When someone else said that cooking is delicious, Wang Shi and Gu Yin also listened to it.
But Gu Ye, this little brat, has a stubborn tongue. After eating the food made by Gu Yin on the pier, he will not eat the food made by others.
It can be said that a large part of his closeness to Gu Yin is because the food Gu Yin makes is delicious.
Even when he went to the prefecture, Mr. Wang had never heard Gu Ye praise the delicious food made by others.
Gu Yin stood up and said, "Since that's the case, then I'll send you a friend with you."
At first, both Gu Yin and Wang Shi subconsciously thought that Gu Ye's friend was a child similar to him.
Now that I hear that I can cook and cook deliciously, it is obviously an adult.
It always feels a little weird for an adult to be friends with such an older child.
Gu Ye thought about it, his friend was very happy when he heard that he now has a home, and kept praising her mother for being a good person, so she probably wouldn't mind him taking her with him.
The mother and son walked out of the house holding hands.
Gu Ye walked with Gu Yin for a quarter of an hour and arrived at an ordinary residential house.
The door was knocked open, and a burly middle-aged man came to open the door.
When Gu Yin met him, both of them were a little surprised.
"Treasurer Zhou?"
"Little lady?"
Still an acquaintance!
Gu Ye turned to look at Shopkeeper Zhou, and then at her mother, wondering how they knew each other.
The fact that Gu Yin adopted Gu Ye was well known on the dock, but not elsewhere.
Especially the shopkeeper Zhou and Gu Yin only met by chance. They only knew that her family was poor, and she had to go out to find work in the snowy days of winter. She never thought that she would be the one who adopted Gu Ye.
"It turned out to be the little lady who adopted the child, Zhou admires it."
Shopkeeper Zhou clasped his fists, and Gu Yinfu returned the salute.
Because shopkeeper Zhou was a single man, it was inconvenient to greet Gu Yin to enter the house, so the two of them stood at the door talking.
After chatting, Gu Yin realized that when Gu Ye disappeared last winter, it was the shopkeeper Zhou who was taking care of him.
"It was very cold at that time. When I got off work and left the back alley, I saw a small group of things in the corner. At first I thought it was a wild cat. I looked at the lantern and realized that it was a fainted child. I took him home that day, fed him porridge and soup, warmed him for half the night, and the child disappeared when he opened his eyes in the morning..."
Shopkeeper Zhou laughed as he said, "After that, he waited for me in the back alley every day. I wanted to take him home, but he wouldn't let me approach. I had no choice, so I made him a little boy in the back alley shack. Wo, bring him some food every day. I suddenly disappeared a few years ago, and I was worried that he was... Anyway, now that he is looking good, and being adopted by a good-hearted person like the little lady, I can leave here with peace of mind."
Speaking of which, Gu Yin naturally asked, "Where is the shopkeeper Zhou going?"
Shopkeeper Zhou's eyes dimmed, "I'm not a shopkeeper anymore, I'm just a little old lady, just call me Uncle Zhou. As for the future... Wangyuelou can't stay any longer, there are only Hanxianglou in the town. Restaurant, I just applied for the application a few days ago."
He laughed to himself, "To be honest with the little lady, the owner of Hanxianglou has poached me more than once before, but this time I go again, and the owner has changed his face. The salary is half what he said before. Let me be the second chef."
Shopkeeper Zhou was the one who turned Wangyuelou into profit and brought it back to life. He asked him to be the second cook for others. No matter how good his temper was, he couldn't stand it.
Seeing Gu Yin's frowning, Shopkeeper Zhou said, "None of the other restaurants in the town have any plans to recruit people. After searching for a few days, there was no result. So I'm going to go back to the prefecture to have a look. There are many restaurants there. Even if you don’t work as a chef in any big restaurant, it’s not difficult to find a chef job in an ordinary restaurant. Don’t worry, little lady, our craftsmen will not starve to death in the famine years, there is always a way out!”
