It's hard to be a bad restaurant. Especially here in Maine, where you can toss a stone from one wonderful eatery to the next. You don't last long if you're bad.

If being bad is an operational situation, there are places to turn, like SYSCO food service. SYSCO will do everything from planning, designing and printing a menu, to staff training and inventory management. They'll even help get a restaurant online. If it's a quality issue, there are many chefs, restaurateurs and other industry leaders (and rising stars) ready to help. Truth is, no one wants to see someone fail.

On the other hand, if bad happens because a restaurant lacks soul, then it's doomed. Being soulless means no passion, style, or personality. You don't make these things up as you go along. They're either part of a restaurant's concept, or not. So lacking soul, I think, is the root cause of being bad.

Thankfully, in Maine, bad restaurants are few and far between. I believe, and I hope you agree with me when I say this, that there's more restaurant soul in Maine than almost anyplace else in the US.