Many Phnom Penh restaurateurs may be facing empty tables and declining revenues, but Yildiray Odemus thinks he has something to offer that will have diners flocking to his new restaurant.
Kebabs.
Not just kebabs, but a whole Turkish experience, from the custom-made traditional copper grill right down to the imported Turkish salt-and-pepper shakers.
“We have something unique,” said the Australian-born Odemus of his Sisowath Quay diner, called Istanbul. “Even though now things are pretty grim, I’m optimistic….If not this year, next year things will start to turn around.”
Opening a restaurant in the middle of an economic downturn seems risky, but Odemus is not alone in doing so. The economy may have slowed down, but the number of bars and restaurants opening up has increased.
Offering everything from Nepalese curry to Japanese grilled steak, new eating places seem to be popping up every week.
But while some restaurateurs express confidence, others have found their plans caught up in Cambodia’s ongoing malaise.
Several new restaurateurs say their initial business plans were linked to an anticipated rosy post-poll period that has failed to materialize.
“I did not foresee this situation,” Paul Roche said Monday at Club 51, the bar and restaurant he opened Sunday on Street 51. “But having spent four months [preparing], do I close and wait for the economic situation to get better or open and hope things get better? I went for the option of opening now.”
Roche hopes that the Mediterranean fare prepared by the Portuguese chef will be novel enough to draw in the capital’s expatriate residents.
The fallback plan if business fails to pick up, he said, would be to open only in the evening and reduce the staff size.
The owner of Gurkha, a Nepalese restaurant that opened two months ago, has found himself in a similar situation. KS Rana said he had expected the economy in the immediate post-election period to pick up.
If he had realized how slow things would be, he said Monday, he would have postponed the launch.
Political uncertainties and the economic crisis also put off the owners of one new Khmer eatery, Sorya, several times in the past few years, Assistant Manager Por Say said Monday.
But finally, the owners of the glitzy, two-story restaurant near Psar Thmei decided to go ahead anyway, believing that recovery cannot be far away.
Sorya managers hope its banquet facilities and varied menu of Khmer, Chinese and European cuisine will help attract customers. But because of the economy, the main selling point may be the prices, which are as low as 1,500 riel for noodle soup, Por Say said.
It is not clear how many new restaurants have opened up. Officials at the Commerce Ministry could not be reached for comment over the long holiday weekend, but restaurant owners who have been around for several years, such as the Wagon Wheel’s John Mixen, estimate there are hundreds of new eateries.
And Mixen, for one, is not particularly happy about it. “The government needs to put a limit on [licenses],” he said Monday.
Mixen estimated business at his riverfront restaurant and bar has fallen off by as much as 70 percent from the boom days of 1994 and 1995, when he could make as much as $1,000 a day.
Now only weekends are busy and he sometimes makes only $40 during the week. “Everyone has cut back on spending. Foreigners don’t go out as much,” he said. “The atmosphere just isn’t here.”
After seven years, Mixen was ready to call it quits. Two months ago, he tried to sell the restaurant but he “couldn’t give it away, to be honest with you.”
Now the native of Chicago has decided to stick it out. The Water Festival brought in some business and he sees some tourists arriving. Things will get better, he said, “It’s just going to take time.”
