Why restaurants like Joe D’s are hard to keep open

Hearing that Joe D’s Wine Bar and Cafe in Brookside was closing, I was reminded of former owner and namesake Joe DiGiovanni’s words to me about restaurants that rely significantly on patios for business:

I loved the location but the space was too small… when you depend on your patio for 50 percent of revenue on a given night and it rains on a Friday night, what do you do?… we were like farmers at the mercy of the weather and the business varied because of it.

Still, DiGiovanni did well. He kept the doors open and the customers coming back for nearly 20 years before selling Joe D’s in 2005. DiGiovanni recently got back into the restaurant business with the solidly indoors and much bigger Zest.