Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

After chatting nonchalantly with the eldest sister Cao Jiajia for a while, the time soon came to two o'clock in the afternoon.

Once two o'clock arrives, the restaurant will no longer serve meals except for takeaways, but it will not force people to leave.

To put it simply, after two o'clock, the hotel will no longer provide services to guests dining in the hotel, but it does not kick you out immediately. You can still eat for another hour.

An hour later, at three o'clock, it officially closed and would not reopen until five o'clock in the evening.

If a customer lingers until three in the afternoon, the hotel will not force you to leave at that time, but will not provide you with anything, including a glass of water, and the waiter will take care of himself and start cleaning the tables.

At this time, the old Peiping people were very shameless. Generally speaking, if you do this, unless you are really shameless, you won't be able to stay.

If he was really shameless, He Yuzhu would not be spoiled by his temper.

Of course, according to Cao Jiajia, so far, no customer has been uncooperative and would not linger in the store at three in the afternoon.

Sure enough, from one to two o'clock, many people left voluntarily, leaving only a few guests who were here for the first time, were not familiar with the rules, and had not yet finished their meal. This also caused the hotel to become deserted immediately.

However, although dine-in and private room services have stopped, there is still an endless stream of people queuing up outside to buy takeout.

It's just that those who buy takeaways line up next to each other and form their own style. They don't stay in the dining room, but go directly to the kitchen to prepare meals, and many people bring their own lunch boxes.

There was a line of people queuing up to get food, and the restaurant suddenly turned into a big canteen.

It is said that this is also a scene of Shiweitian. After all, other private restaurants do not have this kind of queues to order food. Only Shiweitian has this kind of situation because it has opened a takeaway outlet.

Initially, Cao Jiajia was a little worried that those queuing up for takeout would affect the regular diners dining in the canteen. However, when she asked about it, she discovered that everyone was actually very warm-hearted and adaptable to this situation.

Because at this time, most factory canteens had this model, that is, a team of workers queued up to get their meals, and then they could go back to eat or sit down and eat directly in the canteen.

The difference between Shiweitian and those kinds of canteens is that people who have made meals cannot eat in the restaurant and can only take it home to eat. Moreover, many hard dishes and freshly fried dishes are not available in the takeaway place.

In addition, the takeaway meals are all ordinary big pot rice. Although the price is not cheap, it is relatively reasonable and is completely different from the recipes for dining in restaurants.

All kinds of differentiated treatment give diners in the restaurant a sense of superiority and the feeling of being a leader eating small dishes.

Yes, in this period, unit canteens were generally divided into lobby and small hall.

The lobby is a large room and the main body of the canteen, where ordinary employees gather to eat.

The small hall refers to a small room, usually called a side hall or a small stove, which is mainly a place where leading cadres eat.

Of course, in addition to this, the canteen also has private rooms, which are mainly used by real senior leaders to entertain guests, but the number of such private rooms is very small.

In other words, the workplace cafeteria is also divided into three, six, and nine grades, and there is no such thing as fair dining.

Let’s not talk about the private rooms of Shiweitian Hotel. Even the largest dine-in restaurant is incomparable to the lobby of the work canteen. At most, it can be compared with the Xiaotang or side hall of the work canteen.

The guests who originally came to eat didn't feel it yet, but when they saw many guests queuing up to get food, they could only pass by the lobby to go to the kitchen to get food. The food they bought was different from the food in the lobby, and they couldn't come to the lobby to eat.

People dining in the lobby feel like leaders.

After all, in an ordinary unit canteen, only leaders can go to the side hall to eat small dishes.

Isn't this situation similar to the feeling of a leader eating Xiao Zao?

As for going to a private room to eat, it goes without saying that it is a banquet hosted by senior leaders, and it also feels very immersive.

People these days are not particularly interested in making money in business, but their expectations of being a leader are definitely high.

Through this takeout method, Shiweitian actually makes everyone feel like a leader. This may be one of the reasons why Shiweitian has suddenly become popular recently.

Cao Jiajia couldn't see the secret behind this, but how could Cao Zhiqiang not see it?

