Salt Bar The Restaurant Man

The only thing that stands between success and failure at the moment

is chance.

'Many of us fantasise about opening our own restaurant,

'but with restaurants up to three times more likely to fail

'than any other business, it's not for the faint-hearted.'

Opening a restaurant just to make money is wrong,

but it's very important that it does make money.

'I'm Russell Norman.

'After years of dreaming,

'I set up a series of acclaimed restaurants that now serve

'half a million customers a year in the cut-throat London market,

'all during the recent recession.'

I'd definitely say that there are rules to opening and running

a successful restaurant.

You must know your numbers. You must do your research.

You must be prepared to work very long hours.

'Now I'm helping six first-timers gambling their life savings

'to start their own restaurants.'

I've got no food and I'm opening in less than 48 hours.

It is work in progress,

but it needs to be work that isn't in progress quite soon.

'From floor plans to finance, and menus to marketing,

'I'll have to shatter a few illusions.'

I mean, this is cute but very impractical.

I'm going to have to show it to him. It's almost inedible.

Well, what's the solution, Russell? Tell me. You get another plumber?

It's exactly what you do.

'Each of these plucky entrepreneurs is hoping their new venture

'will give them a better life.'

You know, this is all mine. Isn't it gorgeous? Thank you.

'But unless they get every detail spot on,

'it could mean bankruptcy and personal disaster.'

I'm scared now, yeah.

I'm very scared.

'This time...

'Scandinavian food hits Macclesfield.'

It's pretty tasty.

'But with no eye for detail...'

We need the scaffolding down -

can we not just get another company to come and take it down?

'..no staff...'

You can't expect two people to work 12 hours a day seven days a week.

No.

'..and a refusal to look at the figures...'

Yeah, that scares me.

'..can this enthusiastic amateur ever run a professional restaurant?'

-Oh, God.

-It'll be all right.

-I'm so scared. I really am.

I'm heading north to Macclesfield to meet Debbie.

Debbie has decided to ignore current food trends,

and she's opening a Scandinavian restaurant. It's quite brave.

It's quite a bold move, I think.

But then again, I opened a Venetian wine bar

in the back streets of Soho in London, and that worked.

I'm not against risk as long as it's calculated.

We've been to Scandinavia, we've been to Stockholm a couple of times.

Went to Copenhagen last year.

Finland's not really part of Scandinavia, not strictly,

but it's...

So I just thought, "Well, I love Scandinavia,

"love Scandinavian food, let's go down that road."

-That was your business plan.

-Yeah, that's it, really.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to do it.

It's been Debbie's lifelong dream to open a restaurant,

so when a property came up on this cobbled street of her hometown,

she jumped at the chance.

I turned 50 in March. I thought, "Right, I'm taking it.

"I'm going to open a restaurant."

SHE GROANS There we go.

If we don't do this,

we could sit down and we could get old...gracefully.

Who wants to get old gracefully? I want to get old disgracefully.

This is going to be the way to do it.

Debbie sold her online business,

supposedly her nest egg for retirement,

and borrowed from the bank to pursue her dream.

This project means absolutely everything to me.

I'm desperately, desperately excited. I can't wait. This is all mine.

Isn't it gorgeous?

With no experience of the restaurant trade,

she's gambling with her financial future.

If this fails, the financial implications are that

I don't think about it. I'm really not thinking about it.

I don't want to think about it, because it is a lot of money.

Now I've found what I feel I should be doing,

that would be awful to fail.

It really would.

'Even though we're coming out of recession,

'it's a tough time for independent restaurants.

'They've got to work harder than ever to lure cash-strapped customers

'away from the big chains.

'On first impressions, it seems Macclesfield is no exception.'

I just noticed a delicatessen which seems to have closed down.

I can see one, two, three...

..four, five pubs within walking distance of the station.

It's a little quiet.

'In fact, the town has lost six restaurants in the last year alone.

'Three in Debbie's neighbourhood.'

I think it's just a really strong indication

that it's by no means a sure thing,

opening a restaurant in this part of Macclesfield.

But where others failed,

Debbie is hoping her Scandinavian fare will be a winning formula.

These days we dine out more than ever, spending, on average,

more than £40,000 at restaurants in our lifetime.

But we're not as adventurous as we'd like to think.

85% of that spend is on Indian, Chinese and Italian meals.

Scandinavian food,

with its meatballs, cured fish, rye bread and beetroot,

accounts for less than 1%. It's just not very popular.

If I were to say that there's a Scandinavian restaurant

being planned in Macclesfield, how would you react to that?

-Total indifference.

-Oh, really?

Yes.

I like Thai, I like Chinese, I like Indian. We're well covered for that.

-Scandinavian food? No idea at all?

-I guess it's a bit fishy.

-How do you think the town would take it?

-Is it fish?

RUSSELL LAUGHS

-Yeah, some fish, yeah.

-Right.

Do you think Macclesfield's getting more cosmopolitan?

Eh, no. But I think it needs to.

OK.

Debbie has set herself a deadline of opening her Scandinavian restaurant

in just six weeks' time.

So today I need to get my head around her business plan,

the premises, the menu and, of course, the numbers.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How very nice to meet you, finally.

-Very nice to meet you to.

-This is it.

-This is it.

-This is the Salt Bar.

-Well, it is compact.

-Bijou.

-Bijou, is that what it is? OK.

So can I ask a really obvious question? Why Scandinavian food?

When I decided to open a bar, it just seemed natural to say,

"OK, yeah, let's go for Scandinavian.

"That's something that's a bit different."

Do you think the people of Macclesfield

will think that it's a bit different?

I think that they will, but I think that the people of Macclesfield

are really open to something new.

-What have you done in the past...?

-Nothing.

-In restaurants, in service?

-No.

-In hospitality?

-No.

-Nothing at all?

-I worked behind a bar...

-OK, that's something.

