Restaurant operators expanding into unfamiliar markets routinely misjudge neighborhood dynamics, resulting in poor location choices that undermine otherwise promising ventures, according to David Helbraun, founder and chairman of Helbraun Levey, a law firm specializing in restaurant representation and having overseen thousands of openings across multiple states. Helbraun says that even experienced operators with established brands underestimate the time and effort required to develop the neighborhood-level understanding necessary for success.
The core issue, Helbraun argues, is not a lack of general market information, but a consistent failure to grasp how local dynamics differ from those in operators’ home cities. “People get excited by Miami Beach, for example – maybe not the best place for Mom and Pop. They don’t understand Wynwood, or they’ve heard of Wynwood, or they don’t understand different parts of town, Little River,” Helbraun explains.
The Weekend Visit Trap
This recurring misstep often follows a predictable pattern. An operator visits a new city for a weekend, tours a few neighborhoods, and commits to a lease based on limited exposure. Helbraun says this approach misses key factors: seasonal variations, fluctuations in customer base, and the subtle differences that define how a specific concept performs in a particular micromarket. Knowing a neighborhood’s reputation is not the same as understanding its actual foot traffic, demographic shifts, competitive landscape, and operational challenges, which can vary dramatically from one street to the next.
Operators frequently try to map familiar urban archetypes onto new cities – searching for the “West Village of Miami” or the “SoHo of Florida” – and assume that their successful concepts can be transplanted with minimal adaptation. Helbraun has seen this assumption repeatedly fail. “People need to understand when coming to Florida, that they need to spend time there, not just come once for a weekend, but spend weeks and weeks at different times of the year and really do their research before they plunk down some money for a lease,” he says.
Why Even Top Operators Make Neighborhood Mistakes
Helbraun notes that this mistake is not limited to newcomers or undercapitalized ventures. Well-funded restaurant groups—including prominent New York names like Milos, Catch, Delilah’s, Carbone, and Harry’s Steak—have all faced challenges in selecting the right neighborhoods for expansion to Florida. These groups conduct demographic research, hire local brokers, and analyze data, but still frequently misread the on-the-ground realities that define neighborhood success.
The problem, Helbraun says, is that secondary research and brief visits cannot substitute for the lived experience required to understand how a neighborhood functions across seasons, weekdays, and different times of day. In fast-growing markets like Florida, neighborhoods themselves are often in flux, so what looks promising during a peak weekend may have very different dynamics during slower periods or off-seasons.
Helbraun points out another standard error: failing to match a concept’s scale and style to the realities of a neighborhood. “Miami Beach, for example, may not be the best place for Mom and Pop,” he notes. High rents, dense competition, and operational complexities can make certain areas unsuitable for smaller or less-resourced operators, even if headline numbers look attractive.
The Real-Time Investment for Market Entry
Helbraun’s experience suggests that successful expansion into new markets requires either hiring genuine local expertise or investing significant personal time in market research before signing a lease. “Spend weeks and weeks and come down at different times of the year and really do their research,” Helbraun emphasizes. This level of commitment is a significant obstacle for operators eager to capitalize on perceived growth opportunities, but Helbraun argues it is essential to avoid costly mistakes.
Operators who skip this immersion phase often find their concepts underperforming because the day-to-day realities of the neighborhood do not match their expectations. Factors such as weekday business, seasonal slowdowns, local customer preferences, and even parking or transit issues can derail a concept that worked elsewhere.
Helbraun stresses that replicating a home-market success by simply finding a “comparable” neighborhood is not a viable strategy. Each market requires genuine local insight, and that cannot be acquired through data analysis or short visits alone.
Industry Response and New Approaches
In response to these recurring pitfalls, Helbraun Levey has expanded its presence in Florida, opening an office in Coral Gables and launching educational programs to help operators better understand the complexities of neighborhood selection. The firm now offers webinars and informational sessions that go beyond generic overviews, focusing on practical, neighborhood-specific considerations and criteria.
Helbraun’s team encourages operators to visit prospective markets multiple times a year, observe foot traffic and customer behavior over extended periods, and build relationships with local operators who can provide candid insights into what works—and what doesn’t—in each neighborhood.
Whether these educational efforts will lead to broader industry change remains to be seen. Operators continue to make expensive mistakes by relying on incomplete information or superficial visits. For now, Helbraun’s observations highlight a persistent knowledge gap: while many operators master general market data, far fewer acquire the neighborhood-level expertise needed for successful site selection.
As more established brands encounter setbacks in unfamiliar markets, the importance of thorough, on-the-ground research is becoming harder to ignore. Helbraun’s advice is clear: “If you want to succeed in a new market, you have to put in the time to learn its neighborhoods. There are no shortcuts.”
