Nanjing's Studio 21: An Autopsy of a Dead Dutch Restaurant
Running a successful restaurant is a rough business, and most are doomed for failure. I was reminded of this recently while I was rummaging through my photo archive. I came across some pics of Studio 21 in Nanjing. I had eaten here two years ago, and I had to smile, because this places wore it's Dutchness on its sleeve. The exterior walls were painted with tulips and windmills. There was even a river stone painted like the flag of the Netherlands. The owner wasn't Chinese and hailed from Holland. I smiled looking at these pictures, because I have very, very fond memories of The Netherlands. This was back in the 1990's when the USA had an air force base in Soesterberg, which was just between the cities of Utrecht and Amersfoort. To think of Holland, for me, is to think of my teenage years. Extremely curious, I thought about checking up on the place the next time I found myself wandering around Nanjing. Only, Trip Adviser says the place is now closed. In a way, I'm not surprised. So, in that regard, what would a restaurant autopsy for this place read like?
First, this place was extremely hard to find for the first time, and that was even when I had the address programmed into Baidu Maps. I walked circles around the development that Studio 21 called home. Okay, so then how was the food?
Mostly, it was very good. However, it wasn't cheap. At all. I took my father here, who was visiting from America, and the final bill came out to be more than 600 RMB. So, if your keeping track so far, it's both expensive and hard to find. The other important bit is this....
It had the look and decor of a cheap strip club on Valentines Day. If you are going to charge high end prices, you have to also provide a high end dining experience. Yeah, the food was good, but a successful gourmet place can't just rely on that. Plus, the place was so empty, my dad and I didn't even think it was open when we walked in. So, the ambiance of the place was just downright strange.
The fact this place no longer exists underscores a fundamental truth about running a foreign-focused eatery in China. For the most part, you can't just rely on expats to keep a place profitable. There needs to be Chinese bums in seats ordering, eating, and paying their bills. So, if this is true for a city like Nanjing -- which has a huge foreign community -- it's twice as true for Zhenjiang, Changzhou, and most other smaller cities.
Absolutely true, my friend and I were just discussing this the other day.
One of my best friends runs a bar, and so I am usually hearing him complain about stuff like this should be common sense to restauranteurs. But, in China, you would be surprised. But, then again, I have seen enough Gordon Ramsey kitchen nightmares to know it's more than just China.
Many theme type restaurant nowadays are a fad barely lasting a few years until the landlord start to squeeze more rent and the owner has to fold even when it was doing quite well before.
Or if they were paying their rent at all. The best foreign restaurant in downtown Changzhou shut down this year because they were five months behind on their rent. I showed up one day, and it was locked with a bill collector's notice slapped onto the door.
They way it works here, there is usually a security deposit equivalent to the a few months rent that has to be paid to the landlord. That is refunded when the lease terminate. If the lessee stop paying rent for a few months, the landlord don't lose by locking up though the opportunity cost or lost of income from having the place empty and getting a new tenant still applies.
It certainly does look like a date gone wrong for that restaurant! I did think Nanjing sir have good street food right? Restaurants in China really do have to be authentic to survive. Well done for giving it a go though @richristow.