Sal Valente

I interviewed a person with more than 35 years of experience in the business world. His name is Salvatore Valente. He is the proud owner of Luv 'N Oven on Griffin Road & Nob Hill Road in Cooper City, Florida. He's my former boss when I was a busboy there. He wanted to work in the restaurant business when he worked for his uncle in the 1950's in his little restaurant in Brooklyn. In 1965, he graduated in The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) with a degree in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management. He came down here in Florida in 1967. He opened his own restaurant in 1973. He's been open ever since.

His business plan is very simple. The restaurant makes about $34,000 a month. He uses $5,500 to pay the employees. Then he spends $2,000 on electricity and air conditioning, $500 in water, $4,000 in food, $500 for napkins, menus, candles, paper towels, and non-reusable towels, $1,000 in cleaning products, and $500 in advertisement. He makes about 20,000 dollars in profit. He owns stocks, has a new car, a house which is paid for, and his wife doesn't work.

He loves the restaurant business and also hates it too. He loves food, and he loves to cook it and serve to his customers. The only thing is that he works long hours during the weekdays and weekends. He barely sees his wife. He's retiring in about 1 month because not only is he 66 years old, he's also tired of working. He wants to spend the rest of his life in relaxation now. He's selling his restaurant to one of his cooks.

So in conclusion, if your restaurant is successful, you make a lot of money and you live a very good life financially. You also don't have anytime for yourself because you work a lot of hours.