P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

As an outsider to and observer of the restaurant business, one of the things I most admire about it is the risks people are willing to take.

Remember, restaurateurs are only shopkeepers; that's all we are. It's no different from the supermarket down the road.

We'll serve, on a good Saturday night six or seven thousand people in all the restaurants, and it's like, the percentages are that maybe one person's not going to like what they get. And I can't be there to fix it. I hate that. We're in this business to make things that please people.

The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.

If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they're talking.

When I set up my first restaurant, I was so inspired by Wolfgang Puck, who is also based in L.A. and is now a good friend of mine, and the way he would engage with his customers and greet them personally.

I wouldn't mind having a nice little restaurant.

I started a deli when I was 19 years old. Kevin O's. The sandwiches at Kevin O's were a little like Subway before Subway - fresh baked bread. My best seller was turkey with cream cheese and artichoke hearts. I just made it up.

I'm not a TV guy. I'm a restaurant chef and a businessman.

I think everybody at some point in time has thought to themselves, 'I have a really great idea for a restaurant.'

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

If I wasn't an actress, I'd be a chef. I'd love to open a restaurant.

I love cooking. I'm in the restaurant business.

Whether it's books or TV, or whatever the case may be, the backbone of what I do is my restaurants.

Although the skills aren't hard to learn, finding the happiness and finding the satisfaction and finding fulfillment in continuously serving somebody else something good to eat, is what makes a really good restaurant.

As a restaurateur, my palate is one of my most important tools.

I was working in restaurants as a captain and as a waiter.

I live in New York and I'm in New York basically all the time. I spend a lot of my time in my restaurants, and I feel like that's why they're successful.

I have the restaurant, too. I serve Southwest, barbecue.

The restaurant business had a profound effect on my future and that of my two brothers. When we were able to stand on a stool to reach the sink, we washed dishes, and later, when we could see over the counter, we waited tables and managed the cash register.

I started in the restaurant business at the age of 19 as a waitress. I loved the atmosphere and the camaraderie of the restaurant business. I loved not having to go to an office. I loved making people happy.

I don't have any interest in being a chef without being on the business side of things, or vice versa, because if you don't make money at the end of the month, you're going out of business.

My dreams are huge, man. I dream all day every day. Do I want to get into restaurants one day? Yeah! Do I want to get into hospitality and have my own hotels? Yeah, I do!

From the first day we opened Wynkoop, my brewpub in Denver, I knew I'd be ten times better running a restaurant than I was a geologist.

It's tough, you know: I'm a chef first, and a restaurant owner, way before I was ever on Food Network, and it's a tough business.