The announcement in late March that all restaurants and bars were required by government order to close their doors to dine-in patrons, with the only option of takeaway and delivery, was poisonous icing on the cake for those food and beverage vendors who had already long-suffered the rapid decline of customers in Thailand for most of 2019.
“Where did my high season go?” “Where are the people?” “Can we survive another year of this?” These were the recurring questions, with additional expletives, which rolled off the lips of chef friends and restaurateurs around the city.
Those restaurants not adept at delivery, much like favoured pizza and burger joints, suddenly found themselves scrambling for takeout boxes to suit their cuisine while desperately signing up with delivery apps like Foodpanda, Grabfood and LINEMAN.
Sanya Souvanna Phouma, restaurateur entrepreneur, involved in different types of restaurants and cafés in Bangkok (Gigi, Quince, Luka, Funky Lam) with various partners, said of the changes “... beyond being a marketing exercise, our capacity to quickly adapt is also put to a test. New rosters, new interactions, everything is pretty much new for some of our outfits. It requires actually a lot of attention as you don’t control the value chain anymore if you’re working with third-party delivery companies. The whole process of dealing with an order has to be made as simple and convenient as possible.”
Luckily, if there is such a thing as luck these days, many restaurants serving up Asian cuisine or café meals continued to operate by delivery. Others simply chose to temporarily shut down operations altogether. Chef Arnaud Dunand Sauthier of 2 Star Michelin Le Normandie French Restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Bangkok related that, “Some foods are always better as take aways. Haoma (a fine modern Indian restaurant with its own urban farm, located in Sukhumvit soi 31) is a good example of great management. Its found it’s better for now to do classic Indian food than something contemporary which doesn’t suit delivery. I ate the Haoma take away last week and it’s superb! But I am not sure people would understand something coming from Le Normandie; it would be difficult to keep the quality we are aiming for.”
However, the big question is if the restaurant discontinues service in the interim, how does it make its revenue? Chef Arnaud admits, “It is complicated to continue to operate with very little revenue. In all honesty, we could lose more than we gain. In the hotel we are lucky enough to have financial people who are doing a great job in this period to save money and have always planned the budgets well in advance.”
While others without the support of hotel budgets are left to defend their livelihoods and those of their staff, most found themselves on the precipice of shuttering their frontage in order to save some semblance of the restaurant’s former success once the Covid-19 crisis is over. Either that or they were dealing head-on with the challenges of becoming a takeout-only business.
Sanya advises, “If they have the will and the resources, why not pursue this activity? But the whole organisation – from getting the word out, answering calls and taking orders to getting repeat customers – is very labour-intensive considering the results. Plus there is some sort of price war out there.”
Price wars are not only started between restaurants but by restaurant delivery apps whose battles actually seem to capitalize on the situation, at least in the eyes of many business owners, who are deeply upset by the limited options. Seeing 30-35 percent of revenue taken by these delivery app companies during the restaurant industry’s darkest days can be a hard pill to swallow.
There is also the question of safety which is of concern not only for the public but business owners. One famous Bangkok institution surprised the foodies community when it announced it would close its operations even for delivery.
Tim Butler, chef and proprietor of EAT ME Restaurant, professed his concern about the safety of his team: “At the beginning of the closure we attempted to do delivery for our customers, many of whom we consider close friends and family, but as the number of infected rose in the city, I had to make the hard call of revenue versus my staff's safety. Most of my team has been with me 10-20 years and I felt that I could not in good conscience ask them to risk themselves and their families.”
As ugly as it may sound, it has become a matter of survival in the restaurant game. Who will come out of this alive? Who can manage to adapt and fit the format to sustain their restaurant until the dark clouds of Covid-19 finally part?
Either way, there is little doubt that most will not go down without fighting. After all, it is in any restauranteur’s DNA to face down hardships. The industry is literally built on the backbone of the smartest, toughest and most resilient people in the world, some of whom have left us with great advice.
Here’s how Sanya counsels his restauranteur peers: “There are some really good ideas out there. For instance I really like what Issaya Family has done with their new daily menus. Still it is very hard to provide a great dining experience that has to travel 10 or 20 minutes on a bike. It has to be simple, sharable and still taste good after having been rocking in a box during the journey from the restaurant to your door”.
Tim sends this message to his restaurant’s supporters out there: “Moving forward we are nervously awaiting the day we can open our home to Bangkok again. I have been cooking every day since closing to keep a sense of normalcy for myself while looking towards a future that is potentially fraught with unknowns. We are planning on reopening soon with delivery services along with dishes developed for my family that will reflect the hardships many are going through.”
Other than hard work and determination, keep the faith my fellow foodies and restaurant peeps, we can get this through this together.
About the author: Samantha Proyrungtong, an Australian born with Thai heritage, is a well-known ‘foodies’ entrepreneur based in Bangkok who runs her own specialty food business and marketing consulting company and is founder of http://BangkokFoodies.com and http://FoodiesOfficialAsia.com.
Please send your coping with COVID news to simonk@bangkokpost.co.th