A local Nashua Restaurant is closing after it found itself stuck between an LGBTQ Rock and a Hardplace. Riverside BBQ proudly supported gay pride and even held drag queen shows until something went wrong.
Crossdressing and Drag Queen shows are not the same thing. Drag performances are sex shows. If someone sells you something softer, it’s a lie to get their foot in the door, this is just my opinion, but I think Riverside BBQ got soft sold. And in the end, when things got real, it killed their business.
For clarity, I’ve never been there, and if they’d wanted to be all Drag and or a gay bar, more power to you. I’m sure there are plenty of folks in the LGBTQ community who want to wrap their hands around some roasted pig. As I so often point out, what consenting adults do in their free time is none of my business until they ask the state to make me pay for it.
This situation is one of those choices. A business owner embraced a concept that ultimately did not work out. But I guess they didn’t realize you can’t just walk away from that. Certain factions within the Tolerant ‘rainbow’ won’t let you. And you’ve already sent a message to families who saw or understood that Drag Shows are raunchy sex shows inappropriate for children and offensive to adults, even when heterosexuals engage in the antics.
With nowhere to run, Riverside BBQ had to call it quits.
I spent a considerable chunk of my life in the restaurant business before I found my way into high tech — every sort from pizza to joints with drive-thrus to rib houses and steak houses. I’ve worked them, managed them, paid the bills, hired, and fired. It’s a high-turnover low margin business. And while great food and excellent service are, well, great, people need to know what to expect. Predictable mediocrity can still be successful if it is consistent.
It sounds like Riverside BBQ went all out to provide a great BBQ joint. I’ve never been, I can’t speak to that. But you need to pick an identity and stick to it. Be as good or better at it than anyone else, and hope it flies.
This did not.
Today is their last day of business. If you are so inclined visit them and say goodbye. At this point, it hardly matters why for them, unless they plan to do this somewhere else. But there’s a lesson in there for anyone else on the edge of stepping out into the free market and investing everything in a business.
You can’t please everyone, and some people are harder to please than others.
