Restaurant Survival

In todays weak economy, consumers are cutting back on frills such as eating out. Not good news for restaurants hoping to fill their tables.

At the recent Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival sponsored by American Express I talked with Roy Yamaguchi, Head Chef and Founder of Roy's popular restaurant group about how he views the recession. Yamaguchi says its all about location.

"For us we have locations in a lot of different cities so some of the cities of course have taken a bigger hit than others. For instance in Honolulu our restaurants are still doing quite well but on Maui with the failure of two airlines and the lack of tourism on that island our business is tremendously down."

Yamaguchi went on to say that the key to staying successful these days is keeping the customers coming back.

"The thing we do best is great food and great service and that's what people come to Roy's for. So it's not a matter of can you stay in business by cutting for us it's how can you stay in business by providing even more service."

To hear more from Roy on getting your business through this recession click on the video link. Then maybe take in a nice meal, but choose wisely. Yamaguchi says the biggest mistake many restaurants are making right now is cutting back. And the excess trimming is affecting service, so for Roy it's all about reminding customers who takes the best care of them in good times or in bad.