Are United States restaurants for sale stuck in a rut?  As restaurant brokers, we studied the designs in South Africa for the answers.

When you leave the country and visit in other lands, it can seem as though many in our markets suffer from a "me too" complex, rather than exploiting opportunities to provide unique dining experiences.

Here are a few examples from these Atlanta restaurant brokers recent trip.  This free standing "kiosk" style business is in the middle of a mall in Capetown South Africa.  The fully contained unit occupies a tiny footprint and delivers a big taste of style and dining.  Perfectly suited to a sushi concept since there is no hood or cooking involved, this is a footprint that could easily be used in the United States if a budding entrepreneur were interested.  Stepping outside the box of a traditional platform the way this one has may create a restaurant for sale that could command more interest, more attention and thus, higher sales.  All that leads to greater success and a higher price commanded when the restaurant is for sale.

A second example of working within your environment and creating an unusual dining experience is this restaurant.  Built over an archaeological dig site, these clever owners decided to highlight the history by putting a glass floor in place.  Patrons can literally look into the history at their feet as they dine on local cuisine.  This restaurant tied to a winery has taken advantage of this element to attract diners on more than one level.  This is a good lesson for owners in the U.S. who often have a "if I build it, they will come" mentality.  Sometimes food isn't enough, and a memorable item like this glass floor will bring diners for the first time, (the element of surprise) while the food will keep them coming back.  As restaurant brokers, we must also challenge buyers on this element.  

Yet another example of how restaurant owners in other cultures adapt to their environment is another restaurant attached to a South African winery.  In South Africa trees and nature must always be preserved, especially in historic areas.  This restaurant was faced with an immovable obstruction - a tree - which they incorporated into the design.  In no time at all, the restaurant has taken what could have been a deficit and turned it into an attractive and beautiful element of nature that is now inside as well as outside.

When building in the United States, it seems that "trend" is the buzzword and what works in Miami quickly jumps the coast and lands in Atlanta as the "next big idea."  These examples from the restaurant brokers travels show how these owners decided to create their own trend, stepping out of the box and working within the environment they landed when they leased a restaurant property.

As restaurant brokers working with those seeking restaurants for lease, it challenges us to ask those seeking a vacant restaurant for rent these questions:   

• How will you stand out from the strip center and be more than just a vanilla shelf space equipped the same way as every other restaurant?
• Will you take a risk to make sure your vacant restaurant for lease is a memorable one or will you rely on the tried and true trends that we've all seen one time too many?

Take a page from the restaurant brokers travels and see how far outside your comfort zone you can move to create a memorable and exciting dining experience that will get people coming for the unusual and returning for your stellar food and service.

We will continue to blog about our travels to South Africa.  If you like this article, please remember to SHARE it on Facebook. Linked In or Twitter.