Final Post
04 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
This is the last post I write as Bokuchoi Ramen.
What can I say really; it was quite a horrible and educational journey. I can safely say that I’ve lost all interest in making anything curry related, ever.
For those who’ve followed me throughout this journey, especially those interested in the restaurant path, that the lessons I learned were of some sort of use to you.
I sold all my equipment and most of my small-wares (pots, containers, etc) for the measly amount of $3,000. Given the short time I had – I had to leave the location by 12/31 – that was the best I could do. Within that time, no one else was interested in my stuff. I contacted the restaurant equipment supplier, and I worked through their used equipment department. They only buy things at 10%, at best, of the original price. Since I was at a point where I don’t have any leverage, there was no negotiating. At least, they took all of the stuff for ‘free,’ so I didn’t have to arrange extra steps for uninstalling and moving, etc.\\
I still have yet to pay sales tax and payroll fees along with other utility bills, which adds close to $6k… sigh.
And I still have boxes upon boxes of containers and other crap left over from the restaurant. I am trying to either return it, or to give it up to charity, etc.
At least, I lucked out with the mall management. Instead of making me pay the rest of the lease rent; they decided to just close me out. I am rather thankful for that.
So, where to go from here? Not the slightest clue, but I will consider my affair with ramen to be over.
Good bye.
Bokuchoi Closing
12 Dec 2011 2 Comments
I started Bokuchoi with this blog, and it is the most appropriate way for me to inform you of what is about to happen.
If you haven’t noticed, I have never posted anything here or in YouTube with good news.
This past Friday I decided to close down the restaurant.
Not sure when its Bokuchoi’s last day yet, but the restaurant won’t see Christmas. I need to find out how to close down the restaurant, so this is probably not the last post. I will keep the standards until the very end (with whatever food I have left).
I want to thank everyone for their support, and I am very sorry that I have failed you.
It was a rather painful decision, but it is the smart thing to do – my friend told me to use my MBA brain, and the brain knows closing is the only option.
Ever since I opened I have been bleeding money. I kept pressuring my mom’s wallet all this time. And in turn she was telling me to shut the place down since the beginning of October. But I kept going with the hope that November will pick up, and that December would be a success.
November never picked up (I sold $60 on Black Friday – it was supposed to be a mega sales day). It is the beginning of December, and things are already dire.
My mom kept asking me one big question “Ok, fine, let’s say December sells although I doubt you’ll sell past covering cost, if you’re lucky. Once January comes, it goes back to normal, what then?” What then… No fucking clue.
The next problem was this: for the restaurant to flourish, it has to sell at least five times more than what I am selling now (the average sale is a little over $100 per day). Five times… how in the hell was I going to do that? No matter what new operation I thought of, there was nothing that would bring me such high revenue.
I do not think that changing the menu would do any good. Doing more marketing would do very little. Even implementing a delivery system wouldn’t do much good either. All these options above will probably bring me some extra cash, but none (even together) would bring me the extra dough that I desperately need.
There is one alternative I could see to change the restaurant’s fate. That is to change the entire place; make it into a Latin (Ecuadorian) food place. But it would cost money a lot of money, and it still has the risk of not selling due to the low volume of customers in the mall overall. Also, if I do that, then there would be no more ramen, and I am rather burnt out. Yes, it is time for me to move out.
This kind of situation is not one where “it’s no one’s fault.” No, it is all my doing.
I remember when I was trying to find a location.
I was starting to get desperate – there were many more openings soon after I signed the lease, go figure. It had been six months since I had started when I found University Mall’s opening. So I chose the mall. In my research I completely forgot to look into Wiregrass Mall. Not being aware of this mall, I find it a crucial mistake. See, when I chose University Mall, I thought that not only this place would attract the USF crowd, but the crowd from the north side ofTampa. Well, it so happens that Wiregrass is located north of University Mall; and everyone who lives around there… goes there!
