Just found out the '75% of restaurants fail in year one' stat is basically made up
I was prepping for a talk with some culinary students at the community college in Fresno and looked up that old restaurant failure number to scare them a little. Turns out it traces back to a 2003 study that only looked at a few hundred spots in one state, and the real 5 year survival rate is closer to 80% depending on the source. So what busted stat does everyone still repeat in your kitchen like it's gospel?
The part that gets me is "the real 5 year survival rate is closer to 80%." That stat has always been shaky. A few hundred places in one state is not proof of anything. Most of those old numbers come from surveys with tiny samples and no real tracking. I have seen plenty of spots close and plenty stay open 20 years, so it never added up anyway. It kind of feels like people just like the scary version because it makes the work sound harder than it is.