Greens long history of success

Could a high-end $50 a person vegetarian restaurant survive in America? If it could survive, how long would you guess it could survive?

If you guessed thirty years you would be right. 

Roughly one percent of Americans are vegetarians so any cautious guess on your part would be sensible. Almost nobody can stay in business at high-end food prices to service a tiny market; high-end Ethiopian, Greek, Turkish and Moroccan restaurants rarely survive for long.

Greens at Fort Mason in San Francisco has succeeded and is still full today, everyday and night of the week, with over 180 seats, after thirty years.

Since Greens was originally my idea and I have been the business consultant (and often part of management) for over thirty years, I feel free to advance some ideas about the success.

* The restaurant was started by San Francisco Zen Center and created by Dick Baker the Abbott.  When it first opened it was packed because the SF Zen community had over ten thousand members. It opened packed to the walls.  It has remained packed to this day. Opening full is an important rule of business.

* We recognized that veggie customers alone would never support a business so the restaurant had to have three things: a great wine list, superb food and a comfortable welcoming non-limiting aesthetic (as opposed to the common hippy, Zennie or New Age decor of veggie places). Greens provided a place where three regular humans could eat with their veggie friend.

 * Lastly, over the thirty years we updated the decor regularly without changing it (soon to be updated again). We have been able to demand top flight service because no one on the staff ever wanted to leave.  We made sure that every single one of the thousands of dishes produced every day every week were all equally perfect (thanks to Annie, the core of the kitchen).

Do all of those things and you'll have a successful restaurant.