Now, no offense to those involved with University Mall if anyone finds it offensive, but the mall does have a specific demographic. When it comes to food, what they want is stuff they are familiar with. A ramen shop… not the most common thing in town. The University Mall customers are more price-sensitive, everyone knows that. I was surprised when I observed some of the customer’s behavior. They would go to one stand for food, and go to the next one for drinks; whichever one is cheaper (it was then when I lowered my drink price from $2 to $1 – by far the cheapest in terms of price to volume).
Ok, let’s go into the food cost.
When restaurants price their food, they usually do it with a formula. Ideally, they want the food cost to be 25% of the total price, 15% on some instances. This is unless you’re a high volume sales place like a mall food court where cost would be a little higher.
To this day, I have no freaking clue as to what that food cost is for my place. When I first opened, I had aLOTof food waste. At first I had bought too much, and it didn’t sell. Then I had issues with the fridge. And then, in some occasions my cooks would end up ruining the food. I have my accountant putting all the numbers and data together to see how much exactly I spent, but I don’t think it’s a pretty number.
Because I was cooking most of my food from scratch, that added to the cost. And to keep the standards for ramen, I couldn’t really drop the quality, and the price couldn’t go higher than what I have set it to.
If I make my math right, I believe that my pork ramen passes the 50% cost margin: the utensils would come up to 40 cents, the broth per serving comes up to 1 dollar, the noodles are 15 cents, pork belly is 1.25 dollar, pork shoulder at 75 cents, egg at 10 cents, bacon and scallions say it’s 15 cents. That’s 3.90 dollars, but that’s not even counting the food waste in, and I am selling the bowl at $7.50! And I haven’t even counted in the credit card fees, etc.
It was my lack of experience that put me into a lot trouble when trying to set the food cost right. Also, I underestimated how price sensitive the customers could be.
The quality control…
It’s so funny when I look back and remember this one time when I was gone for just two hours to get some food. When I came back, the soup had been boiled to a sauce, half the food in the front was missing, and the water on the noodle boiler was almost empty… I flipped a switch that day.
Well, it wasn’t the last time quality problems would happen, later on a broth here, a meat there, a wrong marinade. These things would keep taking place over time, and every time these items got sold, I know affected the image of the restaurant.
The first time I had a serious complaint was when a security officer had ordered the veggie ramen. I didn’t know that the tofu marinade had gone bad, and the rest of the food wasn’t there either. He got a refund. And I can’t even explain how embarrassed I felt.
There were times when things that had never gone bad would come up. This one Sunday I had pulled some pork, it had been on the fridge for a day or two (still good). I pulled this pork, and it was delicious. The next day, this same pork was served to a customer, and the pork had gone bad, overnight. I didn’t check because I thought it was good; I had personally pulled that pork! The customer came back with a complaint. It was embarrassing.
These were things that happened because I lacked the knowledge and experience on food management. Some foods i.e. the cauliflower start going rancid after cooking in a matter of hours. I should have planned my recipes better; the transfer from house fridge to mass restaurant volume is not that straightforward. It took me some time to learn all of this, but I believe that because I took me time, during this time, I had already affected my reputation. It’s funny because I’ve always prided myself with serving good food ever since I started cooking. It was my duty to serve food that would satisfy my target. Every time these incidents happened, they would hit me in the gut. But somehow I just stopped caring – big red flag.
I’m burnt out. It was not something that took months for it to happen. It was less than a month in, and I was feeling the pressure. Somewhere along the road I was losing my motivation, and the constant low sales –which were way below the lowest sales I had projected – were just affecting me. Eventually, I stopped being at the restaurant as often as I should have.
In closing, I’ve lost over 130k on my pursuit of this project –obviously not a small amount of money. It was the last venture I asked my mom to help me with, and I failed. I mean, it was my lack of preparation, management, my misplacement with the priorities, etc. But at the end of the day, I feel so much lighter now. I’ve learned much, and though I regret how things are ending, I can breathe much easier. Someday I’ll get to where I want to be; I just don’t know when.
