The High St & The Future of our Restaurants – Do we have one? #Blog

Stephen Wundke
17th August 2018

In 1992 I opened my first restaurant in Chester, it was called Paparazzi and we traded in Chester in the most beautiful building for 20 years.  It was a great time, but like all good things I was delighted when it was over. It’s a young man’s game and needs lots of enthusiasm. They were however, heady times and I enjoyed them immensely, between there and Club Globe, The Morris Dancer at Kelsall and The Boat Inn at Erbistock, we served an awful lot of people a lot of very good food.  So, now sitting in my ivory tower looking down from the vantage point of Taste Cheshire, I started to think about the restaurant business and whether it’s heading the same way as the High Street, with the demise of Woolworths, House of Fraser, etc, etc.  Will the same fate await our Restaurants? Have the rules changed in the food industry because of technology as they have in retailing?

The first thing that has changed which has nothing to do with technology, is competition. I opened Paparazzi because the choices for eating out in Chester were so limited. Since that time, and in some cases because of our success, over 100 new restaurants have opened in and around the City of Chester.  There are quite a few that are no longer with us, but the net result is about 50 more restaurants in the city since 1992.  In the same time period, we have a few new hotels, but at best bed nights are up by about 25% since 1992, not 400% like the number of restaurants.  Is that a problem?  Yes, because restaurants expect to do most of their business in the evening.  When I was employed as the City Centre Manager, we discovered that 72% of people on our streets were day visitors and were in Chester between the hours of 10am and 3pm, a further 22% said they worked in the City and only 6% were local residents. So even though Chester may well have 7 – 8 million visitors a year, most of them are only here in the day time, which is why there are 9, yes that’s right, 9, Costa Coffees in Chester (including shop franchises) and of course just about every new business that appears on the rows now is a Coffee shop.

With the population of the city being just 100,000 we have an awful lot of restaurant/pub businesses fighting for that limited evening trade. So that’s where hotels come in to play, with their resident being a source of extra dining business. Chester has roughly 3,300 room nights available and the City operates at about 72% occupancy in these hotels, which means on average we have 2,350 people staying in our City on any given night.  If we agree that at least 30% stay in their hotel to eat and a further 30% get takeaways, that leaves us with just 900 people looking to eat out on any night. Spread that over 80 restaurants and you have just 11 visitors per restaurant. So, in order to survive, these restaurants need local people eating in them, that’s us, the residents of Chester and neighbouring towns and that hasn’t changed because of technology. Still the same problem, although admittedly Chester has had a bonus recently with the re-opening of the theatre.

Dissimilar to the High Street where online shopping has killed many retailers, the internet has played a huge part in actually helping restaurants.  Why?  Because you can’t have a meal out, at home, simple logic really isn’t it?  We like to go out and the beauty of the internet is that it allows us to view the website of a Restaurant which breaks down barriers.  We are able to see pictures of both the interior and exterior, peruse the menus, see how much the food and drink costs and also read customer reviews. The website helps to make your decision easier and online booking systems instantly confirm reservations. Yes, its true, you can get a lot of restaurant food delivered but that’s eating in, not going out, and we all like to go out every now and again to experience something special, celebrate an important occasion or socialise with friends.

Now, we get to the future of restaurants, because there most definitely is one. What does it look like? The straight answer is – great, it’s one of the few industries that hasn’t fundamentally changed in terms of reasons for success.

Success in Restaurants is still based around the following simple tenets

1. A Restaurant should be a special place to be, a place that makes you feel important and takes you out of your normal environment. Great surroundings make for a great atmosphere and great experiences and the skill of the Restaurant owner is to create that ambience. Opera Grill takes you out of Chester with its expensive and classy fit as does Machine House where you feel as if you’re having dinner in the home of a very special cook and taken out of this environment.  Both very different and both do the job in their own way and do it exceptionally well.
2. Outstanding service. People who just know that you’ve come out to have a good time.  You already know the prices and what the place looks like from your on-line searches and you’ve made your choice.  Now expectations are in place and all the staff have to do is smile, speak nicely and make the visit special for you, the customer.  You will then go away and say “she was fabulous, or he was so friendly and charming” and tell 10 people how lovely the staff were.  Over deliver, its easy and its fun. Neil McDonnell of Bar Lounge, Upstairs at the Grill and Hickorys has excelled in the trade because he has made service his number one priority and his establishments are still the benchmark for service after 20 years.
3. Deliver food that not only tastes good but ensure that everything on the plate is as stated on the menu (my pet hate when it’s not), create dishes that we can’t easily cook at home, serve up acceptable portion sizes and make it affordable. It could be Simon Radley at the Grosvenor, or Liam McKay at Chefs Table or Pacinos, who after 32 years in business are still averaging a score of 4.8 on Trip Advisor. They all deliver the above and they all succeed.

The last point is by far the most important.  It sounds ridiculous, but it really is that simple.  Lots of restaurants that looked great and had nice people working for them, but who produced average food have gone by the wayside.  However, to my knowledge none that produce very good food at a good price and provide value for money, have ever folded.  One happy customer tells 10 people how good it was. One unhappy customer tells 20 people how bad it was.  Bad experiences close restaurants fast and that has nothing to do with the changes in High Street retailing.

Too many times when new restaurants set up they end up being a triumph of style over substance as some businesses spend millions to create the trendiest place around, only to find that once the ‘honeymoon period’ has ended the seats are empty, simply because the food doesn’t deliver.  Customers are not stupid.

The great Sir Clement Freud (controversial I know) said in the 1960’s that any good restaurant should only ever need to advertise for the first six weeks after opening, after that the food would sell it. Things have changed a bit from his times and it’s a far more competitive landscape on the high street, but fundamentally the rules remain the same and we will continue to want to go out and eat in good restaurants.

So please remember, if you own a restaurant or pub, it’s not the fault of the Council, or the business rates, or the rent.  Restaurant owners know all those facts and figures before they open. Its not the internet or Brexit, all of those are just excuses.  If the business fails, 95% of the time it’s because it just wasn’t good enough and that hasn’t changed with the advent of the World Wide Web.  In fact, the web and social media have made it easier for good restaurants to prosper, as customers like to tell people where they are, what they are eating and who they are with, which of course is all massive free publicity!  Its never been so easy to spread the good word about your business, but by the same token its never been so easy for your business to have stories of how bad it is out there either. You can’t have one without the other. That’s called censorship and it doesn’t help anyone.

The future of restaurants is assured, right up until the time we no longer need to eat, because as long as we do we will want to go out and enjoy time with friends and family and eat food that is made for taste and pleasure, not just as a necessary function. Ohh and if you are going out then try to find a Cheshire based business. We feature many of them on Taste Cheshire and buy buying local you get our unique flavours and the local economy benefits – everybody wins.

Can I have some more please Sir? Food Glorious Food