Themed restaurants carry no guarantee

News that some of London's themed restaurants are struggling has led some people to conclude that the bubble is about to burst in this booming sector of the restaurant market.

Themed restaurants are by their very nature risky businesses. And while some of the weaker concepts might survive in prime locations, put them in a secondary site and their chances of survival will be slim.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to predict which themes or concepts will succeed. Football Football in London's Haymarket seemed likely to be an instant hit when it launched earlier this year.

But many early visitors were disappointed at the menu range, particularly for children, and the prices, which put the cost of eating there out of the pockets of most families. Since that shaky start there have been sensible changes to the offering so that Football Football might yet become a success story.

One of the difficulties faced by themed restaurants is that they frequently face huge set-up costs and, when these are combined with big rents, they have to charge high prices and be full most of the time in order to make a decent profit. That makes them very vulnerable to changes in fashion and the economy.

Some recent ventures have clearly not been very well thought out. The Thunder Drive on Shaftesbury Avenue lasted only a few months and Chili's on the same road is struggling to survive. In the latter case, location isn't the only difficulty: many consumers think it is a Mexican rather than Texan themed restaurant.

The crash of the Thunder Drive won't mean the end of themed restaurants on the site, though, because Glendola Leisure has announced it will open the UK's first Rainforest Café on the site early next year.

Whether or not this new unlikely-sounding theme will survive remains to be seen, although Glendola does have a successful track record with Waxy O'Connors. Indeed, the huge success of Waxy O'Connors shows that the right theme in the right location can be a licence to print money.

Unfortunately, there are now too many less creative, less sensible people trying to jump on the bandwagon and there will probably be a number of high profile crashes next year.

What their failure does highlight once again is that running any restaurant is a risky business, even for the professional restaurateur. It is no place for amateurs looking to make a quick killing.

GARY CROSSLEY

Editor

Caterer & Hotelkeeper