It will be our first month in operation this week and things are going as they should-ish. We have been testing the grill on and off, so far so good. We will raise the height of the grill maybe an inch or two to reduce the smoke escaping out to zero. The problem is we really hate the grill! It is the root of all grief in the shop but yet it will be able to create delicious food. We had a short-circuit last Sunday caused by the grill. You must be wondering how can a charcoal grill mess with the electrics. It turns out that the temperature in the exhaust hood was high enough to damage the wires for the light fixtures above the grill. The insulation was toast and there was a short circuit. It went so far as to damage our main circuit breakers resulting in the whole shop losing power. Needless to say, we did ZERO business that day. It really isn't about the loss of sales that bugs us, after all it is just one day out of the hundreds or maybe thousands that we will be here for. What was horrible was the fact that we disappointed and failed our customers. Eight were seated and ready to place their order when it tripped. They left hungry. A few more came repeat customers came by but had to be turned away. Some were kind enough to want to wait for the power to be fixed but we really couldn't guarantee that things will be OK before they starved to death. That sucks! we have decided to refer to the grill as The Bitch.
Not all bad news. Nihonshu (日本酒), or more commonly known locally as Sake, has proven to be popular with the locals. The reluctance to try it has often been due to poor prior experience with lousy quality sake. Once they have discovered the delight of better quality sake, there's no turning back. It's really all about finding your preference in flavour and grade. Compared to when we first started displaying the bottles, you can see that it has really grown a lot over a short time. We are happy but hope to continue introducing the wonders of this elixir to more.
The title sounds severe but it really is a bit of a milestone for a small izakaya. It has been a pretty rough start with many issues that has been dealt with or needs further fine tuning.
If anyone reading this wishes to try their hand in kushiyaki or sumibiyaki, our advise is don't. Don't even think about it. If you are dead set on it, then go see a psychiatrist because you are clinically insane or just jump off a roof and save the trouble. It really is that bad. The grill and the logistic for the grill is no end of pain. The amount of labour involved in the preparation of the skewers, the cost of the specialist chef, ingredients, storage and the low selling price, almost means that we are making a lost for every skewer sold. That's not including all the time, money and effort spent on oversizing the exhaust system solely for the charcoal grill.
We faced excessive smoke from the grill when we first tried the grill out and have since gone for a larger fan. In fact, we run two fans. A dedicated fan just for the grill. That helped but didn't solve the problem when we fired it up again, so we added glass surround for the exhaust hood to concentrate the suction. That again helped but didn't totally solve the problem. We and the engineers were perplexed because on paper, that would have been more than sufficient. After much head scratching, we figured there must be some kind of obstruction in the common exhaust ducting that we share with the other restaurants. Being the last on the grid, it's kinda shitty, because our exhaust gases face more resistance and travel further before being discharged. It turns out that our 'friendly' neighbour restaurant has made some of their own well-hidden modification to their duct, basically occluding it to such a point leaving us only about 15% of the duct cross section. This is so that they can get better flow for their exhaust but selfish behavior. At that point, we had a atherosclerotic duct-esclerotic plaque on our hands. If left untreated, it will lead to unstable fangina or even congestive fan failure. We had to act fast. The skilled engineers pulled out the obstruction, stented the duct and flow was restored. No more smoke in the shop! Day saved and beer was passed round. Tenza 1; Neighbour 0. They were not happy campers and now have a smokey kitchen but couldn't do much. We think they should stop being cheap and get a proper exhaust fan like everyone else.
Still on the charcoal grill, we won't be able to start serving grilled items and probably won't be until well into next month. Reason being, labour shortage. We just can't get enough Singaporeans or PRs to work in this industry but we are not able to employ foreign workers yet. Same problem with service side of things, so we are making do with part-timers but that is a compromise in service quality that we are unhappy about. Having said that, the part-timers we get, all from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, are a young and cheerful lot. They are eager to learn and willing to work hard. Great attitude. We just wished that we had more time to train them. In the mean time, we are sitting this out and trying our best to hire.
The fish display cabinet, being a custom design, also went through some trial and error. If we had a chance to do it again, we wouldn't have gone for a top opening design. It takes up too much valuable space in a small izakaya and is not the must practical thing for the chef also. This is not a big issue but it bugs us a little. Maybe we'll change it out next year.
Mostly friends dropping by for meals for now but we have quite a decent walk-in crowd too. We even have repeats! We've sold about 20 bottles of sake so far. We are not complaining. Obviously the daily sales is no where near the daily margin for break even but it's been less than a month and we haven't done much marketing.
We still need to get past the human resource hurdle before we are free to sprint on. Things are more or less on track except for the grill. We can only seek your understanding as to why we really are not able to serve grilled items even until now.
