What shall I call my new restaurant?

Question

the restaurant is based around our stage. There will be theatre and dinner tickets sold for shows including bands, singers, choirs, big bands, dramas, musicals, thrillers, farces, comedies.

Decor will be warm colourful and rustic, a bit like a cave or grotto. With huge warped copper lighting

Food will be unpretentious, wholesome, hearty, good quality and lots of it. Roasted chickens, Hog roasts, Casseroles, Prime beef, seasonal vegetables, racks of lamb, and homemade desserts pies, real puddings etc. This is not fine dining but very high quality good solid food. Please help

Working names so far

The Strange Cafe

The Molehouse

The Playhouse Cafe & Bar

The Straw Barn Cafe & Bar

The Old Straw Barn Cafe

Our names are Rob & Susanna Moles

our children are Zoe & Ruth

The addres is Westdale Road, Richmond, New Zealand

Answer 1

Use the first later in you first, middle, and last name and put Restaurant behind it. for example if you are Jeremy Board Williams. Put JBW Restaurant.

Answer 2

Solid Stage

Answer 3

bowchickabowwow cafe. that would attract attention.

Answer 4

i like the mole house

Answer 5

mole's

mole's madhouse

Theater and eater

Answer 6

Hearty Eats Cafe

Hearty Eats Cafe and Bar

Moles Family Eats

Basically anything with Eats in it.  Eats has a warm, mom and pop, healthy connotation.

Sounds like a good restaurant!

Answer 7

the Hot Dog House.

Answer 8

The Angry Dingo

Answer 9

Grotto Cafe

Answer 10

I like what metamorphosis said ... the comparaison between your family name and the decor is a good idea...

Answer 11

I like the Playhouse Cafe & Bar.

Answer 12

The good day down under yank

Answer 13

The Mole Hole Cafe & Lounge

Answer 14

the molehouse sounds the best to me

Answer 15

The Westdale Road Molehouse

The Tasty Mole

The Stage and Mole Grill and Bar

Sweet Flavors Molehouse

The Dine and Watch

Zoe's FunHouse

Mole's

Mole's Den Playhouse

Answer 16

eaten beaten

Answer 17

The Garage

Midtown Cafe

Westdale Cafe and Bar

Family Bistro.....? ehhh

Zoes Cafe and Bar

Ruths Cafe and Bar

Cities

Entertaiment Tavern

Westdale Tavern

Boundary House.....(msp?)

ggeeez i duno

Answer 18

I like the Straw Barn :)

Playhouse for some reason makes me think of a strip club

Strange Cafe sounds too weird to me.

Answer 19

I don't think I would use Mole. I know it's your name, but it's also a skin blemish.  Skin Blemishes and food don't go together too well. Maybe something like Center Stage Bar and Bistro.

Answer 20

Decor will be warm colourful and rustic, a bit like a cave or grotto. With huge warped copper lighting....

How about something like:

The Moles' Cavern

Cavern Tavern

Underground Cafe

Hope this helps! Sounds amazing!

Answer 21

A good name has a lot to do with the culture of where you live, and also with marketting it. In some places, a name like 'The Old Straw Barn' will strike just the right note of comfort and friendly welcome, in others it will sound stuffy and old fashioned.

My suggestion is this ~ approach your local newspaper or television station. If you are opening a restuarant, the chances are you will have to do some advertising in the future, so develop a relationship with them now.

Tell them you would like to offer dinner and wine for ten people to the reader or listener who can come up with the best name for your restaurant. Set some limits ~ the name has to be suitable for the food, the style of restaurant and the local area. No good calling it 'ocean crest eatery' if it's inland!!

Arrange a panel of judges and be sure to ask the radio station manager or newspaper editor (or whoever they delegate) to be one of the judges. Invite some other local people to join in as judges. Make sure members of your family are on the judging panel. Decide how the judging will be done, and set a time limit of say six weeks AFTER the restaurant opens. In the meanwhile, call it something like 'Insert Name Here' or similar silly name which will catch people's attention and make them say 'What is that about?'.

Suggest all this to the newspaper/radio station, and ask their advice. Let them know you've spoken to their competition and they are interested in the idea but you prefer them because (insert reason, lol). They are sure to have some good promotional ideas.

Food and drink for ten people sounds like a big prize, I know, but consider this ... You will get FREE publicity for a few weeks before your opening night, plus make sure you invite all concerned to the opening night and you'll get good publicity for that too!

