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Biker Cafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

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Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

We're going to Stoneys Bread? When did this happen? This is kinda short notice. Gonna hafta brush up on MotoGP talking points. JLo's the smooth one, right?
 
Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

Yeah, JLo is the smooth one...
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Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

Didn't read all the replies and maybe this is covered.......
- Very high mortality rate for restaurants in general, more so for theme establishments.
- Who, exactly, is your intended customer? Riders in general, S or SS riders or the cruiser crowd? These groups don't seem to mix and play well together.
- What type of food & beverages do you want to serve?
- Location, location, location?

Ryerson has a fairly large Hospitality / Restaurant Management faculty and program, maybe contact them about info or getting students to do a business case for you. As part of their studies Hospitality students routinely do business feasibility studies, marketing proposals etc..... and work with Toronto restaurants all the time.
 
Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

ReSTored said:
Didn't read all the replies and maybe this is covered.......
- Very high mortality rate for restaurants in general, more so for theme establishments.
- Who, exactly, is your intended customer? Riders in general, S or SS riders or the cruiser crowd? These groups don't seem to mix and play well together.
- What type of food & beverages do you want to serve?
- Location, location, location?

Ryerson has a fairly large Hospitality / Restaurant Management faculty and program, maybe contact them about info or getting students to do a business case for you. As part of their studies Hospitality students routinely do business feasibility studies, marketing proposals etc..... and work with Toronto restaurants all the time.
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When I took my rider safety training at Humber I took advantage of their restaurant / chef training program. Gourmet lunches at burger prices. I don't know if it's still running.
 
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PrivatePilot said:
Lets all remember there was 2 big-name attempts at this in Toronto in the past - the "1903" Harley Cafe and the Indian Motorcycle cafe.

Both are now closed. The Indian Cafe went a few years, the Harley Cafe just opened this past June and is closed already.

If Harley can't make a go of it (much less last even 6 months, during the summer at that) I'd use that as an indicator of the viability.

Edit: Ok, if the Harley Cafe was a lease issue as Roadghost suggests, different story....I couldn't find anything about it's closure aside from the fact it didn't seem planned.
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1903 was a pop-up, they never planned for it to be a long term thing, they knew the closing date the day they opened
 
Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

ReSTored said:
Didn't read all the replies and maybe this is covered.......
- Very high mortality rate for restaurants in general, more so for theme establishments.
- Who, exactly, is your intended customer? Riders in general, S or SS riders or the cruiser crowd? These groups don't seem to mix and play well together.
- What type of food & beverages do you want to serve?
- Location, location, location?

Ryerson has a fairly large Hospitality / Restaurant Management faculty and program, maybe contact them about info or getting students to do a business case for you. As part of their studies Hospitality students routinely do business feasibility studies, marketing proposals etc..... and work with Toronto restaurants all the time.
Click to expand...

No need to turn it to a pub with beer and food. Cafe with nice fancy a~~ sandwiches (maybe ice-cream too) are good enough. That will save on your capital (having a fully equipped kitchen is a pain). You will have to deal with lots of food inspections as well and liquor license. Bikers don't drink when they ride anyway (normally). We need coffee to stay up late to rip around :p. And what if someone drinks and rides from your resto gets into an accident, your resto is most likely gets the wrong impression.

If you pick a location out side of downtown, you will less likely to have customers during off season.

Your target should be all bikers. My group is mostly sport bike riders and we attacked 1903 quite often. Maybe it's just because we are cool and truly bike enthusiastic. :cool:
 
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Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

Chairman Mao would be so pleased, once he publicly admits his guilt, bows politely to those accusing him of great crimes with new found and made up names like mysogneynoir? He can be released from his job and sent out for "retraining"

That these groups get any traction at all pales me, the rights they demand are unfounded
 
Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

Just thinking out loud about successful "motorcycle" joints. I can think of a few.

