Another Restaurant Auction
 

Union Leader has an ad today for an auction Friday, May 23rd of 51 Mill Street in Wolfeboro. Seems this year has a higher than usual turnover.

that is a great restaurant too

It's true
 

I guess they were pretty behind on their bills, electricity ect. too bad they were nice people. What is happening to this economy!!???

We used to go there a lot when it was Loves Quay. Went to 151 Mill St for 2 Thanksgivings and both were very good. During the past year we noticed a downhill trend. We used to stop in afternoons for some fried calamari and a beer but the size of the calamari serving decreased by about half with the price unchanged. Just stopped going there. :(

The way I see it, the rich are getting richer and the rest of us can go to hell or beg from the rich! :(

Simple: We are in an inflationary recession.

Costs are going up...food, fuel, durable goods.
Little economic growth coupled with a lack of domestic investment and outsourcing.

The net net is that there is less disposable income and discretionary spending is reigned in.

If we don't get something happening here, we will become the best third world country out there. :D

Jetskier:cool:

I am beginning to think that is what our leaders want!

Folks:

Pleaseeeee! This is just another good old fashion recession. Nothing more, nothing less.

The folks at 51 Mill Street were nice people and good operators, but apparently they were into the property for too much. The next person in will lower his/her fixed costs and hopefully he/she will be able to survive.

NBC covers the topic
 

Earlier tonight on NBC Nightly News there was a story on the difficulties on running a restaurant in this economy (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#24624498). This restaurant owner at Cape May, NJ says he's never seen all his supplies get skyrocketing prices all at once.

This time I don't think it's any of our leaders are causing it. Many of the news reports I've been seeing are all tracing the economic problems back to oil. They usually don't come out and say it--it's just that when you watch enough different reports the pieces fit amazingly well. Our lives use more oil than we know about. The only real way to be oil-free is to forget "go green" and instead "go Amish." Oil is like the annoying in-law that won't take no for an answer. Every time you think it's gone from your home, it's really just run around the house to ring your other doorbell.

So how do the oil prices affect restaurants? Almost every aspect of producing food for today's world population relies on various petroleum products (more than just fuel). Transporting the food to where it will be eaten is only the last oil-intense step in that process. If the food comes in plastic packaging, there's another oil-intense step: Plastic is a petroleum product (another possible reason healthcare costs are skyrocketing... how many disposable plastic products are used every day in modern medicine?)

Lots of food comes in aluminum cans. Many metals including aluminum are refined using high temperatures produced by oil products. That's why these metals are getting expensive enough to cause a rising tide of metal thefts across this country-- the price that scrap yards will pay for them is going up.

The restaurants are also paying for oil in the form of utilities. Most of the world's electricity comes from power plants that use fossil fuels - usually coal. As the price of oil goes up, demand gets shifted onto coal, causing its price to rise. Many public water distribution systems are driven by machines that use petroleum products. If the cost of operating those machines goes up, then the water rates go up.

Finally, restaurants usually use gas stoves. As oil's price skyrockets, some of the demand for it gets shifted onto natural gas, causing its price to go up.

I could go on, but it would get further away from the original topic of why so many of our familiar restaurants are having such a hard time in the lakes region now. Watch the NBC news video and you'll see it's happening outside the lakes region also.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#24624498

I don't think this is the way our policy makers want it to be (I'm not standing up for them either) but I do think that for the first time in history, they can't do anything about it except pretend they can, so that we don't start throwing rotten bananas at them. The problem is worldwide: Oil demand is having a Nascar race with oil supply, and the "supply" car has its pedal to the metal while the demand car is only cruising. They're just about head-to-head and still several more laps to go...

The moral of the story? I think very highly of anyone who's keeping his or her own restaurant successful in a time like this. Hats off to you!

What is a middle class family supposed to do???
 

My husband and I are both in our early twentys and are just trying to make ends meet. We have 2 very young children and are doing everything we can to keep the bills paied and still have a little fun. I guess not paying attention to the news is one of my problems but i think that I would be more worried about what is happening to the economy if I did. The price of gas is just the beginning, it's going up at least 15 cents a week, this is crazy!!! I just wish that we could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

51 Mill Street
 

It is to bad that this fine restaurant is going up for sale. The owners have worked very hard to keep their customers happy.
John, Kathy,Nick, Joe:( and the rest of the crew, Good luck in the future.

