"An Idea, Some Money, A Place"
The Wall Street Journal
By: Caralee J. Adams

On St. Patrick's Day, 1997, Todd and Ellen Gray convened a "big powwow" in the dining room of the Washington, D.C. home. There they officially put on the table their idea of fulfilling a long-held dream: opening a restaurant.

Todd says he "fell in love with the business back in 1983 working as a teenager in a Richmond, VA restaurant, and knew from early on that he wanted to run his own restaurant someday. By 1997, as a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a well-known chef at one of the best restaurants in Washington, he felt ready.

He and Ellen, who has a background in the wholesale food business, had spent late nights digging up notes, menus and sketches that Todd has started putting together during he restaurant-development classes at the Culinary Institute. Finally, that St. Patrick's Day in March, they called a meeting of their business-savvy fathers, Ellen's brother and a professional restaurant consultant to begin drafting their business plan for an upscale restaurant with a seasonal menu.

The young couple's family at first was apprehensive about the two entering suck a cutthroat business. But the couple's excitement proved infectious; though both were 32 years old, Ellen says she and her husband "felt like little kids".

It wasn't the last time the Grays would lean on family friends. Personal relationships proved crucial in getting their ideas off the ground. Friends, family and colleagues gave moral support and warm bodies when it was time for a trial run. And perhaps most important, they also supplied money.

"Uncles, cousins-we hit them all," says Todd. "We tried to keep it at increments of $25,000, but if they said, "We can't do 25, but we can do 15,' we said fine."

With an 'A list' of 25 potential investors and a 'B list' of 12, they made their pitches over coffee in there home and while walking their German shepherd, Samson. A particular effective setting was late at night after serving up a huge dinner at the restaurant where Todd still cooked. " You have them wowed," he says.

In all, about half of those asked said yes. By Labor Day of that same year, they had $250,000, including $10,000 form their own pockets. (They signed promissory notes agreeing to pay back investors in five years, with interest.)

There were a few awkward moments, however. For a liquor-license application, the Grays had to ask their investors to provide personal banking records-information that some relatives were reluctant to share. "That's when it got a little weird," Todd says. But eventually, everyone cooperated.

By the fall of 1997 much of the hardest task-raising start-up money-was completed. But little did the Grays know what an emotional two years still lay ahead: 22 locations to consider (some peering in the window in the middle of the night), lease negotiations that would fall through, and more money that would have to be raised. Finally, almost a year after starting their search, they found their location- an ideal one, close to the White House. But then it took five months to negotiate a 100-page lease.

"It was a dog fight," says Todd. The language in the contact was archaic and not tenant-friendly. For instance, the lease stipulated that there could be no change in the restaurant's menu concept, which the Grays challenged. They also negotiated pass-through expenses, such as who would pay for the removal of trash and cleaning the elevators. Each side marked up the lease several times between August and December 1998. In the end, Todd says, "It was a good deal."

After came the big expense: remodeling the 3,000-square-foot space to seat 80. They went back to relatives and friends, managing to bring their total investment up to $455,000.

They designed the interior to be simple so it wouldn't detract from the food service. Todd, who grew up in nearby Fredricksburg, Va., wanted to play up the regional flavors and change the menu throughout the year-thus, they named the restaurant Equinox, to reflect the seasonal changes.

To think their friends and family, and to practice before their opening, the Grays hosted three meals at the Equinox mid-May. "I didn't restrict what people could order," says Todd. "I was sort of amazed that people would take advantage of us. They ordered an appetizer-if not two-salad, soup, main course, and dessert."

Says Ellen: "They were pigs. They went crazy." The tab for 150 guests: $10,000. The next morning, after four years of dreaming and two of planning, reality hit. They were overwhelmed at the prospect of having to do a meal service again-for an even larger crowd. They knew they needed to get better organized in the kitchen. They realized they needed still more equipment.

Ellen, who was five months pregnant, recalls: "We were in a state of shock."

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