Where do YOU eat?

[Worldtraveller]

My bad, "nominal" was the wrong word. I think a guideline for pricing would be that 3 meals would more than cover ingredients, so we get paid for our time as well. In our case, as Myschae mentioned, it's mostly going to be during the off season, since a lot of the local eateries are only open Fri-Sun or similar limited days/hours. We would be cooking for ourselves, so any meals we could sell would really just be 'extra'.

We would like to eventually look into a limited liquor license just to be able to offer wine/beer with dinners, and this isn't something we would necessarily do every night.

We might also look at grilling (ribs, bbq chicken, ...grill classics) in the summer, but only for special occasions (like holiday weekends when the restaurants are so packed our guests might not want to wait hours for dinner).

Again, these are just thoughts, we don't even know what limitations the city puts on food service, so we are spitballing lots of ideas.

Thanks for all your input.

Also, I want the moose recipe! (and I love pretty much every seafood). Myschae is the real cook though, she has a real knack.

 

[JimBoone]

I'd like to incorporate dinners for the off season, when many things are closed I don't expect this to be a major money maker for us since I wouldn't do the offerings during season as there are plenty of great local places for the guests to visit.

What do health and licensing rules require? It has been years since I asked, but here I think the answer was you could serve breakfast for 4 rooms with a normal kitchen, up to 12 rooms with a commercial refrigerator, other meals required a restaurant kitchen and all the rules/fees that came along. In most things, rules seem to work against good intentions.

Example: In our early years I had the idea that I could use my large van to pick up small groups of older folks from other areas, bring them to our area during the week when we were not busy. I would put guests in my rooms when we were not busy and create a low cost option for folks that might not otherwise get to travel and tour the area. I met nice folks, had fun, made friends, but lost money. I was required to have the same licensing, drug testing, permits, and insurance as a full time bus company. Insurance was the killer, over twenty years ago it was $4,000 a year on my vehicle, full time it wouldn't have been bad, but for a hand full of trips each year it wasn't practical.

 

[Jay Curci]

My wife and are hoping to get into a small B&B soon, so this discussion came up.

Where do you eat when you're having dinner?

The dining space is public, so what's the balance or trade off between eating in the dining room and making it feel homey, or not making guests feel like they are interrupting dinner?

If/when the pandemic is mostly under control we might occasionally invite guests to join us for dinner (assuming the food license laws allow it, still checking into all that).

Some B&B's and Inn's have a separate Innkeeper quarters. Here at the Oak Valley inn - my wife and I have a 3 room and full bath apartment outside of the kitchen. We have had dinner parties and catered for special events. It's fun to share meals with Guests especially when they become friends. All the best in your search - feel free to contact us if your interested in our Inn. We are looking to move on. Plenty of potential to grow. No debt - turn key highly profitable Business in a beautiful part of the country.

 

[Callum Mcdonald]

My wife and are hoping to get into a small B&B soon, so this discussion came up.

Where do you eat when you're having dinner?

The dining space is public, so what's the balance or trade off between eating in the dining room and making it feel homey, or not making guests feel like they are interrupting dinner?

If/when the pandemic is mostly under control we might occasionally invite guests to join us for dinner (assuming the food license laws allow it, still checking into all that).

Most nights my girlfriend and I sit down to eat at the dining room table. It is usually not a formal one. We’ll be in the middle of a conversation when dinner is ready, so we just fill up our plates in the pan and continue talking in the restaurant.