Hot Woks Noodle Bar Report

HW LOGO IN THE CENTRE

TIM CONSTABLE DIRECTOR

TIM CONSTABLE DIRECTOR/HEAD CHEF

Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 2 BRANDING ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Restaurant walk around ...................................................................................................................... 3 Logo ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 Wooden in shop logo sign............................................................................................................... 3 Interior ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Outside space ...................................................................................................................................... 5 MENU ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 MARKETING........................................................................................................................................... 13 Website and social media management........................................................................................... 13 Telephone marketing ........................................................................................................................ 13 Leafleting........................................................................................................................................... 13 Delivery ordering through online apps ............................................................................................. 13 Event Promotion ............................................................................................................................... 15 OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................. 16 SFBB Pack .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Stock.................................................................................................................................................. 16 Staff ................................................................................................................................................... 16 HUMAN RESOURCES ............................................................................................................................. 17 AWARDS ................................................................................................................................................ 18 Award 1 - Environmental Health (Food Hygiene Rating) .................................................................. 18 Award 2 - Walsall Council Environmental Health Switch Awards..................................................... 19 Award 3 - Best of Walsall Customer Feedback Award ...................................................................... 20 PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS................................................................................................................... 21 CLOSING STATEMENT ........................................................................................................................... 22 PHOTOGRAPHS ........................................................................................................................................ i Hot Woks Noodle Bar, Walsall – restaurant interior before and after ................................................ i Hot Woks Noodle Bar, Walsall – outside areas before and after ....................................................... ii

INTRODUCTION This is an informal report that covers the main aspects of the Hot Woks Noodle Bar business without going into too much detail thus giving the reader an understanding of how the business was formed and managed as well as the processes involved

Hot Woks Noodle Bar is a popular bar serving an array of tasty, healthy, fresh and fast delicious meals.

From the moment you step inside, you’re taken right to the heart of Bangkok’s buzzing street food scene. Here traditional recipes are served up fast and fresh in front of the customer using the pick of local and imported produce – creating an intoxicating blend of exotic sights, sounds and scents.

Inspired by unique flavours of the East, Hot Woks Noodle Bar is proud to offer a healthy alternative to the modern diet.

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BACKGROUND 

I have always had a love of all things oriental, from the language calligraphy to the architecture and the food and style of cooking.

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A few years back a few friends and I were sitting in a noodle bar abroad and the moment I experienced the fast, healthy style of cooking eaten out of American style noodle cups, I knew I would open my own place one day.

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I started by making homemade chicken chow mein for my children from an original recipe created by Chinese Chef Ching He Huang.

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I enjoyed this so much that I thought I could sell it and offer people a real chicken chow mein not the ones you get form the local takeaway and so I began the process of opening a shop. From the start I wanted everything to be designed and created by myself from the logo, interior design, exterior design, website, menu, sauces, everything! Food wise I didn’t want to buy anything in I wanted to cook everything from scratch just like I did with the chicken chow mein and the same had to be said about the interior design.

4.1 I couldn’t afford to pay someone else to design it; and 4.2 I would have felt uninvolved if I hadn’t taken on the challenge of designing the interior myself.

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BRANDING Restaurant walk around https://goo.gl/maps/6JAJKFd3JYm

I first did some research on the name Hot Woks to ensure I could use it and trademark it. The logo design for me was quite straight forward. I could have got a designer to create me something but after sitting down with a few designers in the early process it became obvious that they didn’t have the same vision as me so I designed it myself.

Logo I thought that as a logo it had to encapsulate everything into one strong image. So the Japanese rising sun had to feature in there along with the wok design underneath and including the chopsticks, steam and the wording “Hot Woks�, I was pretty much there. The colours were pretty straight forward red, black and gold are very strong oriental colours and work very well together. I tweaked it a little then after an hour or so I was happy enough with it and so registered it with the Intellectual Property Trademark Office.

Wooden in shop logo sign

Together with the normal logo that would go into marketing and outside sign materials, I decided to do something special for the interior under counter sign, so I had a friend of mine (who worked for a carpentry company) produce a hand cut wooden sign, cut out in the middle just behind the flames part of the logo so I could place a red light behind it. It gives off a real 3D effect and is a perfect centrepiece as customers walk in.

This hand made sign was also hand painted by myself. We have another unpainted version on the outside bar as shown in the accompanying photographs.

