Few entrepreneurs face longer odds against success than the restaurateur. As start-up businesses go, it's fairly easy to open an eatery but keeping it going is tougher than coaxing a 20 percent tip out of Scrooge McDuck.
Unless, that is, you are John Williams, Tom Guinney and Tom Sieg, the principals in Gastronomy Inc., three men who don't seem to understand that the cafe biz is a risky one.Batting seven for seven - New Yorker Club, Market Street Grill, Market Street Broiler, Oyster Bar, Club Baci, Baci Trattoria and Cafe Pierpont - the trio are two weeks away from defying the odds once again with the opening of China Star, their first venture into Oriental cuisine.
Consistently good food is Gastronomy's secret to longevity, of course, as it is for any successful restaurant. But they also have a good fix on the ambience thing. All of their seven restaurants and clubs operate in digs that less imaginative souls thought were ready for the wrecking ball.
Patrons of The Gastronomy Seven spend a lot of time admiring the architecture and design of some former old warehouse or hotel, muttering, "Why didn't I think of this?" Deep down, everyone thinks they have a really neat restaurant in them if they could just find the time and money to make it happen.
Gastronomy finds both with startling regularity. China Star will open in mid-April at 240 South 1300 East in yet another building with a history fondly remembered by many Salt Lakers: the former Crystal Palace Market.
Since the Palace closed, the building has been home to two other restaurants, but if Gastronomy's track record holds, it will be China Star for many years to come. Its Gastronomy neighbor a couple doors south, the Market Street Broiler and Fish Market in the old Fire Station No. 8, serves nearly 200,000 meals a year
Most people who don't come from China might hesitate to open a Chinese restaurant. But having mastered seafood 750 miles from the ocean, as well as Mexican (Cafe Pierpont) and Italian (Baci Trattoria) cuisine, the three partners have no fear of ethnic eateries.
China Star, they contend, will be a Chinese restaurant "with modern sparkle and pizazz, boasting a menu of fresh, fast Oriental dishes from appetizers to desserts."
Lunch and dinner patrons, they assure, will not face a menu with "rows of order-by-number, impossible-to-pronounce" items. Instead, they will find stir fry, egg rolls, pot stickers, Oriental salads, rice and noodles, complemented with a variety of sauces. Fresh seafood will also be featured daily.
Jim Gabiola is general manager. Service will be from 11 a.m. to midnight. The restaurant will seat 100, plus additional seating on the patio. There will be an express window for takeout and, beginning in summer, all menu items will be available for free delivery.
The restaurant's design, by Mike Walters, features natural maple woodwork and benches, multicolored glass panes along the front and south side, mirrored walls, red lacquer chairs and green rubber flooring.