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L&P Bar and Cafe

Nestled in the Northern Waikato Region of Thames Valley is Paeroa, an attractive town at the junction of three state highways. “World Famous in New Zealand” for its big bottle, and the mineral springs from which New Zealand’s most famous drink is made.

Not so famous on the edge of town despite its 10 years, is the L & P Bar and Café, a family style restaurant, and information centre, that’s struggling to keep afloat!

Restaurant Manager Linda bought the place 3 years ago, however it came along with a reputation for bad food & bad service which she hasn’t been able to shake. Equally worried is her partner in crime Gary, he run’s the information centre by day, and is a kitchen hand by night. They gave up a up a successful burger joint, to take on this icon, hoping to create a better life for their young daughter Waikarkawa, but are now are wondering how sound their decision was.

Café supervisor Kristi has worked at the L & P café for nearly 10 years…and has never felt the pressure more than now. Apprentice Chef Cody is also working less hours these days. But, after 5 years of dedication, he’s running the kitchen, even though Gary & Linda are still putting him through his training.

With the recession hitting, the coaches changing their routes and down on local custom Linda and Gary are falling short of basic overheads by around $7000 every week. Even worse, they don’t draw a wage, and their cushion of savings is just about gone!

There’s only enough money to keep going for a couple of months and if things don’t turn around fast, Gary & Linda could lose everything.

So John’s come to Paeroa for the day to work out where they’re going wrong.

First step is to scope out the location. He finds the café dated and incredibly sparse, with unappealing food, and a kitchen that looks like no one cooks in it.

When John samples the food, he is reasonably unimpressed. During his observation of the lunchtime service John notices that while the road is heaving with traffic, no one is stopping at the L and P Café. Even worse, the evening service is absolutely dead. Armed with this knowledge he heads back to Auckland to create a plan to save the L and P Café.

When he returns he finds Linda and Gary are missing in action. Linda’s daughter from a previous relationship is having a baby - two hours away in Hamilton. But there’s no time to waste and John announces the new direction of the restaurant without them. He’s going to make the menu snappier, there’ll be great new pizzas and a whole range of new food. And he’s going to give them some serious marketing tips as he believes good food alone won’t save this place.

Just as John is starting to worry about Linda and Gary’s absence, they turn up with the news that they are proud grandparents to a baby girl. John then drops the bombshell that he has organised the marketing team from the tour company Naked Bus to turn up, and that Gary and Linda need to make a pitch and convince them why they should reschedule their buses to make a lunch stop.

The Naked Bus team make no bones that it won’t be easy for them to change their route because when a bus isn’t moving, it isn’t making them any money. They have to work out if they can make it work logistically, leaving Linda and Gary with an anxious wait to see if their pitch has been successful.

When John produces a new state of the art dough mixer to make pizzas, he is bemused to find that Linda is worried about going into competition with a friend who sells pizza down the road. Despite the fact that she already makes a very poor pizza.

John and the chefs proceed to make a whole new range of pizzas from a simple Margherita, to gourmet treats like ‘gorgonzola & pear’ and ’thai chicken’. They prove to be a hit with all the crew.

John’s plan for the rest menu is to revise the dishes, and make better quality family food, for less. He’s giving the Moroccan salad a face lift, the tortellini salad is replaced with a variety of delicious pastas, he’s adding a roast dinner and reportioning all the meat dishes to make them more cost effective.

It’s renovation day and, despite Linda and Gary being convinced they couldn’t’ pull together much of a team to help with the reno, they have a great turn out of workers. They all muck in, painting, putting up fresh new signage, refurbishing the entrance way with iconic L and P memorabilia and rearranging the layout of the restaurant.

In the kitchen, John has come up with a plan to introduce more tasty desserts to the menu and he sets the challenge that they all need to cook a dessert. A massive frenzy ensues in the kitchen as the team race to get their desserts prepared in the ninety minute window John has set them.

Cody decides to take on two desserts, but the stress gets to him and completely breaks down in the kitchen.

However he manages to pull himself back together and the dessert challenge results in a whole new variety of desserts for both the day counter and the night service.

While the renovation continues, Linda receives a crucial call from Hamish from ‘Naked Bus’. As a result of their pitch, Naked Bus have rerouted their service to reschedule a lunch stop at the café, which potentially could mean an extra $5000 extra month.

In order to drum up some business for the evening, John and some of the women hit the streets giving out free tasters of the new & improved pizzas and flyers about the relaunch.

With less than two hours now before the reopening John has a final chat with the team, gives them the new menus and throws them the curveball that, tonight, a secret critic will be dining in the house.

However no sooner are they open, a full house is causing a nightmare for Linda, and customers are left waiting. It’s not a good time to be disorganised, because the critic has just walked through the door.

Fortunately, amid the chaos, the critic receives improved service from Linda who is attending to her in minutes. Her feedback to the team is, on the whole, is positive regarding the food, however she pulls Linda up about her telephone manner when she rang through to book a table, saying she almost made her feel like she didn’t want guests.

John returns to The L and P Café three weeks later and discovers a café that is much busier to the one he first visited almost two months ago. The gourmet pizzas are a hit with both the locals and the tourists, the evening service has picked up and everyone is loving the new look of the café.

After three difficult years, Linda and Gary’s sheer determination is starting to pay off, their takings are on the increase, allowing them to cope with their massive weekly overheads and finally their future is looking brighter.