Review – I Ai Sushi @ Tampa
15 Oct 2011 1 Comment
I ai Sushi – ‘ai’ means ‘love’ in Chinese. Pretty clever.
The reason why I decided to open a ramen shop in Tampa is cause I could not find a place that served ramen in the area.
I first heard of I ai Sushi serving ramen some time before I decided to take on my own ramen venture, but when I first went to visit that place, I could not see any ramen on the menu, so I assumed they took it out – must have been my mistake.
Then I found out about Sushi Spot, and well… But I kept hearing about ramen at Ai Sushi, so I had to go and try it out.
Now, before I continue. Please take in mind that I am not trying to put down the restaurants that would be my closer competition. My intention is to be as unbiased as possible when giving out these scores.
I Ai Sushi Rating: 3
They only have one dish they call ramen, and it is priced at $7 -similar to mine. The description of it read (in paraphrase) ‘ramen noodles in chicken broth, topped with roasted pork.”
A score of 4 or higher means that i’d go to the place rather often… but not for Ai Sushi. Maybe if I was in a diring need for ramen.
I mean, the dish certainly looks pretty when they served it out, but the broth is really nothing outstanding -as in, I didn’t like it; and the roast pork (char siu) is ok, but not the greatest. And the noodles, well.. I am somewhat familiar with them.
But at the same time, it wasn’t terrible…
But on the place’s defense: they are not a noodle shop, they are a sushi place. My friend ordered some rolls, and she said they were pretty good, not great on the aesthetics, but they tasted good.
Funny thing I noticed, they do sell Calpico as well as Ramune.
The first month in review
26 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
Before I start, yes, another updated recipe book has to be uploaded. And I’m really lagging behind on posting recipe books.
I’ll try catching up.
And.. I should be doing some accounting right now, but brain is gone fuzzy
Anywhore..
Opening day was August 28, and it’s been nearly a month since, so I just want to take some time to review this month since it’s the very first month of me being an actual restaurant owner (first time owning a business, being the big boss.. etc etc)
Much has been learned, and much more money has been lost.
Speaking of labor – I started with 4 staff members. 3 cooks, and 1 server. Out of all 4, only one of my original staff is still with me. I also hired a new staff member, by week two of opening, so I have 2 cooks with me as I write.
Now, they didn’t leave cause I was being some asshole or anything like Gordon Ramsay (though I did pull something like that a few times). I did try and work with my workers, but the first two that left were having complaints that I didnt know about (ie. hours were too long when they keep demanding more hours, wtf..) while they would tell me that everything was fine -its not like i own a full fledged kitchen where shit gets real busy..
the last cook that left, just quit this weekend. but he left cause the pay was too low for him (he has a family and all), but at least he left on a good note.
None of them can deny this. They did not get the recipes at all in the beginning. Hell, when the opening came about. Some of my dishes (the curry chicken) was not properly designed to fit into the restaurant -at least not with my current capabilities-, so it had to be redesigned. Which brings me to the next point
Food – havent done the full math yet, but Im sure ive lost nearly a grand on food from spoilage and lack of sales.
This is probably the toughest part of running the restaurant cause u cant predict the next day sales.
I did cut down on ingredients, and marinades that took three steps were cut to one.
I havent been able to buy very perishables (ie. meats and veggies) since the first purchase due to control.
did have to throw away food because cooks messed it up (that’s including me), but at least thats kept at a minimum. The bigger problem with this though; it’s that most of the time I wasn’t able to catch these fuck ups in time to prevent it from being sold, so I probably lost a lot of customers in the process.
Speaking of which. my original menu had four items. I had to drop the steambuns, and the veggie ramen.
