Life cycles

It was with some sadness that I read of more restaurants closing in Richmond. Even considering the fickle nature of this business with its high turnover rate, this is of course, unfortunate at many levels. From a purely statistical perspective, a well-cited study of restaurant closings estimated that in the first year, 26% close. Another 19% close in the second year, and 14% in the third. Roughly, 6 out 10 restaurants close in 3 years! So I was curious about the restaurant landscape in RVA over the last 3 years.

I remembered analyzing restaurants way back in 2009; Style Weekly at the time had listed 55 restaurants among the city’s favorites - a fair sampling. So going back to the data from 3 years ago, it was somewhat heartening to note that many of these have stood the test of time. 43 of these 55 are still around (~80% if you’re counting!). Of course, we must remember that several of these were open for years prior as well.

Importantly, most of these still rate highly. In the interim, a few meteors have flashed us by, some brighter than others and a few new stars are burning brightly now. No jinxes but we’ll revisit today's list in 2015 !! Apologies for the quasi-morbidity and Good Luck to all and those yet to come...
Cook from life !!