-..for about two weeks.

Two weeks. When was that?

It was about 20 years ago.

Do you remember anything?

No. No. No.

Looking around, I worry that the build

won't be finished in six weeks,

so Debbie had better be further down the track with her food.

-Do you have your chef already?

-I do have a chef already.

I found him on Gumtree.

Oh, did you?

-Fantastic.

-I Googled Swedish chef, which you can imagine I had...

Muppets.

Lots and lots of Muppets come up.

Debbie's Swedish chef isn't due to start work at the restaurant

until a fortnight before it opens, so husband Bob is bringing

over a couple of the home-cooked dishes she hopes to put on the menu.

What have we got here?

OK, so, first of all we have a bit of a squish open sandwich

on wholemeal and oat bread that I made myself.

-You baked yourself, fantastic.

-I baked myself.

Smoked salmon, radish, creme fraiche and lots of lemon.

A little...as well.

Mm.

That's really tasty. Mm.

Then we have the meatballs.

-I put cardamom in them.

-Mm.

That's really distinctive, the cardamom flavour.

-Do you like it?

-Mm, I do.

What would that cost?

Yeah, I haven't quite... Yeah, I haven't worked out my costs.

-Do you know what it costs you?

-No.

-OK.

I-I-I just keep thinking that, you know,

once the floor's down and once something else...then I'll start.

Once you're two or three days away from opening the restaurant...

-Yeah, yeah. I know that I can't do that.

-..then get the calculator out.

-I think we need to get the calculator out today.

-Right, OK.

In terms of what's on the plate, everything that I tasted was good.

The worrying thing was the fact that she hadn't even considered

what she was going to be charging for those dishes.

I don't think she even knew how much they cost her.

Debbie needs to start thinking about questions

of price and cost immediately.

Six weeks will whizz by.

Unless she's got answers to the questions that I've been asking her,

I don't think things are going to go particularly well.

The cost of preparing every dish on the menu is just one

of a range of figures that Debbie should have at her fingertips.

In my experience, if a restaurant doesn't work on a spreadsheet,

it doesn't work full stop.

'She needs to build her new venture on the solid foundations

'of carefully researched numbers.

'I always start with footfall.'

When I opened Polpo nearly four years ago,

I spent a good half hour, 45 minutes on the street outside

before we signed on the premises just looking at the types of people

and counting the numbers that came by.

When I got to about 1,000, I realised that was probably enough.

It's not Piccadilly Circus.

There doesn't seem to be a business community here.

There's not much really in the way of footfall at all.

Without a high volume of passing trade,

the restaurant will really need to succeed as a destination.

So Debbie shouldn't assume her restaurant will be full

every day of the week.

So this is the...this is the business end of the site, I suppose.

-This is the space that will be full of customers...

-Yes.

'Next, I want to establish the total number of people

'Debbie thinks the restaurant will serve on a good day.'

I would estimate seating here for probably 40 people in total.

Is that what you're thinking?

Yeah, with the bar stools as well, probably about 48.

-48.

-Yeah.

-How many other people will we see with you, Debbie?

-What do you mean?

-Will it just be you on your own?

I see myself doing everything, because it's small.

My ratio of staff to customers is normally around one to 15.

So for a space this size,

I'd have three or maybe four members of staff looking after 50 people.

OK. OK.

I suppose the difference is that this is Macclesfield and you're in London.

-Yeah, but 50 seats is 50 seats wherever it is.

-Yeah, yeah.

Extra staff will be a hefty additional cost

Debbie hadn't bargained for.

-How many days a week are you planning to open, Debbie?

-Seven.

-Seven days a week, lunch and dinner?

-Yeah.

You can't expect two people to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

No.

-It might be illegal, actually.

-Yeah, OK.

So you're looking at four rather than two.

-Your assistant in the kitchen needs to be two rather than one.

-Right.

And your head chef needs some time off, I would have thought,

-so you need a pretty competent assistant for him as well.

-Right.

In addition to that, I think it's really important that you have

an idea of what the revenue will be in a typical week from this place.

-Have you had a chance to do that?

-No.

-You need to.

You really do.

In order, simply,

to calculate what this as a business is going to generate.

But, God, I'm rubbish at that type of thing. It's so hard.

You have to learn the lessons of every restaurant

that never got to the state that it could open its door

on the first day.

So many business fail before they get a chance to open.

Right.

You owe it to yourself

to make sure that you're not one of those businesses,

because you've dreamt about this for such a long time.

I've been avoiding all this.

Oh, God.

It's a head-in-sand moment.

At the moment, you have a business that could succeed

when it opens in six weeks' time but could fail.

The only thing that stands between success and failure at the moment

is chance.

-You're in a situation when you're going to leave it to chance.

-Yeah.

It's just not good enough.

It's a harsh reality check for Debbie,

but you can't run a business on enthusiasm alone.

If she keeps on ducking the finances, she could lose everything.

There's an awful lot to do here.

Over the next six weeks,

Debbie needs to motivate the builders, recruit staff,

finalise her menu and pin down her costings.

The thing that is most troubling is Debbie's attitude to the business.

She thinks in broad brushstrokes rather than in detail.

I don't see anything like the amount of thought

that's required for a business like this to succeed.

Oh, God.

Come on now.

I'm sorry.

I'm not feeling quite as positive as I was before, actually.

Russell's absolutely right.

Opening a Scandinavian restaurant and muddling it

and hoping that it would work out for the best

is a high-risk strategy.

I am being foolish and rushing in without doing the homework

that I should have done,

because I wanted it so badly.

I've set Debbie some homework on her numbers,

but for now, I want to focus on her menu.

With such a niche offering, Debbie needs to know for sure

her Scandinavian food isn't a step too far

for the people of Macclesfield.

When you're opening a restaurant,

it's essential to stick to the sort of food that you love

and that you're passionate about,

but it's also vital to do your research

and to make sure that other people share that passion.

