We heard a lot lately about community Restaurant / Bar / Café..., but many F&B fellows still do not clearly identify how could these be different from a destination concept .
First let's define what is a community ?! if we simply google the name it gives a definition that it refers to a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common . lately we have seen in many countries a mushrooming of different communities - for example an Italian community in a foreign country where group of Italians chose to live in a certain area and build and develop their business so with time it becomes an area that is known to be an Italian community , a community could be a residence area for students ! or could be labor camps area just to share few examples .
Therefore , the role of a restaurateur is to study this particular area of interest and develop his full business plan around the community characteristics and include all these characteristics in every aspect of his/her business plan (from Name , Logo , Menu offerings & service style etc.... ) , at the end the final product / concept will be tailored to the needs / habits & expectations of the people living in this community .
But what are the Cons of having a business in a community ? in fact the lifestyle and nature of people that are living in this area will have direct impact on your restaurant business , if let's say your restaurant is in a business district where people around work 5 days a week and no one is around on weekend that means you will have 5 days of business and you will not get business on the 2 days of weekend , in other words your business will be limited and dependent on what the community dictates to your business , in some rare cases and this can depend on the concept and its reputation , your business might become a destination and you can break this rule and still have flow of business on all days or on all meal periods ...
On the other hand side , when you work on a concept that should be a destination, definitely you will be targeting locations that are buzzing , heart of city , main streets / highways , near Metro etc..., so the name of your business and full business plan will change and will not have to adapt to the community around but could be a franchise / a creative concept that is set to become a destination from the beginning and in majority of cases such concepts do target 7 days business and aiming to be busy during all meal periods except if the concept is limited to certain meal period only .
in Brief , a community concept is a tailored concept to the needs / habits / lifestyle of the people living around in that particular community Vs. a destination concept that is targeting the nearby and more far areas in the aim of becoming a destination with no limitations .