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Identifying best practices for restaurant site selection

Getting boots on the ground to narrow down an ideal location is important.

September 26, 2014 by Nate Riggs — CEO / Owner, NR Media Group

There are hundreds of thousands of restaurant locations in the U.S. forming a massive $680+ billion industry. One topic we haven't hit on too much in the past goes back to that tried-and-true phrase that we all know: location, location, location. This week we will take a look at real estate for restaurants and the role it plays in the industry. Our guest this week is a true foodie at heart and has combined his love for high quality cuisine with his expertise in finance and analytics. He has taken his expertise in real estate analytics and utilized it to help his company find top-notch locations during their period of massive expansion rates.

In episode #052 of the Social Restaurant Podcast, I welcome Greg Thornburn, Vice President of Real Estate at Luna Grill, a fast casual Mediterranean restaurant with a passion for quality ingredients and service. Luna Grill was recently named in the top 10 for 2014's Top 100 Fast Casual Movers and Shakers. Greg has over 8 eight years in the real estate space and truly has a pulse on effective restaurant real estate best practices.

Highlights from the interview include: 

• Greg's considerations during the site selection process
• How demographic data may fall short and the role psychographic data plays in complementing it
• The importance of getting boots on the ground to narrow down an ideal location
• Decision making tips for owning vs. leasing
• Reclaimed real estate and its role in the site selection process

Listen now:

Did something from the show strike a chord with you? Go ahead and use our Speakpipe widget to leave the producers a voicemail with your comments! We'll try to feature it on next week's show.

Want a more extensive resource on tips for the restaurant site location process? Check out Jean Melanipy's Restaurant Location Guidebook, which will give in-depth insights into the 12 principles of site selection. During this episode we talked a lot about demographic and psychographic data, but what about the role of geographic data? Take a look at this article which gives insights into geographic tools available. In this episode we talked about many great tips and best practices for restaurant site selection. But what about what NOT to do? Check out this Pitney Bowes white paper on the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Retain Site Selection.
_{Photo provided by geograph.org.}

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