Recently, I stumbled across a post with a screenshot of a map of Victoria Island, and the comment, “the whole of V.I. is a restaurant.”

As amusing as it was, it’s very true (☝🏾) — there are almost more restaurants than there is free space. It brought to mind a lot of my memories as a food designer, setting up restaurants here and there, and it occurred to me that more people should know what goes into creating some of your favourite places to sit, eat and relax in Lagos. So here it is — a free crash course in food/restaurant design. 

At the inception stage of designing a restaurant, I prefer to start by putting myself in the customer’s mind, trying to understand what train of thought would lead them there. I ask myself questions like: When people come in here, what do I want them to say?

I first imagine they’ll say to themselves, “I feel like eating XYZ,” and “let’s go to a place that has XYZ,” before deciding where to dine. With this information, I can decide on a theme and this serves as a starting point for a restaurant concept book. Of course, it’s not always like this, especially when creative block sets in, but it’s always good to have a process to fall back on. The restaurant concept book then becomes a reference point for all aspects of the business — from the business plan, to the menu, social media and marketing strategies.

In regards to inspiration, I get it from all over. I have lived and worked in a lot of cities and lived with people from 11 parts of the world at different times in my life, making sure to take in as many cultures as I could, especially food. I’d say my recipes are a fusion of all these different cultures, resulting in my own ‘food language’ and unique style. Using the concept book, we choose a signature dish for the space, drawing recipes and inspiration from different parts of the world.

One of the first issues I’m likely to face is with clients, because Nigerians think they know everything about everything (😆), forgetting that their personal tastes may not translate directly to commercial success. Everyone’s a critic, these days! Regardless, it’s important to strike a balance. For example, at Seetle, we really wanted to create a pasta house, but the owner wanted a full English breakfast on the menu, so we met halfway by including an Italian-inspired Full English, simply by adding some basil and parsley to the baked beans. With Seetle, we eventually made pasta the core dish and created the opportunity for guests to travel to different parts of the world with dishes like the cumin lamb pasta and the tozo mac and cheese, inspired by local suya flavours. 

The next step is usually selecting smallware (glassware, table-top items, bar supplies, etc.) and tableware, all important for presentation. This would easily be my favourite part, but there are a number of challenges when it comes to doing this for a restaurant in Lagos. These items are usually imported because it is hard to standardise production here, so quality options are few and fakes are plenty. They also tend to be breakable and so need replacement often, so if you select complicated dishes, you will find replacing them difficult.

With HOV Lounge, for instance, we decided not to use generic smallware and tableware because of the Asian-inspired theme; we wanted to give character to the dishes. For example, a salmon parcel served with potatoes and spicy date sauce comes in a steaming basket, which we had to import. We chose these serving dishes, even though they’re not easy to source, to give diners the feeling of opening a present — an experience definitely more Instagrammable than being served with a plate.

Once we’re sorted on the concept, menu, cookware and serveware, you would think we have it all, but this is often when it starts to get tricky. There are a few more hurdles to jump like staffing, which in Lagos is a tough business (finding decent workers is like looking for a needle in a haystack), or issues with finance and how every investor expects their money back in 3 months. There are also the marketing battles, and the fact that “the whole of V.I. is a restaurant,” like that post said, so how do you make your brand/space stand out?

Despite all this, I think the more complicated the journey is, the more rewarding it is to launch, watch it grow and ultimately, become successful.

From Lagos with love,

AB

Anu Bello is the founder of PARTY RICE, a food design studio. Focused on concept and business development, Anu drives the creative process for the company, envisioning restaurants and bringing them to life, as well as working with brands to envision new food products.