Main Street - Mt. Manganui

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Mount Maunganui is a stunning beach town, a stone’s throw away from the bustling city of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.

The population of around 30,000 often triples in size during the peak season, but Mainstreet Café has to fight for customers alongside a multitude of other eateries.

Co-owner and chef Aaron bought the café from his parents over four years ago. He’s a kiwi, but moved to America when he was 16. Despite working in hospitality for years, this is his first job as cook as well as his first business and he believes it’s the hardest thing he’s ever done. His best mate Ryan is his business partner. He also moved here from Colorado to run the café and doesn’t he doesn’t have any formal training either.

Despite working seven days a week, and never taking holidays, they have never made a profit in four years and their dream of making it down under is going down the plug hole.

Aaron’s Mum, Ruth, used to own the café and now helps out. She worries the boys’ failed attempt to expand will ruin them as the mounting debt has left the café running on bare basics.

Despite offering café staples, a hot food menu and private catering, the café struggles to cover weekly overheads of $7,000, so John’s gone to the Mount for the day to see where they’re going wrong.

John finds the art work is too overbearing for such a small space and that a nearly empty food cabinet gives it an air of desperation. There is no ventilation in the kitchen and, as a result, there is grease and grime spread all over the walls.

Over a chat with Aaron & Ryan, John discovers that they’re losing close to $2,000 every week and they’re in $12,000 debt.

When John tries the food, he’s left waiting for 20 minutes. While some of the items are good, the onions are raw in the omelette, the size of the burgers are daunting and he’s not impressed with the frozen meat pattie. John heads away to make a plan.

A week later John returns and he has a whole new concept for the cafe, starting with the name. It will be called the Shake Shack, and his plans also include a massive renovation, a menu that will include great burgers, Mexican dishes and milkshakes that will have a secret ingredient. There’ll also be tips on marketing and cleanliness.

But there’s not much enthusiasm for his ideas, except from some of the female staff. To get the boys on board, he hits the streets with them to point out where they could get potential customers from and he tries to drive home why he thinks they need a point of difference from the other cafes that are in the area.

Next, he sets the boys on the road to having good burgers and he teaches them how to make fresh meat patties and makes their burgers smaller and easier to handle.

John is also keen to put some food on the menu that customers can take to the park next door, so he introduces hotdogs but, again, it’s another decision that doesn’t go down well with the Americans which makes him suspect that they’re scared of change.

John is keen on the boys not having to start work so early in the morning so he wants to get rid of some of the pre made food. He is successful in convincing the guys to add sandwiches, that can be made on demand, to the menu. He also teaches them how to make new milkshakes with a special ingredient and they prove to be a real hit with the waitresses.

Despite the opposition from the team regarding the rebranding, John is adamant they need to get out and market the cafe. As the café has their own soccer team, John sees their soccer game as a perfect marketing opportunity. He surprises one of them with a new sign advertising the restaurant…and a kiwi costume for one of them to wear.

On the morning of renovation there’s a team of friends, family and contractors ready to help. John’s plan is to turn it into an eye catching beach shack, with a new colour scheme, new equipment in the kitchen and he’s going to declutter the café. He has the team on board, that is, until he drops the bombshell that he’s going to take down a massive art work that covers most of one wall. He discovers that they’re very sentimental about it and none of them want it to go.

Out front, new signage goes up and, inside, the old food cabinets are removed. A new hood and fryer are installed in the kitchen. John realises that he had underestimated the extent of the renovation and realises that they will be working late into the night. To boost flagging spirits he surprises them with the artwork that he had removed, he’s had it framed to make it blend in with the surroundings.

With the kitchen nearly complete, a surprise chef turns up to teach the boys how to cook some authentic Mexican dishes, which will give the café a real point of difference.

The next morning the boys are shattered. They are still not on board with the name, however are pleased with the general theme of the café and like the new pictures John has provided for them.

With the relaunch only an hour away John sits down with the boys to try and reprice the menu, however this is met with a reasonable amount of resistance, another reason why John believes they haven’t made a profit in four years.

In order to fill the café John pulls out the kiwi suit one last time and sends one of the waitresses out to promote the restaurant. However, exhausted after a long night at the restaurant, she bursts into tears. Regardless, John has no sympathy and sends her out onto the streets to drum up business.

Fortunately the marketing works and the restaurant quickly fills up. But as soon as it does, the team hit the first hurdle and run out of the secret ingredient for the milkshake, their new signature drink…which is just what the secret critic orders when she arrives.

Luckily, they do a mad dash to purchase some more of the ingredient and the critic is none the wiser. Her feedback to the team is very positive, she loves the look of the restaurant, thinks the service is great but didn’t have great things to say about the quesadilla, that the onions weren’t cooked properly.

Three weeks later John returns to the Shake Shack to discover it’s now….the Sol Shack! Aaron and Ryan couldn’t live with the name so they decided to change it. They ran a competition for customers to come up with a new name and, five hundred entries later, they were the proud owners of the Sol Shack.

John discovers things are going well, the hotdogs are incredibly popular, that they’re going to raise prices in summer and that they’re also investigating getting a liquor license and opening at night.

After four long, hard working years for these two Americans, John predicts they have a bright future ahead of them.

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