Two Taipei restaurants have joined forces, in a new strategy to make it through COVID. Based in the popular Yongkang St. neighborhood, the restaurants were doing well before Level 3 restrictions came in. But in recent months, the area experienced a wave of business closures. To fight back, the modern Taiwanese cuisine eatery brought the other brand into its fold. The partnership reflects the creative lengths restaurants will go to, to make it through COVID.
Chefs blowtorch ingredients, while nearby, colleagues pack up the yam and okra chicken. Takeout bowls are piled up, waiting for orders to come in. This restaurant in the Yongkang area has brought together two successful brands to create a new identity and get through the pandemic.
Chang Chia-yu
Taiwanese restaurant chef
The pandemic is really bad, and basically customers aren’t leaving the house. So we just decided to bring them together.
Jeek
Fried chicken restaurant owner
The day after we went up to Level 3, we came up with the idea to do a collaboration. The earning power of one brand can’t possibly be as high as the power of two brands together. So by integrating two brands, or even more, we’re producing more interesting and delicious food.
The Taiwanese-style restaurant sought out the fried chicken brand in May, bringing them into their premises. They share the rent, which is tens of thousands a month, and the employees of both companies have become one team. They split the work and delivery responsibilities among existing staff, and have not needed to cut salaries.
But the challenge with takeout is how to preserve the perfect flavor. Time is of the essence. The restaurant has been completely reorganized. Deliveries come straight to the kitchen. The bar has turned into the packing station. Eat-in tables are now the storage zone for packing materials.
Jeek
Fried chicken restaurant owner
I think what’s most important for us is protecting our restaurant partners, keeping their working conditions and livelihoods stable. I hope that because we have worked hard to adapt, when restaurant industry people see our indomitable spirit, they’ll think “We won’t give up,” and they’ll keep making better upgrades along with us.
Yongkang’s normally bustling streets are almost empty of tourists. The area is facing a tsunami of businesses folding. But this collaboration hopes to see COVID through unscathed.