Having first engaged with the brand online – like we do with so many brands today – we were intrigued to visit their brand environment and to visit Neat Burger in person and see how this experience compares. Having discovered this brand on Instagram months back we have been keeping up to date with their social content and learning more about the brand online. "Anyone could open a restaurant with a credit card, and get their business going.One of Grey Coffee’s most recent trips took us to London and specifically to Neat Burger. "You don't need $100,000 to open something you're passionate about," he says. If the concept proves out, Dupont is hoping to repeat his low-cost startup process and open more Tau Pocos in other cities. The low-cost launch doesn't seem to have hurt Tau Poco with diners - in the first month, Dupont says the restaurant is seeing about 100 diners a day with an average $10 check. To get an upgraded oven, Dupont shopped restaurant supply stores, scoring an oven/stovetop combo for $2,000. Tau Poco has no soft-drink machine, cup dispenser, or ice machine, all of which Dupont saw as optional items that could be added later if needed. Dupont needed to get rid of a huge refrigerator case that took up too much space and replace it with smaller cases, which he leased to keep up-front costs down. This saved both on materials and on red tape and permit costs - reusing the sign meant Dupont could skip the city's signage review process. For that sign, Dupont took down the shop's existing sign, turned it over, and had his branding artist paint the Tau Poco logo on the back. Even better, $2,000 of that payment was made in restaurant scrip instead of cash, further lowering up-front costs. Instead of finding a big-name design firm and spending five figures, Dupont hired a local artist and paid just $5,000 for all branding and marketing materials, from wall murals and menus inside the restaurant to the sign outside. Fire-rated paneling for the kitchen, another critical item, was $1,500. One needed expenditure was upgrading plumbing in the space, some of which was flat-out broken. For new flooring, Dupont shopped Home Depot, selected dirt-cheap slate tiles, and then paid a contractor to install them. Outdated fixtures and furnishings were removed and replaced with low-cost alternatives that fit Tau Poco's theme and look. So rent was cheap - just $1,000 a month - and the layout was already set up for cooking. Dupont sleuthed out an 1,800-square foot former restaurant space in Birmingham's rebounding downtown which he says had seen several previous eateries fail. "If you listen to that, you'll end up spending five times what you need to." "So many people are going to inundate you with ideas on what you have to have," he says. Dupont recommends drawing up your own budget and rejecting conventional wisdom about what is a "must-have" in your eatery on opening day. Here's what he spent the money on - and how he kept costs down to the bare minimum: If diners are receptive, let revenue from the eatery fund a bigger restaurant down the road, instead of shooting for the big, showy version right away. "Diners do not come back because you put in a $600,000 kitchen - they're coming to eat the food." "Ultimately, you'll be graded on the food," he says. Find a small, existing restaurant space, give it a cosmetic makeover, and get great food out there, so diners can start the buzz going. The key, Dupont says, is to think of the first restaurant in a new concept as a test case. He says Tau Poco, which opened in October 2013, cost under $13,000 to open. He ended up spending a bit more, but not much.
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