There is plenty that individuals (and area restaurant owners) can do to cheer up. First and foremost, we can stand by the lakeshore on a calm night, look up at the stars, and listen to the loons!

The next couple paragraphs may appear to get off-topic (another local restaurant falls victim) but they're not. They're my illustration of a mentality that, once adopted by a restaurant owner (or anyone else) could spark ideas for us as individuals and individual businesses, to slow down this business decline in the lakes region.

The best thing we can all do is adjust our thinking to "survival is fun," and in many ways it really is. Most people who take part in the growing number of "extreme survival sports" do so because the automated world has become too tame for them. The human body is programmed to be capable of so much more, and we naturally crave situations where we test those features. That's probably why shows like "Survivor" and "Man vs. Wild" and "Ice Road Truckers" have gotten so popular. When I was a kid, my friends and I loved it when a big storm came along and put a huge dent in the modern lifestyle for a few days. My sister and I have fond memories of cooking on the wood stove after a heavy winter storm knocked out the power... and power outages at night were the only times we ever played candlelight board games as a family. We just have to go back to having the hearts and attitudes of children, and we'll probably be amazed at the solutions we start coming up with (and the fun we have!)

The only exception to the "child philosophy" is that I've had to change my food-purchase mentality to save money and it's proven to be a huge time-saver as well as keeping my weight within healthy limits (which I couldn't do easily when food was cheaper.) Rather than look for "What I want" like I did before, I instead think of what kind of fuel my body requires to stay energetic in the day, sleep at night, and not gain weight. Then I look for the cheapest, yet most healthy way to get those nutrients. Cheap food doesn't help you if it's not healthy because it's usually so full of empty calories that you eat more of it to feel satisfied, and if it causes health problems you'll have medical bills. It's not much different from preparing for a backpacking trip. I discovered things like peanut butter and banana sandwiches aren't expensive, but they have all kinds of nutrients that sustain energy for hours. The best part is, they only take 5 minutes to make and eat, which means I can have a quick lunch without skimping on nutrients, and get right back to work without losing my train of thought.

Once again, it's not my intention for this to seem off-topic, because it isn't when you think about it. "Another restaurant auction" is a statement we haven't heard around here for a while, and it is cause for concern since it's happening all across this country. I offered the above as an example of "adjusting our thinking to help us in the lakes region stay afloat." The news is gradually filling up with stories of how individuals are getting creative and having a good time doing it. This morning they interviewed some guy from the Midwest who now rides his horse to school because its apparently cheaper to keep his horse fed than it is for him to gas up his pickup truck. I just laughed. I almost wished I could go back to school so that I could ride a horse to school, too! Many New England colleges do have stables...

My hope is that somewhere in this mentality I've described, you (the reader) might start smiling, finding some fun in all this, and when you're having fun you might think of your own creative idea for saving a favorite local restaurant, your home, or whatever. If you get creative enough and look like you're having too much fun, you might end up getting interviewed on the Today Show while wearing a Winnipesaukee.com t-shirt!

Restaurants and the Economy
 

I laud your optimism and it seems like it is a worthwhile outlook for bad times. When times change people opt for more cost effective alternatives. The lake is an amazing resource; however, unless it is your full time home the economic impacts are more profound. It takes gas to drive here etc...

This all being said, there are always those that are financially well off and will not be impacted by the economic shift. However, that is likely not enough to maintain all of the local businesses. I would say that the stronger restaurants will continue to survive and others will not. I guess that this is just economic Darwinism.

I find out political leader guilty of neglect rather than malevolence. We have money for wars and international aid, however, domestic initiatives are scarce. In addition, our investment community (VCs) are enamored with India and China. You do not get a Microsoft without investment.

Oh well, enough for one day. Since I am in Seattle today, maybe it will have to be a fish sandwich. :D

Jetskier

You are right, it's different if you don't live near the lake. But anything is an amazing resource if you stare at it long enough while thinking of something funny. I was just about to say the only place that's not an amazing resource would be a desert, but then I remembered a magazine article I read about how many people in the desert are glad they get enough sunshine to make good use of solar energy solutions. Instead of loon songs and lapping lakewater, the desert puts on some of the country's most amazing lightning shows after dark, silhouetting the saguaros....

