Chapter 430: Shares in the Restaurant

Xia Juanjuan estimated the construction period and planned to wait until October before officially opening.

Five months were left for renovation and recruiting master partners.

To run a two-story old-fashioned restaurant, it is not like running a snack bar where you just need to hire a chef and someone to take charge of the restaurant, or simply run a salty restaurant where the owner is the only one in the business.

This restaurant has two floors and can accommodate about thirty tables.

Not to mention being full, even if the occupancy rate was 50%, that would still mean 15 tables of guests waiting for their food at the same time.

If you only find a chef, he may die of exhaustion but still not be able to come in time.

Moreover, each customer is different and the types of dishes they order are certainly different. No matter how great a chef is, it is impossible for him to be proficient in all kinds of dishes.

After sorting out the timeline of what to do next and when, Xia Juanjuan began to arrange the repairs.

In order to find a wooden structure architect and carpenter, Xia Juanjuan directly contacted professors of relevant majors through the Department of Architecture of National Tsinghua University next door.

Of course, I didn't ask the professor to repair it, but through the professor, I got to know many professional folk craftsmen in this field.

Another one was introduced by Qi Jiaan.

He was the young master of Yuanxiangju. He was not yet born when the building was built, but he still remembered several of the craftsmen who built the building. Even if the elders were gone, the younger generations might have inherited the business.

Xia Juanjuan visited in person to invite them.

Yuanxiangju was quite famous in its day, so when many veteran craftsmen heard that they were going to renovate the building, they readily agreed, and many even generously said they did not want to be paid.

However, Xia Juanjuan will still give it to everyone.

After finding the professional craftsmen, Xia Juanjuan took out the various required woods from the space according to their requirements, and left the rest to them.

The most important job as the chef is Qi Jiaan.

The most important thing for a hotel is the chef. If the food is not tasty, then no matter how good the location is or how luxurious the decoration is, it will not attract customers.

After all, Qi Jia'an used to be the young master of Yuanxiang Bureau, so he would be familiar with the older generation of master chefs.

The masters can also give him face.

Some of those master chefs are now working as chefs in state-owned hotels, while others are just staying at home.

If a young woman like Xia Juanjuan were to hire them, even if they were paid, those skilled masters would probably not buy into the deal.

Of course, Xia Juanjuan didn't intend to let Qi Jia'an help in vain.

She was thinking that when the restaurant opened, it would be turned into a joint-stock company and a portion of the shares would be allocated to the Qi family.

After all, Yuan Xiang Ju was originally the signature restaurant of Qi's Restaurant, which is also a time-honored brand. This is similar to borrowing someone else's famous trademark brand, and you also have to pay a brand usage fee.

Long before the renovation began, Xia Juanjuan had already spoken seriously to Qi Jiaan about the shares.

"Uncle Qi, the district agreed to rent the restaurant to me this time, 90% of it is thanks to you, Uncle Qi. Now, the name of the restaurant will continue to be the original name of the Qi Family Restaurant, Yuanxiangju. Later, I also have a lot of things that I need to ask Uncle Qi for advice. So, my idea for this restaurant is that Uncle Qi will own 10% of the shares, which is considered the signboard of Yuanxiangju, and Uncle Qi's share for his help. The remaining 90% is mine. I will pay for the renovation of the restaurant, recruitment of employees, and purchase of ingredients. What do you think, Uncle Qi?"

Qi Jiaan tried to refuse at first.

However, Xia Juanjuan insisted, so Qi Jiaan agreed.

He couldn't help but admire Xia Juanjuan in his heart.

The Qi family acquired 10% of the shares without spending a penny, and will be able to receive dividends every year in the future.

As the young master of a large restaurant in the past, he knew a thing or two about these business matters.

In this way, even if I am no longer around in the future, unless the restaurant goes bankrupt, my daughter will not have to worry about having no livelihood.

He was so enthusiastic in asking, in fact, it was also to thank Xia Juanjuan for her help to him and his daughter in the past two years. On the other hand, the restaurant was no longer in his hands. If he could really reopen it, even if it was no longer under the Qi name, he would feel more at ease to see the name of Yuanxiangju re-established.

Unexpectedly, Xia Juanjuan would take the initiative to give him shares.

Therefore, he naturally worked harder to visit his former masters and invite them to come back to Yuanxiangju.

In order to give face to the former young master of the Qi family and to give Xia Juanjuan a good salary, the master who had retired and closed his doors to guests agreed to come back. Even those who worked in the state-owned hotel could not help but feel shaken.

However, no one knew what would happen to the privately-owned hotels in the future, so in the end, one of the chefs from the state-owned hotels agreed to resign and return to Far Fragrance Hotel.

In this way, we have a master chef who is good at pasta, a master chef who is good at Shandong cuisine, and a master chef who is good at Hunan cuisine.

As for the assistant chefs and cooks, Xia Juanjuan pays two people per job, so people in the same industry can hire similar people after asking.

In order to make it easier for the chef to operate, Xia Juanjuan doubled the size of the kitchen, so that the stoves would not clash with each other and there would be no smell.

Xia Juanjuan plans to recruit waiters in the lobby herself. She will post a job notice downstairs and it should be easy to find them.

However, there are still several months before the opening, so Xia Juanjuan is not in a hurry in this regard.

Over at the clothing store, Xia Juanjuan hired a young girl to work there for 20 yuan a month, but with commissions, she can make 30 to 40 yuan a month.

In June, Xia Juanjuan took the refrigerator out of the space and gave one to her family and one to the Fu family.

In addition, of the five refrigerators I got from Chen Rongsheng the second time, I kept one and gave it to Fu Nanzheng's family.

Yue Sizhu had been pregnant for almost eight months and was about to give birth, so it would be good to have a refrigerator at home. Fu Nanzheng did not refuse, but still gave her the money as usual.

The kids at home were overjoyed.

This refrigerator can be used to freeze popsicles. When summer comes, won’t there be more popsicles than you can finish?

In the following time, Xia Juanjuan put more energy into studying and did not go to Guangzhou or the county town much.

Lizhan was also busy with training, and sometimes he even lived directly in school or the army. He also said that he might need to go on a mission in July and would not be at home for a month.

Xia Juanjuan thought about it and realized that the two of them had not had a good talk for a long time.

However, Li Zhan is busy, and she is busy too, so there is nothing we can do for now. We can only wait until after August.