Win restaurant Mendo Bistro for just $100 and an essay

Seems nice for jut $100. via Facebook — Seems nice for just $100. via Facebook

Plenty of people dream of opening a restaurant, but lots of factors stand in the way of that dream, most of which involve not having the incredible amount of money necessary to build and open their restaurant. Enter the owner of the Mendo Bistro and Barbelow, who’s offering up his entire bar and restaurant for the paltry price of a $100 entry fee and a 250-word essay on why you’re the right person to own the restaurant.

Now, becoming the owner of Mendo Bistro would necessitate you picking up and moving to Fort Bragg, California, but hey, you’re a four hour drive from the enormous Mendocino National Forest and are right on the water of the Pacific Ocean. And again, you just paid $100 for an entire restaurant. There isn’t much in the way of rules beyond the fact that you have to stick to the essay prompt, make sure that your essay has double spaces (which is all sorts of wrong, but whatever), and be one of the first 7500 essays to make it in by December 15 this year.

So why is the restaurant’s owner getting out of the game? Is he about to pass a financial sinkhole on to you. No, says chef Nicholas Petti, who told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s too busy as a tenured professor at a nearby school to deal with running a whole restaurant. So, someone else gets to live the dream of running their own charming bistro on the Northern California Coast. The Mendo Bistro’s website is full of glowing reviews, so our advice is not to make any big changes to the bar or menu if you win. Also you have to invite us for at least one free meal if you found out about the contest through us.