Opening The Bar
It was January 2020, shortly after the new year’s countdown, the confetti was still on the bar top and Champagne dripping from the ceiling. People were yelling “fuck 2019” and how 2020 will turn their lives around. We heard whispers of a new virus breaking out in Wuhan, but like any other event that’s not happening at home, no one cared.
Next thing we knew Wuhan went into shut-down during Chinese New Year, and the rest of the country shortly followed.
CNY is China’s Thanksgiving and Christmas put together. It’s a holiday of gifts, festivities and loved ones. This viral outbreak robbed us of what’s supposed to be the happiest time of the year and all of a sudden, we were stuck. We closed our second bar Birds of Paradise only six months after the grand opening, and Union Trading Co was asked to close to contain the virus. Closing a new bar without recuperating the initial investment, Union with only two months’ working capital, and a shutdown with no end in sight - I thought my career in Shanghai was finished. But this wasn’t a time for self-pity, I knew very early on if bar management threw in the towel, it’s the ultimate fuck you to our team, our guests, our community and the memories we have created together.
Automatically, we went into crisis solving mode. The first thing we did was assemble our staff online, many of whom were still in their hometowns, and couldn’t leave. We had that very awkward sit-down meeting with the team, we had it multiple times. We made sure to make time for the team to let us know how they felt, how these decisions will affect them, what we can do to help and tell them where our bar stands, shared our fears and finances. This was the time when leadership was paramount, our bar leadership had to be their rock even if we were all panicking inside, ultimately the team are the people who make up the bars’ foundation, but there is no point of talking about saving the teams’ jobs when there isn’t a job for them to return to. To my surprise, all of the staff unanimously decided to take a pay cut during the shutdown, nobody jumped ship, everyone chipped in ideas. We started pioneering the idea of delivering cocktails to people’s homes. Taking advantage of China’s robust courier services, we made sure to stay in touch with all of our regulars, giving them updates on the status of our bar as well as trying to comfort them remotely, we figured hospitality doesn’t have to be confined within the walls of the bar, especially in these desperate times. We pulled every trick out of the book, from preserving all perishables to finding creative ways to utilise all of our leftover stock. We partnered up with any company that would support us, taking up any odd jobs we could to get free stock or products and to create any type of cash flow and cut down costs. Throughout this whole process, there was constant and honest communication with the team.
Fortunately, the shutdown in China proved effective, and in April businesses started opening up again sooner than the rest of the world. We then tried sharing many of our experiences and the lessons we have learned with our global bar community, hoping we could be a helping hand in a world of desperation.
Reopening wasn’t easy, people were still scared, and initially, business was slow. But at this point we celebrated any small victory we got.
We created a shortened twelve drink menu as opposed to our usual twenty-five, utilising all the ingredients we had preserved to triple our stock, trying to be strategic with what we have and how we use them. We continued to deliver cocktails and reached out to every single spirit company we could to see how we could gain support. We trod carefully, not knowing if a second wave of infections would close us down again.
It wasn’t until June when we started to see our business return to normal, and at this point we immediately started doing as many events as we could. We hosted a taco night, we did cocktail classes, and signed up for every single event and catering opportunity we could get our hands on, aiming to regain our losses during shutdown. It was exhausting but exhilarating at the same time; knowing it’s a blessing to have these opportunities available, and that it’s up to us make sure we don’t fuck it up.
It’s weird looking back at 2020 - sometimes it feels like it’s been forty years ago, sometimes it feels like it’s only been four weeks. It was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had, but many lessons were learned. We learned how to work smarter, more efficiently, we learned how to better walk the tightrope of financial stability without cutting corners, while enhancing the guest experience at the same time. This year CNY was drastically different, the business is back into being profitable, and we all made sure to gift our staff a big fat bonus before their holidays, where they can spend time with their families, worry free.
To be honest I am incredibly proud of how we handled COVID. We are lucky to have always followed the principle of prioritising our staff first - to be a neighborhood bar we had to build in the sense of family within the team before being able to transfer that energy and love to our guests. With this culture within the bar, with the selfless pay cuts, the endless flow of creative ideas, the faith and love our team had for each other, it saved us from doomsday. If there is one piece of advice for anyone it would be, always be in your staff’s corner, because they will have the businesses back in the times that matter most.