Jordan's Family Restaurant on Lewis Ave.

No idea, I remember going there once, the food was good. Been closed for quite some time now.

You just can't depend on restaurants. My personal theory is that a lot of them are used as money laundries or other means of hiding money.

You should go back to cooking for yourself in nearly all cases, anyway. Forget the restaurants. Having seen an excess of restaurant kitchens in all their filthy glory, you'd be better off.

GZ sure does spread the sunshine around. : )

LOL, restaurants are fronts for laundering money?

It is a hard business to make mega money in. For most, especially mom-and-pops/independents, there really isn't a ton of money to launder. For lots, if there is any number-tweaking going on, it's to make them look on paper like they are more profitable than they really are.

GZ does have a point about restaurants and money-laundering, as they traditionally have been cash-based businesses. I only question the etxent to which this occurs, though I knew of one shady series of operations that closed down after the owner got busted for an illegal gambling operation (he was into the football betting cards and so on). It would not have surprised me to learn that the businesses were also laundering money for the gambling operations.

That being said: restaurants are notoriously poor investments, and the failure rate among new restaurants is quite high. I suspect Jordan's is simply one in a long line of failed Toledo restaurants.

My very good friends owned this restaurant,the former Al Smith's Place. It is not up to me to tell the world the reasons why their business folded, but truly only their place to tell their story should they wish to. I will say that the opening of the Golden Corral around the corner on Alexis hurt their sales, along with the opening of another buffet style place in the Kroger Plaza up the street. It doesn't take much to tip the applecart in today's business world. The mom and pop businesses can be hurt really easily by the bigger chains and outfits moving in next door.

I will say also that my friend is honest and above-board in all that he does. A great family man and asset to his work and community. My wife and I visited the family style restaurant often, and enjoyed the great food and hospitality. I still have the original menu that I saved one day from the place. That hard-working family put their heart and soul into that business, and ventured forth in all good faith to run a quality operation. They were undone in the end by the declining economy, newer, cheaper, food places moving in nearby and draining traffic, and a slowdown in customer visits. They tried reducing their hours of operation, and cutting employee hours. In the end, they were overwhelmed by more bills than revenue, it's that simple.

That place seemed like it was probably a GOLD MINE (for the owners), when it was operating under the name Al Smith's Place.

Back when it was Al Smith's Place, I used to go in there on a Friday or Saturday night, with my friends, after the bars closed and the place was packed. You could get a pretty good omlet there or whatever else you wanted.

that used to be the description of the White Tower that built that building, WA, remember them? One of the best places to waitress, I did it for a year while my hub was laid of in 1980-81. I was kinda sad to see them die. The one on Sylvania is a Tower in name only.

Nana,they were the best! Butterburgers and great bean soup! We used to stop @ the little one that was on the corner of Detroit and Phillips, across from DeVillbis.

WA, if it was a gold mine for al smith's why woudl al have closed it? It's not like they got out of the restaurant business?

That neighborhood is going downhill fast - It's a shame, because I liked Jordans and do choose to patronize locally owned restaurants over chains, and I dont go to buffets ever - but it still doesnt surprise me that jordans didnt make it

Shoulda stopped in to the WT in the Colony around 3 am.
Not a seat to be had, place packed. But every seat had a price.

Billy:

I think Bbcmjeep43 did a great job of explaining what happened to the Al Smith's restaurant on Lewis.

Ryan: What you have is called "obsessive-compulsive disorder", or OCD. You might want to get professional help for it. Seriously.

At any rate, things like restaurants are parasitical. People can feed themselves at home in almost all cases. What supports a restaurant is having real industry supply most of people's incomes. If they then live frugally enough with the necessities, they can then enjoy a family night out in a restaurant 1 night a week, which is enough to support such enterprises.

But we don't have that, anymore. We have people still drawing upon credit to make such purchases. They are being taken out as suddenly as popped balloons, and for the same reasons: The pressures within their finances overcame the tensions holding it all together.

Anyone running a restaurant today in Toledo is only biding their time, whether they know it or not. After all, their revenues from decreased patronage will decrease no matter what they try to do with pricing, and the government will always try to tax them to death. The wisest course of action is to determinedly find buyers for the restaurant's tools and equipment, then close up as suddenly as possible to minimize the damage to the owners. You just can't beat the Golden Corral and the residential kitchen, and it's foolish to try.

Sorry I am so late responding; I was wiping all the water droplets from my sinks and making sure all my house doors were locked for the third time.

Dude, you are a bubble of gloom and doom. They have pills for that, too.

The restauarants I patronize regularly are pretty busy all the time and the weekends are packed. Try it sometime, you might like it.

10 Restaurant Chains That Flopped

1. 3 - White Towers

http://money.howstuffworks.com/10-flopped-restaurants8.htm

Ryna, you have OCD since you are unable to deal with a topic without descending into ad hominem treatment of me almost immediately. You shoot the messenger in order to stop the message. That doesn't work in our society, so it's fairly odd that you keep trying.

Bbcmjeep43...Thanks for your info. I was just curious as to why they closed down. I thought they were always steady, and the food was always good. One thing I miss is the pies that they had. OMG, they were SOOO good! I cant find another place like it.

Who knew that my thread would turn into a talk about the decline in the restaurant buisness, and how it attracts the type of people who needs to rely on credit. What is GZ talking about?

What I'm talking about, Draven, is the type of people who get into the restaurant biz.

Don't get me wrong. Some of them are true restauranteurs: People who operate restaurants in order to provide a good dining experience to the public and turn a profit on doing so. But that's not entirely what I've seen. I've seen too many who have made use of the biz just to "launder money" in one form or another. They do that since the biz is so easy to get into, and the cash flows can be so high.

That's the same set of reasons why we have so many drug dealers in Toledo.

Now, it's time for Ryan's OCD to kick in and for him to go ballistic that I'd even mention drug dealers in the same thread as restauranteurs. LOL!

GZ, that is sad if that is true. I just wanted to know why Jordan's, with their awesome food and pies, shut down. I was just being nosy, and was sad when they closed. I hope someone buys it, and brings it back.

From what I've been told, Rudy's opened up in the 20's as a front for the mob, then they figured out they could make actual money with the hot dogs, to add on to restaurants operating as a front.

LMAO! You people are something else. What color exactly is the sky in your miserable- half empty find- something bad in everything- world?

Ryan, the days of cheerleading Toledo into a somnolent state are over. It's sad to see that you yet pine for them.

The former Jordan's Restaurant is re-opening. I'm not sure what it will be but I think it's going to be a Mexican Restaurant.

Where did you hear that at? Just curious.