Rebirth 07: Starting with Saving a Bankrupt Restaurant

The first day of the new fried chicken skin.

Zhou Wen's worries did not come true, or rather, after the free tasting, everyone found that the taste was indeed quite good.

Zhou Wen also noticed that people really liked these kinds of snacks to go with alcohol, as could be seen from the previous "husband and wife lung slices" incident.

It's unclear whether the diners in the restaurant were inspired by Li Lichun and his group.

The next day, there were many more diners like this.

When three or five people come to the store, they don't order any main dishes, but just order all the snacks to go with their drinks.

If anyone gets hungry after finishing the drinks, they can have a small bowl of tomato and egg noodles, or fried rice or fried noodles to fill their stomachs.

These snacks are almost always among the top sellers in the restaurant.

At the same time, Zhou Wen was once again nagged by the diners in the restaurant.

Diners were somewhat bothered by the fact that the restaurant only offered drinks and not alcoholic beverages, and many of them would take the opportunity to...

But there's nothing we can do about it; the issue of diners drinking alcohol in the restaurant has already begun to emerge.

Spilled wine on the floor, along with the constant movement of guests, often leaves a dark stain on the floor after get off work.

Dealing with these stains often requires a lot of effort.

Sometimes a mop isn't enough to solve the problem. Shi Ying would squat down on the floor with a brush and scrub hard until the stains were removed, and then mop the whole floor again.

Zhou Wen's attitude on this matter is very clear: he allows diners to drink alcohol in the restaurant, but it is naturally impossible for the restaurant to provide alcoholic beverages at this stage.

Most customers only have a small drink; there are relatively few diners who get completely drunk.

……

……

"Old Ma, Zhou's Restaurant has come up with another fried chicken skin."

Ma Xianling was stunned for a moment and said, "Fried chicken skin? You can sell that?"

Every day, a lot of chicken skin is thrown away from the store; it's all waste that the store doesn't want.

As a result, the waste materials that I didn't want were actually turned into treasures and sold by others?

Ma Xianling was somewhat dismissive: "The owner of Zhouji Restaurant really dares to sell anything. Chicken skin is already greasy, and they're deep-frying it?"

"I heard from others that the fried chicken skin tastes pretty good, and the sales seem to be quite good as well," Liu Fengru said worriedly.

Ma Xianling's eyes flickered. If he still insisted on saying things like fried chicken skin would definitely not sell well, not to mention others, even Ma Xianling himself didn't believe it.

If it were truly difficult to sell, Liu Fengru wouldn't have heard these rumors.

Not to mention, there was also that "husband and wife lung slices" dish last month.

The couple didn't believe in superstitions at the time, but later asked someone to buy them a copy.

Liu Fengru was still a bit stubborn, and kept talking about this and that.

The gist is that it's just taking a few braised dishes, making a sauce, and pouring it over them; what's so difficult about that?

That's easy to say, but Ma Xianling, who also cooks, knows very well that it's a different story when it comes to actually making something.

As a fellow professional, Ma Xianling sometimes marvels at the remarkable skills of the owner of Zhou's Restaurant.

Putting everything else aside, the fact that they were able to reopen the store after such a huge incident is remarkable.

Not only did they open the store, but in just over two months, they actually revitalized it.

Furthermore, the food in the store is not local cuisine, but rather food from all over the country. Ma Xianling was also puzzled as to how the owner could have come up with all this food in just over a month of closing the store.

Liu Fengru's thoughts were much the same as Ma Xianling's.

Since Zhouji Restaurant reopened at the end of March, I don't know where the owner got so many strange and unusual dishes from.

I'd never even heard of cold noodles or sliced ​​beef and tripe in chili sauce before.

These items, however, became very popular with diners.

"So, how's your training with Chef Liao going lately?"

Ma Xianling smacked his lips and said, "It's alright. These past few days, I've gotten quite close to Chef Liao, and sometimes he'll give me a pointer or two."

Liu Fengru nodded, and then said a few more words.

The Ruyi Hotel is doing quite well now, which is naturally inseparable from Liao Zheng.

……

In June, the temperature in Fujian Province is above 30 degrees Celsius throughout the day.

More and more people are beginning to understand the value of cold noodles, and the daily sales volume of cold noodles is rising sharply, especially at noon.

Especially for those who do heavy work, their clothes are always soaked through when they come to the store.

The shop is now filled with people doing heavy work, mostly introduced by friends or brought along, who just want to have a bowl of cold noodles at noon to cool off in the heat.

The store is also equipped with air conditioning and fans, and it operates without rest during business hours.

These past few days, Shan Wei has been working exceptionally hard, which Zhou Wen suspects might be related to the upcoming payday.

The facts were just as Zhou Wen had imagined.

These past few days, Shan Wei has felt extra happy whenever he thinks about getting paid in a few days, and he's also been extra motivated at work.

Because Shi Ying usually arrived early, Zhou Wen paid her wages in a red envelope first.

As for why it was wrapped in red, Zhou Wen thought it would be easier to store it that way, and it would also be a simple way to create a sense of ritual.

This time, Shi Ying received a significantly larger red envelope than the one she received in the first month.

The first red envelope given to Shi Ying was for a total of 1,200 yuan, while this month's amount was 1,500 yuan.

The extra five hundred yuan goes without saying.

Last month, Shi Ying would arrive at the store around eight o'clock every morning to help Zhou Wen braise vegetables and assist him.

Not to mention that sometimes she would get up early to go grocery shopping with Zhou Wen and help carry the groceries on the way back.

If Shi Ying goes with them, the two of them will walk to the market. It's usually early when they go to buy groceries, and it's not that hot yet.

However, when we returned, the temperature gradually rose, and sweating became the norm.

Sometimes Zhou Wen was also curious. The restaurant closed quite late every night, and with all the other things to do, like cleaning, people would probably just wash up and go to sleep.

Zhou Wen also asked, and Shi Ying's answer was that she was used to it.

In the past, factory workers usually started work around eight o'clock, so they had to get up around seven o'clock.

It's almost like a biological clock has been formed.

You might get off work earlier than a restaurant worker, but you should know that overtime is the norm in a factory.

For a period of time, Shi Ying also worked the night shift. The pay for the night shift was higher, but it was also much more tiring.

About half a month later, Shi Ying was transferred back.