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Interior The interior design for me again was straight forward. Red and black were to be the main colours after trying out a few reds I came across a perfect blend that was not too bright nor overpowering and that matched perfectly with the black. I didn’t want to use too much black as I didn’t want the place to look dull and dingy, but I wanted it to look smart and when black is used correctly it can make any room look classy. Black and gold, for instance is a very provocative colour scheme and signifies opulence and luxury. Red and black for me signify something that is classy, serious with a bit of fun thrown in (a little bit like the business itself).

I could have used plain white tiles on the walls but I had to ensure the colour scheme flowed with every little detail covered and thought about, so I used black with red grout which again I matched to the colour of the red walls. This is very effective that doesn’t go unnoticed – I think everyone that has been into the shop mentions it. You can’t buy red grout very easily so we mixed white grout with a pigment, which we sourced online.

I wanted to use some sort of wall art in the interior so after some research I came across some city scape wall art pictures of Hong Kong with plenty of neon lights on show in them. These were bought off the internet and are huge, they came in rolls similar to wallpaper and you hang them up with glue. I wanted these to look like actual pictures hanging on the wall so to do that we built frames to go around them and painted these gloss black giving the effect of giant wall hangings and they were inexpensive, we have two of these mirroring each other on opposite sides of the walls.

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Outside space On the outside of the property there was a run down court yard leading to a large garden. From the moment I saw this space I knew I could utilise it and offer people a seating area (in the court yard) and event space in the garden area.

With the court yard space I opted for something simple but effective so we built a Japanese gazebo style structure painted brown and black with a black decked floor. For lighting I used Chinese hanging lanterns and string lights, for wall coverings I chose bamboo screens and for seating it would be rattan garden furniture finished off with a gas burner for heat. Simple but very effective.

The garden space would be a bit more of a challenge as it was a large space with an uneven ground.

Once I’d worked out what I wanted to do with space I started by decking half the floor space and adding under floor light to this for effect. At the top of the garden I wanted to grass this area but to keep maintenance to a minimum I opted for synthetic turf which is very effective. Then we built a DJ booth in the corner to enable music and lights to be added whenever needed to the space, a large bar followed by another gazebo style roof. This was built on the opposite side of the garden area all of which were painted the same colours as the court yard space to keep the flow consistent.

On the side wall was a huge blank space so I asked a friend to graffiti this area which a huge wall mural this is most definitely the “star of the show” and consists of four elements, earth, water, fire and air. The fire element I decided to be displayed as a huge fire breathing dragon with the “Hot Woks” logo in the centre of the painting. Video and pictures of this are shown in the link at the start of this section or on the website. I have also added a few “Before and After” pictures at the end of this report of the whole project including the garden space. We have used this space numerous times for private parties and in house events.

Outside area photographs are shown at the end of this report.

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MENU The menu was obviously the most important thing for me and the business, as this was fundamentally “Hot Woks”. I didn’t want it to be a “bog standard” Chinese takeaway and have never pretended to be, I have always tried to sell the brand as an oriental style noodle bar (homemade food with a Thai, Japanese and Chinese twist).

I now summarise the menu:      

Stage 1 – Choose your noodles Stage 2 – Choose your meat or vegetarian option Stage 3 – Choose your sauce Specials Sides Desserts Meal deal

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Hot Woks Noodle Bar Menu Stage 1 – Choose your noodles

Product Vermicelli noodles

Rice Ribbon noodles

Wheat noodles

Udon noodles Rice

Just vegetables

Description Meaning “little worms” in Italian, these were the first to be added. They are made out of rice so are naturally gluten free and eggless and so appeal to the vegetarian/vegan market.

Similar to Vermicelli in that they are also made of rice, but they are thicker and flat. These noodles are popular Thai noodles and predominately used in Pad Thai dishes.

These are Chinese noodles made of wheat and are similar to “egg” noodles minus the egg (these are the most popular noodles and the variety that people know the best).

These are Japanese wheat noodles and the thickest of the four types and are very popular.

I wanted to give people an alternative to noodles so I decided to put rice onto the menu and also wanted this option to be healthy so as well as white rice I added brown rice too.

For those that didn’t want any “carbs” this option was provided.

All of the Stage 1 choices come with vegetables which constitute 2 of your 5 a day.

Stage 2 – Choose your meat or vegetarian option

Chicken and beef

Chicken was obviously a favourite. We cooked the chicken by boiling it firstly then we would trim off any fat, bone, gristle and then shape it and cook it slowly in chicken stock to tenderise it for succulence as we did with the beef.

