To Be Young And In Love In New York City

Chapter 9: "That's Marbellous!"

Two weeks had passed since River proposed the idea of starting up a Korean restaurant. Han and Yuna decided that they wanted to waste no time, and got to work along with River and Colette the next day. Heavy research online taught them that the restaurant they wanted to have could be achieved in a month if they prioritized their work over everything else, at least for a month. And that's what they did. The four adults didn't let a single leisure second fly past them; they grabbed onto each one of them and utilized it. Colette and River spent a lot of time almost every single day for two whole weeks with Han and Yuna, doing everything they could to bring the idea of the restaurant to life. It was heavy, stressful, and time-consuming work but the determination and motivation that they were constantly consumed by didn't let their enthusiasm falter. Even River and Colette who had no share in the restaurant worked just as hard as Han and Yuna.

They broke down the entire process into 8 steps:

1. Choose a concept for the restaurant.

Yuna, Colette and River along with Nari had sat down at their dining table with River's laptop for this step. He suggested to take a more traditional approach towards the theme of the restaurant like having ancient Korean paintings in the restaurant, have one of Yuna's traditional clothing item put in a glass box and have it hung on the walls and play old Korean music in the background. When everyone agreed, Colette hopped onto Pinterest and looked for pins that represented the vibe they were going for. Two hours later, she had over a hundred pins pinned to her board, all of them approved by Yuna.

2. Form a Menu.

This one was a time-consuming, but a relatively easy job. Yuna dug out old family recipes, cooked them and made River and Nari taste them out. It was many hours of blatant criticism; Yuna made them promise to be completely honest, as she added and removed specific ingredients and improvised the old recipes.

River and Yuna paid visits to a few Korean restaurants in the city, checking out their menus, trying out their food and taking notes. After three long days that consisted of just that, they had come up with the perfect menu.

3. Write A Business Plan.

This was not only essential but crucial for the starting up of the restaurant. It consisted of writing an executive summary, market analysis, business offering and other important things that Han and River took care of.

4. Choose A Location.

Yuna told River that she had seen a tiny space that was given out for lease across the supermarket that she visited weekly. The four adults along with the way too excited Nari decided to check it out. It was a small area with cream walls and a big glass door. It was a little smaller than they liked but besides that, everything else about it was perfect. It wasn't located in a remote place, rather a busy street. There was a lot of sunlight seeping into the area and it was airy even with the air-conditioners turned off. After all of them collectively decided that it was the perfect place to set up their restaurant and the space constraint was something they could ignore, they met up with the overly cheerful owner and within a few days, signed the lease.

5. Permits and Licenses.

This area was mainly focused on by River and Han. They spent hours filling out applications for the different licenses required to start the restaurant and payed the high fees that came with. Keeping in consideration all the licenses, they estimated that it would take at least a month for all of them to arrive, but until then, they decided to focus on making sure that the restaurant lived up to their vision of it.

6. Find Food Suppliers.

This was one of the easier steps. Finding a food supplier who was not only constant and reliable but also sold the ingredients at reasonable prices was easier than they had expected as there were several of them delivering in the same area as the restaurant.