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“We have only about 50 seats in the ground floor
dining area and 120 upstairs, but we gross an average of P70,000 per
day. We used to do a minimum of P110,000 before the Quezon City
government started digging the street fronting our restaurant. Our
customers come here to eat and enjoy our authentic Chinese food,”
Clem Jalijali beams with pride as he oversees the operations of
Shaolin Tea House at 21 Timog Avenue, South Triangle, Q.C. They are
open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m to 4 a.m.
After all those American foods in
northern Americas, the beef tenderloin, steamed fish, siomai,
chicken feet, and yang chow tasted so yummy. Clem said they cook all
their foods from scratch daily. They don’t serve “pangat” (pangatlong
init or reheated food). At about one in the morning, they put all
unsold food on sale, buy 1, take 1. They do not mass-produce, so
they continuously gather statistics as to what foods are their
customers’ favorites and they focus on those. Every morning, they
do their marketing at Aranque, Divisoria, Balintawak and Farmers
markets and also at Puregold. They also have regular suppliers of
seafood and meat from Subic.
Every two months, they come up
with a new set of dishes based on their customer statistics and
demographics. They cater to the BCD market of all orientations. On
weekends, they have families and on a daily basis, individuals and
groups who come for quick lunch, dinner or merienda. They also have
customers celebrating weddings, baptism and other special family
milestones. They now provide catering services for company parties
and other activities and deliver within the South Triangle area.
They have not even done any
marketing and promotion activities yet. Most of their customers are
walk-ins, friends, and those who come because of word-of-mouth
endorsements of satisfied customers.
“I am still learning a lot,”
Clem declares. This is his first foray in the food business having
been in the container business all his life because of his
family-owned Megapack Container Corp. “My friends and I decided to
go into this business initially to have a tambayan place and to
serve the food needs of our employees in Valenzuela.”
“One of the challenges,
therefore, is managing an unfamiliar territory. What we do is we,
together with other friends and family, eat here every so often.
Then, once a week, we meet and critique everything about the
restaurant. Then we refine our plans and operations. I am the only
one involved in actual management. No relatives are allowed to work
here. All our employees are professionals from Chef Ricky Bagat to
our cashiers Mely Garcia and Ruby Tiamzon to our kitchen and dining
crew. They work in two shifts. During summer, though, the children
of the owners work here in various capacities just to keep them
busy.
“Another big challenge is
pricing. We have not increased our prices since we started in April
2007. We are always finding ways to streamline and improve our
operations without sacrificing the quality of our food and service.
The food business is price sensitive; we can’t simply jack up our
prices.
“The other challenges involve
control—at the kitchen, marketing and cashiering. I want to be in
command without depriving our people their opportunity for
innovation and decision-making. So I consider them as partners. Our
lines of communication are always open since I am not also here
every day.”
I thumbed through their menu and
they have all my favorite Chinese comfort food—dimsum and short
orders—and more. Their best sellers are beancurd roll, siolongpao,
kuchay dumpling, tausi spare ribs, steamed fish, crab with sotanghon,
crab with Thai sauce and steamed shrimp with garlic. Ahmmmmmm. I
also walked around their dining and kitchen area and they’re okay.
Clem said that they have pest control at least once a week since
those creepy-crawly creatures are easily attracted to any kind of
foods. Interestingly, their entire kitchen is visible from the
outside through glass walls.
Their mango pudding is fantastic.
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www.learningandinnovation.com;
innovationcamp@yahoo.com
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