With shopkeeper Zhou's ability, it's certainly not difficult to find an errand, but his salary is not affordable by ordinary restaurants, and when he works, it is the boss who chooses the work, and the boss also chooses the boss, and the requirements are not low.
Hearing that Shopkeeper Zhou has plans to become a chef in another small shop, Gu Yin will be a fool if he doesn't act!
"My family is about to open a shop, and the shop has been selected. It is at the intersection of Wencheng Street and Anxing Street. Are you free to follow me?"
At this time, the sky was getting dark, and it was impossible to make the trip that day. Gu Yin made an appointment with him to meet at the shop tomorrow morning.
The mother and son went back along the same road, and it was completely dark when they reached Jinyi Lane.
The Wang family had already prepared the evening meal, and Wu An had also returned from school and was waiting for them.
One day and one small are in a good mood. Gu Ye is happy that the shopkeeper Zhou didn’t leave today, Gu Yin is naturally happy that the shopkeeper Zhou received the olive branch she handed over—they are all smart people, and the shopkeeper Zhou naturally heard the song. Knowing Yayi and willing to go to her shop to have a look, it is half done.
Of course, the other half still has to look after Gu Yin's own abilities. After all, it's just an empty shop at the moment. At least shopkeeper Zhou must see a bright future before he is willing to join.
So after two bites of food, Gu Yin and Wu An asked for a pen and paper.
Not used to writing brushes, Gu Yin took charcoal and started planning to open a store.
The first one is to have a loud store name.
Everyone who has opened a store knows how important a sign is.
In her last life, Gu Yin inherited the Gu family porridge shop from her grandfather. Now this shop is not owned by her alone, but co-organized by her and Wang, and it is not only planned to do white cases, so the name is not suitable.
But it doesn't get in the way. With Mrs. Wen here, he is knowledgeable and experienced, so he can naturally help him come up with a good name.
The second, of course, is the decoration design of the store.
Now a lot of things are ready-made, but if you change the owner, although you don't have the money to decorate it, it is always necessary to rearrange and do some soft decoration.
The third step is the arrangement of the staff in the store.
The red and white chefs are naturally necessary. The assistant chefs are Chef Xu and his two young apprentices, and the back chefs are enough. If shopkeeper Zhou can come, then the person for the shopkeeper will be decided. In addition, waiters are also needed, that is, in this era, they are called running halls, secondaries, etc., to entertain guests and other chores in the store. A mother-in-law alone is definitely not enough.
The third step, that is, the food that the store will mainly sell in the future, is also the future business direction of the entire store.
She didn't say it alone, she had to wait for Shopkeeper Zhou to join the team and discuss it together.
Gu Yin used charcoal to write and draw on rice paper, and it was midnight before she knew it.
Because she was too excited, she simply stopped sleeping, got up and made buns to cook porridge. The buns were still for the Ge family. They only sold preserved egg and lean meat porridge. This month's rent for the wharf still has to be paid, and there is no income for a day, so I still have to earn a little bit. Moreover, in this era, information and communication are not developed. Although my mother-in-law has gone to the pier to promote it, there must be a large number of foreign visitors who do not know about it. In order to prevent the loss of these customers, it is still necessary to promote slowly.
The guys in the family have already sold the Wang family at a discount, so Gu Yin doesn't cook much porridge. According to the current level of business in her family, it's basically enough to sell it for an hour, so there's no need for those guys. , just bring some empty bowls, and just come back with the bucket and bowl when they are sold out.
When it was dawn, Mrs. Wang went to the pier, and Gu Yin asked Gu Ye to go to Wen's house, and asked her to send a message in her own name, inviting Mrs. Wen and Chef Xu to come over, and she wrote a project for the night. Went to Wencheng Street and waited for Shopkeeper Zhou to come over.
When the sky was bright, Mrs. Wen and Shopkeeper Zhou came over.
Gu Ye was faster than the old man, so he rushed back to report the letter and said, "That fat one is not coming."