If there's no market, there's no business.

At my restaurants, we constantly monitor the popularity of every dish

so that we can weed out any duds.

We do the eggs a bit softer, Ray, that would be great.

To give Debbie a head start,

I've arranged for her to road-test three of her dishes

at a cafe in town.

-Hello.

-Hi, hi, how are you doing?

-I'm very well. How are you?

Nice to see you again.

-You're looking...

-Sweaty.

-..fresh-faced.

SHE LAUGHS

-So this is your kitchen for the day.

-It is indeed.

What are you preparing today?

Potato and egg salad with a buttermilk dressing.

We've got meatballs with mashed potato,

and then we've got the Swedish hash with fried egg.

That looks really good.

There aren't many business owners that get the opportunity

that you've got to road-test their dishes

before they open a restaurant.

It's unique, really. I've never been able to do it.

Well, I'm dreading people saying that they don't like it.

-Meatballs and sauce.

-Meatballs.

First order.

The meatballs.

As the cafe fills up for the lunchtime rush,

there's one dish in particular that's showing signs of promise.

Can I have the meatballs?

One meatballs, one hash.

Thank you.

You were having the meatballs.

What made you go for the meatballs?

I would have had the salad, but it didn't sound very appealing.

I think the road test is going really well.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the food.

Interestingly, just looking round the room,

not a single salad has been sold this afternoon.

We'll all be having egg and potato salad for dinner.

Everything on Debbie's menu will have to pull its weight.

The average restaurant throws out 21 tonnes of food waste a year,

and that's profit in the bin.

So your salad section is untouched.

Untouched, completely, which is quite sad, really.

Why do you think that was? It's a sunny day.

The salads not appealing enough, we've not had any vegetarians.

It's funny, isn't it?

As the customers finish their meals,

I'm keen to hear how the best sellers went down.

-How was your hash?

-It was very nice.

-Simple, filling.

-Good.

-A lot of meat there.

Full of flavour, lots of meat,

but I found it got a little dry after a while.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Jam on meatballs is not the obvious choice,

but it's actually really nice.

Really enjoyed it.

With the lunch service over, it's time for the final tally.

-It was one salad...

-Ten hash.

-Ten hash.

-I think there was 15 meatballs.

-15 meatballs.

I thought what we should do is just go through the feedback.

OK, go on, then. Let's hear it.

So this is the hash.

"A little dry after a while."

There were a couple of comments along the same lines.

-Mm.

-Meatballs.

"Hearty meal, filling, interesting jam."

OK.

"Very well presented, nice and tasty,

"love the lingonberry jam." Another tick for the meatballs.

-I mean...

-Wow.

The plates that we were bringing back to the kitchen

-you probably didn't see.

-No, I didn't.

-I did.

I don't think there was a single meatball plate that came back

with anything left on the plate.

People in Macclesfield are clearly much more inclined

to go for meatballs over other dishes.

I wonder whether there's an opportunity on your menu

for an expanded meatball section.

That's definitely something that I would think about.

There's a real opportunity here.

If Debbie's restaurant is going to draw customers in

despite its sleepy location,

the food must have a strong and marketable identity.

It all hangs on getting her signature dishes just right.

The Salt Bar needs to be known for its meatballs.

It needs to draw people in with its fantastic collection

of six or seven meatballs with interesting ingredients,

with a definite Swedish accent.

Debbie needs to listen to her customers

and start working on new meatball recipes.

I need to move on and look at the layout of her restaurant.

Being inventive with design in such a small space

is going to be crucial.

I've opened many restaurants in small spaces,

it can definitely be done. It just requires creative thinking.

You need to make sure that you maximise your covers,

but you also want to make sure that the customer experience

is as good as it can be.

-Kitchen here.

-Very small kitchen, actually.

-OK.

-But hoping to make the most of the area.

The space for Debbie's kitchen is tiny,

and that's without any equipment.

-A challenging kitchen, I have to say.

-Yeah.

It's one of the smallest I've seen. As far as I can see, sealed.

-What do you mean? Oh, yes.

-There's no extract...

-There will be.

-We have a chimney area in the corner here.

-You do, OK.

'Even with an extraction system, this small space will be very hot

'and very tough for the kitchen staff.

'We need to find a solution.'

This kitchen is hidden behind this door.

OK.

-When the door is closed, you don't really know it's there.

-No.

What I noticed, Debbie, is that this wall is pretty much plasterboard.

-It's not supporting anything.

-OK.

It hides One of the features, I think, of your restaurant,

which is the kitchen making these amazing

Swedish, Norwegian, Danish dishes.

You take out this section here so that you can see through

to the drama and the theatre of what's going on back of house.

I really like that idea.

But I've noticed there's a bigger issue with this kitchen space

that only someone with no restaurant experience could have overlooked.

-Storage?

-Mm.

-There's no storage.

-There's no storage.

I'm not talking about where you put your spare chairs

and stuff like that.

No, no, no. Beer, wine, yes, yes.

I do have a...a unit which is just a five-minute drive away.

Not ideal.

I think the answer is staring us in the face.

-You've got a big space back here with two big loos.

-Right.

-No storage.

-You've got to have two loos.

-No, you don't.

-Yeah, you do.

Men and ladies. It's revolting. I'm sorry.

-It's revolting.

-You've got a very small space here.

I can't bear the thought.

-Come with me.

-OK.

-It goes all the way back here.

What I'm assuming you're planning on doing

is putting one of the loos here with a door at the front here

and then having all of this space here as lobby, is that right?

That's right, yeah.

I would suggest you draw this and you take out all of these.

Just look at the whole space as it is, cos it's a big space.

You don't have any storage and you've got a massive loo.

I just think if you put those two statements together,

and the solution presents itself, I think.

I'm not going to back down over the two toilets.

