From the last to try to survive as a restaurant manager: we don’t need downtime, we need work

This happened as soon as Almena Dankienė, director and co-owner of the Greita Sraigė restaurant, posted the following public address on social media: In May, we said goodbye to the already familiar doctors, and we really waited for the most difficult moment for us and for them it would have already happened. Unfortunately, it is clear that now the most difficult moment awaits us. So, without expecting anything, we renewed this campaign, we will once again have at least 10 large portions of hot lunch every working day, but this time everyone who wants to help those who care for the sick can help.

According to the restaurant manager, anyone can help by buying a lunch or a few. Each of them travels daily to the Santara Clinics Center for Infectious Diseases.

A. Dankienė says that by contributing to this initiative, people not only support hard-working doctors, but also help save jobs for restaurant staff, who are capable of producing 100 servings a day.

It has been more than a week since the start of the second quarantine, when the “Fast Snails” team prepares the food and brings it home to the doctors and clients.

35 servings are brought to doctors a day, but at least 70 would be needed as new treatment points are opened. The interlocutor says that the restaurant is capable of both production and export, so as the second week of quarantine progresses, she remembers once again her call to support the doctors for a hot lunch.

– I ask in different ways – How much more will you take?

– We will transport as long as we have enough resources. And how much will the company make in total? It’s the same here when you ask me what you’re planning. Planning has been such a horrible word since March. You can plan for one day and life puts things in a completely different way. For the first time in my twenty years of leadership experience, I cannot answer the question about planning and I cannot answer for you how much we are taking. I believe that the life not only of us, but of many others, is about this day.

– You said you would try to save all employees and not belittle them. How are you doing to keep this promise to you and your employees?

– We have 14 employees. Our goal and solution is to survive as long as possible without sacrificing them and without asking for benefits. After all, a business doesn’t need a profit, it needs a job. I can’t say it happens 100 percent. Now we are not talking about profit, we have forgotten it, but we are only thinking about how to survive. As a manager of a company, I must feel responsible for the employees. To this day, we have no downtime, we have come up with many ideas that we are trying to bring to life.

We have fantastic clients because they are very supportive both when it comes to ordering dinner at home and when it comes to buying lunch for the doctors. It’s like Christmas, which started earlier. I appealed to friends, to the community, to give us a job. We can make a daily lunch of what we both do and transport them to the doctors.

Like during the spring quarantine, we transported 10 servings every day and another 25 people bought them. In total, we have already brought more than 400 servings to the Clinicas Santara Infectious Disease Center.

– What is the price of that lunch and the minimum amount that anyone could spend on doctors?

– Lunch costs EUR 6. This is our restaurant’s traditional daily amount of lunch.

– You mentioned your 20 years of leadership experience. And what is the age of this business? And what period in business was or is the most difficult?

– We marched with this business for the third year, and the restaurant “Greita Sraigė” will be only a couple of years away. You ask, is this stage the most difficult for me? And yes and no. With other companies, we had to overcome previous crises and get out of them. But now the most difficult thing is that nothing can be planned, resources cannot be fully anticipated.

The restaurant business is a revolving business. I have no idea what the profit margin should be to cover the costs. From March to mid-May, we were in full swing. And now again. So there are no outstanding businesses that can cover that less in a matter of months. Then you have to think, develop other ideas, because otherwise, if you don’t look for other paths, if you don’t try to adapt during this period, the only thing left is to close the blinds.

– But do you have a good “Snail and Frog” food store next to you, as you advertise?

– Yes, we have an e-shop “Sraigė ir Varlė”, here you can order products that we can deliver throughout Lithuania. We are not big, we cannot compare ourselves to Barbora, so the products we deliver are a little different. But the little ones can always be more flexible.

We offer a number of specialized products. Those who already know us appreciate it.

As we are not very busy now and we want people to have a job, we have started preparing various dishes in our restaurant and presenting them to customers.

The work is underway, we are trying to move forward, but the resources are not really paying off. But now there is a situation where not only can we not have the right to cry. You just have to drink and do what can be done best right now.