Reason for the steambuns: they were my best seller when they were out. But the problem was that because they needed to be warm at all times, the heat would eventually make them deflate, making them feel like leather. It also took up a lot of freaking labor to make them. And when sales were low, however many buns I sold could not cover the loss on the buns that were thrown away. So yes, and I know I lost customers for doing that, but there were just not enough ppl buying them.
I did however, save the filling (the recipe was inspired by a friend), and used it for my rice ball. Problem is, I dont think many people have taken the transition too kindly.
Veggie ramen: well, I did notice that keeping up with three broths was starting to be a challenge for my cooks (shit evaporates real quick), and it wasnt selling that great. What I mean is; yes it had its following, and there would be days where it would sell. but most days it didnt sell one bit. I did drop the amount of broth made thanks to one of my cook’s suggestion.
But the biggest issue was that the quality control was incredibly difficult. The broth was one thing, but the veggie sides were hard to keep up with – not to mention, bok choy is not cheap at all – so this dish, over the other ramen, had its cost creep up on me.
One of the sides is marinated tofu.. well, this particular dish would go bad without a warning. So I know that ive served some below par.
Also, some asian customers complained that the broth tasted like water and soy sauce.. wtf, i didnt know what else to do.. so i had to let it go.
I plan to bring it back in the future.. but nothing is certain
Sorry, I know I lost my vegan customers, but just not enough sales!. Speaking of vegan, I plan to make a vegan rice bun (it has no filling, but it has a tasty seasoning on top).
I added rice dishes because I kept hearing a demand for rice. which so far has not brought much profit, but its too early to tell. At least the cost of the rice dishes can be controlled better than buns.
Curry rice: cause I already have the curry to make it.
Omurice: cause why not, its ballin
Riceball: to save the steambun filling recipe.
Financials - when I started I thought I had too few cooks. I had no idea how to set up the system – eventually I set it up so that one person would open, another one would close, and then there would be alternating shifts when necessary. Now that I only have two cooks, it helps with the cost, and for now, I can cover the slack no problem. Maybe in the future I will hire more, at least I have some people lined up just in case.
Though sales have been much much lower than the projected necessary sales for survival, at least I’ve been able to cover cost of food – though there is still labor, rent, utilities, and other expenses to consider.
in a given month, I have to sell at least 12k without counting food cost (which would bring up to 16k at least). This is, without me making a penny. This month I’ve sold around 5k. But the cost of food this month alone (due to waste, and poor management, new dishes, etc) has brought the cost of food to 4k at least. It is hard to tell how food cost will react to increase sales (since one goes up when the other one does), but I just hope that next month I am able to keep that shit under control.
There is not enough data for me to project sales or expenses for the future. One, cause I havent done much accounting yet, and two, i just started. All I know is that everyday ive lost money since I opened.
Marketing – all the marketing ive done so far is in this blog, Ive also introduced the restaurant to sites such as urbanspoon, yeld and google places. But ive not done anything else.
I havent set up a website cause my friend has been dodging me (and ive not had the time).
I keep hearing friends and customers wanting me to do samples. Well, I will do them. Just let me get my entire menu set the way its supposed to be! Final menu will be: pork ramen, chicken curry ramen, chicken curry rice, riceballs, omurice, the bokuchoi burger, pan chicken, and almond tofu – i’m waiting on my provider to see if I can bring this dessert dish. Since it’s almond based, I doubt I will be able to make it from scratch due to expense.
Also, I am considering to do deliveries to the USF area (campus and nearby residential), as well as to the hotels around the place.
Next, I am waiting on the final menu to send out fliers and such for people nearby to notice me.
Yes, I have not done any micro marketing (meaning, marketing on the proximity of the location)…. so much for my marketing and mba degrees…
Personal – well, Ive noticed I am now able to take in the hours of a working person. Before and during openning day, my body felt like it wanted to crumble. I was soo not used to the schedule. So I’m getting in working shape… yes, before the restaurant I would spend hours just sitting down watching vids and shit.
