{"id":592625,"date":"2023-09-28T21:36:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T18:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-this-toronto-chef-owner-is-pressing-on-despite-a-slump-in-dining-out\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T21:36:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T18:36:23","slug":"why-this-toronto-chef-owner-is-pressing-on-despite-a-slump-in-dining-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-this-toronto-chef-owner-is-pressing-on-despite-a-slump-in-dining-out\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why this Toronto chef-owner is pressing on despite a slump in dining out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Photograph by Ebti Nabag. Photo illustration by\u00a0Maclean\u2019s<\/i>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Toronto restaurateur Miheer Shete didn\u2019t let a pandemic stop him from opening an establishment of his own. After 20 years of toiling in other people\u2019s kitchens in Mumbai, Memphis and beyond, the chef launched his own at-home operation, preparing and delivering home-cooked meals at a time when most restaurants were forced to shutter their doors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, in July of last year, Shete opened Curryish Tavern\u2014a compact but airy restaurant on Toronto\u2019s trendy Queen Street West. Running an establishment in the summer of 2023 should have been easy. Ontario\u2019s public health restrictions had ended, the pandemic app<\/a>eared to be under control, and diners were impatient to return.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But according to daily data collected by restaurant seating platform OpenTable, Toronto diners have had a lukewarm appetite for dining out this September. While dining was up 18 per cent compared to 2022 over the Labour Day weekend, the data shows that most days in September have been at or below last year\u2019s demand. Over the past few months, Toronto and Edmonton have been the hardest-hit cities in Canada. Discretionary spending is softening thanks to stubbornly high prices and interest rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0A lot has changed at restaurants since the pandemic\u2014starting with how much it costs to eat out<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On September 19, the day Maclean\u2019s<\/em> visited Curryish Tavern, OpenTable\u2019s daily dining stats found demand was down three per cent compared to the previous year. That afternoon, Shete himself was tending the bar at Curryish and chatting with two diners. Throughout our conversation, he occasionally broke off to chat with vendors hauling everything from a keg to fruit juices for his inspection.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of the many challenges of keeping a new restaurant together, Shete is undeterred. The restaurant business is gruelling at the best of times, and if there\u2019s anything he\u2019s learned over the course of two decades in the kitchen, it\u2019s the art of balancing everything at once.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

How\u2019s business compared to last year?<\/b><\/p>\n

Last September was one of our busiest months, with the Toronto International Film Festival. From what I hear, TIFF this year is not as busy as last year.\u00a0<\/span>Our first year has been amazing, though. We\u2019ve had a lot of positives, and a lot to learn, and a lot of things that could have been better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, we\u2019ve had high inflation and high interest rates. Do you think that\u2019s had any effect on the number of diners you\u2019ve seen?<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re just one year old, so we don\u2019t have too many numbers\u2014but we can feel the trends. Sometimes people come in and they\u2019re not really conscious about what they ordered. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna get one of that, that, that and that.\u201d More often, though, people are conscious about how much they spend. But the way I look at it, we went through a pandemic, and high prices are another side effect of a pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In restaurants, you just need to put your head down and do the hard work. And the hard work is great hospitality in a place that doesn\u2019t feel compromised. There\u2019s a lot of craziness happening in the world. But when the guest comes into your restaurant, they want to forget all of that stuff. They want to come in for a good time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We always talk about how expensive food is for consumers. It\u2019s probably also a lot more expensive for you, too.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

After the pandemic, we were seeing hikes of 15 per cent on food prices. Since Curryish Tavern opened last July, I\u2019ve seen another 10 to 15 per cent hike. So we\u2019re talking almost a 30 per cent increase. For beef, I used to pay $5 a pound. I\u2019m paying $9 a pound right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And those are wholesale prices.<\/b><\/p>\n

And before any labour has gone into it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Have labour costs gone up since you opened?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course. The average hourly wage before the pandemic was around $16 to $18 per hour, but we\u2019ve got to pay more than $20 an hour now. You want to make sure your staff is getting equitable wages. Otherwise, what\u2019s going to happen? You\u2019re not going to get staff to work for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Where does that extra money to pay your staff come from?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

There are two ways. As a restaurant owner, my choice is to either increase prices and have fewer guests come in, or keep my prices stable and maintain a steady pace of customers to get through our current phase\u2014and hopefully prices will lighten up a bit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ: Canada\u2019s best places to eat now<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to be constantly working with your food suppliers to see which price is best. If I\u2019m looking for chicken, I\u2019ll shop around and see which supplier out of three or four has the lowest prices without compromising its quality. The same goes with everything else: vegetables, wine, beer, things like that. You have to constantly be researching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you save $20 by switching your chicken suppliers. That\u2019s $20 that can go into somebody\u2019s pocket.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If suppliers jack up their prices, how does that affect what people are paying to eat out at Curryish Tavern?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The bottom line is that the money is coming from the restaurant\u2019s pocket. Profit margins are shrinking. For me, there is no other option than to just shrink profits. What\u2019s going to end up happening if I keep raising my prices is that fewer and fewer people will come in. So I\u2019d rather have good, stable pricing.\u00a0<\/span>At least we\u2019ll have people coming in, and that will create this whole chain effect.\u00a0<\/span>The worst scenario is losing money, but at least you get to employ people and give them hours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How about rent? That\u2019s huge for restaurants, probably as much an expense as food.<\/b><\/p>\n

More than food. Unfortunately, the smaller you are as a company, the more rent you\u2019re paying. In negotiations with landlords, I have less bargaining power. <\/span>My rent for this year did go up from what I was paying last year. Every landlord will have some kind of increase, every year. But you can\u2019t really go back to your landlord and say: \u2018Hey, there\u2019s inflation, can you keep rent the same as it was last year?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Are there expenses you\u2019re responsible for in regards to maintaining your rental property?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

If something breaks down, I\u2019m the one who\u2019s responsible for it. There are certain things that the landlord does take care of, like structural or roofing issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do the interest hikes affect you?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Every business has loans of some kind. My supplier will have a loan. My employees will have some kind of loan: student loan, mortgage, some kind of line of credit. When interest rates go up, it acts like a chain effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say my supplier has a car loan for a delivery van. The payment on that loan was $250. Now, that $250 has gone up to $1,000. Where\u2019s the extra $750 going to come from? Increased prices. I have a student in my kitchen who used to pay $400 per month toward student loans. Now he\u2019s paying $800, so he\u2019s going to ask for a raise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ: The Power List: Top 10 Food Titans<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with my business. I have a business loan, and it\u2019s increased four times since I opened. My profit margin has shrunk and shrunk.\u00a0<\/span>At the same time, I want to make sure I have a very positive work environment. I\u2019m able to pay all my bills. I\u2019m able to pay my staff. And I just want to make sure that even if I don\u2019t make money, I am okay. I just want to get through it so when interest rates go down, I can make up for it. As long as I\u2019m paying all my bills, my debts, my suppliers, my staff\u2014as long as that is done, I\u2019m happy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a pretty stressful job. How are you able to keep going?<\/b><\/p>\n

Honestly, you\u2019ve just got to love what you do. That\u2019s a basic formula in life. Yes, it\u2019s stressful, but it\u2019s extremely rewarding as well. For me, as a chef who\u2019s finally opened up a place, I\u2019m living my dream. When I opened, I knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy. Someone once told me that if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost every chef in this city would love to have their own restaurant. There are some nights when your restaurant is full, your guests are having a great time, and people are telling you how amazing it was as they leave. We, in hospitality, are big suckers for those things. That\u2019s what we do. The most rewarding thing about being a chef is somebody loving whatever you\u2019re putting on their plate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n