It's not nice for women to have to share with men.

You can be revolting objects when you're drunk,

it's as simple as that.

Really?

OK.

A week later, I'm relieved to hear that Debbie

is following through some of my suggestions for the layout.

Ooh, so exciting.

Proper building work. Our building work being down.

She's opening up the kitchen.

Despite not budging on two separate loos,

she's planning to shift one forward to create some storage space.

So she can calculate her takings, I've asked her to plot out

the number of covers, but that's revealed some shocking news.

Originally, I had worked out that we could get 50 covers.

Now we've done it properly, we can only fit 32 covers in.

For a restaurant of this size,

that could be close on £3,000 less a week.

The difference between success and bankruptcy.

Without a detailed business plan, based on realistic estimates,

she's racing ahead blind.

Russell sent me a copy of this spreadsheet...

..to work out my sales assumption.

However, in order to do that, he asked me to work out my menus

so that I could work out my menu costings.

He asked me to work out the staff rota

so that I could work out the staff salaries.

Unfortunately, I've not finished any of them yet.

Debbie has got to make time to do her figures.

Until she does, she's gambling her business

and her future prosperity on nothing more than inexperienced guesswork.

As well as moving forward with her numbers,

Debbie needs to keep refining her menu.

I think her meatballs are her unique selling point.

So to help her develop this section of the menu,

I've brought her to Stockholm.

What Debbie is offering at the moment in the Salt Bar

is a little bit cliched.

It's obvious and it ticks the boxes that you'd expect

a Swedish restaurant to tick.

It's not just enough to present a theme park version

of a city or of a cuisine.

It's really important that Debbie puts a lot of herself into it,

because it becomes more interesting.

To replace her unpopular egg and potato salad,

Debbie's created a new vegetarian meatball.

To put it to the test, I'm taking her to 19 Glas,

a restaurant in the heart of the old town, to work with friend

and top chef Olle Tagesson.

What's your understanding of the classic Swedish meatball?

The classic Swedish is just pork meatballs, boiled potato,

cream sauce and lingonberries.

That's the way we know it and that's the way you eat it in Britain

with IKEA, and in the States, wherever you go, really.

-That's your understanding as well, isn't it?

-Yes, yeah.

Meatballs is what it is. People left it alone, I don't really know why.

If Debbie can win over the gastronomically conservative locals

with her twist on their beloved national dish,

it will give her restaurant a real seal of authenticity.

It would be great if you could create that dish for us

in Olle's kitchen.

If it passes muster,

maybe even get it on the menu for Olle's customers at lunchtime today.

What do you think about that, Debbie?

Oh, God.

Debbie's creation is made from chickpeas, spinach and Parmesan.

How does it taste?

Nice?

No, I think it needs a bit more cheese, personally.

On a restaurant menu, vegetarian dishes are essential.

They need to be just as carefully executed as meat dishes.

It looks like it's holding.

Does it?

To make his margins, Olle needs to charge 15 euros.

So he won't put it on his menu if it's not up to scratch.

So what do you think?

-I'm glad to have it on my menu.

-Excellent. Well, get on with it.

-Well done.

-Yay!

-I'm delighted with that.

-Very good.

You better get rolling. Come on.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's nearly lunchtime.

You're not going to nick my recipe, are you?

-SHE LAUGHS

-No comment.

Once again, Debbie has impressed me with her cooking,

but she needs to develop an eye for detail.

I have no idea.

Her presentation is far from perfect.

How a dish looks is very important.

I would have just given it a little bit of height.

You don't want it too structured and too deliberate. Yeah.

I don't think it needs that much more than that, actually.

When you need to communicate to a new member of staff or a trainee

how you want the dish to look,

there is no better way of doing it than showing them a photograph.

-Take a photograph.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-In your back pocket.

-Thank you.

So this is the chickpea and spinach meatballs.

What do you think?

-It was delicious.

-Oh, good.

-Really?

-Delicious but not a meatball.

No, not a meatball.

-It's very good.

-Oh, good. So that's a thumb's up, yes?

-Yes, thumbs up.

-I shall tell the chef, she will be very pleased.

-Thank you.

-Nice plate as well.

-Oh, nice presentation.

-Yeah.

Oh, she will be doubly pleased.

-I think they were a little bit too soft.

-OK.

They could be a little bit more...solid.

The flavour was good. I liked the flavour.

It's good to get inspired by travel,

but I wonder what impression this trip has made on Debbie.

In terms of its menu, do you think the Salt Bar is going to be

a modern Scandinavian restaurant?

I do, now. I'd actually gone out and bought 20 Scandinavian cook books.

Spent the whole time flicking through them.

-They were all traditional recipes?

-Yes.

The gravlax was there, the meatballs were there.

I think that I was being too formal.

I think that because of what I've learned today,

I can make changes to the menu and feel confident about going forward.

-It's good, isn't it?

-It is.

-Today's been a great day.

-Hasn't it?

-Yeah, absolutely.

Back in Macclesfield, it's a month since I suggested the changes

to Debbie's restaurant layout.

I want to see how things are shaping up.

-Come on in.

-Thank you.

Wow!

What a difference. There's floors. Fantastic.

'The newly opened up kitchen is beginning

'to make this space feel bigger.'

It's taking space, isn't it?

-It is.

-Mm.

-Slowly but surely.

'But there's still a lot left to finish -

'the kitchen needs to be installed,

'there's wiring and plumbing still to be done.

'None of the furniture has been built.'

We're due to open three weeks on Friday, so...

-Three weeks on Friday.

-Yeah.

You won't be open three weeks on Friday, will you?

-Do you really believe that?

-Yeah, I do. Yeah, absolutely.

So why have you got this date fixed in your mind as your opening day?

Because...

..financially, I've got to start trading.

I've got to start paying for everything

from the beginning of August.

'There is one crucial bit of the restaurant that's yet to be built

'and that's the bar.

'Drinks sales should make up 40% of a restaurant's income,

'so ensuring the space encourages customers to drink

'could make all the difference to Debbie's bottom line.'

Before I opened my first restaurant,

I spent a lot of time going round other people's bars

and surreptitiously measuring

the height between the floor and the bar surface,

between the top of the stool and the bar top.

Also between the front of the bar and the edge of the bar surface

to see how far my knees could go underneath.

I obsessed with getting those measurements right.

Because when I went into a badly designed bar, it really upset me.

-Right.

-So, you know, I could bore you stiff with...

-Figures.

No, with how my bars are always 109cm high

and how the stools are always 75cm.

Well, rather than me do it then, why don't I just take your figures

and use those?

Because I would never have done that setting up a restaurant myself.

I would never have trusted anybody else. It had to be me

and it had to be me sitting there thinking, "This is right."

I want to encourage Debbie to start obsessing at this level

of detail for every aspect of her restaurant.

I try to imagine my customers' experience from walking

through the front door at the start to leaving the restaurant

at the end, and then I plot every point along that journey.

That then becomes my template,

and I use that to ensure consistent customer service.

With just three weeks to go, Debbie has yet to hire any of her staff,

leaving precious little time to train them.

If she's going to avoid poor customer experience,

she'll need a rigorously detailed sequence of service.

Hello there.

To help her create her own blueprint,

I've arranged for some guinea pigs.

What I'm going to do for your first point of your sequence

is greet and seat.

OK, there's the menu. The special of the day is on the board, because...

Erm... I'll get you some water.

A glass of water.

What you've done by offering a glass of water and a menu

-is you've bought yourself some time.

-OK.

Time to greet the customers that are coming through the door to sit

on a different table, whatever else it is.

-It's quite hospitable, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

It's like, "Here's something to read

"and here's something free before we even start." Yeah.

Over to you, Debbie.

-Can I take your food orders, ladies?

-A ham open sandwich, please.

-OK.

-Could I have the vegetarian meatballs?

-OK.

-And would you like wine with your meal?

-Shiraz, please, thank you.

-OK.

OK, and stop. Something you need to think about.

-Do they need their menus any more?

-Oh, yeah, sorry.

What next?

-What on the table? The water glasses...

-Cutlery.

-So what do we need to do?

-I've got cutlery for you.

-What, is it just in your hand?

-No, no, no. Absolutely not.

-Where is the cutlery?

-I don't know where it is yet.

-Is it on a tray?

Er... It might be.

-Is it wrapped in a serviette?

-It...might be.

-Cutlery.

I'm going to put it in capital letters,

because it's an important part of this sequence

that you haven't decided upon yet.

But you need to make a decision about this, because you don't want

your staff coming to you and saying, "What do we do?"

And then you saying to your staff, "Oh, I haven't decided yet."

-Could I have some English mustard, please?

-OK. English mustard?!

-This is Scandinavian!

-It's turning into Fawlty Towers!

And as her customers finish up their pretend meal...

-How was everything?

-Everything was lovely.

-OK.

..Debbie's got a 13-point sequence of service that should enhance

her diners' experience from start to finish.

The nearer you get to the end of the sequence,

the more it can become frayed, because the waiter or whoever

it is that's looking after the table thinks it's the home run.

And it's at that point of the meal where if things do go wrong,

they're remembered. First impressions are important,

but last impressions are pretty important too.

So your staff need to understand that,

and if they see people leaving, they should make an effort and say,

-"Thank you very much," even if it's across the room.

-Right.

And give them - and this is very important -

-an opportunity to thank you too.

-Right.

-Because what it does is it just seals the whole experience.

-Right.

It's evident to all of us

that Debbie hasn't thought any of this through.

Debbie, I feel a bit like Moses coming down from the mountains

handing you a tablet.

This is your sequence of service. Over to you.

Thank you.

I'm glad that I gave her an opportunity to highlight

those shortcomings,

and I hope that she now takes that sequence that we chalked

up on the board and makes use of it,

cos it will be essential to the smooth running of her restaurant.

It's two weeks to opening,

and Debbie's chef, Anders, has finally flown in from Sweden.

Wholemeal bread, gravlax, creme fraiche.

Knackebrot with the smoked mackerel,

and then blinis with the beetroot salad and the egg.

-Yeah.

-OK?

She's worked on her menu, but she's not followed my advice -

making meatballs the star of the show.

You have three meatball dishes here.

You've got the traditional with cardamom, chickpea,

spinach and veggie balls,

and the lightly toasted sourdough topped with hot or cold meatballs,

which sounds fantastic, I've got to say.

-We talked about having a meatball section.

-Yes.

-So, where is it?

You've got these three fantastic dishes,

which are absorbed within the eight main courses.

But that's what they are, is they're main courses.

But it doesn't draw my eye to this unique aspect of the Salt Bar.

And by putting it in the little box within the main courses still,

it's a trick that's a lot of restaurateurs,

operators use all the time.

It waters down the main courses,

cos we haven't got that many main courses.

-It doesn't water them down at all.

-How... But how... How do you do that?

You've got main courses, how can you put meatballs under the main courses?

-You put it in a box.

-Right. Oh, OK.

-I think it sounds clever.

-Ah, OK.

-To box in the meatballs.

-Very good.

-OK.

-Two against one.

-Oh, no, no, I'm with you. Now you've said box.

God, that was hard work.

When I first met Debbie, she had no idea how much one of her dishes

cost to make. Her prices look reasonable,

but I just hope they've been properly calculated.

-Did you talk to Anders about the cost of ingredients?

-No.

-We haven't costed ingredients yet, no.

-OK.

I feel like tearing my hair out.

I don't think I could've stressed the importance of costing

ingredients any more. This is financial madness.

There's a chance that you're going to be selling

-a dish at a price that means you're not making any money.

-Yeah.

There is also a chance that you will price it so low that it's actually

cheaper for your customer to buy it than it was for you to create it.

Yes, that would be a nightmare.

Debbie has also failed to do any proper marketing.

Macclesfield is an affluent area, and there's plenty of people

with disposable income living in the surrounding villages.

Just the kind of customers she needs to attract.

It's not enough for Debbie to rely on passing trade

to fill her restaurant. She needs to reach out to people,

she needs to reach out to the right sort of people as well.

So as part of a campaign to get the word out, I've asked her

to prepare a few dishes for the ladies at a golf club just outside town.

We were talking earlier, Debbie and I,

and I asked her about her ideal customer,

and she said somebody with taste, discernment, sophistication, charm

and intelligence, which has brought me directly to the Avro Golf Club.

This is knackebrot, which is a crispbread with a caviar..

Scandinavian cod roe, boiled egg with a beetroot salad,

which is very typically Scandinavian,

and this is gravlax with a dill cream,

and then this is smoked mackerel with creme fraiche.

Ooh!

-Very nice.

-Both of us particularly like the beetroot salad.

-Beetroot salad. Yes, we did.

-Yes.

It's novel, and I think it really takes off.

In an area like this, you never know.

We will definitely go just for drinks and nibbles.

Ladies, I don't want to put you on the spot, but is this

the sort of food that you're used to eating on a regular basis? No?

Is this the sort of food that you would like to eat?

-THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Very nice, yes.

That was pretty resounding. Is there room for them all on Saturday?

This event is only the start.

Debbie needs to think of other inventive ways of attracting

interest in the Salt Bar.

But as the clock ticks down to opening day, all Debbie's energy

is focused on getting her restaurant finished on time.

I'm rushing the builders.

We need to open. I need to start making some money.

I can't just keep spending it - I've got to actually start making it.

Now with just four days left to go,

I'm back to check on the final preparations.

I was expecting it to be a little bit further on, I've got to admit.

There are plenty of builders but no sign of any waiting staff.

-Are you up to speed on staff?

-Yes. Yeah, we're fully staffed.

Friday's a full day of training.

-Training on Friday, opening to the public on...

-Saturday.

-Evening?

-Er, day.

-It's actually during the day?

-11.

-11? Saturday morning?

-Mm-hm.

-You're making your life difficult, aren't you?

Well, I, you know, didn't think of that

until I actually said we're opening at 11. Too bad. We're doing it now.

I'm so terrified. I feel sick. I feel... I feel physically sick.

-I'm sure that that's fear.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-It'll be all right.

-Oh, God.

-It'll be all right.

-I'm so scared.

I really am.

Deep breaths.

-Give us a hug.

-Oh!

-It's going to be all right.

-It's going to be all right.

-God, I hope so. I'm just terrified of erm...

Of making a fool of myself.

Now's not the time to tell her I'm really worried,

but Debbie is running out of cash and needs to get customers in,

and that means opening in three days, come what may.

We've got loads to do.

Get all the mirrors on the wall, the pictures on the wall,

the tables need putting together, the bar needs finishing...

..lights need putting up. Er...

I'm tired...

Long nights, early mornings, up at half five this morning.

Still haven't ordered everything.

Unbelievably, Debbie has still not done her costings and has no idea

of her overheads, but this is just one of her many worries.

What about Saturday?

Oh, God. I've got no food and I'm opening in less than 48 hours.

We need the scaffolding down!

Can we not just get another company to come and take it down?

That bloody builder.

And as the deliveries start to come in,

her newly created storeroom proves vital.

If we hadn't got this store, oh, my God, what would we have done?

It's a good job Russell suggested we have this.

We're taking plates off tables...

Well, we'll normally pop them on there or...

I'm delighted she's now got her full team of nine staff,

but that's eight more than she originally planned

and a shocking hike to her wage bill of at least £1,500 a week.

I keep my staff costs to 25% of income.

If Debbie's are any higher than that, she'll be in trouble.

But without a business plan, she has no idea where she stands.

If she's offering her coat up, just say, "Can I take your coat?"

She's taken my advice by drilling her staff

-in the sequence of service...

-That's how it's going to be set up.

..which will be essential to the smooth running of her restaurant

come opening night.

Yes, the food's gotta be good, but customer service is most important.

And she's beginning to share my obsession with detail.

That gap's too big at the bottom. I'm not happy with it being so high.

I would like it similar to this.

I'll do whatever she wants. As long as I get a brew.

That's better, isn't it? Oh, that's much better.

But with almost no time for thorough marketing,

she's left wondering, as she works late into the night,

if any customers will turn up for her opening day.

I don't know. I don't know what to expect, to be honest with you.

I'm starting to panic. We'll do as well as we can.

Today Macclesfield gets its first Scandinavian restaurant.

Since I first met Debbie six weeks ago, she's worked day and night

to ensure that she opens on time, but she's rushed headlong into this.

It's too complicated.

Are the kitchen and staff up to speed? And will she make any money?

Well, it's opening day for the Salt Bar, and for her own reasons,

Debbie decided to open at 11am on her first day.

It's exactly 11 o'clock now.

-How are you?

-Good, thanks.

-So, this is it.

-Yes, this is it.

-What do you think? It looks great, huh?

-It looks amazing.

I got her to stand just in the kitchen doorway last night,

she was having a bit of a sob, and, er...

I said, "You're sobbing." I said,

"Just turn around now and look at what you've produced."

Remarkably, in just six weeks, Debbie has transformed this small space

into a light, airy restaurant.

The open kitchen and bar area is a dramatic focal point.

The nods to Scandinavia are both subtle and charming.

Debbie has spent £40,000 on setting up, and with her initial investment

all gone, she needs this restaurant to turn a profit from the start.

-It looks like a restaurant, doesn't it?

-It does.

-It's a real restaurant.

-Absolutely.

-How does that feel?

-Yeah. I'm delighted.

-Do you like the fact you can see the kitchen?

-I do, yeah.

-I love it.

I reckon the noises of the kitchen add to the theatre.

-You're in a working environment.

-Yeah.

-That's a nice height, isn't it?

Isn't it? Yeah.

Where's your tape measure, then?

I think you've got a really great vibe

and a really lovely restaurant space behind us.

-Just needs to be full of people, doesn't it?

-It does.

-I've had a few panics this morning.

-What have been the panics?

-We've only just printed the menus.

-You've only just printed the menus?

-We were still pricing up drinks at 11 o'clock last night.

-OK.

A bit disorganised.

And I'm relieved to see that she's highlighted her signature

meatball dishes by framing them in a box.

I think it really lifts out your house specialities.

-But there are only two of them.

-Yeah, actually...

And then I spotted one up here.

That's because I did it so last minute.

I'm just praying that in the scramble to get open,

Debbie hasn't forgotten everything she's learned about customer service, presentation and food.

Today is very important for Debbie,

because it will give her a snapshot - a shaky one,

but a snapshot nonetheless - of how her restaurant operates.

So far, this has just been one big theory.

Today is about seeing whether the sum of the individual parts

makes up to something that could be described as a restaurant.

Do you want to take a seat here?

As the first customers enter the Salt Bar,

Debbie's sequence of service is put to the test.

That was quite impressive. These guys came in

maybe 12, 15 minutes ago.

They've just ordered main courses and they're on the table already.

It's a good sign.

And with her restaurant filling up more quickly than she expected...

Panic!

..head chef Anders and her team are under pressure to keep up

with the incoming orders. It feels productive and it feels energetic.

It feels, you know, feels like a proper working kitchen,

even though you've only been open a couple of hours.

But do the customers think the food is any good?

-In terms of what you ate today, it was all good?

-It was delicious.

-Just like home.

-Yeah. Do you have a connection with Scandinavia?

-Yeah, I'm Swedish.

-Ah, there we go. OK.

We booked in for your birthday.

-You're already booked again?

-Yeah.

-Booked in for 11 people.

-Wow. 11?

-Yeah.

-My goodness.

Lunchtime has been busy

and it's also fully booked for the evening.

But there's a problem that has slipped through the net.

This is Debbie's diary.

It's her bookings page as well for tonight, but one thing I noticed is

that everybody, without exception, is coming at eight o'clock.

What do you say when they ring up

and they say, "I want a table at eight o'clock"?

You say, "Yes, of course, but could I ask you to come at 7.45."

-Right, OK.

-Just to help these guys in the kitchen, cos they're going

-to feel it more than anybody else.

-Right.

Cos what they're going to get is, they're going to get 22 dishes

ordered simultaneously.

But also if everybody orders at the same time,

they're going to experience delays.

Would it be possible for me to ask you to either come in

at 7.45 or 8.15?

Come to your table.

With a completely packed restaurant,

Debbie and her staff have their work cut out

to ensure a smooth first night.

But at least now, with staggered bookings,

they stand some chance of coping.

The service was very friendly, great welcome,

little up and down, but we got there in the end.

-How's things with your meal?

-Really good.

-Good.

The meal was superb. Just walked round the corner and discovered it.

It was lovely.

It's just so nice and really buzzing.

You know, the kitchen, how fantastic and they're coming out

with these fantastic dishes. Way better than I ever thought.

There's a really good sound in this restaurant.

-What it is is the sound of people enjoying themselves.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And you created it all.

-Yeah.

-Well done, Debbie.

-Thank you.

Here we are in such a short amount of time down the line,

and I've got this...this...this thing running.

The journey that Debbie has made so far has been towards today

and towards opening the restaurant,

but the real journey starts today and caries on into the future,

and that is the journey of the restaurant as a business.

Over the next two months, I'm going to be keeping an eye on Debbie.

She's had an encouraging opening night,

but until she works out her figures, there's no way of knowing

if it's a success.

-See you tomorrow.

-Good job. Goodbye!

-See you later.

Oh, God, I can't believe we've got to do this at the end of the night.

Ain't this is what it's all about?

£1,300 for a whole day with all the staff.

-100 quid an hour, isn't that? Cos you've been open 12 hours.

-Yeah.

But when you say £100 an hour, that doesn't sound enough, but then...

I don't know. I don't know whether it is or not.

-Yeah, that scares me.

-And so it should.

Until Debbie establishes her costs, she runs the risk of serving food

to a packed restaurant every night but losing money hand over fist.

But in the days that follow, every spare moment

she has is focused purely on keeping things running.

It's eight in the morning, and I got to bed at quarter to one last night,

so I'm pretty tired.

She's the first one in every day.

-Caster sugar?

-Yeah. I think there is.

-That Greek-style yogurt's OK, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

As the business owner, she's taking a far more hands-on approach

than she should.

I have to go to the shops every day for fresh stuff.

It's horrible when Anders has a really busy night,

and then we're desperate for everything

first thing in the morning.

Shop, shop, shop, shop, shop.

Dash, dash, dash, dash, dash.

Her decision to open the Salt Bar for 12 hours a day,

seven days a week is starting to take its toll.

I can't go home and relax, not when I should be here.

I feel like I should be here.

I know from bitter experience that this sort of relentless hard work

can be soul-destroying.

It's certainly no way of getting to grips with big underlying issues

like finance.

12 days after the Salt Bar opened,

I'm back to experience the restaurant as a customer

and to see how Debbie is coping with the pressure.

'How many is it for?'

It's just for one.

-'Just for one. And the name?'

-It's Russell Norman.

Is that Debbie?

DEBBIE LAUGHS

-'It is.'

-Hi, Debbie.

I'll be there in about 10 or 15 minutes, is that all right?

-'OK, well, I'll reserve a table for you, sir.'

