Downtown Restaurants or why I don't go

Naperville has a lively night life and is getting more restaurants and bars. Or rather bars and a few restaurants. But the restaurants aren't that good. Here is how to be successful in downtown Naperville. First, design a bar that appeals to 21-30 crowd. Remember the 30-50 guys who would like to be 21-30 will also go because well, they still think they can cruise the bar scene and pick up 21 year old women (yeah right). Because this is Naperville, it should have loud music, funny-fancy drinks and women. Even if you have to import them. This brings in the single guys. Since Naperville has liquor licenses that discourage a bar, you need to add food. And you need a certain percentage to qualify for the next level up, which is cheaper and easier to get. The more you can disguise your bar as a restaurant the better so add grill to your name. It would help if you were a 'famous' place from Chicago so people would think it is trendy to go.

The choice of food is a wide-enough menu to get people to buy a sandwich or even a meal. Remember a percentage of your take has to be in food to qualify for a different level of license.

The best way to make money from restaurants in Naperville is to own the building and rent it out. This way, the only people who can afford the rent would be cookie cutter corporate restaurants who can use a formula to be successful and can factor in the rising rents as one more part of the equation and price the drinks accordingly. Sort of the McDonald's approach to bars and restaurants. Yes, this works, but it is boring. How many appletini's can one stand?

Don't get me wrong, I do like Bar Louie's although I'd rather go to Bolingbrook than face Naperville traffic. But the glut of bars posing as restaurants just don't do it for me.

This is my opinion. If you are a 25 year old guy who is looking to go pick up chicks and needs a bar scene, so be it. But look at the price of that fancy drink you are nursing. Look at the decor and service. Watch everyone yelling over the music to talk. If this is fun, I guess I never knew what fun was.