He only came here twice, and he figured out the flavor through everyone's expressions and conversations.

The answer is very simple, there is no superiority without comparison.

This also made Cao Zhiqiang a little hesitant about whether to open a window.

Because the window is open, people buying takeout do not need to pass by the lobby and can buy directly outside.

This is convenient, but it will deprive those who dine in the canteen, especially the lobby, of the pleasure of contrast.

But if we let everyone continue to line up and pass by the hotel lobby and go directly to the back kitchen to buy takeout, it will indeed affect the business.

Moreover, this is just the beginning, no one has figured it out yet, and there is less trouble.

In the future, if this situation lasts for a long time, friction will inevitably occur.

After all, there are always people who are arrogant.

Suddenly, Cao Zhiqiang's eyes lit up and he had two good ideas.

He thought about the display window.

Yes, he thought about it, the takeout window should be opened, but the joy of comparison should also be retained.

The method is very simple. You only need to replace one wall of the lobby with a glass curtain wall, and then people ordering takeout must queue outside the glass curtain wall.

In this way, people who come to the restaurant to dine can see people queuing up to buy takeout through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, which gives them a sense of superiority. However, because they are separated by a glass curtain wall, neither party can hear what they are saying, so there will be no confusion.

Pointless disputes.

Well, many restaurants in later generations, especially Western restaurants and cafeterias in large shopping malls, mostly have this design.

To put it simply, it is surrounded by a circle of glass walls, so that people dining inside can see outside, and the outside can also see inside.

However, as for later generations, this approach was mainly to attract outside customers, so that people who have not entered the restaurant can see the restaurant environment and food at a glance through the glass curtain wall. To say that the guests inside have a sense of superiority when eating, there is really no sense of superiority.

Already.

But in this period, glass-curtain wall restaurants are still very popular. Not only can they make people outside envy the dining environment inside, but they can also give people dining inside a sense of superiority.

Although it is necessary to demolish a wall, it seems to be a big project, and technical issues such as design and weighing are beyond the control of ordinary people. If the wall is smashed hard, the house will probably collapse.

But for people from the design institute, this is simply a piece of cake.

After all, Cao Zhiqiang knew that when the design institute renovated and renovated this courtyard house, it had strengthened the interior.

Therefore, if you only remove one wall on one side of the hall, or even two walls, and replace it with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, it should be no problem.

After all, this courtyard along the street is not a high-rise building, it is only one floor, so it should not be difficult.

If I have to say something bad, it is that this is a big project. It is estimated that the hotel will be closed for a period of time during the renovation, which will cause losses for a period of time, including money and popularity.

But once the transformation is successful and a restaurant with a glass curtain wall appears, it is estimated that the money will be made back soon.

Okay, okay, this plan can be put on the agenda. It will be done this month. It must be completed within half a month.

And since we’re going to do something big, we might as well turn the outside into a pavilion.

In this way, in the summer, you can put some tables outside for barbecue.

In this way, barbecue, takeout, dine-in, and private rooms can definitely cater to diners from all walks of life!

Maybe you want to say, this kind of marketing method will be too complicated.

Not really.

Frankly speaking, although this courtyard house along the street has undergone a certain degree of renovation, there are still area restrictions and room type restrictions.

Coupled with the environment here, it is impossible for Shiweitian to be built into a high-end, high-end hotel.

Of course, it's not that you can't do it by force, but if you go to a high-end hotel like this during this period, you're basically losing money and making money.

The reason is very simple, that is, Chinese people are too poor and cannot afford consumption.

Even though this is the capital, if the really wealthy people in the capital want to eat high-end food, they have to go to large foreign-related hotels like Jianguo Hotel and Peking Hotel.

When overseas Chinese and foreigners come to Beijing to stay and eat, they usually stay in big hotels and rarely eat at roadside fly houses.

This situation is just like the reason why later generations of Chinese people who go to India usually eat in big hotels and rarely eat at Indian roadside stalls.

Without him, the sanitary conditions would be really poor.

Even though the dining environment of a specially renovated hotel like "Shiweitian" is better than that of an ordinary hotel canteen, it is absolutely incomparable to a foreign-related joint venture hotel like Jianguo Hotel.

