Best of luck to you Mike, as a certified Chef I can"t say much more than what anyone in the previous post haven't already mentioned, I had a place in North Alabama for a few years and had to sell it as I was in the middle of a divorce and could never have worked it with my wife as she was hard enough to get along with at home so I sold it and split the money with her, I moved to East Texas and opened a place there and 4 months into the biz some idiot ran a red light and broadsided my girlfriends Jeep and I got hurt bad and had to close my place as I didn't know anyone well enough to trust them to run things the way I intended things to be run, so I'm back to square one again. I am getting better and will soon be able to work again (I hope), anyways I want to make something perfectly clear, location can play a big part in your endeavor but don't bank on that alone, I have been to places that were located in the sticks 10 - 15 miles away from civilization and jst the food and word of mouth were enough to bring folks running back for more, the thing is you have to be original and not copycat others, I know it's a tough business to get into but folks are more apt to seek out the original places if they have been there before and will pass on the copycat diner in a heart beat unless you are the only place around for miles, I say this because I have seen it, I have created 15 Dry Rubs 6 Marinades and 9 different types of sauce and I sell them to sports bars and such and always get raves, their's nothing like having a signiture sauce that noone else has or can duplicate, everything I make I make alone with no prying eyes allowed not even my girlfriend knows what I put in my sauces, rubs and marinades thats how a secret stays a secret. bar-b-q is bar-b-q but if you haven't got your own special sauce or something noone else has you may as well stop before you get started. Dont get me wrong I admire tenasity and spunk but if you are serving Chili's Babyback Ribs I'm going to Chilis for the real thing, The Carolina's are well known for their Pulled pork as well as Texas is known for its bar-b-qed Brisket and Kansas for its style of Ribs I have eaten and can duplicat all of them but wouldn't serve them in my Restaurant for anything in the world even though I have had people request them I still stuck to my guns and made my own nitch and the people loved it. I make Carolina B-B-Q every Sunday cause I love it, pulled pork is a winner with me but when I opened my place in Texas I created my own version of B-B-Q brisket and a sauce to go with it, as well as pulled pork I make my own rubs and then I create a signiture sauce from the drippings, although I record everything I put in the sauces and file them away somewhere safe, when I make pulled pork the sauce is a daily creation and I only replicate it when it is requested by a customer (ie. regulars) that like things the same everytime they eat it. Like my Hotwing Sauce is not even close to the original Sauce made by the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo N.Y where I have eaten many times it is just a blend of (Durkees) now known as Frank's Hotsauce and Butter thats it nothing special about it in my opinion, my Hotwing Sauce consists of about 20 ingredients and is much more flavorful as well and I make it in mild, medium and what I call Hell-Fire and the last is gaurenteed to water your eyes and send you serchin for a cool creek to splash on your bottom the next day, LOL pardon the pun. what everyone has said about your wait staff is true as is everything else that has been mentioned but if your food ain't good and/or original you are dead in the water as sure as the rain falls. Again I wish you the best of luck and hope you do well.