elaich wrote:
>
> A group of former employees who had worked there for years got up the funds
> to buy it, and return it to it's former glory. Too late - the reputation
> had been ruined. Even though they went back to doing things exactly like
> they had been done there for decades, nobody would give it a chance. The
> restaurant is right next to a freeway exit, but can't compete for the
> travel business with the McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell that are
> right there as well. They depended on the local business, and that had been
> ruined.

Sort of the reverse happened near me. An unbelievably
bad Chinese restaurant -- I think the proprietors must
have been from rural China or someplace where it is
considered perfectly normal to serve a chicken dish
in which the chicken has been hacked up with a cleaver,
no attempt has been made at deboning, and it's left to
the customer to pick out the meat -- went out of business
and was replaced by another Chinese restaurant which
was actually quite good. They also completely remodeled
the place so it looked great. They went out of business
in less than a year, I guess because he couldn't overcome
the bad reputation of their predecessor.

Just goes to show that planning a restaurant business
requires considerable thought and research. And even
then, you might fail. The new Chinese restaurant had
great food at reasonable prices. The remodeled
restaurant was lovely. But all of that wasn't enough.