-Thank you.

-'OK, bye.'

See you, bye.

I'm quite hungry.

Opening night was packed,

but I'm keen to see how things are on a regular Thursday lunchtime.

That was apple, not rhubarb.

There's a nice atmosphere, interesting mix of people.

They've got a specials board now, I'm pleased to see.

Yeah, the general first impression is very good. It feels great.

-Mr Norman.

-Oh, look at this.

So that's your duck and your prawn skagen.

-Enjoy your meal.

-Thanks very much, Debbie.

It's a really pretty plate of food.

I think if all the food going out in this restaurant looks like this,

then the customers will be very happy indeed.

There we go. Drinks are on the other side.

Running a restaurant means that you have to be

-all smiles for your customers.

-Thank you very much.

But I know it can be tough putting on a brave face.

When I opened my first restaurant, I worked 16, 17, sometimes 18 hours

a day, six days a week. I had Sundays off,

but pretty much for six months. I lost about a stone.

-It was really rough.

-Hmm.

-Are you finding it tough?

Don't...

-Are you finding it tough because it's long hours...?

-I'm just tired.

Is it just that you're not getting any breaks?

-Are you not getting any support?

-I'm getting some breaks.

The staff are brilliant, but...

I'm going to bed at half 12, one o'clock in the morning and...

I'm still waking up at seven.

I'm having to go to the bloomin' cash and carry every day.

It takes up a huge chunk of your time.

I'm being told at ten o'clock at night this is what we need,

we need it for tomorrow, so I need to go to the cash and carry,

but then I have on go maybe to the supermarket,

because I can't get everything at the cash and carry either.

Why aren't you using your suppliers?

You need to give them 24 hours' notice.

I think it's very important to stop that reactive buying

that you're talking about sooner rather than later and say,

"This is the problem, Anders, I need you to help me fix it."

And it's really up to him

and his kitchen team to make those intelligent predictions for you,

so that you can place the orders,

and if they're wrong, then adjust them.

But to do what you're doing at the moment, which is, as you described,

reacting to those shortcomings in the kitchen, is just not healthy.

-No.

-You know, not healthy in so many ways, including your own health.

It's really difficult for Debbie, I really feel for her.

I think she's only just starting to realise that it's exhausting

and it's difficult owning and running your own restaurant.

Debbie's reactive buying is taking up time and costing her money,

and she still has no idea if her business is financially viable.

Enough is enough now.

She must tackle those figures head on or risk losing everything

she's worked for.

Two months after the Salt Bar's opening,

and I'm back for a final visit.

-Are you enjoying your restaurant a bit more these days, Debbie?

-I am.

Cos I think there was an element last time when it was almost like

you'd created a monster that was controlling you

rather than you having control over it. How do you feel now?

I feel good, but I have never known

so much money come in and go out in all my life.

But there's really only one thing on my mind.

Has Debbie knuckled down and done her figures,

or is she still flying by the seat of her pants?

The question is - are you in profit, Debbie?

-Er, we are.

-You are?

For the month of September, we have a profit on paper of £2,800.

-That's fantastic.

-Yeah, yeah.

Debbie has now established that food,

staff and other overheads come in at £2,200 per week.

And she's worked out what she need to take to allow her

to pay off her original investment.

-I know now we need to take at last 5,000 a week...

-OK.

..to keep that in line.

Your initial set-up costs, I think, were about £40,000, weren't they?

-About that, yeah.

-You could feasibly be paying off the entire

set-up costs for the Salt Bar in 14, 15 months' time,

-which is phenomenal.

-That'd be great. Yeah, absolutely.

There are many businesses that spend 10, 20 years

and still don't achieve that.

So please reassure me that you're not going to put this to one side

and think, "Oh, everything's fine,

-"and the business is fine," and then just carry on.

-No, no, no.

I've put too much in this to ignore the figures now.

We know it's about the figures.

Finally Debbie has worked her figures out.

She actually knows how much profit she needs to be making to ensure

her restaurant is a success.

And since opening night, she's had great reviews

and been fully booked every Friday and Saturday night.

Do you ever think about how you started and where you are now?

On a Friday or Saturday night, when we're full and the music's loud,

but you can't hear the music cos of the roar of the conversation,

and it makes me feel wonderful that I've created this place

where people are very, very obviously having a really good time.

-It's quite an achievement. I've got a little present for you...

-OK.

..which I'd like you to keep and use from time to time,

because I think you need to take a more measured approach to life.

You are such a nerd.

This is, I hope, something that will help you achieve that.

Well, it's very, very beautiful. My own little tape measure.

-And I want you to use it.

-It will always be 109cm high.

-Thank you very much.

-74cm high.

-Very good.

They're ingrained on my memory.

-Ah.

-I'm very proud.

-Ah. Ah, thank you.

-Well done.

-Ah, thank you.

What really distinguishes this restaurant

is Debbie's clarity and vision.

She had an idea, she saw it through, and here it is, the Salt Bar.

It feels like it's been here for a very long time,

and I think it's going to be here for many more years to come.

What would you like to drink?

Russell has had a huge impact on the way that the Salt Bar is now.

We would've been doing things the difficult way,

whereas here, now, I think we're running as it should be.

For somebody who wants to set up their own restaurant, I would say

do it, but go and get Russell Norman to give you a hand at the same time.

'Next time, I'm helping Tony bring his family-run Italian restaurant

'to Gravesend.'

You should've been here at ten o'clock.

'But this controlling patriarch...'

No! Stop! He doesn't ever listen.

'..struggles to take advice from anyone.'

What you're doing now is you're bulldozing me with...

It's got to be done my way.

'With building delays, staffing problems and no food...'

Oh! There's not even a menu.

'..will this restaurant ever open?'

If Russell came down today, he'd have a heart attack.

MUSIC: "The Winner Takes It All" by ABBA