Restaurants Faced a Choice:Adapt or Die

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Like many restaurateurs who focus on fresh pasta,Alida Solomon found that long strands of fresh,delicate noodles quickly congealed into clumps within delivery containers.It was clear that she needed to do more than transition her menu to off-premise sales by shovelling tagliatelle into the back seat of an Uber.

與許多主推新鮮的意大利面食的餐館老板一樣，阿莉達·所羅門也發(fā)現(xiàn)，剛剛煮好的可口長面條放入外賣餐盒會馬上變坨。顯然，要想把店內(nèi)菜品轉(zhuǎn)型成外賣，她不能簡單地把扁面條塞到優(yōu)步送餐車的后座了事。

2 So,last year,the chef and owner of Tutti Matti in Toronto invested in an extruding machine to produce sturdier pastas such as canestri,rigatoni,bucatini and conchiglie.She also converted the dining area near the window into a retail space dominated by a standup display freezer for gelato; the tables were devoted to farmers’ market produce and baked goods.“The market makes me happy,” she says.“Because I get to share my obsession with seasonal vegetables.”

2 因此，身為多倫多圖蒂·馬蒂餐廳主廚和老板的她在2020年買了臺壓面機，用于制作更耐放的意大利面（比如蝸牛殼面、短管空心面、吸管面、貝殼面）。她還把靠窗的用餐區(qū)改造成了零售區(qū)，那里放著立式冰柜，展示意大利冰淇淋，桌上擺滿來自農(nóng)貿(mào)市場的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品和烘焙食品。“我喜歡農(nóng)貿(mào)市場。”她說，“因為我和那里的人一樣極愛時令蔬菜。”

3 When COVID-19 forced restaurant owners around the world to suspend dine-in service,they had a choice: adapt or die.So they threw every idea at the wall: meal kits,frozen foods,wine from their curated lists (in jurisdictions that relaxed alcohol laws),virtual cooking classes and subscriptions for ice cream or pizza.Even Earls,a national restaurant chain,started selling groceries.

3 受新冠疫情影響，世界各地的餐飲業(yè)主只好暫停堂食，他們要做出選擇：適應變化，還是關(guān)門大吉。因此，他們想盡辦法做出種種嘗試：預制料理包、速凍食品、精選酒單（僅限放寬限酒令的轄區(qū)）、虛擬烹飪課程，還有冰淇淋和比薩餅的訂購服務。就連加拿大全國連鎖的厄爾斯餐廳都賣起了食品雜貨。

4 Most restaurateurs emphasized that packing their cuisine into plastic cylinders was not what they got into business for,and they couldn’t wait to provide a dining experience again.Now that they are able to do so,which of the past year’s necessary adaptations will they retain and what will be jettisoned?

4 大多數(shù)餐飲業(yè)主都強調(diào)一點，他們開餐廳的目的不是把美食裝到塑料桶里，因此，大家熱切期盼再度為食客提供用餐體驗。既然現(xiàn)在餐廳開放了，在過去一年的必要調(diào)整中，有哪些做法會被保留，又有哪些會被拋棄呢？

5 In Montreal,Emma Cardarelli couldn’t wait to get rid of takeout and delivery at her restaurant Nora Gray.She did as soon as patio service resumed.“The experience we give,the level of service and the quality of food:this is something that only translates in the dining room,” says Cardarelli.“That’s our brand and how we made our reputation.”

5 埃瑪·卡爾達雷利在蒙特利爾經(jīng)營一家名為諾拉·格雷的餐廳，她同樣急于擺脫外賣和送餐服務。露天用餐一經(jīng)恢復，她就立刻停掉了外送業(yè)務。“只有在餐廳里，才能為客人提供優(yōu)質(zhì)的用餐體驗、高水平的服務和高質(zhì)量的餐品。”卡爾達雷利說，“這是餐廳的品牌，我們是這樣做出口碑的。”

6 While meal kits (such as whole roasted sea bream with black rice alla puttanesca,garlic brown butter and caper sauce)were a big part of Nora Gray’s survival over the past year,their production took up too much of the kitchen,and the staff’s time,to co-exist with restaurant service.

6 盡管諾拉·格雷餐廳在2020年主要靠銷售預制料理包（比如整烤鯛魚配多味意大利醬汁拌黑米、蒜味褐色黃油和刺山柑醬）維系生意，但制作料理包不但占用過多廚房空間，還耗掉員工大量時間，因此與堂食無法共存。

7 Cardarelli’s other restaurant,the more casual Elena,however,is continuing not just with takeout and delivery,but with a basement café transformed into a retail area with jars of tomato sauce,hot chili oil,honey,Caesar dressing and frozen pizzas.Some of Elena’s products are available through Brunette,a website that distributes sauces,oils,T-shirts and other merch from independent restaurants,mostly based in Montreal,New York and Toronto.

