George Chakiris Quotes

The part that I know I enjoy most is the restaurants. You can't do everything, you know? For me, the priority has been being deeply involved in my restaurants and figuring out different ways to make them run better.

If I'd really known how hard I was going to have to work behind the scenes to have any kind of business, I think I would have stopped.

When I was in the restaurant and bar business, I followed a rule, which was that the places that I opened were places that I wanted to go to.

When our folks focus on exactly what is needed to succeed in the restaurants, they should be able to lead themselves to restaurateur level.

I enjoy the creative side of the business side of being a restaurateur. That's my thing. The thing I'm constantly thinking about is, how do you create new, interesting situations that keep people coming back?

Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

The food business is very tough, but there's also a lot of love and very giving.

Growing up as a young kid, I was in a restaurant. So, you know, I always had a very good understanding of the nuances. And in a way, that was a bad thing. Because it kind of programmed me to believe that if you're going have a restaurant, this is what you need to do, and this is the way it's going to be run.

I knew nothing about sales, marketing or how to run a company. Nor did I have a desire to do any of those things.

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

Running a business anywhere isn't easy.

You have to think of a restaurant as a series of impressions. But what makes my job so great is there's no one answer that's right for every restaurant.

There has been no great surprise, no sudden revelation. I knew pretty much what I was getting into. What I've learned is that a restaurant can be as much of an art as you want it to be, but it has to be a successful business first.

My last two years of high school, I did work-study half the day, and I ran the restaurant. It was just this little restaurant, but it was just so cool. I had 35, 40 employees.

I learned that you shouldn't take your most esoteric concept and fit it into the largest space with the highest fixed costs. It puts too much pressure on the restaurant to hit grand slams every day when there just aren't enough people who want to watch that sport.

It's not easy to have success with restaurants in different cities, but I like the challenge.

Even if the chef has a good business head, his focus should be behind kitchen doors. A business partner should take care of everything in front of the kitchen doors.

Chefs become attracted to being able to get product and then clientele - those are the two things that attract you as a chef.

It's really hard to run a business against somebody who is not acting as if it were in business.

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.

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.

Ninety percent of the people who come to my stores have no idea I don't work with leather.

The C student starts a restaurant. The A student writes restaurant reviews.

When I used to work at Friday's, in a restaurant, that endless appetizer, that was my worst enemy as a server. Oh my god.

I am excited to be working with the dedicated Four Seasons board and leadership team to build upon their reputation for industry-leading customer experiences while seeking out innovative ways to leverage technology that will help spur additional growth.