At most, Shiweitian can be called a "specialty restaurant" and cannot be compared with a big hotel.

Maybe you have to say, if this is the case, why does it attract Japanese tourists to eat and admire it?

Is it true that the aroma of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley?

Of course not.

Foreigners are full of praise for the fact that food is heaven.

The reason is very simple, because they are all entrustment!

It's just that this care provider is relatively high-end. It's not a Chinese person pretending to be a care provider, but a serious foreign care provider.

In fact, to talk about this matter, we have to start with the sharp decline in Shiweitian's business.

I think back then, Cao Jiajia, the manager of Shiweitian, listened to his brother and big boss Cao Zhiqiang and removed the breakfast service, limited the time for lunch and dinner, and significantly increased the price of the meals. The effect was immediate.

The result is that the people who come to eat and enjoy the cool air and use the air conditioner no longer come, and so do the diners.

Without diners, there is no business. Although there is no need to pay rent, after all, the house belongs to Cao Zhiqiang personally, but water, electricity, and the wages of waiters and chefs must be paid.

This made Cao Jiajia extremely worried. She would call Cao Zhiqiang to complain and nag whenever she had nothing to do, which made Cao Zhiqiang extremely annoyed.

In fact, in Cao Zhiqiang's opinion, this is all temporary and will get better sooner or later as time goes by.

After all, He Yuzhu's cooking skills are on display there, and the location of Shiweitian is not bad, at least at the intersection of Wangfujing and Jinyu Hutong.

What Cao Jiajia said about business being miserable is actually an exaggeration. In fact, it's just not as popular as it was at the beginning, but there are still customers.

Even though restaurant meals are generally expensive, there are still cheap meals.

For example, the average person can afford fried noodles.

It's just that the fried noodles here are twice as expensive as the fried noodles outside, and of course the ingredients are better.

In other words, the so-called lackluster business is just that the price-sensitive and bargain-hunting diners nearby are no longer coming. It does not mean that the hotel really has no customers.

Generally, this happens in the first three months when a new hotel opens. Compared with those ordinary restaurants, Shiweitian's business is actually pretty good.

After all, although the food at Shiweitian is expensive, the ingredients and cooking skills are really second to none.

Let’s not talk about anything else. Ordinary hotels don’t even have rare things like abalone, ginseng, bear’s paw and hump.

But because Shiweitian has Cao Zhiqiang’s special supply channels, there are always some fresh and unique top-notch ingredients.

The reason is also very simple, that is, these ingredients were obtained by Cao Zhiqiang's signature.

Some of the ingredients that Cao Zhiqiang didn't like to eat, and it would be a pity to throw away, he would just throw them to Shiweitian and cook them directly to sell them for money.

Of course, the high-end ingredients that Cao Zhiqiang provides to restaurants are not illegal.

For example, bear paw humps are allowed to be eaten during this period, and no one cares about your source.

Not to mention abalone, ginseng and wing belly, as long as you can have it, who will ask you where you got it from?

Because of this, Shiweitian's business seems to be poor on the surface. In fact, there are only fewer people dining in the lobby, but in the private rooms, there are always a small number of high-end diners coming to support them, and for no other reason than to come here to eat the food made by He Yuzhu himself.

"High-end Hejia Cuisine"!

It can be said that just by cooking high-end dishes, you can make a lot of money.

But for these high-end restaurants, the hotel has to give Cao Zhiqiang more than half of the profits as the "purchase money" for high-end ingredients. In addition, the supply source of these high-end ingredients is unstable. After all, they are the income from signing up, so Cao Zhiqiang himself is fine.

But Cao Jiajia always had a sense of crisis.

The main problem is that Cao Jiajia is not steady enough and gets flustered when she sees the hall is deserted.

The money earned from a high-end restaurant in a private room for one night is more than the monthly income of an ordinary hotel.

That's right, Cao Zhiqiang is actually using this restaurant to cash in the high-end ingredients he earns from signing up.

Because the purpose is to realize cash and pay less tax, Cao Zhiqiang sets the purchase price of these high-end ingredients very high.

