Case Study
Melrose Place Case Study
Los Angeles, CA
About the Project
Welcome inside West Hollywood’s stylish multi-story restaurant newcomer, complete with open-air views and gilded age touches — and all on one of LA’s most famous streets. The new Melrose Place, now open at 8472 Melrose Place, is perfect for glimmering evenings, cocktails, or a thick, juicy steak.
The brainchild of the Sunset Collective Hospitality Group, the three-story, 8000 square foot space is a one-stop-shop for café needs, dinnertime eats or a sky-high cocktail with its sweeping views.
The menu, yet an upscale casual collection of pan-California hits includes simple salads and showy starters such as sculpted tuna crudo, to caviar, snapper served two ways, and bone-on steaks that weigh in at 40 ounces. There will be ceviche and sashimi on the lighter end, vegan and keto meals, and cocktails and wine to finish out the evening.
As for the design, expect lots of curves and hidden lighting that stretches across the golden, cream, and tan-toned room. An arcing bar gives way to dark wooden tables and the open sky beyond, with views out into West Hollywood. Further in the dining room, patterned booths offer group seating or a cozy night for two beneath palm fronds.
Challenge & Our Solution
- Challenge - the owners were seeking funding from private investors to fund the project.
- Our Solution - to assist the ownership team in raising funds for this new West Hollywood beauty, The Gilkey Restaurant Consulting Group was enlisted to develop a business plan, feasibility study, and pitch book for potential investors.
1. Business Plan
A business plan is a formal statement of the business goals and the reasons why the owners believe they are attainable. The Gilkey Restaurant Consulting Group believes a well-conceived business plan can greatly improve the restaurants’ ability to consistently establish and meet objectives in a way that best serves the company’s owners, employees, and investors. TGRCG business plans include following topics.
- Confidentiality agreement
- Mission statement
- Executive summary
- Market analysis
- Business overview
- Assumptions and explanations
- Products and services
- Operating model
- Management and ownership
- Funds required and their uses
- Financial assumptions
- Year 1 sales and profit projections
- 5-year projection
- Return on investment analysis
2. Pitch Book
A pitch book is a graphically illustrated deck that communicates how the restaurant will look, feel, and operate. It is the guiding principle and establishes all operating tenets that influence all concept decisions for the development team. Pitch books are also useful in assisting in fund raising and communicating to potential investors and landlords the look, feel and operating model of the intended concept.
During the development of the pitch book, we memorialize in graphic form the owners vision relating to the details of the mission, brand identity, design, positioning, operating model, menu, food, and overall personality and vibe of the brand. The pitch book concept will include but not be limited to:
- Brand identity
- Design intent
- Concept position
- Operating model
- Menus
- Food and beverage
- Personality and vibe
The end result is a deck describing the brand attributes and a graphic display of images articulating the above to ensure the client and investors have a detailed understanding of the brand and concept will look and feel.
3. Feasibility Study
TGRCG’s feasibility study is an assessment and practicality of a proposed business in a specific market. A feasibility study aims to objectively uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the business, opportunities and threats present in the market, the resources required, and ultimately the prospects for success. In its simplest terms, the three criteria to judge feasibility are cost required, anticipated operating expenses, and value to be attained.
TGRCG will include but not limit our analysis to the following topics and deliver a reliable high-level report to your team.
- Examine nuances of the location and the local community.
- Conduct analysis of current economic conditions in the surrounding communities.
- Determine the targeted guest profile and size of target guest.
- Analyze the demographic groups in the selected market to determine their purchasing preferences and overall demand. Review the current and future competitive set of restaurants to establish strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
- Establish a sales forecast for the concept in the selected market.
- Examine comprehensive operating costs associated in the selected market.
- Examine the costs of development and construction for the concept.
- Deliver a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT), analysis of the concept in the selected market.