Quorn, King Prawn and tofu These menu items were bought in as they would not have been as cost effective to make ourselves.

Halal chicken Chosen to give customers the choice.

Mushrooms An added protein to choose from In this section of the menu I wanted to give people a few different options of protein to add to their dish. I wanted to be different to other food places out there by cooking and preparing these myself in front of the customer.

Products were sourced locally wherever possible, where this option wasn’t available we got these products imported.

Stage 2 of the menu was a multiplier option where people can choose any combination of the options to add to their dish. Similar to a pizza style business where you add to your toppings and pay accordingly.

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Hot Woks Noodle Bar Menu Stage 3 – Choose your sauce

Product Garlicky Spare Rib, Chinese BBQ Sauce, Black Bean, Sweet & Sour, Teriyaki, Sweet Chilli, Chinese Curry, Malaysian Spice, Pad Thai, Malay Laksa Curry, Singapore, Schezuan, Red, Red Hot Kung Po

Description Each sauce had a symbol on the menu indicating how hot it was. This was a scale between 1 and 5, 1 being not hot at all to 5 being very hot.

This section of the menu is the most important section as this is the flavour of the dish the customer creates. All the sauces I wanted to make myself as (1) it was cheaper than buying them in and (2) I knew the flavour would be totally unique and a real selling point and in my eyes the flavours are the business, they are Hot Woks. I wanted to appeal to all taste buds in Stage 3 and wanted a variety of flavours from “sweet” to “sour” to “savoury” to “spicy” and for those that were brave enough, “red hot tongue burning heat”.

We have 13 sauces to choose from, some of these like the black bean, sweet ‘n sour and Chinese curry are well known to most but I wanted to give people a choice of something new to try so I also added sauces like the Malaysian Spice and Malaysian Laksa and also my own twist on a Chinese sauce “Red Hot Kung Po”.

We originally started with only 7 sauces but as time went on the menu and the sauce options evolved. This part of the business for me is, and was, the most time-consuming element as each sauce had to be made from scratch and were made into 5 litre containers per sauce. I wanted to stay true to the healthy fresh idea that I could on this Stage along with trying to appeal to as many customers as I could so I chose not to add “MSG” or “Gluten” in most cases and also added no artificial additives or preservatives to any of the sauces, 80% of the sauces are also Vegan and vegetarian friendly.

Specials

In this section I wanted to give people the option to not have to create their own dish and to just choose something made for them. All of these options again are homemade with fresh healthy ingredients. This section is where I would place the “Chow Mein” that I mentioned at the start of this report. This dish still remains the best selling product on the menu.

Also to be added would be a Thai Panang curry, a hot Thai curry along with Japanese Raman soup and Thai fish cakes all of these I put onto this section to keep the Thai, Japanese, Chinese theme fluent on the menu.

This theme also carries on in the Sides section of the menu.

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Hot Woks Noodle Bar Menu Sides

Product Description Everybody loves finger food so I added 7 options of these to the sides part of the menu. Although I could and do make many of these items myself down to the quantity of these items we sell it worked out more time and cost effective to buy these in from a manufacturer. I do, however, add my own homemade seasoning to these items which most definitely takes them to a different level as the customers tell me.

Desserts

Again in this section I wanted to keep the flow of the menu consistent so where some people “companies” will just use the dessert options as a quick add on with not much thought behind it I wanted to be different. So after seeing a young Chinese entrepreneur on TV’s Dragon’s Den pitch her new Gluten Free and Vegan Friendly ice cream and sorbet range and win investment I decided to contact her “Yee Kwan” and become a supplier of her range. We sell a variety of her ice creams and sorbets which are very popular and extremely tasty.

Meal Deal

Finally on the menu I wanted to give the customer (mainly lunch time customers) the choice of a Meal Deal which is any regular box of noodles, any soft drink and a bag of prawn crackers for a price of £5.99 which is very popular

I gave people oriental noodle boxes/cups to take their food out with which enabled customers to eat on the move with or without chopsticks. The packaging was also branded with the Hot Woks log including street addresses, phone number etc.

The noodle cups were very popular and a lot of customers chose to eat in-house eating from these cardboard food boxes rather than normal tableware.

