Businesses come and go.

The restaurant looked the same. The only difference was it was buzzing. Teeming with people. There was a queue outside. Not a common ocurrence. Plus, a note requesting customers to wait to be seated.

My husband and I don’t queue or wait in long lines, by choice. Not for restaurants or cafés, however many stars or reviews they have. I did it once at Serendipity, a restaurant in NY, for its hot chocolate. Only to find I could traipse into its outlet in Vegas.

When we must or rather when we have no choice, we line up. Like at hospitals, government offices, airports etc.

Back to the restaurant. This happened earlier in the year. I didn’t jump queue but I did walk into the restaurant to ask if there was a table for two as the people waiting outside were in large groups. I spoke to one of the servers, whom I recognised, and who recognised me. He told me he’d come out to ask if there were any other parties for two, and he would then sit us.

We got a table alfresco, away from the crowds. My husband and I spoke about how well the restaurant was now doing. We speculated as to why it had closed suddenly in January, and all through February. We assumed it was for renovations although the fittings and furnishings looked pretty new to us. 

Anyways, it was only when we were ordering our food that we noticed that the restaurant we had come for dinner was not the one we thought we had come to. The server’s apron displayed a different restaurant name on it.

Light bulb moment😊. It began to make sense. I had noticed as I walked into the restaurant that there were no cakes. The previous proprietor served some of the most scrumptious cakes that sat in cloches, placed beautifully on a roundtable, at the entrance. The most famous was peaches and cream. I had secretly planned to have cake for dinner but it was scuppered.

My husband and I were naturally curious. We learnt that the new owner began operations in March. All the former serving staff, who were mainly from Myanmar, were retained. We were happy for them as it meant they stayed employed. The décor and design were kept as is. Well, mostly anyway, bar the roundtable of cakes.

The menu had been expanded. With more local offerings like noodles and rice at lower prices. My husband and I both had rice dishes that we agreed we would return to have again. We haven’t. It was good food at reasonable prices.

Business appeared to be as usual, albeit, taken over, lock, stock, barrel, and staff, by a new company and management. The transition, at least to us, seemed seamless.

We continued to speculate about the before and now restaurant. The before restaurant didn’t look like it was doing badly. It had a fairly good turnover of customers. The menu was reasonable with draft beer, and cakes. And promotions. At one point, it even had a live band. So, why not continue with a regular income generating business?

Our theory was it wasn’t making money or enough money to be a going concern.  Or it was making reasonable money but was offered an irresistable premium to give up its lease. Or the owner of the property upped the rent making it untenable to continue. Or the new tenant had deeper pockets or richer backers who were willing and able the pay the higher rent.  

Whatever, whichever… The one thing we knew for sure was we knew very little about business, particularly the Food and Beverage sector, despite frequenting and eating out as often as we did/do.

This is true. In the same vicinity, another quite visibly located restaurant also closed even though it had steady custom. How do I know? There were always bums on seats. It had indoor and outdoor seating. The menu was sufficient. The service was sometimes a little iffy, but generally it was good. That lot is still unoccupied. In parallel, two other restaurants, one Japanese and one local, are thriving. Or appear to be.

This is also true. The skateboard park near where we live attracts a constant flow of people. LRT and MRT commuters, skateboarders, and families. There is a carnival or festival feel especially in the evenings and weekends. The footfall is impressive. Yet many of the container concept stores selling food, snacks and beverages have shuttered. Sigh. Why?

I think of the loss of savings or borrowings or loans or all three. Monies spent in new buildings, renovations, designs, products/materials, rents and training of staff. I think of the loss of jobs, unrealised dreams, unviable operations, and other reasons for not staying open. Big sigh.