If you’ve driven around Tampa lately, you will likely have noticed restaurants such as Fresh Kitchen, Taco Dirty and Sweet Soul have started popping up on people’s restaurant radars. I have been to Fresh Kitchen and Taco Dirty, and they both initially give off the vibe of a local startup with decent food. But then I started noticing lots of similarities. They had the same vibe, similar food, similar structure and several other details. Upon further investigation, I discovered that they were both owned by the same restaurant group along with a ton of other Tampa restaurants. While I understand that restaurant groups can be beneficial for expanding business without creating a chain, they can also crowd out small businesses by taking away business.
One of the first things I noticed about the restaurants owned by restaurant groups is that they all are the same concept wrapped up with the vibes of a “modern and sustainable” yet goofy restaurant with half-decent food for 10 dollars a pop. Each one I have been to has a “different” menu that has a couple of options, but everything is “fresh”, “sustainable” or “made in-house” yet still somehow bland. To be fair, it’s not terrible food, but most restaurant groups seem to repackage the same concept with slight variations.
Furthermore, I can’t shake the feeling that these groups are crowding out other smaller businesses. Owning a small business is hard, especially here in Tampa, and I can’t imagine that one group opening a number of restaurants across a ton of genres help our local businesses. This isn’t all the fault of restaurant groups, it’s also large chains and corporations taking business furthering the issue.
Speaking of chains, the very concept of restaurant groups resembles a type of monopoly. It’s a variety of restaurants with different food, buildings and concepts being owned and operated by the same parent company, it’s perfectly reasonable to see the potential for one group to control the business in one area entirely. While they aren’t “chains”, they are very close to being small monopolies in the restaurant industry.
However, I do acknowledge the benefits for business owners that come with being in a restaurant group. It’s easier to share money, get investors and reduce other costs that come with starting and running a restaurant in a restaurant group, as while as allowing owners who don’t want to be limited to one type of restaurant to have that freedom. Still, I believe that we as consumers need to be aware of them and the potential downsides that come with one group crowding out other businesses. It can very easily turn into a sort of corporation, and with local businesses already struggling against chains, we need to keep them in mind too.
At the end of the day, I believe that while restaurant groups give more opportunities for business owners to invest in a wide array of foods and restaurant styles, they can take away space and business from smaller businesses already being threatened by larger chains. To me, they feel like another version of a corporation, but they have the excuse of not being “a chain”. I’m interested to see how the restaurant industry expands and evolves, but I feel like restaurant chains will start to push out more and more smaller competition. If you’re wondering how to best help local businesses, your business is the best way. Buy their food, leave good reviews and tell your friends and family about them. You don’t have to boycott or hate on bigger businesses to support smaller ones, your consumption is the best support.