This leads to the fact that although high-end restaurants are expensive, from a "book" point of view, the restaurant itself earns hard fees and processing fees, and most of them are "swallowed" by Cao Zhiqiang, the food supplier.

But Cao Zhiqiang knows this, Cao Jiajia doesn't know, and neither does anyone else.

Therefore, Cao Jiajia didn't know how much money Shiweitian made. He only knew about public accounts. He didn't know how many ingredients signed in the system were laundered by Cao Zhiqiang and how much cash he earned through Shiweitian restaurant.

Cao Jiajia's panic also affected the panic of other waiters and chefs.

They don't know how much money high-end restaurants make, they only see that business is not good.

Cao Jiajia called again and again to nag Cao Zhiqiang, which made Cao Zhiqiang feel very bad.

In addition, he also felt that if the hotel's business was not good, it would be detrimental to always have high-end restaurants, so he decided to help and make the hotel popular again.

Cao Zhiqiang's method is very simple, which is to worship foreign flattery and add advertising.

The method is very simple, that is, Cao Zhiqiang found a foreign-related travel agency through connections, and then through the foreign-related travel agency, he came into contact with a group of Japanese tourists visiting China.

Cao Zhiqiang himself speaks Japanese, and it is no trouble at all to communicate with those Japanese tourists.

During this period, due to the relative lack of information, Chinese people generally looked up to the Japanese who came to China, thinking that these Japanese friends were all rich and wealthy.

But Cao Zhiqiang knew that this was actually false.

In fact, most of the Japanese who came to China to travel during this period were middle-class, really wealthy Japanese, and they all went to Europe and the United States.

Just like when Chinese people in later generations travel, those with money go to Europe, those with less money go to Japan and South Korea, and those without money go to Southeast Asia.

In the same way, most of my friends who came to China during this period and had a good life while traveling were working-class people. Compared to their domestic counterparts, their incomes were not particularly high.

This also determines that these people are very sensitive to money.

This was easy to handle. Cao Zhiqiang directly discussed with them and asked them to help with advertising, negotiated the price, signed the contract, and then rehearsed and rehearsed, everything was OK.

Of course, it doesn’t work with just actors and no audience.

So Cao Zhiqiang found Cai Ling, a female reporter at Peking Youth Daily, and asked her to help write the article.

Naturally, Cai Ling knew that Cao Zhiqiang had paid off these international friends in advance, but she didn't think it was a problem. After all, this level of fraud was common in China.

Moreover, Sino-Japanese friendship is now the main theme, and actively developing domestic tourism is also advocated by the chief minister.

So at this time, writing an article about Chinese food that conquers Japanese friends will definitely make you famous.

It can be said that this matter can kill multiple birds with one stone.

Japanese friends can get performance fees, which is equivalent to free domestic travel.

Cai Ling can take this opportunity to write another review article that can arouse topics and discussions.

Cao Zhiqiang can use foreigners and the Peking Youth Daily to heavily advertise his hotel.

Don’t we all admire foreign things? Isn’t the moon in foreign countries particularly round?

Well, I will let my international friends who have a good life traveling in China say that food is the most important thing and belittle other restaurants.

Those who say the food is good are international friends, those who say other hotels are bad are also international friends and have nothing to do with us.

The people who recorded all of this were newspaper reporters who happened to be dining here. They were also reporting on the charm of Chinese food and the benefits of open tourism. At most, they just casually mentioned the name "food is the most important thing".

So you see, a small soft article was born, and everyone benefited, and it was a win-win situation for all parties.

The power of newspapers during this period was still very good, especially articles like this that boasted about Chinese food conquering foreigners. You had to feel proud and try it.

With this article from the Peking Youth Daily as the basis, the shortcomings of food being the first thing are no longer a problem.

The price is expensive, that must be because the ingredients are good and the environment is good.

You get what you pay for. Well-informed old Beijingers still understand this truth.

As for not being open all day, not providing breakfast, and only ending lunch at 2 o'clock, this is also not a problem.

A high-end chef must of course have a high-end temperament.

Only the meals prepared by this kind of chef can be the "Chinese cuisine" that can conquer foreigners!