7 不過，在卡爾達雷利開的另一家名為埃萊娜的餐廳里，用餐氛圍更為隨意，那里不僅繼續(xù)提供外賣和送餐服務，還把地下用餐區(qū)改造成零售區(qū)，擺放罐裝的番茄醬、辣椒油、蜂蜜、凱撒醬和冷凍披薩。埃萊娜餐廳的部分零售產(chǎn)品還放到布魯內(nèi)特網(wǎng)站銷售。該網(wǎng)站銷售的醬料、食用油、T 恤衫等商品，都由獨立經(jīng)營的餐廳供貨，這類餐廳大多位于蒙特利爾、紐約和多倫多。

8 Ideally,a restaurant could grow its retail revenue stream beyond niche distribution to land their sauces on supermarket shelves.But scaling up production requires outsourcing.The arrangement,in which a third party mass-produces a customized version of your food and then adds your business label (for example,everything on the shelves at Trader Joe’s),is known as co-packing.The manufacturing side of food can be lucrative.But restaurants face challenges—testing recipes with the co-packer,haggling over the source of ingredients to keep costs down—to maintain quality.

8 對餐廳來說，理想的情況是在專營市場銷售之外打開零售收益渠道，讓自家的醬料登上超市的貨架。但是，擴大生產(chǎn)規(guī)模要通過外包來實現(xiàn)，由第三方批量生產(chǎn)餐廳定制的食品，再貼上餐廳的標簽（比如喬氏超市的所有產(chǎn)品），這種模式稱為代工生產(chǎn)。食品的生產(chǎn)方可能獲得豐厚利潤，但對餐廳來說，難點在于質(zhì)量保障，不但要與合作企業(yè)一同測試食譜，還要為了降低成本在原料源頭方面討價還價。

9 “Restaurants are small businesses.Inherently,they’re not very strategic,”says Bruce McAdams,hospitality professor at the University of Guelph.“I think most [of them] are going to drift back to their core business.”

9 “經(jīng)營餐廳是小本生意，從根本上講，它們不太具備戰(zhàn)略優(yōu)勢。”加拿大圭爾夫大學酒店管理系的教授布魯斯·麥克亞當斯說，“我認為大多數(shù)（餐廳）會回歸到它們的核心業(yè)務。”

10 But McAdams does see some features of that business shifting.“One of the things diners may have been lulled intoaccepting is smaller menus,” he says.In fact,that’s been happening over the past few years as restaurants have grappled with higher wages and a kitchen labour shortage that was a problem long before the pandemic.

10 但是，麥克亞當斯確實發(fā)現(xiàn)，餐飲業(yè)的某些特點在發(fā)生變化。“菜品縮水是變化之一，顧客可能毫無察覺地接受了。”他說。事實上，這種趨勢在前幾年一直存在，遠在疫情爆發(fā)之前，餐飲業(yè)主就在努力解決工資增長和廚房人手短缺的問題。

11 Many restaurateurs also say a small victory in the last year has been the willingness of diners to adapt to digital ordering,not just for pickup and delivery,but within the restaurant.Vince Sgabellone,Canadian food-service analyst with the NPD Group,a market research firm,believes this,too,will survive the pandemic.“Which is wonderful on a number of levels for the restaurateur and the consumer.”

11 許多餐飲業(yè)主還表示，2020年一個小小的進步就是網(wǎng)上點餐的推廣，不只是外賣和送餐，堂食的客人也愿意網(wǎng)上點菜。市場調(diào)查公司NPD集團的加拿大餐飲服務分析師溫切·斯加貝洛內(nèi)認為，疫情結(jié)束后，人們還是會在網(wǎng)上點餐。“對餐館老板和消費者而言，這種模式優(yōu)點多多。”

12 No one likes waiting to order when they’re hungry or for the bill when they’re done.Ordering and paying through a tablet or phone streamlines the dining experience for the customer.Restaurants can also operate with fewer staff—an essential need in this labour market.

12 沒有人愿意在饑腸轆轆的時候排隊點餐，也沒有人喜歡餐后等姍姍來遲的賬單。通過平板電腦或手機點餐結(jié)賬，簡化了流程，提高了用餐體驗。餐廳也得以解決人手不足的問題——在餐飲業(yè)勞動力市場，人手必不可少。

13 Those who plan on continuing their businesses as some amalgam of restaurant and general store are doing it not merely because they have enough capacity to devote space to sales that happen outside peak dining hours,but because the practice has forged a deeper connection with the community.For some,being a place to buy bread on a day when hour-long queues snaked around the supermarket block made their business more integral to their neighbourhoods and more personal in the lives of their customers.

13 打算繼續(xù)兼營餐廳和雜貨的業(yè)主，自有其理由。他們不僅有能力調(diào)配餐廳空間，保證用餐高峰時段以外的零售業(yè)務，而且他們已經(jīng)通過這種方式，與社區(qū)人群建立了更深層次的聯(lián)系。對一些餐飲業(yè)主來說，人們不用在街區(qū)的超市門口排隊一小時，在他們店里就能買到面包，這樣他們的生意對社區(qū)來說會更加不可或缺，與顧客的生活也更密切。

14 Solomon,for example,sees less money from retailing than dining.But she plans to stick with the hybrid.“This is now a part of who we are,” she says.■

14 拿所羅門的餐廳來說，盡管零售收入比不上餐飲收入，她仍然決定要兼顧兩頭。她說：“混合模式現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成為我們品牌的一部分了。” □