With the officially imposed strictures and attendant protocols associated with efforts to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to take its toll on the fortunes of the business community, La Shawn Lonetta Lucas, the Proprietrix of the popular William street Campbelville King Fish Bar is counting her blessings. She has, she says, been able to live within the limits of the law and still make a comfortable living offering fried fish and plantains, among other dishes along with an assortment of beverages to her customers.
What La Shawn has accomplished has required the strictest of discipline. Her customers are, to a considerable extent, creatures of the night, mostly young and middle-aged men and women whose favorite past time is imbibing assorted beverages and snacking on considerable quantities of fried fish while deafening music persists simultaneously with conversations that have to be shouted above the din.
These days, the biggest current challenge has to do with the periodic inward and outward adjustment of the curfew hours, a circumstance that does not always sit well with La Shawn’s customers, most of whom have grown accustomed to ‘hanging til late.’ As it happens, breaking the curfew does not sit well with the Police Patrols which, in recent weeks appear to have been instructed to ‘up their game’ insofar as enforcement of the curfew is concerned. Businesses that break the curfew can feel it in their pockets.
La Shawn success in ‘dodging between the raindrops’ is underpinned by the fact that within the confines of the hours afforded by the curfew protocols she offers the best entertainment that she can so that she has managed to have her regulars thoroughly enjoy themselves within the prescribed hours and afterwards resign themselves to having to coming earlier and leaving next time.
The King Fish Bar is named after King Street and the earlier business pursuits of her now deceased father, Paul. The passage of time and her own dogged determination to keep what she has come to consider a family tradition alive has meant that she now runs a thriving enterprise apart from being a mother of two children.
The William street ‘hang,’ the baby of the chain is one of three locations. What one might call the ‘base camp’ is situated on Lamaha street, in Newtown. Then there is the widely popular Caravan site on King street, a stone’s throw north of of Regent street.
La Shawn’s primary challenges during the period of the pandemic have had to do mostly with how to continue to keep the doors open and pay the bills, including considerable rentals, whilst developing the safety and sanitation standards demanded by the authorities. There had been, as well, the compelling condition of general uncertainty arising out of the post-elections environment across the country.
A ban on roadside vending between March and June hit King Fish hard. It meant that the Regent & King streets employees had to be absorbed into the other ‘spots’ and the entire staff placed on a rotation regime. The adjusted business hours – 0600 hrs. – 1800 hrs.) didn’t help. But, La Shawn said, King Fish was offering good food and that had sustained customer patronage. The pattern, she explained, was a steady trickle during the days and a sudden rush about an hour before closing time. “It seemed that most customers only remembered at that time that they had to purchase food to take home,” she said.
She is, she says, particularly mindful of the COVID-19 protocols, understanding only too well that if you break the rules you are essentially tampering with your livelihood and the livelihoods of your employees. The William street establishment is classified as a ‘fast food and restaurant’ so that outside dining is allowed. Tables are set apart based on the laid down protocols. A strict sanitation regime is in place. It is, La Shawn says, comforting to know that one can do good business whilst following the rules.
Christmas is a ‘big deal’ for King Fish. The entity benefits from a pleasing number of orders from an assortment of customers including government offices at this time of the year. There are other types of social gatherings too and amidst all of this the establishment dare not neglect its ‘regulars’ who want to do their own Christmas ‘ting’ in their own up tempo way, mostly in the comfort of the William street outlet. Birthday parties and other social gatherings usually bring in a ‘pretty penny’ too.
Christmas, however much it may ‘glitter,’ is not all ‘gold.’ It is a season during which reduced fishing creates scarcity and forces fish prices up. La Shawn makes it clear, however, that it may well be considered an act of betrayal to confront her ‘regulars” with what one might call opportunistic price increases. Accordingly, King Fish has to absorb the price increases and move on. Plantain prices, too, she says, have their seasonal price fluctuations.
Nor are the challenges associated with living up to the establishment’s culinary reputation to be underestimated. Good help can be hard to find and once your reputation for good cooking gets to the top of the pile there is only one place that it can go thereafter……………down. It is not just a matter of training the cooks, La Shawn says, but also a matter of seeking to get them to understand the extent to which what they do impacts on the overall success of the business. Fish and chips, particularly, is, arguably, the most popular dish in the contemporary local restaurant industry. People tend to go where they think they can get the best and diminished standards can be quickly attended by a catastrophic loss of patronage.
It has taken time for La Shawn to rise to the top of the King Fish ‘empire.’ In earlier times her High school education meant that she had been assigned tasks like administering workers’ wages and overseeing the payment of NIS contributions. These days there are other challenges………….like simultaneously functioning as the Chief Executive Officer (which often means being a Jack-of-all-trades) on the one hand and being a mother to two young children, on the other. Homeschooling, a necessity that has arisen out of the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped. Currently, she is diligently following up a recent advertisement which she has published for a housekeeper.
Over time, King Fish has evolved into three separate service points that comprise a single enterprise. La Shawn’s brother, Paul, runs the Lamaha street end of the ‘chain,’ her sister Selesla runs the King street Caravan. Even in a condition of considerable uncertainty growth and expansion continues to be a focus. Earlier today, King Fish launched its fourth location on Bourba street 9between Regent and Charlotte streets) which will be run by a cousin, Ivanessa Caesar. La Shawn also disclosed tpo Stabroek Business plans for the establishment of branches in Linden, Berbice, the West Coast Demerara and Bartica. Given the uncertainties associated with the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic La Shawn disclosed that a new enterprise, Home Essentials, offering packaged seasoned beef, fish and chicken has been launched at King Fish’s William street location.
