Troubled Location? New York Restauranteurs Take Unusual Approach To Removing “Jinx”

Every community has them: restaurant buildings that seem to endlessly change hands, going from concept to concept, with none of them seeming to take hold.  This week, it's a casual bistro.  Next week, it's a steakhouse.  The week after that, a seafood restaurant.  You drive past them, feeling immediate sympathy for the owner of the latest business to open there, certain that the new business will suffer the same fate.  For the operators of these seemingly doomed locations, there seems to be little that can be done to reverse the trend.

A group of franchisees for New York Burger Co. has an unusual approach to dealing with the supposed jinx.  The site that they selected in New York City looks great on paper – a high traffic count, proximity to a popular public park — but it has a history of quickly changing hands.  Undaunted by the supposed curse, the franchisees went ahead with the location, which opened last week.  But the group decided to take steps to remove the curse, just to be on the safe side.  They had a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, and a rabbi bless the restaurant in an attempt to defeat the jinx and assure success for the business. 

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, it was a savvy business move as it brought the new restaurant loads of free publicity (as you can see from the stories I've linked to in this story).  Not a bad way to create interest in your new business.  Of course, if it were my business, I would have covered my bases by adding a voodoo priest to the mix.