Innovate or die: Restaurant survival tactics in lockdown

11 May 2020

Dark restaurants, delis, grocery boxes and vouchers are the order of the day as restaurants try to keep their brands alive and their staff paid.

If there is truth in the saying that only the strongest will survive, South Africa’s post-lockdown world will reveal an infinitely smaller array of restaurants, coffee shops and delis for our enjoyment.

Restaurants and pubs, with no customers, no cash-flow, diminishing reserves and no idea when they can reopen for onsite dining, are folding quietly and quickly.

Level 4 lockdown offers restaurants a tiny ray of light in that they are able to deliver meals to customers in their homes. Many have seized this as an opportunity to drive sales – even if it is only enough to pay the rent and provide staff with a basic salary.

However, the home delivery food business is not for the faint-hearted at the best of times, and with every Joe-in-a kitchen reinventing himself as an artisanal cook, the competition is fierce.

Liam Tomlin, the force behind the Chefs Warehouse group, has been outspoken on this topic, arguing that selling a takeaway product at 50% to 60% less than in-house prices, without the margin-adding desserts, wines and coffees is not viable for many restaurants.

That said, most restaurants don’t have a choice – they have to give it a go, or fold permanently.

Also known as ghost and cloud kitchens, the concept is growing in popularity around the world and refers to restaurant-quality food prepared in an industrial kitchen, for home consumption.

Restaurateur Larry Hodes has already closed one of his three restaurants permanently and is now fighting to keep the other two alive. Calexico was a bar and live music venue at 44 Stanley, in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, which just could not survive, he says.

To keep the other two restaurants going, Voodoo Lily and Arbour Café in Birdhaven, Johannesburg, required some creative thinking. First off he opened a dark kitchen, called – you guessed it – The Dark Kitchen.

Also known as ghost and cloud kitchens, the concept is growing in popularity around the world and refers to restaurant-quality food prepared in an industrial kitchen, for home consumption.

Less than two weeks old, the business will take time to build a predictable following, which is essential when ordering fresh ingredients on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, Hodes has also converted Voodoo Lily into a neighbourhood deli – it helps that the restaurant is on a popular suburban walking route.

“We rushed to open up before Mother’s Day,” says his wife, Annie. “We stocked up with a range of products supplied by local people and other restaurants in the area. We can only take product on consignment – as we have no cash flow – but it is a real collective effort that helps us all.”

Fyn, the Japanese-inspired fine dining restaurant run by chef Peter Tempelhoff in Cape Town has done something different. The restaurant has launched two offers for eat-at-home diners looking for something special. The first is an “experience” menu which includes Fyn delights like pickled daikon and Japanese rice bran cucumbers, gamefish tataki, perlemoen and seared wagyu beef, finished with a range of dessert treats for about R600 per person, considerably less than it costs in-house.

A cheaper option, with fewer courses, is the “family” meal at R295 per person.

While Fyn’s customers initially grumbled about the excessive amount of single-use plastic involved, it appears from the restaurant’s Instagram account that the offering has been warmly received.

While Cape Town’s famed Test Kitchen will not be supplying tasting menus, chef Luke Dale-Roberts has introduced a range of gourmet hampers for delivery. Priced from R1,800 to R5,000, the baskets contain treats like slow-smoked Norweigian salmon, navarin of lamb shank and salt-baked celeriac and truffle salad.

The prices are not for those looking for Friday night takeaways, but with four restaurants to maintain, overheads are daunting and innovation essential.

To help restaurants with cash flow, beer brand Stella Artois, owned by AB InBev, has created an online platform, Rally for your bar and restaurant, where restaurants can sell vouchers for a meal in the future. In support, ABI promises to contribute an additional 50% on the value of the voucher, which is attractive.

Eat Out, the popular website that profiles the foodie industry has launched a Restaurant Relief Fund.

“The fund is supporting restaurants that have reopened their kitchens to create meals for the needy in their communities, or to supply feeding schemes, in this time when so many are impacted by Covid-19,” says Adelle Horler, editor-in-chief at New Media, which includes Eat Out in its stable.

“Registered businesses within the restaurant and food industry that meet the criteria can apply to receive funding,” she says. “Grants are given in line with the number of meals a restaurant produces each day.”

Eat Out receives no commercial benefit from the donations and has partnered with Community Chest, a non-profit organisation aimed at improving the lives of all South Africans. “This is our way of supporting an industry that has supported us for 22 years,” she says.

At present, 27 restaurants are involved in preparing food for the feeding schemes and R830,000 has been spent to date.

However, the kitty is now empty and the fund is raising new capital.

The initiative builds on the well-documented efforts of celebrity chefs like Margot Janse, best known for her work as head chef of Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek, who joined forces with chef Chris Erasmus of Foliage and Liam Tomlin to support the Disaster Management Franschhoek Food Relief which provides food parcels to thousands of families.

Arno Janse van Rensburg, chef and owner of Janse & Co has partnered with Ladles of Love, a non-profit, volunteer-run soup kitchen to provide more than 2,500 meals a day.

Another initiative to support the local industry sees Chefs Warehouse prints, such as the one below, sold for R400 apiece.

The initiatives are numerous and often creative. It brings to mind Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi's now-famous “stronger together” remarks, made just after the South African team triumphed at the Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019.

Chefs and restaurateurs have realised there is no point in surviving if the community around you is not surviving. We are, truly, stronger together. BM

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Business Maverick

Also known as ghost and cloud kitchens, the concept is growing in popularity around the world and refers to restaurant-quality food prepared in an industrial kitchen, for home consumption.