Jacqueline Audet makes an avocado and cucumber roll at Sushi Go on Bank Street.
While some traditional, independently owned, sit-down restaurants serving ethnic cuisine in Centretown are considering quitting the business because of higher costs, their fast-food counterparts are expanding in the Ottawa region.
Nazrul Rahman, chef and owner of Basmati Indian Cuisine, an independent sit-down restaurant at 373 Somerset St. in Centretown, says traditional restaurants have shouldered additional costs since the increase in the minimum wage last March as well as the rising cost of ingredients.
He says many restaurants have been reluctant to pass on these expenses to customers for fear it will alienate their regular clientele. He says he knows four friends who run traditional restaurant businesses in the area that are considering selling their restaurants because they are having trouble keeping costs down and profits up.
Rahman credits the increased popularity of ethnic fast-food restaurants among restaurant owners to the lower overhead costs. Fast-food restaurants do not require waiters, greeters and other staff that traditional restaurants usually have. Also, the head office generally handles advertising and promotion.
Tandori Indian Cuisine, located in the Billings Bridge mall, is the newest fast-food franchise to serve ethnic food in the capital.
Janice Chow, Tandori’s manager, says it’s about time Ottawa had an Indian fast-food restaurant. While the chain has been operating in Montreal since 2007, it has only been in Ottawa since Jan. 4. However, the new restaurant has consistently drawn about 300 customers per day and Chow says profits are 40 per cent higher than expected. “This is a new concept, but we’ve been giving out samples and we’ve heard a lot of positive feedback, better than any other Indian restaurant,” she says.
Rahman admits that his sales have not been as steady. He says business is slow this time of year for traditional restaurants because there are usually fewer tourists and holiday expenses have decreased most people’s disposable income.
Revenue “goes up and down,” he says. “Some days I make $700, some days $200, some days $400, some days $800. It is hard, right now.” Rahman says he keeps his cost down by playing the role of server, chef, manager and owner at his restaurant.
Despite the competition, Rahman says he does not feel he will lose business to Tandori or other ethnic fast-food restaurants.
“I have my own style, my own way of cooking food. I have customers who love what I do,” he says. “Even in Ottawa if you look at the rest of the restaurants, they don’t have what I serve on their menus.”
MTY Food Group Inc. is a Quebec-based corporation, which owns the Tandori franchise and operates 25 different food franchises including another ethnic fast-food restaurant in Ottawa, Thai Express.
It costs from $30,000 to $40,000 to buy into the Tandori or Thai Express franchise and it usually requires a total investment of $175,000 to $500,000 depending on location and equipment costs.
Dennis Ng, vice-president for Thai Express, says the costs are worth it. Thai Express has four locations in Ottawa including one in Centretown in the World Exchange Plaza at 45 O’Connor St., and according to Ng all of the locations in Ottawa are generating profits.
Ng says the company is seeking to open three or four more Thai Express restaurants in Ottawa, one of which will open at the Billings Bridge shopping centre in a few months. Ng says having Thai Express restaurants in Ottawa has been a natural progression since the market wasn’t already saturated with traditional or fast-food Thai restaurants. Ng credits Thai Express, in part, for making Thai food mainstream.
“Five years ago if you mentioned pad thai to someone they wouldn’t have known what it was but now it is on its way to becoming a staple food,” Ng says.
Jacqueline Audet, kitchen manager for Sushi Go, another successful ethnic fast-food franchise, says she agrees. Audet says chains that serve ethnic cuisine make food from other cultures accessible to people who normally wouldn’t have tried it.
“I would never have gone out for Friday night sushi with my family,” Audet says. “But you now have kids that come in and it’s being introduced to a whole new audience,” she says.
Sushi Go has four locations in the capital region including one at 340 Albert St. in Centretown and another location on Bank Street in the Glebe.
It costs $25,000 to buy into the Sushi Go franchise and the restaurant requires an initial investment of about $250,000 to $300,000.
Jean-Francois Dubé, a spokesperson for MTY says their restaurants will expand in the capital and will even offer new ethnic fast-food concepts in the future.
“They’re always seeking for new inventions and new products. As long as you can fit it in with what you already offer to the public,” he says. “The company has been in a position where it generates a lot of cash, there is lots of cash flow involved in their business, so they’re always seeking new banners.”