Finding the Right Restaurant

Part 1

When I wanted to start ASANO last year, one of the biggest challenges was finding the right restaurant to open a cafe within. With approximately 28,000 restaurants in NYC, a swipe right approach would have been great, but alas, excel and walking shoes it is.

All while simultaneously trying to raise money, find the right coffee roaster, develop a menu with a baker I hadn’t hired yet, and convince suppliers to work with a business that didn’t exist. It was a constant game of “chicken or egg?” because every party wanted to see the others first. Investors wanted to see restaurant partnerships before they’d commit. Restaurants wanted to see proven operations. Suppliers needed volume guarantees. And so I started with a very detailed spreadsheet.

Phase 1: The Spreadsheet

I started with the obvious filter: Not open before 5 PM. This immediately eliminated about 60-70% of restaurants. Then I built out filters across two categories: hard data and soft data.

The hard data was anything I could pull without leaving my apartment—things you’d expect an analyst to care about. Hours, size, ratings, press coverage, location dynamics. I went deep. If a restaurant had been written up somewhere I respected, I noted it. If the neighborhood felt right on paper, I flagged it. Hundreds of restaurants became dozens of real possibilities.

The soft data was the part that couldn’t be quantified. My spreadsheet had a column I’ll just call “vibes.” Whether I’d actually want to spend my mornings there. Whether the food was genuinely good. Whether my friends with good taste liked it. Yes, I asked around.

Phase 2: The Great NYC Restaurant Tour

Then came the part that no spreadsheet could replace: I visited every single one.

For months, I walked around this city like a woman possessed. Friend meetups? Bring your sneakers…we are walking. I’d stand outside at different times of day counting foot traffic and feeling the neighborhood energy. Sometimes I would rope in a friend (thank you Rachel) to go on unhinged runs with Google Maps shouting “turn left, turn right, no no turn around” for the entire two hours as we speed-looked at restaurants.

Some restaurants that looked perfect on paper felt wrong in person. The vibe was off. The space was darker than photos suggested. The neighborhood was dead at 8 AM. The front-of-house staff seemed miserable.

Morning tours of some amazing restaurants across the city

Others—restaurants I’d almost skipped—suddenly made sense when I saw them in person. The way the morning light hit the marble bar. The warmth of the neighborhood. The commuters catching their morning train.

What’s Next

With a solid shortlist in hand, the next phase began: working my network, getting warm intros, and discovering that pitching a concept that doesn’t exist yet is... character building.

More on that next month!

MY RECS FOR THE MONTH

1. To read: This article, “26 Heartwarming (and Heartbreaking) Recipe Comments About Food and Love” brought out a few emotions, including some laughs:

   This was so spicy our eyes literally watered while it was in the oven. My husband almost died. But I can get a new husband. Cheesy, Spicy Black Bean Bake

2. To eat: Tuscan White Bean and Tuna Salad at Fish in Sausalito. Fresh tuna, gloriously large butter beans, eaten on wooden benches outside. Consumed during a long weekend away that became longer thanks to those wild snow storms! I’ve been making the drive across the bridge every trip to SF for years, and this salad is still one of the best in the country.

Kate