The Lemon Tree (The Pantry Café)
Five minutes down the road from the
hustle and bustle of central Tauranga, is the small village ofGreerton where there are plenty of eateries
and takeaway joints competing for the customer dollar. While ‘The Lemon Tree Cafe’
is getting its fair share of dinners, financially, things are dire!
Resident owner, Alisha, has had the
cafe for three years, having worked in the industry for nine, but managing a
cafe for only four hours a day whilst juggling family life with her partner and
young son...isn’t easy!
Alisha’s side kick Teagan has been
working the cafe scene for three years...and can see the pressure her boss is
under, especially when she takes it out on her staff.
In the kitchen is financial backer
and step father Clive, originally an engineer, but who was made redundant twice
in as many years and he’s finding it harder than he ever expected. He’s
exhausted from putting in long hours and he’s not the only one. Alisha’s
mother, Judi, manages the books for free and has made huge personal sacrifices
for her daughter’s café, including selling both of her cars.
On top of this, Judi and Clive have
mortgaged their house and taken on a staggering $200,000 of debt to set their
daughter up for life, but it’s a massive gamble to support her dream,
So John has come to Greeton for the
day to work out where it’s all going wrong. He finds the café uninspiring, especially
with its tired signage and a menu board that features very cheap food. While
the kitchen is clean, it comes with very little equipment.
When John
tastes the food, he’s not impressed with the frozen hash browns or the frozen
fish and, while the blackberry pie is good, the coffee isn’t.
An observation of service reveals
that, despite there being plenty of staff, no systems are in place. The staff
aren’t very efficient and John also discovers that waitress Tegan, has got an
attitude.John is also dubious about the
uniform bandanas the staff are wearing.
John spies another problem when, only
two hours in to lunch service, Alisha starts taking the food out of the
cabinets! John concludes that the business is failing due to: wrapping early,
poor pricing, a dated décor, bad menu and a manager who, by only working part
time, cannot be across everything. He heads back to Auckland to formulate a plan to save the
restaurant.
When he
returns, a week later, and after checking out the competition in the
neighbourhood with Alisha, John reveals that there is a market for brunches
that isn’t being tapped in to. So, back at the café, the first thing John tackles is
getting some brunch items on the menu. He then sets about teaching them how to
make a variety of different pancakes, and they go down a treat with the team.
John spied some missed opportunities
with Alisha’s service and gives her a lesson on up selling. He wants her to
realise that ‘self service’ isn’t a euphemism for ‘lack in service’ as that’s a
lost opportunity for increased revenue.
Next, John pulls in a professional
coffee barista to up the girls’ coffee making skills. John believes if they improve
the coffee, customers will come back and spend more money.
John then tackles Alisha’s underpriced
food. He discovers she’s failed to add in overheads such power and labour. When
this happens, Alisha becomes emotional and reveals just how stressed she is
about the whole situation and how she has no clue how to fix it. After a little
more digging from John it transpires that one of the reasons it is failing is because,
working only four hours a day, she isn’t across everything. They conclude that
she’s either got to bring in a proper manager, or increase her hours, both of
which would involve staff cuts.
On the morning of the renovation,
Alisha has a keen team of friends, family and contractors on hand to help out.
When John sees the team without their bandanas on, he tells them how great they
look and declares that he believes they should no longer wear them.
While the team get to work giving
the drab lemon walls a fresh coat of blue, in the kitchen John has recruited a
pie expert to teach them how to make new, gourmet pies. Clive loves the
inspiration he’s been given and is excited about creating something that people
will be happy to pay a premium for.
Outside, it’s time to reveal the new
name John has chosen for the café. It’s The Pantry Café, however it’s not met
with a chorus of approval. Alisha doesn’t love it and Tegan prefers its
original name.
The renovation continues with a new
bench seat being built and John reveals that he wants to put dry store goods on
the shelves, to look more like a pantry. This will also add another dimension
of revenue to the business for very little effort.
As the evening progresses, John
leaves the team to work on the café and takes Alisha out to the local furniture
shop to pick out some new chairs for the café. His plan is to create a space
that will entice customers to stay longer… and spend more money.
At the
café, the team get to grips with the new flat top grill and John teaches them
how to make another dish for their brunch menu, potato rosti with either bacon
or salmon.
While John has addressed the price
of the food on the menu, he has yet to tackle the underpriced coffee. He
convinces Alisha that she can afford to put up her coffee by fifty cents, by
doing so her coffee will still be reasonably priced and it will bring her in an
extra $350- $400 a week.
With the opening being only hours
away, John reveals the new fifties style pictures he has for the walls.
The
are a great hit and the girls finally admit to liking the new theme of the
restaurant.
With
customers queuing at the door, John reveals he has one last surprise for the
team, a critic will be dining in the restaurant this evening.
After
a long, hard week, finally the doors are open, but an ‘instantly busy’
restaurant isn’t the norm for the guys and immediately they’re feeling the
strain. Tegan can’t keep up with Alisha’s orders and it all proves too much,
and she flees in tears.
This is all happening just as the
critic arrives, fortunately she remains oblivious to all the drama and receives
excellent service from Alisha…but it’s not to last. The sit down at an
uncleared table…and it remains uncleared.
While
things calm down on the floor, John takes Alisha out back to talk to her about
how she handles her staff, that she shouldn’t scold them during service. This
reprimand proves too much for Alisha and ends in tears.
Out front,
the customers appear happy, and so is the critic. She applauds Alisha’s counter
service, and raves about the food, however was not so impressed with the table
service.But all in all, John is
impressed with how they’ve gone for the day.
Three
weeks later, John is back. He’s excited to see the place is still packed and
that they’re still not wearing the bandanas.
He’s
pleased to hear that the menu items are selling really well and notices that
Tegan appears missing in action. He discovers that Alisha has stepped up her
hours to being full time and Tegan was happy with that, so decided to move on.
John concludes that, after a challenging three
years, Alisha and Clive’s hard work is starting to pay off, their taking are on
the increase and he leaves confident that both the café and the family home are
now in much safer hands.
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