"McDonaldizing' Chinese cuisine
Even the SBA was impressed. Admitting it had made a mistake, the agency approved her initial $10,000 loan. And Connie Andrews, then 33 years old, was well on her way to becoming a very rich woman.You can be sure she will not be using that expression anymore.Andrews, now 46, will remain with Quik Wok as a consultant but will devote most of her time to the two Golden Wok restaurants, which she still owns. William Prather, a Burger King executive vice president, has been named president of Quik Wok.Photo: Stan Tankursely in his newest restaurant to date, Wok and Roll, located in New York's Greenwich Village.Not content to rest on his laurels, Stan Tankursely, self-styled conceptualizer and part owner of several eclectic restaurants here, will follow the recent opening of his "almost Chinese' restaurant Wok and Roll with a Southern jazz-and-blues concept. Called the Acme Bar & Grill, it wll open early next year and will have live entertainment.Pillsbury has jumped into the growing Chinese fast-food segment with the purchase of nine-unit equik Wok, a privately held chain based in San Antonio. Terms were not disclosed."We have very tight controls here, and I think Burger King was quite impressed,' Andrews said. "Jeff Campbell [chairman of Burger King] and Jerry Levin of Pillsbury told us that for our size, this was one of the most professionally run and professionally organized companies they had seen.'"People in New York like hearing about places,' Tankursley concluded. "They like to think that they have discovered a place. People in Manhattan will go out of their way to look for a place. We didn't even list our phone number until after The New York Times wrote about us.'Opening Tupelo Honey took only a $40,000 initial investment, Tankursley said, which went toward painting, installing a stereo and tape system and buying some kitchen equipment. Sales were strong until the summer, he recalled, when business fell off by as much as two-thirds. They have come back somewhat, he added, but not to the projected weekly sales mark of $2,000. The 55-seat restaurant stands 900 sq. ft. Liquor accounts for about a third of sales, Tankursley added."It's still really hard for me to believe,' Andrews said. "I guess it still hasn't sunk in yet. But I'm starting to realize it's not mine anymore, especially when I see five or six people from Burger King walking around here.Quik Wok operates eight units in San Antonio and one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In addition to Burger King, Pillsbury owns S & A Restaurant Corp.--which operates Bennigan's, Steak & Ale, and J. J. Muggs--and Haagen-Dazs Shoppes.Because in March of this year, officials of Miami-based Burger King--perhaps impressed by the Quik Wok 30 miles north in Fort Lauderdale --contacted Andrews and expressed an interest in her chain. After executives made several visits, the 4,000-unit burger giant appeared ready to buy her nine-unit chain."I'm pretty good at seeing a space and imagining what could be done with it,' Tankursley said. "It's pretty easy if you have the right group of people working with you. I like to be here long enough to get a place profitable before I go on to the next one till it goes belly-up,' he joked. "A lot of restaurant owners do the same conncept over and over. I like to have a kind of different feeling to them.'The menu includes a variety of international influences, including several vegetarian dishes. More traditional items, priced from $4 to $11, include vegetable tempura, sweet and sour shrimp and beef with snow peas in black bean sauce. Other dishes, all prepared without MSG, include Italian wok stir-fry sweet and sour catfish, California rolls and a variety of chow fun noodles with toppings. After midnight Dim Sum and hamburgers are available as specials. Chinese, Japanese, French and American beers are also available, as is delivery until 2 a.m. An average per-person check, with drinks, is about $10."We've been looking for the right opportunity to diversify within the fast-food industry,' said J. Jeffrey Campbell, Burger King chairman and chief executive. "Quik Wok provides us with an exciting entry into the ethnic-food business--a business we feel has substantial consumer appeal and growth potential.'"I had never cooked Chinese food on a Chinese stove until the first customer put in the first order,' said Andrews, whose culinary career began with egg rolls cooked at home while she was working as a $1.80-an-hour cashier at Lackland Air Force Base. "But I said to myself, "If the Chinese can do it, you can do it.' Ignorance was bliss.The chain evolved from Golden Wok, a three-unit fullservice Chinese dinnerhouse operation started by Andrews 13 years ago in San Antonio. Eight years later she and Lau, then her employee, opened the first Golden Wok fast-food offshoot. Lau, who was raised in China and trained in Hong Kong, began as a chef and brought to Quik Wok a firsthand knowledge of Chinese cuisine."I liked the area,' Andrews said of Fort Lauderdale, "and I wanted to see how it would do standing on its own merit. This was going to run without being directly under our own wing.'The restaurant includes a 300-sq.-ft. kitchen featuring a broiler oven, one refrigerator for fish and another for meats and vegetables, a griddle, a four-burner range, a fryolator and a three-well steam table. The blackboard menu features such appetizers as BBQ shrimp, catfish fingers with remoulade sauce, fried chicken livers and jambalaya for $4.95 each. Fixed price entrees are $10.25 and range from blackened or grilled trout to steak rancheros, catfish with hush puppies, Cajun chicken with peas and chicken fried steak.In December 1975, Andrews moved the restaurant across the street, where she had a seating capacity of 110 and more than 30 employees. A year later increased sales prompted her to open the second Golden Wok on Fredricksburg Road here.Enter Kenneth Lau, a 21-year-old Chinese refugee, who walked into Golden Wok one day in 1974 and applied for a job.
"I feel like I lost one of my children,' she added, "But I know it's best for the concept.'
Author: Mark Schoifet
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