Chapter 99
The tea restaurant next to the market changed its owner, renovated, and closed for a few days.
Ah Bao passed by the tea restaurant that was blocked by fences and saw a piece of red paper taped to the wall:
[Opening on Friday, 20% off on the day, free gifts, looking forward to your visit]
She stopped and stared at the ink for three seconds, wondering whether she should patronize the store.
20% off. Restaurants here rarely offer discounts, and there are gifts to give away, so it feels very affordable.
It just so happened that she received her first salary after changing her job, so she came to give it a try after get off work on Friday, just as a celebration for herself.
Friday was a busy day as usual. As a clerk in a cubicle in a tall office building, Abao had to deal with many things.
But when he thought about rewarding himself to the newly renovated restaurant after get off work, Abao's heart, which was occupied by work, would relax a little.
Just wait until the end of the work day so that you can have delicious food, she told herself.
Finally, there was only half an hour left before the end of the work day. The manager suddenly came over and asked with a smile: "Abao, you have been working for a month, do you want to celebrate and have dinner together?"
"Great." Another colleague cheered.
It was hard to refuse the invitation, but he was also worried about having to pay for the meal. After a moment of hesitation, A-Bao said, "I know there's a new store nearby. Why don't we go try it?"
Naturally no one disagrees.
The three of them simply packed up their things and followed Abao to the newly opened "Feng Cha Ji".
My colleague originally frowned, not knowing what old tea restaurant they would go to. He preferred the restaurants attached to shopping malls, which were more modern.
However, after walking for a while, I suddenly saw a dozen flower baskets lined up on the narrow street. Each bunch of flowers was extremely beautiful, and the color combination was impeccable. My colleague's expression eased a little.
These flower baskets for congratulating the opening of the restaurant look very valuable at first glance. It seems that this restaurant has some financial strength.
On the first day of opening, there were so many customers that we had to wait for a table.
A waiter in a uniform blue work uniform was guiding them outside. When he saw A-Bao and his group, he asked, "How many people are there?"
“Three.”
"Okay, No. 7, you'll have to wait about half an hour."
"We still have to wait." A colleague muttered somewhat dissatisfiedly.
The next second, three packs of snacks were handed over. "Sorry, we have to ask you to wait a little longer. These are the snacks we give away for free when we open our store. You can have some first."
Free snacks while waiting for a table? This is rare in today's street restaurants.
Since my colleague had already accepted the free snacks given by others, he had no choice but to give up.
A-bao also got a bag. He looked down and saw that the packaging was bright red, which looked very festive. He turned it over and saw the words "Fa Cai Candy" written on the packaging bag, and another line of small words "Xing Shi Ji Food" at the bottom.
The manager adjusted his glasses and said with a smile, "You really know how to please the lucky ones. Fortune candy, haha."
Abao also laughed, peeled off the candy wrapper and tried it. The taste was ordinary, but the packaging was interesting.
The manager said to the waiter, "Can you give me two more fortune candies? I'll take them back to show my colleagues."
"Okay." The waiter handed over two pills with a smile, "This customer, if you like, you can buy them separately, and the price will also be included in the opening discount."
As he spoke, he pointed to the flower basket placed next to the store door. There was a small glass counter set up along the street, and a few bamboo baskets were placed on the wooden board, with a lot of snacks placed inside, such as fortune candies and fortune cakes. Inside the glass window, there were packaged goods wrapped in exquisite small paper boxes, which could be bought and taken away.
"Are these snacks from yours too?" The manager walked over curiously and picked up a pack of biscuits to take a look. They all had the words "Xingshiji" written on them.
The waiter nodded: "Yes, it is produced in our own factory."
"You still have a factory?" The manager was surprised. "Of course."
A colleague came over and said, "The owner of this shop seems to have some money. Manager, do you want to buy some snacks?"
"Yes, it looks more auspicious if it is placed at the front desk of the company."
Since he was free anyway, he might as well find something to do. The manager picked up snacks with great interest, and after flipping through them, he found that there were quite a lot of things, including instant noodles the size of a palm!
Instant noodles of this size are not convenient to make. A clerk next to him brought a tray of new samples. The manager tried it and found that it was the kind that can be eaten dry. It was sprinkled with pepper and salt seasoning, and it tasted crunchy and full of fragrance.
I didn’t know which one to buy, so I simply picked an assorted gift pack, which contained several snacks at a very affordable price.
The snacks were chosen and the seats for Po and the others were arranged.
The walls inside the restaurant have been repainted in a light turmeric color, which looks warm and stylish.
There was also a small white porcelain vase next to the table, with pink roses in it. A Bao couldn't help but sigh, this is completely different from the greasy and rustic tea restaurant in the past. Just looking at this extremely stylish decoration, I'm afraid some people would believe it's a coffee shop.
The waiter handed over a menu, which was a printed menu in a brown leather case. The dessert he highly recommended was called Lava French Toast, which cost 6 dollars.
If you get a 20% discount and add a drink, it will cost about 7 dollars.
Po looked around and decisively chose this one: "Give me a lava French toast, thank you."
The manager and colleagues also ordered their meals.
A colleague said: "I used to think that it might be okay to open a shop in a street market like this with that kind of smell, but the dirty old shop now looks very modern."
"Indeed," the manager nodded, "We can also learn from this when doing business. Now everyone likes this kind of style."
The food was served quite quickly. We were chatting casually and within ten minutes, the dishes started to be served one after another.
What Abao was most concerned about was the lava French toast.
French toast is often eaten, but what does lava sand mean?
This dish was served on a huge white porcelain plate. The manager laughed and said, "This plate is just like the one in a Michelin restaurant."
“It’s fancy,” a colleague judged, “but I don’t know how it tastes.”
A Bao took the knife and fork, cut a small hole in the French toast, and the sauce immediately flowed out.
She tasted a little and said, "It tastes good. Do you want to try it?"
The manager and colleagues also tried some and they all said it was good.
There was an endless stream of guests like Abao and his group. Fortunately, some temporary waiters were hired and the team was able to barely keep up. However, at seven o'clock in the afternoon, Feng Jun had to come out and apologize to the guests waiting outside.
"I'm sorry, we've basically run out of ingredients for today."
The situation was finally brought under control by giving each of the guests who had already taken a number an additional 10% discount coupon and some snacks as compensation.
They urgently stocked up on goods overnight, and even temporarily found a cross-border driver to bring a truckload of goods from Pengcheng City, just to meet the needs of the first week of opening.
The rewards for being busy are also rich. After three weeks of opening, the turnover exceeded 10,000 yuan.
Some food magazines and newspapers also published news about the innovative dishes.
In less than a month, Fengchaji had made back all its costs.
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