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A Candy Shop!!! Ironically, I don't even make candy..... ; )

A noodle joint-- Japanese or Korean. Mmm-- fried lotus root and Korean bbq pork over noodles.

I would open a small bakery, featuring items that bring people back to their homelands. So, for instance, if I was based in the UK, I would feature American, Middle Eastern and South Asian baked goods and desserts, catering to those that just want to feel back at home again or reminisce. Does that make sense?

I would go to my place of business that had a big shiny kitchen and I would cook whatever I felt like that day. Maybe one day it would be a vat of vegetable soup, and the next it would be cookies. Maybe I'd make tamales or noodles or bread...

If there was a lot of prep or assembly work, I would invite "students" in, who would pay a nominal fee to help me.

When I was done cooking, I would package up the goods and put a sign in the sunny window of my storefront that announced that the food of the day was ready to go. People would flock in and buy my food, and within an hour or so, it would all be sold out, and I would lock the door and go home.

Overnight, elves would come in and clean the kitchen so that it would be sparkling clean for the next day's adventures.

Basically, it's like what I do now at home, but on a much smaller scale. And without the "shiny" and the "students" and the mob of hungry customers, although DH does a pretty good job at devouring what I cook.

As for the elves, I suspect they're here somewhere, but they're more likely to spill sugar than to clean it up.

All I want in life is a bookshop/cafe with amazing baked goods and great coffee and a big selection of teas--lots of sunlight and laughter. In the evening it would turn into a chic wine bar with mezze and desserts, espresso etc. I just picture it as a great cozy spot in a neighborhood, something of a local hangout that promotes good reads and good eats.

i'm with veggienut-i'd like to run a bookstore too! (with my mom) but i'd only serve coffee and pie there.

dbcurrie, that sounds similiar to my "plan"! All the food would be pretty much whatever I wanted to cook that day--and I would base that partly on the ingrediants I was able to find that day. The cooking would be primarily Italian grandma food. Comfort food, but still relatively healthy.

oh! And I would do a special dinner maybe once a month, that would become one of the hottest tickets in town. It would be like Raos; only those in the know can get in. But it would only be once a month, and that's where I'd break out the fancier dishes (literally and figuratively). There would be only one seating, and the menu would be a set menu. It might even be family style...

@Traveller, I like your idea a lot!

Cheese maker or jam maker or cake decorator. Tea shop sounds nice, too.

Barkeep. Real ale at proper temperatures, good glassware and honest drinks. And food that's neither too precious nor crap.

a bakery! I could just bake stuff all day long I love it so much.

I'd make french macarons and other fun pastries. maybe cupcakes or other fancy cakes. I'd also want to have coffee/espresso service.

someday... :)

Recipe tester/taster/consultant

@traveller: An Expat Patisserie?

France and England have small dining rooms in small towns with maybe a few rooms up above so people can spend the night. I would like to have the American version.

Is there a such thing as a restaurant that just serves soup, aside from pho places? Soup is my absolute favorite thing to make. My specialty would be my sweet potato, kale, and white bean soup. I also make a delicious meatball soup. All my soups would be served with a thick, fresh slice of French bread drizzled with olive oil and kosher salt and toasted to golden brown over a hot griddle. I'd have freshly-baked, from-scratch chocolate chip cookies for dessert, made with all high-quality ingredients. No margarine or sugar substitutes...just the real thing.

Unfortunately, I'd probably experience a business downturn during the summer. Well, I guess I could learn to make gazpacho, although I admit that soup and cookies is probably not enough to open a restaurant.

@sandn - Two words: Soup Nazi.

Some kind of casual lunch/dinner bakery. I'd have breads, pasties, sausage rolls, little tarts and pies, and maybe a soup or two. I can't decide if I would serve tea or coffee. I like the idea of having a tea shop, too, though.

. . . and, now I'm hungry.

I would love to open up a take out place that sells reasonably priced "real meals" not just things like fried chicken dinners. meals with a multiple choice of many types of veggies as well as the meat and starches. Have the menu change every day, and be open for customer suggestions and requests.

I have serveral ideas floating around in my head.
- When I was in college, I wrote a business plan for a fashion themed bakery/coffee shop for a writing class. Can you picture the handbag cookies and shoe chocolates?? Sigh. (Mind you, the idea came to me when I was in school for fashion and years before I even considered culinary school. I should have listened to myself and saved the better part of a decade!)
- a pie diner here in NYC. Thanks to the movie Waitress for the inspiration. We don't have such a thing in my neck of the woods.
- a cake shop upstate where I grew up because there are none that really have that upscale quality that we have here in the city
- an Italian bakery with my sister-in-law since I now share her perfect Italian last name to put on the sign. Alas, there are too many of those here.

A retail business that makes its own salumi, cheese, and pickles. Oh what the heck, why not throw in amazing rustic breads, too. This is supposed to be a fantasy, right?

Waffle house and Brewpub ... two of my favorite things: waffles and beer!

Great thread! My mom and I have long fantasized about having our own U-Pick farm: flowers and berries in the spring, veggies in the summer, pumpkins and apples in the fall. Maybe include a little bakery and coffee shop inside where you weigh and pay for your bounty.

