• Business
• news

The Losing Kitchen: The War of Existence of Chef Restaurants

They bleed money, lower the quality of food and suffer from a lack of prestigious customers who do not want to prick eyes. The chef's restaurants do everything to survive, including collaborations you would not have seen before the Corona era, but for many of them the law is already doomed. In winter the rope will be wrapped around the neck

• Chef's Restaurant

David Rosenthal

The consumer club of high-tech companies 'high-techzone' recently announced a move, in which each new entrant will be awarded no less than NIS 300 for a ticket as a voucher in about 40 chef restaurants, including Taizo, Cub Cam, Daka, Yakimono and more. The estimated cost of the benefit is expected to cross the threshold of half a million shekels. On the face of it, this is another marketing move, but in the current reality, chef restaurants in Israel are begging for every shekel that goes into their depleted coffers.

"A week ago we closed a nice real estate deal, and half an hour after it went out to the media, a restaurateur called me, the owner of a large chef restaurant where we were used to celebrating our deals," says a businessman. but now? What do I need to keep in mind this post? Leave you. I told the restaurateur that it was not a question of money but of visibility. Go then explain to reporters that you actually only paid 300 per head, so we gave it up altogether and invited a private chef to the office. It cost 1,000 shekels per head and we also opened a bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII (cognac at a cost of 13,000 shekels per bottle, Dr.) but we saved all the inconvenience. "

More on Walla! NEWS

5 tips to help your employees get back to routine

To the full article

Contractors who are afraid of eye manicures, high-tech companies that have dramatically cut their expenses, tourists who do not come or masses of Israeli pods that until a few months ago would routinely go out to chef restaurants - it's all over. Even the older and established crowd is afraid to frequent the luxury restaurants. The Corona has devoured everything and put the chef restaurants in Israel into a new reality, which forces everyone to make great efforts to avoid bankruptcy. One of the main moves of the chef's restaurants is to make the menu accessible to a wide audience and lower the price per diner, and the way there is of course also through a substantial change in the raw materials used. If until about six months ago, it was relatively easy to get expensive sea fish in Tel Aviv, such as Dover Sol, which sold for about NIS 250 per 200 grams of fillet, or turbo fish, which is often more expensive, then today few, if any, restaurants serve them. Even more 'popular' fish such as locus, or fresh seafood including oysters and shrimp, are no longer offered in droves.

"For example, Arya's restaurant has started serving its customers dishes based on rice and mullet, and there are, of course, many others. The change in the composition of the menu is not only due to a decline in customers' purchasing power but also in terms of image." If I now offering dishes based on fish super expensive, they were sold - but there's something wrong and it's jarring, "says Walla! businessman Amos Sion restaurant chef polished Helena is located in the port of Caesarea.

another expression of the change is the volume of manpower restaurants There seems to be no chef restaurant that has not significantly reduced its staff, many of whom have reduced the number of cooks in the service by 50%, as well as the number of dishwashers, hostesses and shift managers. It is estimated that in Tel Aviv alone many thousands of employees have lost Their livelihoods and some of those who remained had to deal with cuts in their wages.

The many efforts made by the chef's restaurants are not enough for some of them to survive for a long time. The problem lies in the gap between their high fixed expenses and business overheads, which sometimes reach hundreds of thousands of shekels a month, and their current cycles and the level of occupancy, which is significantly lower than in the past. According to a survey conducted by the association "Strong Restaurateurs Together", headed by restaurateur Tomer Moore, among 200 restaurants, 87% of them indicate a dramatic decrease in spending per diner. According to the survey data, about a quarter of the restaurants are currently facing a crash at a rate ranging from 40-60% per diner. His data also shows that 28% of the respondents indicate an occupancy rate ranging from only 40-60% in July.

The problem is deeper and more complex: a few weeks ago, the Corona's handling committee in the Knesset announced an opening plan for restaurants, which would allow seating in their interiors for 20 diners at a time and up to 30 seats in their yards. Business and makes its operation very borderline in terms of profitability. "It's a triple finger inside, with this outline. I'm not thinking about making a profit at all, but about how to reduce the losses," the owner of a large chef restaurant in Tel Aviv tells us. "I now had 30 employees dependent on me, some of them with families and pregnant or unemployed women. I would close the business. And yes, if I could, I would also leave the country."

The containment battle waged by chef restaurants in Israel could end in a few months, with the estimated closure of many of them. "Winter is coming and they will not be able to get through it, we are now in the peak season, when restaurants are supposed to fill batteries but they will not have fats that will allow them to get through the winter," Moore said, accusing the Israeli government of abandoning the industry. "The grants she pledged to transfer. She has failed and continues to fail. Money that arrives late cannot feminize businesses that are already dying. It must arrive on time. There are hundreds of restaurateurs who have not yet received the money for shutting down the business in March and April."

While restaurateurs in Israel are groaning under the burden of debt and lack of economic horizon, in other countries such as the UK, the government has marked the industry as one that requires special attention. For example, it recently announced a $ 625 million program called "Eat out to help out," "according to which diners will be given discounts of 50% of the price of the meal. The discount is limited to a certain ceiling and is valid only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Into the vacuum created in the absence of a support program for restaurateurs, business entities, such as Hitakzon, have recently entered, recognizing the double benefit of assisting restaurants: providing added value to their customers while grabbing image capital. Sefi Peles, Deputy CEO of Hitechzon, explains the rationale behind the move: “Since the outbreak of the Corona crisis, the Consumer Club has been initiating campaigns that will help both service providers and high-tech workers succeed in the period. Giving a gift voucher in the amount of NIS 300 as a gift to join the club's credit card is a move that helps both parties - restaurateurs in a shaky and challenging period and high-tech workers maintain high morale during a period of economic uncertainty and win a very significant discount. We chose to draw business budget and subsidize the benefit of this in favor of a move win-win, instead of offering a gift is requested gadget or a gift to Card to encourage consumer blue and white with the help of the sectors affected the most in crisis. "

Industry sources we spoke to noted positively the initiative of Hiitkzon But everyone understands that it will not significantly change the dismal state of the chef's restaurants. Moore notes that the solution lies first and foremost in lifting the ban on restricting outdoor seating and allowing indoor seating, while maintaining a space of between one and a half meters, of course subject to the purple character guidelines According to him, public health is above all other considerations, but the outline we propose is carefully maintained, and it requires the state to meet its obligations and pay the restaurateurs the money they deserve.