-Haugen's (at least, it was. Haven't been there in a while. What happened to the last five years of my life): primarily has location going for it. Always found it a bit greasy but generally was having too much fun with friends to care
-Flat Top Grill in Bismarck always seems to have bikes in front when the weather is nice. Probably also a location thing
-Was going to name a place in Smithville but realized it recently changed hands so maybe not a good example
-Belfountain Village Store always had bikers in and around it, and it barely had anything other than coffee and ice cream. Definitely a location thing. Too bad it's not there anymore. Wait, it's back in business? Since when? How come nobody told me. why don't you guys tell me anything

Three identifiable common factors are plain coffee, location, and parking lots. Even Ace Cafe has a parking lot. Dunno if it's profitable to run a place downtown with a parking lot

(If you want *me* to show up, late breakfast always helps, even if it's just a BET sandwich. At least one menu item with bacon. If you have a club sandwich don't make it some ridiculous thing I can't fit in my mouth without unhinging my jaw. Also tea that isn't the same bulk food service pack of Lipton unspecified tea that your customers have been working on for seven years. It doesn't have to be any kind of fancy tea, just something that still turns the water dark.)

Also motorcycle owners might be a tiny fraction of GTA residents, but there's a much larger bracket of people that find motorcycles neat/cool but don't own one because they "don't have the time to ride" or "can't afford one" or "they're too dangerous" or have a "destabilizing inner ear condition". Maybe there's an angle where you can provide those people an opportunity to bask in the aura of Real Bikers without repelling the bikers (e.g. maybe have a big sign with the answers to the top 5-10 dumb questions near the front door). If Tokyo can make medical prison restaurants and owl cafes into a functional business model there's gotta be a way this can work somehow.
 
Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

Maybe a few of these for the winter months? Would be pretty awesome to see a full patched club guy on one...

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Re: Biker LoCafe Idea - need some feedback from all of you

knucklesound said:
Maybe a few of these for the winter months? Would be pretty awesome to see a full patched club guy on one...
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I will frequent any establishment that has Sega's Manx TT arcade game.
 
Element Cafe

There was a restaurant/biker café in Scarborough on Lawrence Ave called ELEMENT that has been out of business for a few years now. It even had narrow parking spots marked out specifically for motorcycles. Would be good to talk to owner, Sandy Oh, for a post mortem, if that were possible.

Element Cafe
1940 Lawrence Ave E
Scarborough, ON M1R 2Y7, Canada
Phone: (416) 285-8660

Busy in summer and virtually dead in winter. You want a seasonal business like selling boats, lawn maintenance or snow plowing? Then go for it.

Ace Café and the one in Malibu survive because those countries have either a short or non-existent winter, are in located in heavily populated centres and have a huge motorcycling population (Europe has 10 times the per capita riders than in North America).
 
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Re: Element Cafe

Some places do well because of location. The Rock Store is right in the middle of Mulholland Highway and makes a great pit stop when doing runs back and forth. Belfountain Village Store was at the end of the Forks of the Credit. Smellements was right next to... um, Lawrence Ramps? :)

The Ace Cafe is also popular with the classic car crowd as well, so when the weather is too cold for bikers, they'll have more theme nights for hot rods, German autos, etc.
 
Re: Element Cafe

Awesome Thread! Love to hear everyone's ideas for a coffee shop.
We don't normally post a lot, too busy running a new shop! Moto Revere is a space that you can come and work on your own bike, but we always have coffee on (by donation, so it's great for all those 'frugal' riders)
We like to be a space for any kind of rider, and you'll see all different kinds of bikes in the shop. Everyone is either on two wheels or two feet, and we should be open to the idea that HD guys or Sports guys or Hipsters are all just people, and we could learn a thing or two from any of them.
Hopefully we'll be able to expand our coffee and snack offering this year!

Anyways! We don't have food, we don't have milk, but we have lifts and a tire changer, and you're all more than welcome to come and have a cup of black ANY TIME!

1250 Dupont (downtown, but not too far downtown)
 
Re: Element Cafe

MotoRevere said:
Awesome Thread! Love to hear everyone's ideas for a coffee shop.
We don't normally post a lot, too busy running a new shop! Moto Revere is a space that you can come and work on your own bike, but we always have coffee on (by donation, so it's great for all those 'frugal' riders)
We like to be a space for any kind of rider, and you'll see all different kinds of bikes in the shop. Everyone is either on two wheels or two feet, and we should be open to the idea that HD guys or Sports guys or Hipsters are all just people, and we could learn a thing or two from any of them.
Hopefully we'll be able to expand our coffee and snack offering this year!

Anyways! We don't have food, we don't have milk, but we have lifts and a tire changer, and you're all more than welcome to come and have a cup of black ANY TIME!

1250 Dupont (downtown, but not too far downtown)
Click to expand...

i've stopped by here a few times for the workshops. super helpful!
 
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