New Century: Resilience in the Restaurant Industry

BY MONICA LIN ~ Published: November 21, 2023

Located on the north of Simcoe Road in Oshawa, Ontario, a humble restaurant created to support a family stands. Titled “New Century”, it serves takeout Western Asian cuisine, specializing in fresh and fast comfort food. Mainly run by a family of 5, the place was opened in 2012 and will remain one of the few legacy restaurants in the plaza as it reaches its tenth birthday. This place is my second home and my childhood, as it is owned by my parents, specifically, my dad.

Growing up in a restaurant life is not easy. It is bustling, and moving. Despite the many phases the world went through, things in the restaurant stayed the same. Recently, I took the time to interview my father to understand his approach to owning this business that supports my family and our expenses.

Credit: Getty Images

One of his biggest fears while starting the business was a lack of business. Fresh to the land and unused to the language, he was scared that his lack of customer service and the novelty of Chinese food would drive customers away. He started the restaurant from nothing; before the opening, he was working as a sushi chef in America. My mom, new to the life as well, only had experience as a server. Raising three children, they set their faith in the business and started working long and hard hours, 11 am to 11 pm, every day, every week, with no breaks.

Looking back, I would call it “grinding”. It is easier to manage a business once you have a reputation and business flowing. But, in order to get there, the work must be put in and moments will be sacrificed. Every Christmas and holiday of my early childhood was at home alone, or at the restaurant, playing on the rice bags while my parents buzzed around, working.

My dad shoulders most of the work at the restaurant. This is a challenge he faces often; it is cheaper to work harder than hire new chefs to help out. The selection pool was rather small for new workers in the kitchen. They had to already have basic experience with the cuisine we serve, as it is less time-consuming than training a chef who understands practically nothing. They had to speak and understand Mandarin, preferably in the Fuzhou dialect, which my parents both originated from and speak often during rush hours. Last but not least, they had to be ready for the long and hard hours of the evenings, when it was the busiest and time was worth gold. This caused many new chefs to drop out as they started; it is not easy to constantly be on your feet, in front of the fire, chucking out order after order. There were a series of questions my father had to ask himself: would it be worth it to hire someone new, yet they are unable to keep up with the demands? During the winter, when business speeds up, should we hire another chef to help despite the knowledge that they might leave after a paycheck? This is an ongoing problem we still constantly go through and must solve as we truck along.

Another issue for our restaurant is the management of cost versus quality. Ingredients are best if they are cheap yet high quality. Customers will pay more for better food, and we will spend less for it. Yet it is hard to achieve this balance. With inflation pushing prices higher than before, our prices rack up as a consequence. Otherwise, how would we manage to support ourselves? It is not only ingredients, it is packing supplies, cookware, drinks and repairments for equipment. With Canada’s new ban on single-use plasticware, it is harder to find supplies that do not break the ban and our budget. The solution for my dad is research. Instead of having one main supplier, we have many (we even got our mushrooms from a local farm instead of wholesale!) and buy from wholesale warehouses, such as Costco. It takes time to do all of it, but the end result is worth it.

Overall, his advice for owning a place like ours is to have experience and control the cost of your ingredients and profit. He states that it’s important to always have all of the customers’ best interests at heart. This means denying an absurd request that would slow everyone else’s orders down. He reminds new business owners to keep their heads up and push through the worst of it; it will work out in the end.