Diners this season may experience deja vu. While many restaurants have closed their doors permanently due to the economic downturn, a few are giving their business a second shot.
Reopening a restaurant is deceptively difficult, says Tamal Banerjee. The 15-year veteran of the Hong Kong food and beverage industry has opened half a dozen restaurants, but organising a reopening of a restaurant is harder, he says. 'A new opening is 90 per cent easier than a reopening.'
Banerjee was hired in February by the owners of Al Bistro after the restaurant suffered months of lacklustre performance since it opened last October. He was given full decision-making rights and a tight two-week deadline. By the time the restaurant reopened under the same name in March, Banerjee had been working 18-hour days.
'Setting up a new restaurant is a step-by-step process. But with a reopening things get messy because you're picking up from the middle,' he says.
'People think you can reuse things, but in the end there's a lot of wastage. It's easier to buy a new table than it is to locate the maker of the old table and order a new leg. In the end, I used the same budget [as the original opening] and had to do everything over again - just in a different, more convoluted order.'
But for Olala restaurant group owner Ming Chau-on, reopening the Olala Charcuterie store in March was a breeze. After the contractors finished decorating the newly rented lot, it took only a day to move all the equipment over before it was back to business as usual. 'We started at lunchtime, and were ready by dinner,' recalls manager Calvin Wong.