It’s difficult to think of a more strategically important spot in Georgetown on which to establish a small restaurant that offers a range of the most popular local creole foods along with the option of either dining-in, utilizing the strictly limited facilities that it provides or otherwise, taking away or having your food delivered to you.
The Cottage Restaurant on Mud Lot Access Road, Kingston, sits in the shadow of the country’s two best-known hotels, the Pegasus and the Marriott and in a neighbourhood that houses a number of state-run offices and private businesses including the Department of Forestry, the National Centre for Education Research and Development (NCERD), Demerara Timbers, the Ministry of Works and the complex housing the country’s second national cellular phone service provider, Digicel.
The potential ‘pickings,’ in terms of patronage are evident.
The Stabroek Business had spoken with Sven and Jewel Wills, the owners of the Cottage before. Since 2015 when they first opened the doors of the facility the portents were good. Kingston, on the southern extreme of the capital, is not exactly teeming with options insofar as securing a good creole meal is concerned and guests at Hotels like the Pegasus and the Marriott are known to grow tired of the routineness of the fare there. That apart, after the reputation of your menu is spread further and wider, potential customers don’t mind either making the trip to one of the quietest parts of the city to enjoy a quiet creole meal, either breakfast or lunch, or calling up and asking for it to be delivered.
Carefully thought-through menus offer guests a range of some of the more popular creole foods including the establishment’s own ‘power porridge’ with bases that include barley, sago, cornmeal or custard power and laced with generous doses of two popular indigenous barks, sarsaparilla and Capadulla, both associated with virility and stamina. Then there is the substantive breakfast meal. The choices are bewildering and include bake and salt fish, eggs, roti, puri, chicken curry, egg balls and fish cakes. Diminished patronage in recent months has meant that some of these have been temporarily removed from the Cottage’s menu.
The best that can be said is that for the Cottage Restaurant the advent of COVID-19 has been something of a spoiler. Patronage has reduced considerably and the owners have had to make drastic staff cuts. Like the various other business owners across the country the Willses are pondering the future. These days the Cottage’s dine-in numbers are down. The focus of the service has now shifted almost entirely to take-aways. Even that, Sven says, has been negatively impacted by the vicissitudes of constantly changing work routines, ‘chopped and changed’ to fit into the paradigms of a constantly changing curfew regime.
For all that, the take-aways remain The Cottage’s lifeline. Food sales have reduced by as much as 40%. Sven has learnt to distinguish the ‘good days’ from the bad ones. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he says, are currently the best trading days. Fridays, he says, can even sometimes feel like ‘the old days’ at breakfast time.
The Willses comfort themselves in the knowledge that at least office deliveries, though down from what they used to be, are now holding steady.
If the Willses are not oblivious to the potential impact that health warnings could have on the ‘eating out’ industry, they are inclined to the view that The Cottage’s now reduced patronage has more to do with the adjusted work schedule. There are fewer people out buying food these days,” Sven says.
For the immediate future, at least, the Willses plan is to (hopefully temporarily) discontinue the Cottage’s dining-in service in order to pay a greater measure of attention to their take-away and delivery services. In the meanwhile – and while they, like other business owners, await respite from COVID-19- they are focusing on renovation plans to accommodate a more adequate eat-in facility.
Sven himself is brimming with optimism. His mind is set on the era beyond the pandemic. Plans, he says, include initiatives designed to aggressively enhance marketing with a view to significantly expanding the existing customer base. With an eye to enhancing customer appeal Sven says that The Cottage will also be devising strategies to reduce waiting time for delivery of food.
The Willses are persuaded that the base which The Cottage has built will survive and grow. A point has now been reached where 80% of The Cottage’s customers are repeat customers. It is a sign, they believe that the facility is poised for growth.
The COVID-19 season has been a period of contemplation for the Willses. They have been mindful to properly brief their staff on the protocols associated with sanitation and good hygiene and have also implemented strict social distancing procedures.
Still, the challenges remain. Reduced patronage has compelled the Willses to apply to their bankers, for additional time in which to meet payments on their business loan. This is the second such extension that they are seeking.
For the Willses, however, one gets the impression that the die is cast. They refuse to see the prevailing environment as anything more than a constricting tunnel and they appear seized of the conviction that there is light at the other end.
The cottage restaurant can be contacted on 231-4343
