One of the interesting culinary developments in Western China over the last two years has been the decline of the storefront restaurant. In its place, the home restaurant has grown in popularity. Now, before continuing, perhaps it is worth telling you all precisely what I mean by "home restaurant." A home restaurant is located in an apartment that has either been purchased or rented for the purpose of running some sort of restaurant out of it. They are then decorated in the style of many other restaurants--the bed rooms serve as private dining rooms, while the living room may be decorated in some other fashion. Some home restaurants split the living room into several stalls, thereby making room for more customers. One restaurant has a black tent in its living room in which customers can sit and eat. Still another restaurant drapes the walls in black yak hair felt to simulate the experience of the black tent. These home restaurants are rapidly becoming a popular and unique eating establishments for groups of friends to gather for meals. But why are so many restaurants opening in apartments? And why are people preferring these eateries to others?
One probably factor is economic: budding restauranteurs are opting to open home restaurants because of the relatively cheap start-up costs. A home restaurant only costs as much as it takes to rent an apartment. Alternatively, if the owner purchases an apartment, and the venture fails, their family still has a place to live. But there's more to it than this, I imagine. First of all, several of these establishments are (probably, I haven't asked) unregistered and therefore not subject to the same tax regulations. Additionally, to my understanding opening a restaurant with a storefront requires not only paying the rent, but also a zhuanrang fei 转让费 'transfer fee,' (like a subletting fee) for transferring the lease from one tenant to the next. Even in a relatively "small" city like Xining, these regularly cost over 100,000 RMB (over 15,000 USD). That's a fairly sizable outlay for a new business. Thirdly, allows businesses without traditional storefronts to advertise their establishment without spending any money. I think this is called viral marketing. Home restaurants have fewer walk-in clients, but once the word gets out they do a fairly steady business. An interesting side-element to this, is that several of the eateries are actually owned by single families that have turned their enterprise into a family chain. Notable examples would be singer/blogger/intellectual/women's rights activist Jamyang kyi ('Jam dbyangs skyid) whose family now operates three such restaurants in Xining and one in Lhasa. For the second question, as to why people prefer these eateries to others, there might also be a variety of reasons. The privacy these restaurants offer often makes them ideal for groups of people to sit and talk (as opposed to some larger restaurants), the food is often--though not always--excellent, and is handmade. They may appreciate the increased privacy that the home restaurant offers, or the unique ambience. Finally, a restauranteur's mobile number may be used as the restaurant's main contact information, and customers may become connected on WeChat or follow each other on other social networking platforms. Over the course of visits and social media correspondence, restaurant owners often become acquainted with their customers on a more personal level (and vice-versa), and form relationships that transcend the traditional manager-client . One last point worth considering, is that the home restaurant has by no means replaced the storefront restaurant, which remain the dominant style of eatery. Either way, this is an interesting phenomenon. There is a panel at the upcoming AAS meeting on the ways Tibetans inhabit urban environments. I'll be interested to see if anyone is going to report on the rise of the home restaurant, or on the way (as reported in an earlier post) Yushu Tibetans recreate their religious sites, and even the Yushu ritual calendar, in the big city.
1 Comment
Carole
3/25/2015 04:47:08 pm
Really interesting, Timothy - I think these folks are being very creative and clever - more power to them!
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |