Support from key players and fresh vision is essential for restaurants to make the long haul and survive the pandemic. This, according to Natasha Sideris, founder and CEO of the Tashas Group which has one of its restaurants in Atholl.
“For an industry already struggling after two lockdowns, this third wave has again been devastating,” she said. “Over 1 000 restaurants have closed in the country, and the impact on employment is staggering. Businesses that were barely breaking even are now looking to close. It’s heartbreaking.”
During lockdown, Sideris was part of the Restaurant Collective, an association of restaurants supporting each other and rallying for a voice in response to the tough pandemic crisis.
She said her team at tashas had had to adapt as a response to the pandemic. “We took on the mantra ‘sophisticated simplicity’ and focused on the things that really matter. One of the things we did early on was to reduce our menu offering by almost half to avoid over-stocking.
“We also reduced our previously abundant cake offering, and we entered the takeaway market, something we had previously avoided. “We continued to nurture good relationships with our landlords which in turn helped navigate our rental obligations.”
She said being a part of the Restaurant Collective had been an amazing experience. “When lockdown happened, a lot of restaurants who weren’t part of a bigger group were looking for guidance and help on how to cope – how to reduce menus, deal with labour issues and negotiate with landlords.”
Sideris said as part of the Restaurant Collective, she had given a presentation to the South African Council of Shopping Centres to help them understand the impact of the lockdown on restaurants, and how the restaurants could not sustain lockdown and reopen if the landlords didn’t come to the party with rent reprieves. “This was a topic I was very vocal about in both South Africa and Dubai.”
She said she believed that to survive, restaurateurs had to find a balance between protecting staff and customers, but also being able to maintain a business that created and sustained jobs.
Sideris comes from a family of restaurateurs and as such, she was involved in the restaurant industry from an early age. She originally studied psychology but said she realised she loved the adrenalin of working in a restaurant.
She has authored two cookbooks – tashas Café Classics and tashas Inspired. Both have been met with critical acclaim and can be purchased at tashas locations, as well as at leading bookstores.
Despite the challenges of Covid-19, Sideris still has big dreams for the future. “We have already established ourselves in both South Africa and Dubai and are now looking to other international markets.”
She said she believed she had been such a success because she had learned from the best. “My father, Harry, who was also a restaurateur, told me that the restaurant business is one of repetition. You get up. You do it the best way you know how. The next day you do it all over again.”
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