Also, as far as my cooking skills… well, ive been humbled. I’ve tried making dishes without aids such as anchovie dashi… with my current expertise, not happening. I recently have added this asian seasoning to my broths after people complained about the blandness of the broth. Well, these past couple days, if you complain about the taste; if it was legal, I would throw the ladle of broth to your face!
And.. also, i noticed that my cooking is of no appeal to the locals. Well, at least not all of it. So that’s why I’m using other people’s (friends’) recipes or their inspiration in order for me to keep moving forward. My lil’ chef brain is no good right now. The Omurice, and the upcoming Burger recipes are not mine.
Not to mention the fact that my morale was crushed the day I opened… but luckily I’ve had two great friends that have been beside me on this journey, and Ive also had friend support from everywhere. I thank you all.
well… now I tirey, and I can’t think of what else to add.
I just want to thank the readers for reading. I highly appreciate that you are willing to see through the typos to catch my story.
And if Bokuchoi fails, I can this has been a great (and very expensive) learning experience. But I am not quitting until I drop my last penny. The mission for Bokuchoi, to bring great food with high standards (especially ramen) to people at a decent price is still there.
On that note, the US is known to be a powerhouse country. But on the culinary side; it is shit.
Take Ecuador or Korea, or other countries. There u can buy a meal for $3-8. It is food that was made pretty much from scratch, and the taste of those dishes, for the most part, exceed dishes sold in the US at $12-20 easily.
I feel that somehow, the US skipped a step. The quality goes from fast food, to mediocre, to gourmet. All of them at a high price to boot…
updated recipe book
09 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Recipes
Ok, I won’t lie. This time I was really doubting if I should post the updated recipe book.
I’ve kept being told that being open about my recipe could lead to other restaurants stealing my dishes (not like my recipes are the greatest shit ever), but I wasn’t worried since I know how time consuming my ramen dishes are, so if they are willing to go that far, then good for them.
But now that I added rice dishes, they are so easy to replicate…
fuck it, I do want people to try cooking at home, and I feel like I should just move forward with the motto that I wouldn’t hide anything from my readers -unless it was a matter of me giving information that I shouldn’t, i.e. rent cost and other financial information.
and at a costing point of view: you can’t beat my prices… sadly.
the recipe book
29 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Recipes
Here is the recipe book (file) for all my dishes
no secrets
they are made in accordance to my restaurant size. So, please do the math accordingly.
also, the recipes are not the absolute final. Over time I will tinker with them until I reach a point where I cant make it any better
in fact, I see a few things changing already.. but, the recipes are good to try.
The gas bills
11 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
I have powerful gas machinery. But all that awesomeness comes at a price.
Yesterday I spoke with my inspector (yes, I got my license!!), and we were discussing different restaurant aspects, including the gas.
He saw that I had 4 massive burners + a tandoor oven, and then he tells me this (not in the same exact words):
“There was this restaurant that was once a pizzeria, and they had three gas ovens. Their gas bills came up to $500. It then got changed into a chinese restaurant, and they replaced the ovens with four wok ranges, similar to your burners. The gas bill now came up to $2000.”
yes, 2000!!! that is three times more than the maximum billling amount I had forecasted -and at the time I thought that 500 was too bloated… guess I was wrong.
So, it brings me to this. I do not know how much food is going to cost me, but I can already tell it’s going to be steep.
When I first did my forecasting eggs were presumed to cost me 4, maybe 2 cents (don’t ask me how I assumed this). Instead I keep running into 9-10 cent eggs! WTH!!! and then bowls are 25 cents already!
Eggs aside. there is only one way I can tackle this problem. And that is by increasing the price, 50 cents.
You shouldn’t complain because I got the right size portion with the final bowls.
besides, 50 cents for you is not a whole lot. For me, it can make or break my business, so there we go.
