"Brenda and Tim Kasmar-Ehlers are setting out to bring what they term 'small town Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, to State Street.'The reality: I take no joy in saying this, but Larry B's has got to be the most doomed restaurant I have ever been to in my life. If you were going to write a musical, How To Fail In Business While Really Trying, an ideal setting would be Larry B's. The most fatal thing: they have these weird plastic seats that are sort of interesting to look at but are wildly uncomfortable and, if you are the sort of person who has a little too much junk in the trunk (if you know what I mean), you spend the entire meal sliding forward out of them. The chairs are also high enough up that you can't anchor yourself on the ground, so, if you are sliding forward out of them, you have to anchor your feet on one of the other stools, as well as perch your paunch onto the table, just to eat in equilibrium. There is no way you can have a successful diner-style restaurant in Wisconsin, even in the student-dominated sections of Madison, if your restaurant is ergonomically designed to discomfit/torture customers who are at all overweight. Perhaps they could make up for this if they had great food. However: they don't have great food. Indeed, their breakfast burritos showed no more than a middling grasp of how one goes about making a tortilla, and this was supposed to be their breakfast special.
The couple is doing this with the debut of their restaurant, Larry B's, 617 State St., which opened Tuesday.
They recently sold their six-bedroom Fort Atkinson home, their sports car and other possessions and moved in above the restaurant.
'It's kind of like a midlife crisis gone bad,' said Brenda, 45, who has run a family day care business for more than half her life. Tim's background is working for the Target Corporation but he also has five years of restaurant experience.
Each had always wanted to open a restaurant and after they married a year ago they decided to go for it."
"We decided to let this thing fly. Our children think we are crazy," Brenda said, adding that between them, they have five grown kids and a couple of grandchildren.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
each had always wanted to open a restaurant and after they married a year ago they decided to go for virtually certain bankruptcy
I had breakfast this morning at Larry B's, a relatively new restaurant on State Street. It was my first time there. Here's its backstory (from the Cap Times):
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11 comments:
And doesn't the fact that the breakfast burrito was their breakfast special suggest that they'd be better off as a gas station?
yes! i think old-timey gas pumps out front might actually make the place seem even more ridiculously doomed!
Ah, the discipline of the market at work.
its hard to beat plain old diner grease with comfortable seating and friendly service
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any
time". So I ordered
French Toast during the Renaissance. -- Steven Wright
It is sad, they are filling a much needed gap on state st. i.e. non corporate food. The BLT is good and the soups can be great. I hope they make it.
I respectfully disagree. We (The wife, daughter and I) have been there a couple times and we've loved the food and service. Both times they had a full house, so maybe they'll do okay after all. Personally, I'd love to see another locally owned restaurant establish itself.
We have gone to Larry B's by recommendation of friends (who are not tiny!) and really enjoy good food. We loved the atmosphere because it was different than your typical diner, and the wait staff was great. They also have a sense of humor in this place--check out the decorations!
This guy is obviously a professor with too much time on his hands to complain about a starting business. If you don't like their chairs, how bout you SAY something rather than taking the wuss way out and complain online to who knows what. Also, it takes awhile for a business to start out, and guess what, many weekends this semester boasted record sales and large success. If you want doomed, try being a sociology professor
Hey man you have no right to post shit like this. Does it really affect you how the business of Larry B's does? Why do you feel you need to bash them when they are enjoying life and having fun running a restaurant with a staff that is like a second family?? Seriously man, get ur f-in priorities straight, and grow up
I have never tried their breakfast burritos, but any of their meat and egg breakfasts are fantastic, their burgers are better than any [in flavor and texture] I have found anywhere else on State street, and their french toast is amazing. Despite your ostensible urge for them to disappear, I hope they stick around until next year so I have a good place to go for breakfast.
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