Christian and Kirsten Uhrig offer rare opportunity to own their $1M restaurant
Tenterfield’s best loved restaurant The Rosenhof is up for grabs in a shock announcement by owners Christian and Kirsten Uhrig. Here are the details.
Lismore
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Christian and Kirsten Uhrig, owners of the Rosenhof German Heritage Cafe & Restaurant in Tenterfield, have announced they want to give away their business.
Christian Uhrig said after spending five years building the Rosenhof experience, it is now time to hand Rosenhof over to the next generation of restaurateurs.
But he doesn’t want to just hand it over to anyone.
“We’re looking for entrepreneurs, business operators, not employees,” Mr Uhrig said.
He is especially seeking those who have lost their business in the devastating floods to provide them with this genuine opportunity.
The Uhrig’s are offering the right people a chance to own Rosenhof with ‘no financial pressure’ to ‘work in a million dollar business environment with your experience as the equity’.
Mr Uhrig said the idea is to let someone operate the business and build it up again leading to sole ownership after a period of time.
“It’s genuine, it’s real, it’s a real good business,” Mr Uhrig said.
Running a restaurant is hard work and the couple have put in the hard yards over the previous five years to set up the 2.5 hectare property.
“I think the first step would be to find the right people,” he said.
“Typically hospitality owners are couples, one does kitchen the other does service, and you want to have a team that is capable of running it successfully.
“We call it a heritage cafe restaurant, but it’s not about old things, it’s about tradition in hospitality,” he said.
Mr Uhrig grew up in his father’s hospitality business in Germany and prizes traditional service as one of three pillars Rosenhof was built on.
“If you are traditionally trained in hospitality the basis of the service concept is to provide service.
“You are basically making someone’s life easier and better.”
Traditional service models would be an ideal training point for bringing on youth into the industry Mr Uhrig said.
Service, along with ambience and food are what sets Rosenhof apart as a dining experience.
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It’s built on a large block in a quiet area,” Mr Uhrig said.
“There is a nice garden where you can sit outside, there is no noise.
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It is family and kid friendly, you can have a bonfire in the winter so the ambience and the story around it is attractive to travellers,” he said.
Mr Uhrig credits their success with every dish at Rosenhof being made in house with ice cream to breads made from good quality, locally sourced ingredients then sold for a fair and reasonable price.
“A team that takes over should respect this,” he said, “So we are looking for people with the capabilities and desire to pursue this path.
The Uhrig’s would start a new company and prepare a short-list of interested parties.
Serious operators will be required to co-run the restaurant with the owners for a three month trial period to determine suitability.
“The successful team would become a shareholder for the business, which includes all the furniture, knowledge, fit out etc, for just the business, not the property,” Mr Uhrig said.
“We would work together until they are self sufficient and independent and once they are up and running whatever they make they pay themselves from that.”
The Uhrig’s role would then move into that of a director of the shared company where they would pass on a percentage of ownership to the new team over a period of years. Pending successful operation the new team would own the business outright within ten years Mr Uhrig said. “With the ownership comes more responsibility and at some point we would not be involved at all. “They would just run it and there would be a small lease/rent agreement on the property with maintenance to be discussed,” Mr Uhrig said.
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