So the new restaurant;
Kinda cool (for me anyways) backstory to this place. When I was working for Graham (my old boss/mentor) he had an amazing restaurant in harrogate, was Fish & Chips (with a takeaway) and an 80 seater restaurant aside it, the restaurant was pretty unique because it combined restaurant Fish & Chips with seafood dishes, bottles of wine, champagne etc, people spending Av £14-£16 a head (this is back when A Tuna Steak cost £9 in a restaurant) which even today is unheard of in Fish and Chips.
It was successful for 3 reasons; 1stly (and I imagine most crucially) the location was pretty sensational - right next to a big conference venue which had 40k people a week from out of town visiting (company expenses cards and so on) 2ndly the quality of the Fish and Chips was restaurant standard (presentation, look etc) and the decor was sophisticated and pleasant enough to be a "proper restaurant".
Ever since selling its been a concept both myself and Graham have been dying to recreate, and about 7 years ago we very nearly bought this place on street lane in leeds - very similar setup, top location, great area, big car park etc but deal fell through, 2 years later same again, then 2 years ago I personally tried to buy it but couldnt reach a deal. Last easter I got a call from the guy saying "lets do a deal" - I didn't have the money or the time to do it then was just about to head off to cyprus for the summer so I threw the deal to Graham. I got back from Cyprus and get a call from Graham saying the deals on and would I come join him, I was very easily persuaded to head up the project in exchange for him financing it.
Sometimes in Life things are just meant to be
So same plan as before, elevate the fish and chips, improve the decor, jazz up the menu and get people spending more money.
Here's what I got;
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This was the Entrance - This was actually after I re-did the floor, was a shitty blue carpet full of grease, I changed the floor immediately.
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That was as you look through, cheap furniture, sachets of sauce on the table etc
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View from the other side of the restaurant.
So the biggest challenge is how to take people's minds away from "Just fish a fish and chips cafe" and into the mindset of "this is a restaurant, we can spend a bit of money here" The average spend was £7.20 p/person when we came in, I want to take it to ~£13/£14.
Grahams business is called "The Fisherman's Wife" but as this is a pretty fresh concept we wanted to change it slightly, so we came up with the idea of "The Fisherman's Lodge", Keeping the branding similar so the two businesses are easily linked but this would be "The Fisherman's" place, where his friends would come hang after a hard days fishing, cosy, warm, welcoming etc
Here's what I came up with.
And here's what we did to the decor;
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Fish tank replaced with 8ft aquarium, brand new bar area, full wine list/beer selection, some fancy local craft beers, previous capacity was 12 Natural 24 in a group. Now we have 8 Natural and 12 in a group. We also have this really cool old barrel as a bar table
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As you walk in.
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View as you walk in.
Kept Menu pretty simple, made it look nice, thrown a few extra things in that sound cool but as sinple as fuck to do
Front of the menu;
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First Page
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Had the idea to put this "Fish Tapas" in, its basically a collection of 10 products, most of which are bought in and deep fried but presenting in a cool way (cant find a picture of any food at the moment
) and make the menu look miles more sophisticated/advanced than it is in reality - also its a nice thing for people to share 1 as a couple, or for a party of 3-5 to get 3 for £10 to share as a starter etc, throwing that av spend up a little
Second Page - just your standard fish and chips menu
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Meat and Veg, always a difficult one, as it's never going to be big sellers it's hard to put on loads of choice as you either need frozen stuff or you waste too much, then when you put on rubbish selection you'll miss out on every group of 4 that includes a vegetarian or someone who doesn't like fish
Still a work in progress...
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I've taken a group of really good, enthusiastic cafe staff and slowly turning into a restaurant, Av spend up to £11.50 from £7.20 and takings are about 30% increased so far, loooooooooooooong way to go.
And there you have it the fruits of my last 5 months work !
Feedback welcome, if you can spot the most stupidest of all typos on the menu then PLEASE don't say anything my morale cant handle it
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