Ruins Pub wasn't exactly in ruins when Scott Kalwei decided to close the Kansas City business in November, but the self-serve bar wasn't without its challenges.
"It never reached the success that I think it should have," the Ruins Pub founder told the Kansas City Business Journal.
Ruins Pub, which featured a street art theme, was Kalwei's first business and drew inspiration from his travels abroad. Burnt out on corporate culture, the Harrisonville native left his industrial engineering job at Ford Motor Co. in 2013 to explore the world and relish his love of history. He frequented the "ruins bars" in Budapest, Hungary, and discovered a self-serve bar in Prague, and he decided to bring those concepts to Kansas City, particularly the Crossroads Arts District.
"I traveled by myself for a year and a half, so you get used to stepping out on your own and trusting yourself instead of relying on the corporate structure or a more defined career path. Doing that gave me the courage to step out on my own (and open Ruins Pub)," he said.
But even still, opening Ruins Pub in 2015 was terrifying, Kalwei said. He'd never worked in the hospitality industry and had no clue what to expect. Plus, his initial idea was to sell only alcohol, but his liquor license required him to also sell food.
"When we first opened the door, my kitchen just fell apart and we had the worst grand opening of all time," he said. "I probably scared off half my customers, and they probably didn't come back for a year or two because it was such a bad experience."
The kitchen printer stopped working, so the restaurant lost every table's order, and the staff initially didn't realize the printer had connectivity issues. It led to one-hour wait times for food, and the restaurant had swelled to capacity. There was no backup plan or processes in place to handle such snafus, he said. Finally, a supplier came in to remedy the situation.
"We had a lot of angry customers that first time. Thank God we got better after that," he said.
Kalwei wanted to give Kansas City a unique experience and offer made-from-scratch dishes that one would find at bars in Budapest and the Czech Republic, but the food didn't resonate. About six months in, Kalwei revamped the menu to feature the traditional American pub foods such as hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. But keeping with the Hungarian theme, he always kept a few authentic dishes on the menu.
Where Kalwei really fell short was in managing inventory, setting menu price points and in marketing his business. A number of its promotional events didn't catch fire as expected, and its email-based loyalty program flopped. No one ever redeemed an email offer, he said.
With a low-key atmosphere and "no-frills food," it was tough to compete with the surrounding restaurants, he said. Its price point wasn't high enough, meaning that in order to make money it depended on customer volume. But toward the end of last year, the lunch crowd started waning and this year, weekend crowds also dwindled. The drop in customers was significant, he said.
The location probably wasn't the best fit for the concept, and it's possible that people tired of the theme, he said. Ruins Pub also didn't always meet its goal of serving food within 15 minutes of customers sitting down, which also could have contributed to a drop in sales, he said. The reason for the customer slump isn't fully clear, he said, but Ruins Pub isn't alone. Other restaurant owners also are struggling this year, he said.
"Honestly, this industry was just wearing me out," he said. "I was getting really tired — you have to be there constantly and the margins are so thin that you have to keep your eye on everything constantly. Since the competition is so fierce you always have to be pushing something unique and different on social media. … I didn't want a different location. I just decided to cut and run."
When the owners of Taps on Main approached Kalwei about purchasing his equipment and taking over his lease, he jumped at the opportunity.
Looking back, Kalwei said he pursued the business too early and didn't do enough due diligence.
"Anytime you're naive and get too excited about your idea, I think you might get a little sloppy in your execution because you want to push it out too fast," he said.
Translating loss into a new beginning
Closing the business brought mixed emotions, including sadness about letting go of his "baby" and seeing his favorite regular customers and employees. But Kalwei is excited about his next venture — a software startup called Bibe.io that aims to solve one of the key issues he faced in his bar and restaurant — tracking and managing inventory.
He's launching it with a computer engineering friend who's building out the software and app which incorporates machine learning and image recognition. Kalwei will be in charge of market research and sales.
The startup already has lined up a customer in St. Louis that will use it in area school districts. Eventually, Kalwei wants to roll it out in restaurants and other food-based businesses.
"I'm excited to come up with solutions that can help people solve the problems that I had. … If I can save an entrepreneur like me at some other place the time and heartache that I went through, that would be awesome."