A Restaurant Life

Isabel’s Restaurant opened in Lucena City August 28 of last year. The restaurant business was incorporated by siblings whose backgrounds encompass varied professional experiences, except running a restaurant business. Two doctors, a communications researcher and a business management newly grad—all but seems a recipe for disaster. Yet we managed to survive… for nine months. End of May this year, we served our last customers. For good. Or maybe not.

(L-R) Kuya Bojie (neurosurgeon by profession), Ben (my inaanak), Nich (the communications researcher),

and Ate Yeye (pediatric surgeon) during the early stages of running the business.

(L-R) Yaya April, Ben, Bong (that's me), and Yaya Thess.

~~~oOo~~~

You may ask me: Why close after only nine months? What happened?

Well, there were a lot of factors including management and operations. As a newbie in the business, we’re learning as we go. Was it the food? I guess not. No… definitely not! I’m not bragging when I say that almost 95% of the plates that come back to the kitchen after the customers had eaten were almost clean, save for the some garnish and other soils. That always put a smile on the staffs’ face and mine, as well.

So what was it? Two things are on my mind– poor location and inadequate parking space. The restaurant was located near a church, several schools and a mall. You will tell me that was a great location but I tell you, it’s not. The location was very obscure and visibility became a question mark. Good visibility should have given us an exposure that a restaurant like ours requires. As for the parking space, after about four months into business, the traffic management office (under the mayor’s office) put a big sign on the post right in front of the restaurant saying: “NO PARKING! Violators will be fined.” Let’s just say that a number of our repeat customers were turned off by this. (One customer’s car was actually towed because he didn’t see the sign and he had to pay 500 pesos in fine.)  It is quite interesting to note that the mayor and his relatives own a number of restaurants (fast food and full service) and cafes in town.

Lesson Learned: Find a location in a good market with adequate parking, access, visibility and other positive traits, and then determine what the local market wants that it can’t get and find a way to satisfy that unfilled desire.

Anyway, we are a baby in this business and we are more than happy to learn along the way. Admittedly, marami pa kaming kakaining bigas. But that’s the fun of it! You learn a great deal of things everyday.

As for the restaurant’s future, we decided to relocate on a much better location. As to where? We don’t know yet. We’re still (re)studying the market.