With regard to neglect by our current leader(s), your opinion is well-supported, but one thing very few people are saying very loudly is the fact that the real neglect occurred in the 1970s, when the oil crisis should've been a wakeup call to better preparedness when we still had time. But everyone went right back to an oil-guzzling lifestyle once it all blew over. The mentality was, "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it." Well, here it is...

:D Enjoy your fish sandwich - you've made me hungry just thinking about it!

Very good comments. I agree that energy costs are the root cause of many of our economic problems. One point I would add is that it is easy to blame "our leaders". However, most Americans have grown accustomed to having unlimited supplies of cheap energy at their disposal. Look in the mirror and it is likely you will see the real culprit. Our society has grown fat, dumb and lazy and $125.00 a barrel oil may just be the wake up call needed do something about our energy dependence. Sacrifice, alternative fuels and domestic exploration in places like the Florida coast, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico are probably all necessary to have a meaningful impact on our cost of energy.

No Foreclosure
 

Let's hope they are successful. They are a nice family.

Agreed! The first time I ever heard this warning against becoming "fat, dumb, lazy" due to cheap energy was in elementary school gym class. There was one day when the gym teacher gathered us all together and told us the many ways modern automation would tempt us to be lazy/less active, which would lead to health problems. He told us to ride our bikes "instead of asking your parents for a ride" whenever possible, and to spend our lives choosing the manual way over the automated way as much as possible. I don't remember much else from that time in my life, but that one has always been vivid in my memory. It makes me wonder if our over-consumption all those years is the main cause of our over-burdened healthcare system too. It certainly leads to more pollution. Whether there's global warming or not doesn't matter- pollution isn't healthy to breath or drink.

So, if our over-consumption really is causing the economic problem that has led to the failure of all these restaurants, as well as the root of all the other problems mentioned, then that's actually good news. It would mean we could fix a whole lot of problems all at once, just by reducing our demand for modern energy - starting with the advice of my former gym teacher.

I hope the owners of the foreclosed restaurant are able to successfully defend themselves and that they find a way to navigate through this energy crisis. I hate to see locally-owned restaurants go out. I wonder if they'd be able to make better use of locally grown food like some other local restaurants do. One of the big reasons for high food prices is the fact that large-scale commercial agriculture requires oil-derived fertilizers and pesticides, and harvesting/packaging by big machines that require oil for fuel, but many of the local farms (like Moulton's) try to stay away from pesticides and use mostly manual labor. So I wonder if local farms might have cheaper food? I wonder this because I already found some local dairy farms are selling milk for less than $3 a gallon -- cheaper than both Wal Mart and Market Basket. Local restaurants should look into solutions like that, especially 51 Mill St. if they are able to keep it.

Not dead yet
 

Very recently I have spoken to the owner, a friend of mine for 20 years , they are not closing and have worked with the bank to clear their problems. As anyone in the biz knows Jan - March are the restaurant killer months especially with the budget busting fuel costs. He reports that so far this has been his best spring and he has also retired some debts he was paying all last year. He is currently altering the menu to add some traditional Greek dishes, and John is also in negotiations with Cathy to supply more of the desserts - Cathy wins all negotiations but will probably add to her list of dessert creations. I encourage everyone to visit them this summer and help keep the local flavor alive.

That's good news!
 

Thanks for the update Andy.....good Ol' John seems to have more lives than a cat!

I would love to know how much the "negotiations" with Cathy are going to cost him, though! :laugh:

51 Mill Street
 

While we were in Wolfeboro this past week end we heard that 51 Mill Street was in fact closing at the end of the month. Has anyone else heard this?
This is on eof the best restaurants in town.
:(

I read in the paper that 51 Mill Street filed Chapter 11 (reorganization) last week on the day the bank was holding an auction. This stopped the bank's action for a while anyway. My guess is that this restaurant will likely change hands soon. I haven't been there in a while. How is the service and food been lately?

My Wife and I eat there almost every weekend. The food and the wait staff are great.

51 Mill street is one of our favorites. We sit in the bar and order off the pub menu.