Red Tomatoes
Episode 2 – Red Tomatoes (Kelburn, Wellington)
Perching over the trendy Kelburn Village in Wellington, Red Tomatoes pizzeria is a restaurant in a mess!
Young business owners Paul & James have had the restaurant for 2 years...plenty long enough to send their first venture as well as their partnership, into a tumultuous state.
The restaurant is struggling financially and if that’s not bad enough, usually loyal customers are giving negative feedback. With debt spiralling out of control to the tune of $300,000, and a partnership in ruins, time is not on their side.
John’s got five days to turn this place around, so he’s on his way to meet Paul and James face-to-face and see what’s really going on. What he finds is two kids with more money at their disposal than sense; a place that in a filthy state, and a team out to have a good time with no clue about the restaurant business!
Now it’s time for John to check out the menu...it’s supposed to be an Italian restaurant, so who do they think they’re kidding with Mexican & Indian on the menu as well?
Paul and James then learn that John had surveillance cameras set up two weeks ago and came in without them knowing, only to discover a multitude of problems amounting to horrendous hospitality.
So tonight John’s heading back to Red Tomatoes to see first hand how the staff and kitchen work. It’s a Tuesday night which is usually slow and so far they’ve got more staff than customers, and again no one knows what they are doing...it’s chaos all round!
Red Tomatoes is sinking fast. The staff clearly have no training so meals are going out late, if at all, and to make matters worse the guys who own the place, James and Paul, have stopped talking to one another.
It’s clear that Paul has no confidence in Chef Sinclair who inherited the pseudo Italian menu which in John’s opinion isn’t working, so he’s asked him to cook up some of his own dishes and we’ll see if they’re good enough for a new menu. Sinclair proves he’s got the goods, but Paul’s attitude is holding him back.
Every restaurant needs to know its costings, and after two years in business these guys have no idea, plus with shocking service dragging them down even further John decides to call everyone in to sort things out. They’ve had no training so when customers come in they don’t know who’s looking after what.
So tomorrow night the waiters are going to learn about stations, and Sinclair’s dishes will make the specials because without some serious changes Red Tomatoes is fried.
That night things start to heat up as tables fill and the chaotic dockets system gets exposed...it’s an absolute mess. And as the pressure mounts it becomes obvious that it’s not just Paul who has a problem with the chef, as James & Sinclair struggle to communicate and work efficiently together as well. Again Red Tomatoes failed in every department!
A new day though brings renovation and Kelburn’s only Italian restaurant is about to change. The main dining area is tired and old fashioned, the layout’s all wrong and the place is filthy. But it’s not going to be like this for long because today Paul and James are gearing up for a fresh new start.
But taking a break from the hard work; staff get acquainted with Sinclair’s new menu. So many restaurants don’t give staff a chance to taste the menu which is a big mistake because if they’re happy about the food they’ll pass this on to the customer.
Day 2 of renovations and Red Tomatoes is half-way through its transformation and they’ve only got until 6 o’clock today before it opens for business, so to drum up support John sends Paul & James out to the streets to drum up support.
Finally the big relaunch is here, the marketing was a huge success and the first customers pile through the door and immediately there’s docket confusion, and as Sinclair and James feel the pressure in the kitchen, the girls out front aren’t doing much better with the new till.
The wheels that were barely on are already falling off and it becomes an absolute disaster. The waiters have never had systems, so they can’t seem to get their heads around the new ones; dishes are going to the wrong tables, the kitchen is about to reach boiling point and the timing couldn’t be worse.
Coming through the door is John’s surprise guest; well known restaurateur Luke Dallow who will critique the food tonight. But it’s a full house and with no booking the food critic’s going to have to wait.
Eventually Luke is seated, but front of house confuse the table numbers and there is chaos over his orders and when the food does arrive, its average at best. The only redeeming feature is the pizza which does impress, and as the night’s service draws to a close, the team prove they have struggled to take Johns lessons about the very basics on board.
A month later John returns with the hope that Paul and James are making it work. In a complete turn-around; the place is positively humming, the tables are full, and the team out front are successfully running their stations.
It was a hard road getting here for Paul & James but they are finally making a difference; the only bar in Kelburn is now rocking with profits are on the up, Paul and James have now mended their relationship, the staff are happier as a result, and slowly but surely the are making headways into clearing their debt.
Become a fan of TV3 on Facebook
,
on Twitter .