Five years after the initial startup of his juicing business, Mario Joseph on Friday launched Mario’s Juice Bar, Smoothies, Shakes, Burgers and Grill House.
The new restaurant, located on Sheriff Street, provides an outdoor dining option just as Guyana moved into phase three of the reopening of the country, where outdoor dining will be allowed since the institution COVID-19 restrictions.
Although the restaurant was launched on Friday, it was opened on Wednesday.
Joseph previously operated his juice bar at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus but with the university being closed as a result of the pandemic, that operation has since been shuttered. According to the businessman, the business came about while he was student at the university pursuing a degree in Economics. At the time he did some marketing research, which was sanctioned by the university and he and other students were permitted to sell juice on campus for a semester. Following this and using the research, he made a proposal to UG to operate the business on campus. This process took a year.
The Sheriff Street restaurant has the capacity to cater for sixteen persons who can be seated at four tables.
“We began working on the restaurant last year November and finished in January. However, our expenses for this [project] went through the roof because we have to change contractors; we had two contractors. I have to end up taking part in the building myself: mix cement, fetch sand and cement”, he said, reflecting on how painstaking the project was.
Joseph stayed opened at the university until February month end but closed in light of the elections and had planned to reopen his business by mid-March. After being without an income for almost a month, coming on to March-month end he decided to sell bottled juices from out of his home.
“We had to utilise our savings and realising that the current situation wasn’t going to go back to normal any time soon, I decided on selling the bottled juices. That worked well for a while. During this time I started assessing the food needs around the country and looking at how people were flocking Pizza Hot and Grill King and I made the decision to pursue opening the Sheriff Street location”, Joseph said.
He added that he realised that he couldn’t just open his business and needed staff and to finalise what dishes would be offered. After several weeks of trying out various recipes, it was finally decided what would be offered at the Sheriff Street location. Presently, he has a staff of four inclusive of a cook, a kitchen assistant, a chef and a cashier. Another cook will be added to the Sheriff Street staff tomorrow (Monday).
According to Joseph, the restaurant will be provide local and foreign cuisine, while catering to the pocket of the “small man” as well as those earning a middle income.
For persons who will be dining outdoors, proper distancing of tables along with the sanitising of them after customers leave are measures that have been put into place to lessen the risk of persons contracting COVID-19.
Joseph explained that what makes his business different is that it offers premium quality food and juices.
“My goal is to provide premium food at an affordable price. Our selection of fruit juices are wide and the juices are rich while they are sold at a reasonable cost,” he said.
The Sheriff Street location will opened from 11am to 5pm daily but with the national curfew being relaxed, the opening hours are expected to be revised for a possible 8pm closing time. The business offers both pickup and delivery service.
The business can be contacted at https://bringgy.com/supplier/mario-s-juice-bar-burgers-and-grill-house or 621-8063.