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MARKETING Website and social media management https://www.facebook.com/bestnoodlebar/ http://hotwoksnoodlebar.co.uk/

Via the Facebook page we would regularly target customers using the Boost Capability Option, this targets customers in any specified area you choose to either “Like” your page (where you can also add offers, photos or videos to attract) or ring for orders via the “Call Now” button on the page. We gained over 2,500 likes, many of which were off the back of this process. Anytime the business had any events or new items on the menu we could then “blanket” promote to all of these customers (“Likes”) and in return they would “Share” these promotions to many of their friends, therefore increasing the number of views of this promotion.

Using this same method we could attract people to the website thus increasing our web search “Clicks” increasing at the same time our google ranking. We are currently Top Search when people search “noodle bars” in the Walsall area.

Telephone marketing We undertook a few telephone marketing campaigns where we would call (after researching) local businesses offering them menus/lunchtime offers/discounts etc or just to tell them a little about ourselves. This proved very valuable in getting large orders as many of those businesses had large groups of people working in them.

Leafleting This part of the marketing involved a lot of leg work and does not need much explanation. We would map out areas of residential dwellings and offices, shops etc and go door-to-door either posting menus, or in the case of the offices/shops we would offer them menus face-to-face which also gave us the perfect opportunity to introduce the business to them and explain the menu to them a bit more with further detail.

Delivery ordering through online apps We offered delivery to customers either residential or commercial, the latter would be mainly lunchtime orders and the former evening orders. Customers ordered online via Hungry House or

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One Delivery. We marketed this through the Facebook promotion mentioned at the beginning of the Marketing section.

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Event Promotion https://www.facebook.com/bestnoodlebar/videos/vb.1380422085613674/1868682470120964/?typ e=2&theater

With the large garden/bar area we built this with the purpose of holding private functions/events for the general public. To market this area we would use the same techniques as stated earlier alongside large window pictures in the shop front to attract passing trade.

On our first booking for this space we hired videographers to document this event with the purpose of using this in further promotional material to sell the space to potential customers. To have a video of the space being used proved extremely useful to us as this video can be used time and time again on social media/TV screens in house etc at no additional price. Also social media such as Facebook love video as moving images with sound and graphics can say so much more than any leaflet can. This video can be found on our Facebook page through the link above.

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OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT SFBB Pack Operational management at the start of any given day would start with opening checks in conjunction with the SFBB Pack (“Safer Food Better Business”) that any small food business “must” own and have fully completed at the very start of the business opening.

This is fundamentally a diary of the business activities, health and safety practices and food hygiene methods undertaken daily.

It is also used for reference material and a training pack for any new employees. When Council inspectors visit to inspect the premises they will expect to see this material and award you a Food Hygiene Rating between 0 and 5 based on the information you have provided along with the cleanliness, structural state of the work space, management of staff and how the shop is run and general knowledge. We have been rated 5 twice in a row. Cleaning and daily checks would be done every evening and first thing in the morning and documented.

Stock Portion control was managed through weighing each item and portioning up to specific guidelines per item to ensure there was next to no wastage and so we could see exactly what we had very easily in the fridges at any given time. Food was also labelled up so we were aware of its “use by” date. Following the processes of “Just in Time” stock control management we bought what we needed based on sales forecasts Food preparation and storage including stock control are also very important when adhering to any safe method practices. So daily checks on all stock would be made including putting date dots on any food stored in the fridge as well as applying the FIFO method,(“First In First Out”).

Stock would be brought fresh from locally sourced small businesses by ourselves, as mentioned earlier in this report, everything we sold wherever possible was hand made.

Staff All staff including till staff were asked to obtain a Level 2 Food Safety Certificate to show their competence when working with food, they would then have to go through the SFBB pack with myself to show in practice they understood the business correctly.

Staff rotas were in place so shifts were the same everyday. A PAYE system was set up and staff hours worked were sent over for processing. Wages paid through BACS transfers were fortnightly with payslips sent by email.

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HUMAN RESOURCES I managed Hot Woks in line with the Working Time Directive where staff were given the required amount of break time. Staff training involved working with staff on serving customers at the tables and taking orders at the counter.

I also trained all staff to cook on the wok cooker and how to use all equipment in the kitchen.

Staff were trained on cleaning procedures in all areas of the restaurant including toilets and garden areas.

I took into account Equal Opportunities in Employment and employed both men and women as well as employing members of staff from different countries.

Staff were made aware of safe handling techniques in lifting and basic health and safety requirements such as the timely cleaning up of any spillages and safe usage and storage of sharp and dangerous instruments.