We first tried out the POS, kitchen and charcoal grill last saturday amongst some 'guinea friends' to do a full shake down of the restaurant. The goal from the onset was less about the food but more about checking the water-tightness of our systems, processes and equipment. We can proudly declare that saturday was a successful failure. Everything was a mess and that was good. Through that night of severe beating we managed to find many faults that must be rectified before the restaurant can be better.
Some of the things we discovered:
- Kitchen exhaust was not strong enough for the charcoal grill.
- Charcoal grill design flaw resulting in warp and difficulty in controlling heat.
- POS bugs and errors.
- Kitchen needs more storage space.
- Work flow issues.
- Restaurant layout needs improvement.
- Counter seating problems.
We can't go into the details because it will become a hundred page inquiry but even as we speak, the problems are being fixed. Which is why we must temporarily live with the irony that despite being a sumibiyaki restaurant, we are not able to serve grilled items just yet. The grill has gone back to the factory for repairs and modifications. Hopefully it will be back by end of this week after the exhaust system has been augmented. All the 7 points listed will be addressed and non will be ignored.
Then there was opening night on Tuesday evening. Things went without a hitch. It was quiet for everyone along the stretch of restaurant but this is the slow start we were hoping for as the staff become more familiar with the work place. We survived (the grill didn't) and we will be better.
Keep checking back on our blog or facebook for the latest updates.
We need approval and license from the NEA to start operating as a restaurant. In order to do so, we need the shop to be ready for inspection and also submit supporting documents. Liquor license was more straightforward and done online.
Today was also the first day that the restaurant saw it's full crew in action. Previously we were operating on a skeleton force of MD, Ops Manager and Head Chef. Everyone was at the shop today to receive goods and to pack things up. We have helluva lot more cleaning to do for the rest of the week. Surfaces need to be wiped, a few times, tableware need to be washed and don't forget the kitchen equipment that must be prepped for use. We need to decide where to keep everything and label the cabinets clearly. Everybody's morale was high and excited to setup a restaurant. People were eager to get things done and enthusiastic in helping one and other. Also, it's a good break from the monotony of working in an established establishment.
The staff of neighboring restaurants dropped by during their break time to say Hi and left some words of complements on the interior design of our place. Seems like a friendly bunch, them all! Especially, the manager of Grill-out, next door.
The menu needs to be type-setted and pricing of items finalised. It was a long way to get here from scratch and we are so close to our goal of opening our doors to you. We wish we could give you The Date right now but without the certainty of the NEA license it is just not possible.
Hang in there Fans!
Last minute problems always never fail to appear. The contractors sent the wrong sized chiller and freezers today. Then spent eons convincing us that they are the right ones just because they are too lazy to bring it back. The dimensions are too big for the shop so there's no way for us to accept it. The drain hole for the fish sink is too small and rectification work needs to be done. This has potentially set us back by one day on our schedule because without the sink, we can't mount the compressor for the display case, which is coming tomorrow.
Things are really heating up in the shop fast! We've never seen so many workers cramming for space in the little restaurant trying to cut, mount and clean-up at the same time. 2 more days to end of the week and 2 more days to completion of renovation works.
The glass doors are up together with the lightbox that will be our signage.
We think the wood veneer above the counter lends a touch of class to the restaurant. Don't worry about the spotlights, they are LED, so there will be little heat to distract you from the dining experience at the counter or spoil your food.
We met some food and sake suppliers today and will be seeing more of them tomorrow. The European salmon supply is returning to normal but that's not a huge concern to us in the first place. The real bad news is that Japan has placed a ban on beef export. NO WAGYU! At least not from Japan. We firmly believe in quality of what we serve lies in the quality of our raw ingredients. There is no replacement for Japanese beef, especially Miyazaki beef (some say the best wagyu in the world). Yes, there are Australian Tajima Wagyu and USA Snake River Wagyu, but these are technically not Japanese beef and therefore not the real deal. When it comes to meat, it's not just about the animal breed or feed that they consume but there's also husbandry of the animal and passion of the ranchers that determine quality of the meat. Maybe we will spend more time talking about the different grades and types of wagyu on another day but just be aware that not all wagyu come from Japan.
The Big One is still there. Waiting...
The large sake chiller is in the shop! It came on Wednesday when we were stuffing ourselves at FHA2010. The move went largely (pun intended) without a hitch despite the tight space and condition of the shop. The chiller is currently facing backwards to the wall to protect the glass doors as renovation and fitting out is still underway. The exhaust system threw us a curved ball and held us up a bit but things are back on track.
You really will need a step ladder to be able to reach the bottles at the top.
We have more chillers and stainless steel stuff arriving at the shop next week, which happens also to be the last week of renovations. Lots of cleaning of the premise needs to be done after that, then we can move in our tableware, glassware and utensils, to be washed too.
