Tobys
Titirangi West Auckland is gateway to the infamous Wild West beaches and a thriving artistic community. It’s the perfect spot for a relaxing dinner. But customers of the iconic Toby’s restaurant are turning away in droves. Originally built in 1926 Toby’s was once the local pub, today it is a bar and restaurant and only opens at night catering to a more upmarket clientele—that is when they come!
Owner Angela Nielson has been struggling to turn a profit for five years and, like a lot of kiwis, Angela had no hospitality experience prior to buying Toby’s. She’s losing two thousand dollars a week and suspects that at the core of the problem is her inability to keep her staff, having churned through nine chefs since she brought the restaurant.
The current chef Viv, who hails from India, has lasted a year and a half. He believes the lack of professionalism shown by staff in the front of house is driving customers away.
To try and salvage Toby’s restaurant John heads to Titirangi to see if he can pin point the problems.
A once-over of the restaurant reveals the Bedouin style ceiling covering is not only hiding the surface of the roof, but is also home to three years of dead bugs. While John finds the restaurant chilly and uninviting, the kitchen is well organised and spotless, so he has high hopes for the food.
He tries the Moroccan lamb, seared scallops, and the chicken cannelloni. The lamb and scallops are delicious but the chicken cannelloni is dripping in oil. After an observation of the evening’s service, John starts to understand why the restaurant is staring down the barrel of financial ruin. Head waiter James, who is in charge of training, appears to be woefully lacking in basic waiting skills. In the kitchen tempers are flaring and chef Viv lets rip, constantly swearing at this staff; not a good look in an open kitchen. He also gathers that Angela and Viv have a thoroughly dysfunctional relationship, with communication practically impossible. John heads away to make a plan. When he returns to the café a week later the first thing he does is talk to Viv about his attitude. He tells him he needs to lead by example, he needs to stop swearing and treat his staff with more respect and tries to make him understand that his aggressive behaviour is having a negative effect on both the staff and customers.
When John announces the new direction of the restaurant, it is met with a mix of enthusiasm and scepticism. He wants it to be a Mediterranean themed restaurant and, while Viv initially is keen on the idea, Angela feels she still needs to be convinced.
While Viv embraces the task of making up two new specials to test the Mediterranean theme for the evening’s specials, John gives Angela a basic business lesson. The first thing he instigates is a weekly meeting between Angela and Viv in an effort to make them communicate more effectively. The meeting doesn’t go spectacularly well, but it’s a start.
Armed with postcards outlining Toby’s new direction, Angela hits the streets drumming up business for the new Mediterranean theme.
At that evening’s service, John learns something about Angela. Her presence is actually more of a hindrance as she is driving the wait staff to distraction, nitpicking staff on minor issues such as refilling glasses. John takes the opportunity to give the waitress, Toni, pointers on how to sell her specials.
It’s the day before the renovation and Chef Viv drops a bombshell. He has a change of heart about the restaurant’s new direction. Even though Angela has already started marketing the new Mediterranean theme Viv has decided he would rather it became a steak house. John pulls Angela into the discussion and she comes out of left field saying she’d like it to be an old English themed restaurant!
Eventually John makes them both see reason. They settle on Toby’s becoming a Mediterranean Grill with a menu that offers things such as Spanish paella, fettuccini con pollo, seared Moroccan lamb and traditional Greek seafood stew.
On renovation day Angela has gathered a huge team to help out with the renovation. The dirty tent ceiling harbouring all those dead insects is pulled down and the dreary walls are refreshed with a new lick of paint. The old signage is replaced and new burgundy curtains are added to warm up the restaurant. A local artist adds stencil art to the revamped bar area and in the courtyard the nasty vinyl tables are replaced.
In an attempt to ease the tension between Viv and Angela, John encourages them to engage in an ancient Greek tradition and they smash a huge pile of chipped plates.
On the morning of the relaunch John has a few surprises up his sleeve for the team. First, Angela gets a makeover. Then, in an another attempt to make Angela and Viv work together harmoniously, John sends them off marketing the restaurant with flyers, Turkish delight…and a belly dancer.
The marketing promotion proves to be a huge success and, that evening, the restaurant is fully booked with 70 confirmed diners. This proves to be a challenge for wannabe manager Toni who is struggling to juggle tables as she hasn’t managed to stagger the diners during the course of the evening.
Finally, after a long week, the new-look Toby’s opens. But it’s only moments before problems start – Angela has forgotten to put the new menu into the till and the wait staff are under pressure on the floor with too many customers and not enough support. James makes a blunder with the critic’s wine and, amid the chaos, John suggests that Angela takes over the role of hosting, leaving Toni available to waitress. Unfortunately during all of this, the critic’s table is ignored, having been left with menus for half an hour. When Toni eventually approaches them and discovers this, she walks away – but fails to take their order!
As the night progresses systems start to kick into gear and, despite the initial disasters, meals are getting to the tables in time and the diners are enjoying the food - but was it enough to impress our critic?
In some areas, yes. She thinks the food was amazing but identifies some series downfalls on the floor with the wait staff.
Three weeks later, John returns and discovers a restaurant that has totally been turned around.
Toby’s is now busy and John is delighted to discover some significant changes have been made since he has been away. Angela has decided to step back and hire a manager and James, invigorated about the changes, has lifted his game and his attitude. While Toni has decided to move on, Angela and Viv’s relationship is much healthier.
With business thriving, Angela is optimistic about Toby’s future, and is confident they will be able to start clearing their debt.
Become a fan of TV3 on Facebook
,
on Twitter .