– Tell us, how was your business born?

– I am a co-owner of this business. Initially, we settled in the gourmet restaurant “Sraigė, Vynas ir Varlė”, we settled in the Halle market and worked there for a couple of years. Over time, we grew because we only had a few tables there. Without thinking about the quarantine, we opened a much larger restaurant with more seats in Dvarčionys.

– Did someone put you in touch with the Dvarčionių keramika company, which used to operate in these premises, and with the settlement itself?

– There were only suitable and interesting premises that needed to be renovated. We saw that there was a niche place, very beautiful, surrounded by pine forests and there was no similar restaurant around. So we decided that we should give it a try.

We are a Mediterranean restaurant, but if we judge by typology, we are a home restaurant.

– His restaurant offered a wide variety of dishes, many seafood, gourmet food. Did you drastically change the menu when you started cooking just to go or home delivery?

– We continue to prepare lunch for the day to take away. Evening menu to the letter we shortened it due to the need to calculate working capital. We leave what customers liked the most. We cannot offer a more extensive menu because we do not guarantee the freshness of the products and, consequently, the quality of the dishes. After all, we don’t know how many orders there will be each day. Like I said, planning now is the same as pouring coffee grounds. But as before, we offer mussels, beef dishes and tiramisu for desserts. An Italian partner who arrives taught us how to make a delicious tiramisu that he provides us with olive oil and has our own restaurant.

I think now you just need to go ahead and start over with less and go at least to zero. And I want others to survive, to come up with ideas, not to divide, and to just bring everyone together, both companies and individuals, to help each other survive. How we survive this pandemic, whether strong or weak, depends on how both small and large businesses survive. Because if we come out of the weak, after the pandemic, we will probably be caught in an economic crisis. And nobody wants that.

This period is as follows: Christmas came earlier by doing good deeds. We tend to do good deeds only at Christmas, so the pandemic should probably be seen as doing good deeds, concentrating. And that moment is now.

– And what special Christmas menu does your restaurant prepare?

– Several gift sets are already offered, which are ordered by companies, individuals. Christmas dinners will also be offered.

We have different projects, because there is no other way, we have to adapt. If the quarantine doesn’t end before Christmas, the restaurant will be able to bring Christmas home. With utensils and tools.

– However, there is great competition here, as other restaurants will offer this service.

– Everyone is in their own way. I don’t even call people who work in the same field competitors, I call them partners. Because for me, the competition is that you follow someone else’s path and keep turning to look over your shoulder; Either you will fail or you will chase yourself. I think there is room for everyone in the sun.

– I have read many positive reviews about your restaurant. He was very young but was rapidly gaining popularity.

– It was already popular, it advanced according to all our business plans, but it is impossible to build a restaurant business on its feet over the years. And then when it seemed like we could breathe, a pandemic occurred. And don’t imagine that if you are popular, you will rack up large amounts on the bills. This is not the case, as it requires constant investment and it is costly to retain employees.

– How many clients returned after the first quarantine?

– During the first quarantine, I shed tears on several occasions because I saw that those of our customers who buy in the e-shop no longer need so much, but bought to support our business. And in the summer they came back. There were those who bought vouchers issued by the municipality of the capital to maintain beloved restaurants, saying: “We will not use them yet. We will only go when you live. “

I don’t know what it really was like, but I think my clients returned to other restaurants as well. And we really couldn’t complain – our clients came back and tried to support us in every way.

Hopefully Christmas comes and you are happy during these times. And so far a difficult period awaits. Everyone shakes hands, everyone is going through bad times and no one knows what awaits us next.

First of all, we need to talk to each other, help each other, search for ideas, try and not be afraid that we may look different, we will not like it. Let’s save those deliberations for better and later times. Now we do not have the privilege of being afraid or dislike of anything, of being underestimated or the like. To everyone who is floating now, I say: “Come up with ideas, talk to friends, clients, partners.” It is time for Christmas, humanity and survival.