The pandemic, crime, increases in raw material and food courts have resulted in some restaurants in the Port of Spain environs shutting their doors.
In the past two years, several restaurants have closed their doors. They include Joseph’s which was located at Rookery Nook in Maraval, Blue Star Diner, Saddle Road Port of Spain, Jaffa at the Oval, Zanzibar all three locations, MovieTowne, Chaguanas and Chaguaramas.
Angelo’s closed its doors on Ariapita Avenue but is now open at Maraval Plaza Mall. Mai Thai on Carlos Street closed last year, and the latest casualty as of last week is Passage to Asia at the corner of Ariapita Avenue and Fitt Street.
While popular Veni Mange on the Avenue, will not be operating as a restaurant-type business anymore, sources told Business Guardian it is pivoting the business model into one that does not require overhead expenses that are associated with a structural restaurant.
The source also said the increased presence of food courts has caused some local restaurants to rethink their model.
Passage to Asia owner, Raj Dipchand Persad, said the reason for the closure of his restaurant on Ariapita Avenue was that the business never bounced back after restaurants were allowed to reopen their doors in 2022, due to the pandemic.
Persad outlined also the rent was not manageable to pay with the decreasing number of customers.
“Another issue was getting the permit for the chefs who were from India. It was taking too long, and business just went dead. I must say that the street food is licking up the restaurants on the Avenue. How many more will be closed down because of this? It has been hard on restaurant owners,” he lamented.
Ronnie Moses, who owned Mai Thai restaurant ,said the business opened its doors in 2018 and was performing well until the pandemic and with the closure of restaurants and different restrictions, this helped speed the demise of the restaurant.
On whether the rise in inflation and the squeeze that people are feeling can be one of the major reasons the footprint of restaurants is lessening, Moses said he believed the dynamics had changed during the pandemic. People got used to staying at home and using food apps.
He pointed out some of the closures were not just because of the pandemic.
“Many other factors would have contributed to the demise of some of these restaurants: Crime for one, which would affect any business of any nature, not just the restaurant industry, parking issues …cleanliness, lack of support from the Government, and the list goes on,” Moses disclosed.
Moses, who is now the owner of Off-the-Avenue food court located on Carlos Street, said he saw a need for the grab-and-go business and the idea came to mind, as the culture changed during the pandemic.
He noted that with the 12 vendors occupying the space, business is going pretty well thus far.
Also weighing in on the issue was Dachin group of companies CEO, Derek Chin, who said some of the reasons some restaurants closed their doors include the difficulty in finding capable staff, rising costs of raw materials, crime and reduced patronage.
Chin further added costs have risen, which means it is difficult to make sufficient margins to be profitable.
Chin noted that inflation also plays a major factor in the decline in people dining in.
“People have less disposable income and are focused on the essentials to survive on. This has been an extremely challenging time when it comes to the increased cost of living, rising costs of essentials, more taxes and overall difficulty in making ends meet, especially those on fixed incomes,” he added.
With food courts on the rise, Chin said truth be told the average person can afford street food vending.
Crime obviously will play a serious role in preventing people from enjoying a night out at some of restaurants, the business owner said, as the fear of going out has affected all restaurants and entertainment establishments.
“Certain mature age groups are no longer venturing out in large numbers. The older, more affluent are not visiting restaurants etc as often as in the past. More are traveling to other more attractive and safer destinations to enjoy themselves,” he detailed.
Asked how his restaurants, Jaxx, Texas de Brazil, and Rizzoni’s which are located in MovieTowne are doing, Chin said the restaurants have had many challenges to stay open and offer quality food and great service.
“COVID-19 was a serious threat and required a lot of sacrifice and rethinking of what could work post COVID. We are seeing a bit of stabilisation but still, a very challenging environment given the aftermath of rising costs and difficulty in getting products. Food chain disruptions and costs at all levels to stay in the restaurant business take a special and different individual. It is one of not the most difficult businesses to get into,” he stressed.
On the foreign exchange issue that continues to plague businesses, he highlighted that it continues to be a challenge.
“We are late in settling a lot of these payments much to the embarrassment of our suppliers This has also affected local distributors causing food shortages or supplies I suppose some have no choice but to transact on the black market for US$ with the result in rising costs due to a premium exchange rate It’s very difficult getting basic amounts to settle your import needs,” Chin revealed.
Shedding light on the issue as well as Trotters group CEO Peter George who said the impact crime is having on this country is bad.
“This has a twofold effect. From the business aspect, it has driven costs up even further as personnel costs have increased even during the day as has surveillance, monitoring, and response. From the human aspect, people simply are not coming out as much, and those who are, opt for early seatings. Generally, on a weekend, you would find most of our units are almost 75-80 per cent empty by 10pm. This is unprecedented and has the potential to cause severe disruption if not addressed. But we must be positive as a society and hope for the best. Hope is more powerful than effective policy, George lamented.
About the food courts, he said “These food courts were a natural byproduct of the 2 1/2 year aberration that was COVID. Consumer patterns change after six months. The rise of delivery, takeaway, grab-and-go, super convenience and even cooking at home is still having a permanent impact on the restaurant business. Yes, the food courts are a contributor.”
On how his restaurants are fearing the crunch of foreign exchange, George said “The forex situation is a challenge. Whenever an economic decision becomes a political one there is extreme perversion. People say T&T should have devalued its currency long ago but this is a death knell. The artificial protection of the dollar is the appropriate and responsible policy response in managing the economy until we find that massive hydrocarbon treasure. The current situation is quite manageable as we have significant reserves and import cover with little external debt.”