About this blog
06 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
A while back, back in April, i mentioned that i got a call by my mall management warning me about posting leasing information – i did remove/edit the posts.
Well, recently it has come to my attention that people that i do not know are starting to follow my online posts (hello, and welcome). But honestly, i had no idea that ‘strangers’ would be getting a hold of me online so soon. Yeah, call me ridiculous. At the time i thought that if i ever got an audience, that would be after i opened. Being that the case, don’t ask why i’ve been writing here for the past 10 months.
i doubt you will go back to the first posts online, so let me refresh to you what the purpose of this blog is supposed to be.
Although as of late it seems that write in order to vent about my oh-so miserable life… The reason why i started this blog was to simply share my point of view on wanting to open a restaurant; starting from trying to get the actual recipes working to as far as i can go. At the time, i honestly didnt think i would get to this point, where everything feels so.. Real.
Back then, this blog was created to give me a sense of doing something.
And… There is one more reason. Those days i was looking to read into stories on how restaurants get opened, what doe it take, and where does someone start?
Pretty much every story you find. Starts with a person/s with a dream of a resturant. Then they skip into getting the place, and then the next thing is their open and running. Where are the details?
Even though this blog seems all over the place, and rather emo.. I wanted to share a journey with more detail. Actually, i know i have been slacking as of late. There is now so much to update.
I do find it funny how people ask if there are any details of my recipes that i could share. I just say, just read this blog (i will post the completed recipe sometime soon)
I also find it peculiar when ive been recommended to keep at least some part of the recipe a secret. Meh
Business Plan
25 Jul 2011 1 Comment
Finally, after months of procastinating, I have finally been able to clear this damn thorn from my backside.
Seriously, I really dreaded having to write this so much…
Now, you may wonder why in the hell would I be writting the business plan at this stage. For my purposes, this final business plan is meant to be sent to whichever governmental department it is supposed to go to in order for me to get my E2 status.
This would be my third time writing this damn business plan -each time it gets more thorough- luckily I was able to grab some information from this blog and some older files. Anyhow, here is the link (it’s on .doc format):
Some time ago, a friend asked me if she should write a business plan for the company she wanted to implement. The answer still remains: sadly, yes.
Now, this is not me talking as the academic zombie that my college years molded me in. No, the biggest reason why you need to write a business plan is because, if you’re a first-time entrepeneur, your landlord will ask for it; and if you don’t have mommybank (thanks mom) like I do, then your lender will ask for a business plan. Even the government may ask for one.
It is tedious as hell, and I am burnt out from all the business typing from school, but necessary. Try to see it on the bright side, you may learn a few things that may be crucial. The key to do that though, is to be as thorough as possible. Do not bs all the way, do some real research for your own sake.
Ramen Hakkenden
18 Jul 2011 2 Comments
in Research/Reviews, Restaurant building
sorry for the lack of posts on this blog
i decided to start making some postings on video format (as I previously mentioned)
http://www.youtube.com/user/bokuchoi
but even there I haven’t been that active… sigh, maybe I should set a regimen. Like, post a video or blog at least once a week..
for the three of you who are following me, my apologies for the lack of connectivity from my side.
Anyhow, some months ago, a friend of mine mentioned to me a manga series on ramen. This particular manga is supposed to be more educational than other manga or anime with ‘ramen’ on their title.
The name is Ramen Hakkenden by Kube Rokuro.
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=21032
It basically translates to “King of Ramen Cooking.” Problem is that I couldn’t find a translated version in English. And as I see it, there are no subbers interested in translating this gem.
I did however – thanks to the help of a friend - find the manga in Korean… Now, the problem is that my Korean is near garbage… So I’ve been struggling to get the information in, but it’s a work in progress like everything else. Since I’m on volume one (of twenty six), for the most part I’ve only been able to read character expositions…
Whoever said that comic books are in any way negative, fuck that person.
Anyways, I will be posting a video soon…
Subscribe if you’d like…