All staff members were trained up to Level 2 Food Safety in catering and held an up to date Certificate.

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AWARDS Award 1 - Environmental Health (Food Hygiene Rating) We were awarded a Rating of 5 two years in a row from Walsall Council. This is the top rating any restaurant can be awarded. A copy of the most recent inspection and rating awarded follows.

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Award 2 - Walsall Council Environmental Health Switch Awards Gold Award received Environmental Health Officers in collaboration with the Public Health Service at Walsall Council have created a new healthy eating awards scheme for hot food takeaway businesses in a bid to help tackle obesity in the borough.

Businesses are invited to take part in the Health Switch Awards Scheme where they are asked to provide low fat, low sugar and low salt alternatives on their menus to give customers the option to eat more healthily.

Takeaways that meet the criteria for the Bronze, Silver or Gold Award will be rewarded with a certificate to display on their premises.

The award scheme aims to work with the business to identify changes that it could make to the choice of food and make it more healthy whilst widening the appeal to customers who are becoming increasingly health conscious.

All the criteria in the scheme has been designed to be as low cost as possible or no cost to implement.

The scheme is open to hot food takeaways which have a 4 or 5 Food Hygiene rating score and they are asked to provide healthy alternatives on their menus in order to give customers the option to eat more healthy.

Leader of Walsall Council, councillor Mike Bird, said: “Hot food takeaways could make a huge contribution towards improving their customers' overall diet, and ultimately their health through making simple changes to their menus, ingredients and how they prepare and cook food that they sell.

“It can be simple things like offering water as an alternative to fizzy drinks to changing ingredients to offer low fat/sugar and/ or salt alternatives.

“Obesity is on the increase both in Walsall and across the country and this scheme aims to help address the problem and encourage people to eat healthier foods,” he added.

To be eligible to participate in the award, your premises must satisfy the following criteria:   

You must attain a score of 5 (Very Good) or 4 (Good) on the National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme; There must be no statutory nuisance arising from or actively being investigated from the premise; Trading Standards / Environmental Health must not be investigating any complaints against your business in relation to food standards / food safety.

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Award 3 - Best of Walsall Customer Feedback Award Gold Award received

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PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS From the beginning of the whole process of starting my own food business I have been 100% involved in every single aspect of running and building it. I had no experience in running a restaurant before this or employing staff or for that matter cooking for any member of the public apart from my family.

So to say I’ve learnt a lot and grown as an individual is an understatement. I wanted to learn as much as I could and be the best at what I did and learn things along the way, all of which I feel l have achieved.

I have made mistakes as anyone would going into a new business with only an idea to start with, but off the back of turning that idea into a viable reality and being offered investment off the back of that idea to open a second shop for me, that was a personal achievement in itself.

Coupled with that I have met, employed and cooked for some amazing people whilst doing this job and also have had the pleasure of training people with no cooking experience to cook food and to be confident in front of strangers and to believe in themselves and to grow as individuals, all of which are personal achievements for me.

One key moment for me that stands out was a time we had a party of 150 people and I had to cook 150 portions of food one after another. As well as hosting the party with only two other staff members to help me, one on the till and drinks and the other in the kitchen and on food prep. Both members of staff doubted they would manage the pure volume of customers in such a short space of time. They pulled it off and did me proud and at the same time learnt a few things about themselves, not to mention impressing the customers whose party it was. For me and the two members of staff that was a personal achievement.

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CLOSING STATEMENT In a very short space of time with me and the team giving it our all we got this start up brand off the ground and achieved 3 awards in our first 18 months, not to mention 250+ 5 Star customer reviews.

If you want something in life and you have the drive, creativity, determination, desire and hunger to go and get it, then you can do anything! It might not always work but if people went through life without trying something new through fear of failure the planet would have stopped evolving a long time ago. For me this particular project didn’t work out or get me to where I wanted to be, but at the same time I made a difference to myself and to other people for good, so it was worth it.

I could have gone into a lot more detail in this report and really dug into every aspect of the business but I chose to keep it short and fairly easy to read and just give people an insight. I hope you enjoy reading and learning something about my little noodle bar called “Hot Woks”.

To be continued …

Tim Constable Managing Director and Head Chef

https://www.facebook.com/bestnoodlebar/ http://hotwoksnoodlebar.co.uk/

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PHOTOGRAPHS Hot Woks Noodle Bar, Walsall – restaurant interior before and after

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Hot Woks Noodle Bar, Walsall – outside areas before and after

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