Hearing that his master was able to open a shop, Chef Xu was even happier than Gu Yin herself. I visited her yesterday, and Chef Xu had already helped her figure out what to buy. things are wrapped up in him.
So hearing that he didn't come today, Gu Yin was quite surprised and asked, "Is he just unable to come due to something today or does he not want to come?"
Without waiting for Gu Ye's answer, the old man came over, and he said with a sullen face: "Of course he wants to come, it's my family's Tie Gong... that second son, don't let anyone go."
Chef Xu has average craftsmanship, many skills and few skills, but he is fast and has two young apprentices who are also quick and quick. The total salary is five taels per month, which is higher than that of ordinary cooks. Three masters and apprentices can at least For six or seven people.
If it weren't for him being cheap and easy to use, Mr. Wen Er would have stopped him from doing it since he saw that he was getting fatter in his kitchen.
Now that he said he was going to quit his job, where would Master Wen Er find such a cook? If you invite a few cooks to take care of the food and drink of the whole family, the wages will be doubled or tripled at least.
And not only this, Master Wen Er also got the news that the old man rented the shop he was interested in to Gu Yin, and Chef Xu was going to help Gu Yin. .
Chef Xu is not the long-term worker of the Wen family, but the living contract is also limited. It will be this summer when Chef Xu's construction period expires.
It was only the beginning of April, which meant that it would take two months for Chef Xu to regain his freedom.
Chef Xu turned to Mrs. Wen for help. Mrs. Wen felt that he was only working for his own family, and he just turned around and helped his second son.
Mr. Wen Er didn't talk about it, just because he said, "The deed was signed by Chef Xu himself, not forcing him by his son. If you have signed the deed and you can go back at will, the order in this world must be in chaos. ?"
His words sounded high-sounding, although the old man guessed his careful thinking, but he couldn't say anything.
After simply talking about what happened, the old man was very embarrassed. He really didn't want to admit that he raised such a son!
Gu Yin saw that the old man was unhappy, so she persuaded: "Don't be unhappy, originally our store would not open for a few days, but after all, it will only be two months for Chef Xu. Some part-time workers, or my own family do more, can handle it.”
Hearing what she said, the old man calmed down and asked him, "Aren't these things ready-made? Why does it take several days?"
Just at this time, the shopkeeper Zhou also came.
Gu Yin showed everyone what she wrote in the middle of the night.
At her age, being a boss and opening a shop is actually not very reassuring.
Like the shopkeeper Zhou, he knew that Gu Yin had a craft, but Gu Yin looked too young and tender. At her age, it was extremely rare to master a craft, and she would have no clue about running a business properly. It was because of some friendship that the shopkeeper Zhou agreed to come and see.
Before coming here, Shopkeeper Zhou had planned for the worst, but now that she was able to write in a righteous manner, her heart settled down.
It wasn't until he saw what she wrote that Shopkeeper Zhou knew that it was too shallow to speculate on a person's ability based on his age!
Mrs. Wen said first: "This name is simple, I can help, do you have any ideas of your own?"
Gu Yin smiled and said: "There are a lot of ideas. At first, I thought of 'evil mother-in-law's snack shop'. After all, my mother-in-law is very famous on the dock, but after thinking about it, doesn't this justify her notoriety? She is actually a very personable person. Kindness, it's not appropriate to keep people misunderstanding her. Later, when I heard Wu An recite the phrase 'the people take food as the heaven', I thought the three words 'food as the heaven' were very good. Don't laugh, you two, although I am only opening a slightly larger store, in the future I want to open a restaurant, or even open a branch in a big place like the prefecture or the capital, so the signboard should be more atmospheric. It can be used forever.”
"These three words are really good. 'The king takes the people as the sky, and the people take food as the sky'. It is from "Historical Records: Lisheng Lu Jia Biography", which can carry on your great ambition."
Gu Yin nodded with a smile, and then hesitantly said, "That's the name... Could it be too big."