People will come to your restaurant for six weeks to see what the best name would be (make sure you've got entry forms everywhere and the staff know all about it). So you've got six weeks to impress them and make them regulars. Make them feel welcome ~ get stickers and pencils made saying 'Insert Name Here' Restaurant and give them away like lollies.

Personally, I'd go as far as to offer several minor prizes, too ~ such as bit parts in the plays you put on (non-speaking trees, etc, lol). This costs you nothing but is quirky and fun! And, it lets people know about the playhouse component of your restaurant in an interesting way ... a way they can see themselves in the limelight!

The winners might come and eat and drink enough for 100, but they will have friends and if they enjoy themselves they will let their friends and family know, plus they might get interviewed on the radio or in the paper and tell everyone what a great place your restaurant is.

You will get everyone talking. Even if all they say is 'what a dumb idea', they will be talking about YOUR restaurant.

Once the winner is decided, splash out on a big 'naming ceremony' and invite some important folks for the big name unveiling. Don't book any tables that night, just people for 'nibbles' and celebrations. That means even more people can come and saple your food and find out where your restauarant is and get interested in coming back.

Book the winners for a night a bit down the track ~ don't be mean, let them come on a Saturday night, it will create a great atmosphere and show evberyone there what a fun place your restaurant is. Of course, the night they come make sure the media is there and the winners (and media) are treated like royalty, with boxes of chocs and bottles of wine as 'surprise' gifts, and lavish attention!

Make the whole thing a huge celebration of your restaurant, your family and your town. Talk to anyone who will listen about how excited you are and how you want the restaurant to be a place local people will think reflects their own tastes and attitudes (and where they can dine well and affordably and be entertained, too!). In other words, make it about the customers.

And have a LOT of fun. When the owner is having fun, everyone has fun, from the owner's family to the staff, to the guests, to anyone else involved in the place.

Anyway, that's my suggestion! It's a bit wild, but I've done a fair bit of marketting over the years and I think it could work.

After all, with ANY restaurant the most important thing is to get people to drive past all the others and come in YOUR door! Once they do that, if the place is nice, the service good and you make them feel welcome, they'll keep coming back. But first you've got to get them in the door!

Whatever you do, have fun and best of luck! :-)

Answer 22

Rob & Susanna Moles.

what about Bobhole??

Answer 23

Well I have only a couple of suggestions. I will list the name and the reason for the name below.

The Studio Cafe - I know that Richmond is very artistic and seeing as though you are going to be displaying shows etc. I thought I'd be a good sophisticated name.

The Sunshine Cafe - Richmond and Nelson have a lot of daylight and sunshine I thought this was a good fit for a restaurant in Richmond.

Paradise - The reason for this name is a combination of the 1st two reasons along with it being a popular tourist destination.

Hope these help. If I ever get the chance I'd love to see this place you are establishing.

Answer 24

Awesome I wanna visit.!

You know ....youre description reminded me of king louis' time- the warmth, the colourings, the foood, the entertainment factor.....anyway I'll start brainstorming- hope it helps!!

King Mole Palle  (pronounced pallay ha ha can't spell it)

Jester Cafe

Mole's Courthouse

RoSus Molehole

RoSus Molehouse

Molefest

Crowned Mole

Fit for a Mole (loving your last name as you can see)

Feast on This

You know what.......save the bother and go with the Molehouse! Everyone likes it and so do i, it's spot on....

x*x have funn

Answer 25

hmm, wow!  lol sounds like a mixture of a theatre, jazz club, cafe, and a high class restaurant!  not just a theatre restaurant.  

Homemade foods too.  reminds me of a home meal.

based on what you have, the Molehouse sounds pretty interesting, though you might want to indicate that it's a form of restaurant.  I wouldn't know if it's a restaurant or not.  

will the atmosphere be more like a party? or like dim lighting/more intimate atmosphere?  or like a standard cafe?  

anyways, how about the LIfe cafe?  with warm colors, i'm pretty sure that would include some form of red colors, which usually gives a vibrant, lively feel to a room.  also, seeing as the type of performances are quite active... well, i don't know.  Based on your descriptions, I feel like everything is active and happy, with almost a homely feel.

Answer 26

The Thespian Grotto

The Stage House

The Grotto at Westdale