The Restaurant Book: The Definitive Guide to Starting Your Own Restaurant

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

In 1983, Michael Coltman wrote How to Start and Run a Profitable Restaurant (International Self-Counsel Press; see CBRA 1983, entry 4157). The Coltman book and the Ware and Rudnick book are very, very similar. Ware and Rudnick use a case study technique for many of their examples, but Coltman provides more examples of forms. The two books cover much of the same ground: the realities, what kinds of restaurants there are, the costing of the food, menu construction, business strategy (site, sales, beverages, labour, finance, equipment, and furnishings), the use of consultants, where to find good personnel and suppliers, and how to advertise properly. Both books are useful, of course.