I'd love a bookshop/cafe that would also serve fresh baked goods. Ideally, I'd like for it to be in a college town so I could provide a place to study off campus and a place to hang out. On weekends, I'd like to have some local bands/musicians come in and play. As for what to serve, I'd do breakfast items like muffins, biscuits and scones. I'd offer a seasonal pie featuring locally grown fruits. And I'd also feature some cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal, spritz, checkerboard, madelines) and cupcakes. And customers could also special order items for events.

first, i'd have to have a clone to fill in for me on weekends/holidays/family events .... second, all the bills would have to be paid by my fairy godmother/father regardless of cash intake .... and then i'd have to be able to make the restaurant magically disappear when it stopped being fun!

I've always wanted a little cafe that would make quiches and pies and soups and sandwiches that would be connected to the art gallery I have next door so patrons can walk around and eat or sit in the cafe with a hot latte. That, or a vegan/raw restaurant.

I already did it! I love steaks but wanted them to be genuinely natural or organic AND more consistent week to week. I discovered that beef is like wine, it varies by farm, breed, diet, region, aging time & technique and talent, so I founded a company dedicated to helping others find artisan beef producers and reward them for raising, aging, and cutting fabulous beef.

@sandn8r9

there's a plae in jerusalem called "marakia" (the soup place) and it sounds really similar--delicious, seasonal soup and insane bread. wow. i think about that place allll the time...

a pasta restaurant. all pasta, all the time. i'd have every size, shape and color of pasta you could think of, and a wide variety of sauces, including some with seasonal fresh ingredients. everything would be made on premises. all pasta would be served with a loaf of hot french bread or garlic bread, with or with out cheese.

I'd love to have an authentic Mexican food joint in the Midwest. I grew up in the Midwest, and I had thought I'd eaten Mexican food--until I moved to California. Tacos with slow-cooked, tender meat topped with fresh (not tinned) salsa, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, and chopped cabbage, with some homemade hot sauce, were a revelation to me. Having moved back to the Midwest, I find that I can't find a decent taco or torta; I would love to run a place that served real tacos, tortas, chile rellenos, homemade beans, homemade condiments, and homemade tortillas. Alternatively, I'd love to run a coffee shop where you can get a GOOD espresso or cappuccino (no push-button machines) and fresh, satisfying pastry.

@ PeanutButter - I would love to go to your restautrant... count me in as a regular.

I would have loved to do what Ina Garten did. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a recipe developer!

Italiagirl, your fantasy and mine are exactly the same.A luncheonette with a garden out back for fresh veg in the spring/summer; in the fall and winter bowls of soups and fresh bread that make you feel like you're wearing a warm blanket. I dream all the time about it...

Current fantasy: brewpub and pizzeria, with everything made in house. I mean, you are making the beer from scratch, shouldn't the dough, cheese, sauce, and sausage be made that way too? (I am actually writing a business plan for this one. Maybe my fantasy can become reality!)

I'd have a combination of a paperback book store/kite shop/coffee and tea with small snacks establishment in the beach town of Duck on the Outer Banks, NC.

This way, I could read to my heart's content, drink coffee/tea/snack in my kite selling store. Best of all possible worlds in one of my favorite places in the world. The OBX is a great place for kite flying ~ always windy!

Ok so I have this dream of opening a cookbook shop--all cookbooks from around the world, some very obscure like church potluck books from the 1940s or books from distant lands--and vintage recipes from other centuries, all in a little shoebox of a place, along with a section for vintage cookware and tools.

Sigh.

A great, gelato/frozen yogurt/bakery. On a busy street in a nice neighborhood.

I would start a food label selling my condiments - bbq sauces and salsas. I have already been contemplating starting selling these at the farmers markets next summer.

I have also always fantasized about having a sandwich shop/deli in a college town featuring lots of uniquely awesome sandwiches, salads, soup of the day, good coffee, and crazy good iced teas. have a cool cafe with internet access, display local art, play cool music.

That or a gelato shop. Seems like anyone who has this idea should totally do it because there could never be too many gelato shops :)

A super hot dog stand. Me being a winning chili cook, I would limit the menu to a great verity of hot dogs, hamburgers and chili. Dave

my boyfriend and i have this all planned out, assuming we get through college and law school and make enough to support this idea- we want to go to sugarhill, georgia, which he heard is the city that is expected to grow the most in the next decade, and create a huge restaurant/brewery. ( He's in charge of the brewery part.) We've started cooking already to come up with ideas- I'm not sure you could classify it into any one genre or cuisine, as of right now we've been focusing on common foods but changing them up- we plan on making various flavors of "gourmet" classics like mozzerella sticks and potato skins, a bunch of unique desserts and drinks good enough to return back for, and kind of an eclectic mix of anything else that sounds good. He works as a waiter now so we've also already decided we are being very strict with our interview process so we have good service, which will make our restaurant even more enjoyable.

It's a nice dream..

All I want is a farm. In my fantasies, I'm a farmer with a pickup truck and a combine and I grow corn and pumpkins and then sell them to the farmer's market. Also, the farm has a u-pick-it thing going on.

Pretty sure this is because I grew up in Indiana :)