ! the Red
Lion Is not in trouble ( although having spent 2 winters here I am starting to
ask myself whether to put in a third ) Business in the last three weeks has
dropped by some 43% so do I go or do I stay ?
2 There is a
market for a good restaurant selling good quality food !
I have a michelen trained chef at the Red Lion who has
the same views as me in respect of the current Red Lion Dilemma ( To Move or
not to Move ? )
3 The Neighbour
Problem
Your immediate Neighbour Has absolutly no problem with us
moving and creating a restaurant at Ccrest nor has another only a few doors
away ! in fact they would like to book in for Christmas lunch along with the
other 15 provisional bookings that we have
There will always be opposistion to any change in
Minehead and It is due mainly to apethy and complacency along with wanting to
die peacebly ( I just wish they would get on with it and leave all others alone
) I dont know of Mike or his back ground or even what catagory of pond life he
is from but I have no intention of irritating him or aggerivating him
As to the Town hall well they do have a criteria that
they have to work too and as there many precedents within Minehead for a
licenced restaurant I think they would have difficulty refusing even if only
probationary licence
I think Mike has a problem with parking not to mention
life !
4 What can Dave
Clark bring to Ccrest that Rebbecca cant ?
Well I am Not female so thats a start !
Flipency aside ! It is my belief that there is a need for
a very good restaurant with ambiance in Minehead and it really dont matter
where just as long as the food is good
To make it work it has to be affordable and so the
overhead has to be kept low !
To be honest Gary I really dont know what is meant about
cheap rent ( as In Your comments ) you know as well if not better its all
relevent !
I have had some conversations With Loch Fyne our
suppliers and it would be possible to use their logo and publicity machine
inorder to make it a bit more exclusive they are well respected over here and
their restaurants are quite famous We already use the name but this could be
more in the face of the public as it would not be attached to a pub ( Do I move or do I stay ? )
Any way I will not spend any more time on looking at the
lease untill you are quite happy to proceed on the route I have outlined In any
case it could continue as a cafe and would in the right hands meet the overhead
and I am sure we could do that also !
Best regards Dave
Ps (£ 600 and no investment is a better deal than I got
so whats cheap ? )
