Latest / Best of Business / Chand Sahrawat: restaurateur and KOL co-owner on shutting the restaurant amid 'challenging' trade conditions

Transcript

Chand Sahrawat: restaurateur and KOL co-owner on shutting the restaurant amid 'challenging' trade conditions · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right now, one of Alkan's best known restaurants, Tour Couples,
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  Speaker 2: is shutting down one of its businesses, but with a twist.
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  Speaker 2: Sid and Chant sadahwit on the French Cafe and Sid
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  Speaker 2: and his wife are shutting there Ponsonby Road restaurant Cole,
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  Speaker 2: which will be disappointing for many, but the premises won't
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: be empty for long. They have been taking applications for
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: a new venture to take over the space with the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: bonus of mentorship from the couple. Chant is with us
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  Speaker 2: this evening, Good.
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  Speaker 3: Evening, good evening, Ryan, How are you very good?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm sad to hear about Cole. I went
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  Speaker 2: and loved it. What's the decision? What has forced the
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  Speaker 2: decision or made the decision?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you have to be fiscally responsible, and
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: we've been seeing a downturn for about the last three
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  Speaker 3: or four months, and we've been putting in our own funds.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, you can only we hope for so
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  Speaker 3: long and try and change things around, offer a cheaper deals.
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  Speaker 3: But we've decided we'd need to pull the pin on
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  Speaker 3: this concept and try something different.
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  Speaker 2: And what is that something different?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we thought about it. We think that the market
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  Speaker 3: has changed with the cost of living crisis and discretionary
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  Speaker 3: spend has gone down for most of the middle class.
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  Speaker 3: So I think there is some other concept out there.
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  Speaker 3: We've got some ideas of what we would do with
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  Speaker 3: the space, but we feel like, look, when we started
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  Speaker 3: in two thousand and nine, we started our first restaurants, Sidark,
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  Speaker 3: and we were helped along with a bi Alovely mentor
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  Speaker 3: who was also an angel investor, and he took a
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  Speaker 3: chance on this not known couple and gave us some
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  Speaker 3: funding and we wouldn't be here without that angel investor.
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  Speaker 3: So we want to do the same thing and see
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  Speaker 3: if there is a better idea are out there than
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  Speaker 3: what we have for the space and hopefully meant to
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  Speaker 3: someone who's a budding chef or front of house or
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  Speaker 3: someone who's got hospitality in their blood take the next step.
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  Speaker 2: So how does it work? Will they have to pay
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  Speaker 2: for the space and then you know, pay for the
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  Speaker 2: basically take on the lease or are you stub leasing?
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  Speaker 2: How does it work?
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  Speaker 3: So it's not a sublaze, it's what. Of course, it
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  Speaker 3: has to have a viable business plan, which is why
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  Speaker 3: we've got a panel of experts helping us. We've got
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  Speaker 3: Kelly Bread, We've got of Goody Magazine, Marissa Bidduo of
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  Speaker 3: the Restaurant Association, and well known restaurant Al Brown helping
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  Speaker 3: us make this decision to be fair as well to
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  Speaker 3: all the applicants because we know so many people in
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  Speaker 3: the industry ourselves and we don't want to be favoring somebody.
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  Speaker 3: So they need to have a good business plan, describe
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  Speaker 3: their concept to us and the panel will decide they need.
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  Speaker 3: The business has to be a business and pay rent
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  Speaker 3: and help us with the rent. But all the chattels
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  Speaker 3: are there, the spit out, which is expensive, it's just
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  Speaker 3: two years old, is there for them to use all
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  Speaker 3: these things. If you were to try and buy a business,
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  Speaker 3: you'd have to redo and you'd have to buy the plate,
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  Speaker 3: you'd have to get a liquor license, you'd have to
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  Speaker 3: do all that. All of the setup is there, so
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  Speaker 3: they don't have to buy the business. They don't have
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  Speaker 3: to take the responsibility of the lease either, because the
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  Speaker 3: lease remains an un name. The concept does not work
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  Speaker 3: out for whatever reason, the lease is still are and
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  Speaker 3: they can walk away.
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  Speaker 2: Ah. So it's a sort of a risk free trial
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  Speaker 2: for someone who's wanting to get into it, or maybe
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  Speaker 2: someone who does takeaways at the moment has never done
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  Speaker 2: a restaurant exactly.
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  Speaker 3: It could be someone with a food truck. It could
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  Speaker 3: be someone who's running a cafe somewhere else in the country,
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  Speaker 3: someone in the cargo Hokatika. We don't know, someone who
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  Speaker 3: wants to try the hand and the big smoke on cotant.
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  Speaker 3: We rode and see if their concept will be appreciated
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  Speaker 3: by the current market. And there's no risk involved. We're
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  Speaker 3: there to help mentor so is a restaurant association. We
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  Speaker 3: just want to see someone else succeed and give them
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  Speaker 3: that leg up in life.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Chand
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  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you coming on the program. That's chance,
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  Speaker 2: said Hwitt, who's a restaurateur with us. It is twenty
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  Speaker 2: one minutes away from seven. I've been to that restaurant.
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  Speaker 2: I really enjoyed my meal and I really enjoyed my cocktails.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. I'm sad it won't be there anymore.
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