If this was left in modern times, Gu Yin would use it if she felt it was good, but in this era, the emperor is the emperor, and food is the sky, so I am afraid that it will be taboo.
"What's this?" Mrs. Wen said indifferently, "I'll write this sign for you, and then stamp it with my seal. When people ask, you can say that I gave the name."
When it comes to the seal of Mrs. Wen, the origin is deep.
The seals of ordinary people are either carved by themselves or by famous masters.
The old man's is not, he has two private seals, one was appreciated by the emperor, and the other was even more extraordinary.
The power of the two private seals can be imagined.
Gu Yin didn't know the origin of the old man's seal, but she was very fond of the old man.
"As for this second thing, I'll help." Shopkeeper Zhou said, "I've been the shopkeeper in Wangyuelou for so many years, and I also have some connections, little lady... No, the owner just said how to arrange it, I'll help with the purchase. Schedule."
When Gu Yin heard the shopkeeper Zhou's change, her eyes were crooked with laughter, and she hurriedly said, "Then this will trouble the shopkeeper."
Having said that, the Wang family also sold out the porridge and came over from the dock.
"Mother came just in time. We are discussing the recruitment of people. You think people are better than me. Would you like to come and help us come up with ideas?"
In fact, Gu Yin can make up her own mind about this matter, but she doesn't take the shop as her own, so she still has to let her mother-in-law feel involved.
"I don't know how to recruit people," Mr. Wang said, "but I count as one, and your Aunt Xu counts as one. Although the store is large, the two of us are about the same. I'll do the other chores, and I can save some money. Some."
Gu Yin felt that it was not possible. The store could have seven or eight tables. If the business was good and the customers were full, the two waiters would definitely not be enough. But what Wang said also makes sense.
After returning fifty taels from the Wang family, she had a total of more than seventy taels in her hands. She had given more than 13 taels of rent for one season, and there were nearly sixty taels left.
Chef Xu and his young apprentice gave up their original work to help him, and the wages offered to them naturally couldn't be lower than that offered by Master Wen Er.
Buying pots and pans and simple decorations, Gu Yin temporarily counted them as twenty-two.
Although Wang is her own family, Gu Yin plans to share the dividends for her at the end of the year, but she still has to make a salary. She can do the work of two or three people by herself, so she has to pay half a tael of money.
The big head is Shopkeeper Zhou. He is both the chef and shopkeeper of the red case. Because of the shortage of staff in the new store, Shopkeeper Zhou still has to act as the cashier. He does the work of three people by himself. They all feel ashamed.
This is almost fifty taels of the project, and if you invite a few more people, it will be even more difficult.
Gu Yin did some mental calculations, and suddenly her eyes lit up. She took the charcoal and drew a counter in the shape of "hui" on the paper.
Ordinary counters occupy a large area, and they only play the role of checkout. But if it is made into a "back"-shaped counter, seats can be set up around the outside, and Gu Yin can make dim sum, steam dim sum on the spot inside, and the following items don't have the smell of oil smoke, and then there is a flue to exhaust smoke. , which can not only increase the number of seats, but also save the number of waiters needed.
After she finished the painting, she explained her thoughts, and the shopkeeper Zhou nodded and said, "The owner's idea is indeed novel, but even if we find someone to make a counter like this, go down the flue, and put the cigarettes out, but if it's summer , I'm afraid it's too hot to sit in the store."
This is indeed the blind spot of Gu Yin's idea. In this era, there is no fan air conditioner, so it really can't be like this.
Seeing that Gu Yin was a little annoyed, the shopkeeper Zhou said: "But this is really practical. In fact, I also thought about it before. Some guests travel alone and are not willing to share a table. It is really inconvenient that one person has to occupy a table. Just press According to the owner's idea, a circle of single tables is set up outside the counter, and a movable baffle is set between each seat, so that guests can choose whether to rise or not, which is fresh and does not disturb each other."
This kind of shop with a single table and a partition is very common in later generations, but it is really advanced now.
This shopkeeper is so worth it!