We are halfway through our renovation dateline. Hopefully, the shop will be completed by end of this month. Things seem to be moving faster with each day and it never ceases to surprise us each time we visit the site. With the walls up, the proportions of the shop start to become more obvious. The initial concern of tight walkway behind the counter is unfounded and the kitchen isn't as cramped as we thought. Although the shop is still not as vast we would have liked, it seems like a cozy place to enjoy good food and great company, that the izakaya experience should embody.
We needed to add a new extractor fan to provide sufficient flow for the charcoal grill. It can be seen on the top right hand corner of the photo above. The concrete table in the middle of the photo is where the charcoal grill will be and above it is the custom fabricated hood to ensure customers doesn't get smoked out. We think it may be a little too high up but there are NEA regulations to the height of these things so it can only go about 10 cm lower.
These are the steel support for the granite counter top.
The throne room. Doesn't look conducive for business now because it needs to be cleaned up and fitted with lights.
It's also at this point that we started applying for the NEA license, public entertainment license and the all important liquor license. It can be done at a one-stop online portal. Quite convenient.
The much delayed 3D renderings of the restaurant is finally here!
Above is the artist impression of the interior, showing the counter seating area. We won't have the cheesy kanji on the noren at the end and might replace it with a curtain. The open kitchen is to the left and the feature wall on the right is clad in tinted mirror for the full length. We will probably use a different stain for the wood veneer and the ambience will be cozier.
The exterior facade is covered in stone tiles, with a sliding glass door for the entrance. The signage is a brushed stainless steel lightbox but with our restaurant logo and relevant fonts for the final product. The wood counter will be partially visible from outside. Spotlights mounted on the ceiling will act as wall washers to complete the effect.
4 natural elements are represented on the facade: stone, metal, wood and the glass represents water. Is it good fengshui? We are not superstitious but more importantly, do you like it? Tell us what you think in the comments!
This is the one-draft-away-from-final draft of the kitchen layout plans. It has been so fine tuned and crafted that it is the most perfect izakaya kitchen in the world, or so we hope. Since this is not the final draft, we can't show you the plans yet but be assured that we have spent really a lot of time and effort in getting the layout, work flow and momentum right.
If you don't know yet, Tenza Izakaya will have an open kitchen so you can watch as the chefs labour over your meal. The bar counter has the best seats in the house!
It was as though a bomb went off in the shop when we inspected it on Tuesday. The partitions walls were gone, along with the wall and floor tiles. All done in one day!
Now we can fit proper floor traps for water drainage. I think we need 11 in total.
The photo on the right that you see is what used to be the toilet. Nothing was spared the hammer. The throne room gets a total revamping. It too will get a nice and cosy ambience, similar to the rest of the izakaya. We hope you guys appreciated our thoughtfulness. We will pick the khazi and wash basin on Thursday with the ID.
By Tenza Izakaya
on
Saturday, March 27, 2010
1:44 AM
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The hunt for bowls and plates continue. It's expanding to tea cups and glassware. There are a lot of nice things on the market but it's not always possible to find ones suitable for a business or where the supplier has sufficient quantities for us. For example, we need 150 side plates, 100 tea cups and 80 tall tumbler glasses.
Finally got the HDB approval to start renovation works today so hacking of the walls and floor begins first thing on monday! Stay tuned for the 3D renderings of the shop on Thursday.
In the mean time, the clearing out of the cabinetry has begun. The previous tenant did a really shoddy job in the kitchen. There are no floor traps for the water on the floor to drain away, cooking where there is no exhaust hood and electrical wires over open flames. Leaves us puzzled how they washed the kitchen or avoided setting the whole place on fire.
For the past two days, we have been shopping and getting quotations for plates and bowls plus some kitchen equipment. The usual suspects, like Landex, Sia Huat & LCS, were thoroughly scoured by us. It's a very mundane but tedious and time consuming task. It's really much more difficult to purchase these things for a restaurant than home because of the large quantity required and having to meet the expectations of customers.
However, there's a fun bit to this. Unlike a typical chinese or western restaurant where everything is coordinated and homogenous in design, the informal nature of an izakaya allows us to look for interesting and unique pieces to be incorporated into the inventory. These plates and bowls will be for serving cooked food and also sashimi/sushi but they do not have to match. As you will agree, presentation is just as important as actual taste. Most of the time we appreciate food visually before tasting it (assuming you are normal sighted). So having a nice setting for the food really helps with the overall experience.
The boring stuff...
Only one such plate in the restaurant.
Pretty bowl.
For posterity, we thought it will be a good idea to post some pictures of the shop before renovation starts, so that people can be shocked by the transformation.
The kitchen (what's left).
Floor grime.
When these shutters open again, there will be a whole lot of difference!
