Restaurant ReviewsExperience A Dream Dinner
A dream dinner may bring to mind a free steak for some people. Dream Dinners is also a quickly rising food franchise business. It involves locations where people can go to cook according to menus, then take the food home to serve throughout the month. It"s one of those ideas that has people slapping their foreheads while exclaiming ð€Çwhy didn"t I think of thatð€Ý?
Americans are busier than ever before. Work and school and a variety of other activities for family members mean it"s harder than ever to eat well . Frozen foods and pre-packaged meals are fine, but just not the same. But doesn"t something have to give when time is on a budget? This franchise comes to the rescue.
This is how it functions. Patrons go in and select some or all of 14 meals from a menu. They then pay for the number of servings desired. Now while still at the store, they cook. This can be accomplished either in public or private sessions, with cooking pros directing the preparation action. It"s as if a cooking show host steps out of the television to show people how to make the meal. Â
The meals are a lot less expensive than it would appear when the concept is first described. A 14 item menu costs about $3.50 per serving, with side dishes and extras like salads and potatoes purchased separately. This can bring the cost per serving for a complete meal up to around the $5 mark, but for a busy working family it"s not bad. That"s a great deal for the food plus the cooking instruction.
Remember, these are franchises. There has been some tension. The food and menus are fine, but the franchise owners may have a problem. Forbes magazine published a detailed account of Dream Dinners in early 2008. The story made the corporation look pretty bad. It expanded very quickly, attracting entrepreneurs with its unique concept. But many of the franchisees lost their shirts after only a short time, which meant the business plan may be flawed. Forbes claims the franchisees were sold a bill of goods when it came to the claims of wild success.
That"s something for the company to handle. For patrons, it"s fun to handle the cooking chores while working off of a wonderful menu.