Please put the people's affairs on hold for the time being and discuss the future business direction.
The old man said: "The roasted skewers and spicy hot pot you made earlier, even I have only eaten the similar ones, not the ones you made. If you sell them, you will naturally have no rivals."
This is naturally a fact, after all, it is modern food, something that has been improved for hundreds of years.
But right now, it's not possible. The meat is not something that ordinary people can eat in one go, and the seasoning of Fanbang is even more expensive. Although the living standards of the people near Wencheng Street are much higher than those on the wharf, they have not reached this level of consumption.
Moreover, the cost of selling these things has to be doubled. Gu Yin's start-up capital is really not enough.
"I don't think it's better than this." Gu Yin began to write and draw on the paper again.
Just like the cafeteria of the later generations, she made various kinds of snacks every day, and the shopkeeper Zhou cooked the home-cooked dishes of the red case, which were placed on the counter one grid at a time. Not only can you dine in, but you can also take out easily without waiting.
The price of such dishes is cheaper, and the people nearby can afford it.
Of course, it also accepts orders from customers. The price of the single cooking is slightly higher, which is 70% of the price of Wangyuelou. It is aimed at high-spending customers.
In this way, different customer groups can be taken care of, and the target customers of the entire store will be the people in the upper and middle classes of living standards in the town.
Of course, if the store is bigger, Gu Yin thinks that it is possible to set up VIP boxes and prepare a special menu for VIPs. The access is also separated from ordinary users, so the customer service group covered will be wider.
It's a pity that although the backyard is large, she doesn't have the money to overthrow and rebuild it for the time being. There are almost no such cutting-edge customers in the town, and most of them are ordinary people. Just press the no table first, and then talk about it later.
After discussing with shopkeeper Zhou, he also felt very good.
Ordinary people are willing to go to a big restaurant like Wangyuelou only once during the holidays. Although Gu Yin’s store is larger than ordinary restaurants, it is far less than the scale of Wangyuelou. If you pursue high prices and high profits, you may lose money.
After the general direction was finalized, Mrs. Wen went back and wrote a plaque for her, saying that he hadn't practiced calligraphy for a long time, and he had to pick it up to practice again, and he must write a good sign for her. He did it all by himself, and it was an opening gift to Gu Yin.
Mrs. Wang went back to Zhenyi Lane to find Mrs. Xu. Although when it came to recruiting, the first thing she thought of was Mrs. Xu, but she had to discuss with her before making a decision.
Shopkeeper Zhou was in charge of finding someone to customize the counter and simple decoration—especially Gu Yin said that he hoped to knock down half of the two walls facing the street and make the kind of large windows that can be opened and half-height. Please bring the drawings. Show it to the old craftsman, and make sure that the wall can be beaten before hiring someone to build it.
Gu Yin asked him to stay for a while, and finally discussed the salary with him.
Shopkeeper Zhou did not hide it from him and said, "When I was in Wangyuelou, my monthly salary was 32 taels, but the scale of the owner here is not as big as that, and naturally it doesn't need that kind of salary. You can give it as you see it."
Gu Yin thought about twenty taels at first, but she never thought that Wang Dafu would give shopkeeper Zhou thirty taels of wages.
She thought about it, and finally decided to pay 22 taels a month, but at the end of the year, she will give bonuses and year-end bonuses. Afraid that Shopkeeper Zhou would not understand bonuses and year-end bonuses, Gu Yin was about to explain,
Shopkeeper Zhou has already smiled and said: "When the boss is not rich, he will adopt the children who meet by chance. I naturally trust you. In fact, twenty-two a month is very good for me now. The bonus and year-end bonus that the boss said Wait until the end of the year."
Recruiting such good employees is no different from picking up money on the ground.
Gu Yin felt warm in her heart, "The shopkeeper is also relieved, I will do what I say."
…
In mid-April this year, "Food for the Sky", located at the intersection of Wencheng Street and Wenxing Street, officially opened!