Despite his youthful good looks , Richard Key knocks the oats out of anyone else I know for restaurant industry wisdom and knowledge. Whenever we see each other, the topic turns to 'the game' immediately. He knows so much, and I've leaned often on his knowledge to sense-check ideas for projects I've worked on. As much as he and his wife Gillian love restaurants and the hospitality industry, he is clear-eyed about its challenges. Richard has a knack for holding complex figures and costings in his head, and is able to tell you pretty accurately at the drop of a hat what a dish is going to cost out at. I thought he'd be an interesting person to tap for a chat about the cost of operating a restaurant - inspired by a question from Barry Meeser, one of this show's listeners. Turns out Richard was the perfect person to ask. He's busy consulting to a corporate restaurant group to set up a couple of new franchise operations, and had some incredibly detailed figures at his fingertips from researching the competitive environment in which they want to operate. This is probably the most enlightening episode I've recorded so far.
