Launching a new restaurant in a pandemic requires a lot of resilience

During the MCO, what started out as The Lankan was rebranded to become The Lankan Crabs as the owners realised there was more potential and volume in crabs and seafood. — JOANNE LIM

“At that point, we had put in so much money that closing after that four days was not even a thought. Euwie admits that the situation got him so down that he contemplated abandoning the restaurant altogether, but Beh’s encouragement and the support of his landlord kept him going. “People working in the restaurant industry are not rich people, many are working hand-to-mouth, so we made sure we put in the money to sustain the people, ” says Vicky.To survive what has arguably been the biggest blow to the restaurant industry in the 21st century, and what is likely 10 times worse if you are a new restaurant, both The Lankan Crabs and Pun’s started putting together a plan of action to keep their businesses afloat.

“We cut down our menu to just one page so that we could actually focus on our three crab dishes – Negombo crabs, Jaffna crabs and garlic crabs – because we realised we could produce a few good dishes much faster than trying to cook an assortment of food to serve one table. But in cutting down the menu, we also had to focus on food quality and ensure the recipes were consistent, which was very, very challenging, ” he says.

“We used our agency to do a lot of creatives, so we focused on the brand and straight away went down to a signature three-second video of a girl serving a dish of crabs on our social media, which we did for a period of six weeks. Although Euwie initially had something else in mind for his menu, during the MCO, he focused on comfort food like burgers for takeaways. — BEH E LAINE

The Lankan Crabs meanwhile has gone from strength to strength, building a solid brand that has become so popular that revenue has gone up 15-fold from the month of their inception to September. The Lankan Crabs will remain open for dine-in, but Vicky doesn’t expect large numbers of guests as the consumption of crabs typically requires a bigger group.

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