Franchise (5)
Franchise (5)
As he gradually formulated his plans, the vision of his own restaurant began unfolding before his eyes.
From the interior design of the dining area to the furniture he would use.
As everything began taking shape in his mind, his actions accelerated more and more.
And then there was the most critical part — the pricing policy.
He agonized over this part for quite a long time.
He'd even been called out during class for zoning out and thinking about other things...
Everyone knows the saying: eating at home is cheaper than dining out at a restaurant
That's because restaurants factor in cover charges, taxes, and staff wages — all kinds of incidental costs — into the price of the food.
Did you know just how big that difference is?
Someone who didn't frequent grocery stores might not be aware of it.
If you could buy 1kg of pork belly at the store for 17,000 won,
at a restaurant you could grill and eat 2 servings (roughly 360-380g) for about 16,000 won.
Of course, that didn't mean cover charges were a bad thing.
Eating at a restaurant came with the convenience of not having to clean up afterward.
And it wasn't just the cleanup — the food was already prepared, so you didn't have to cook it yourself.
He thought that merit was more than enough to justify paying more compared to cooking and eating at home.
And the most important thing was that dining out at a restaurant was never mandatory.
If you didn't like it, you simply didn't have to buy and eat it.
But he was going to do his restaurant differently.
He wouldn't lower the quality of the food or raise the prices because of the monthly rent he had to pay.
Why was that?
Simple.
Because he had received the basement floor of a building in Gangnam from A-ra.
Well, even if he'd received it, the title was still in A-ra's name.
That was because any talk of gifting between spouses or whatever would inevitably lead to weird rumors circulating.
"But is the basement really going to be okay?"
"Actually, if it's not the first floor, the basement is better."
Unless it was the first floor, accessibility was inevitably going to suffer.
And high-end restaurants were too difficult to place on the first floor to begin with.
In that case, the basement was indeed the best option.
Just one flight of stairs down from the first floor would bring you directly to the restaurant, and since you could also reach the basement by elevator, even people who disliked stairs could come at their leisure.
In fact, if it had been an above-ground floor instead of a basement, it would have felt psychologically farther away.
"Hmm... a restaurant in the basement, huh..."
"Do none of the buildings you own have anything in the basement, Noona?"
"No... come to think of it, some of the barbecue restaurants and sushi places in Gangnam are in basements, too."
"Right? And if I go into the basement....."
He pressed his lips shut.
If he opened his restaurant in the basement, several other businesses would likely move into the previously empty basement.
Because whenever the floating population increased for any reason, demand naturally followed.
At the very least, nothing bad would happen to A-ra.
"If you go into the basement?"
"No, it's nothing. Basements are visible as soon as you go down one flight, right? That's much better than having to take an elevator or look at signs outside to know what's there."
He tried to muddle through it, but it didn't seem like it was going to work.
A-ra tilted her head, as if thinking, 'Is that how it works?'
Well, even putting that aside, basements had plenty of advantages.
The downside was not being able to open the windows, of course.
"Huh? Seong-hwan-a, you can open the windows there."
"What?"
"Even though it's a basement, it's not just a simple basement, you know?"
The building A-ra owned in Gangnam apparently had an outdoor staircase leading down to the first basement level.
Was it something like a subway station feel?
"Then the basement must be really spacious?"
"Yeah, it's really spacious."
If A-ra said it was spacious, it was probably big beyond imagination.
In that case, he could also attract other restaurants or cafes to increase the floating population.
"What kind of things are on the upper floors?"
"Hmm... there's a secondhand bookstore and a bunch of clothing stores, like a department store."
"Ah, I get the idea now."
A-ra's building seemed to have an outlet-like feel.
Was it like the ones in Seoul, or like the 'Ice Square Mall' outlet he'd seen in Gimhae before?
He'd thought it was just another one of the many boxy buildings...
As expected, his wife really did think a lot about him.
"Noona..."
He slowly approached A-ra and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
Her silky hair brushed against his nose, and a soft, fragrant scent gradually numbed his sense of smell.
"You like it?"
She stroked his hands, which were wrapped around her, and beamed a bright smile.
This time, he played mischievously in A-ra's embrace, like a cat.
"Of course I like it..."
"Hehe, if you need anything else, just tell Noona."
He wondered if there could possibly be anything more he needed, but he nodded.
Because A-ra seemed absolutely dying to do things for him.
He decided he shouldn't refuse too much either, and should just accept her goodwill.
Weren't they husband and wife, after all?
***
"So? Does this mean you're becoming a CEO soon?"
"Ahem... it's a bit embarrassing, but yes."
It was awkward being called a CEO when he hadn't even started the interior work yet and hadn't filed the business registration.
A business required far more preparation before starting than one might think.
For example, health certificates for the employees, passing food safety standards after the interior work...
Even rushing things, it would still take several months.
And it would also take time for the custom-ordered frying machines from Japan to arrive...
There was unexpectedly so much to take care of.
"Then what's that thing you do before opening... that..."
"Pre-open?"
"Yeah, that! You're going to invite us too, obviously?"
"Hmm...."
Jeong-hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho were making expressions that practically said they'd kill him if he didn't invite them.
He'd already planned for it, but seeing them like that made him want to tease them for no reason.
"You know what happens if I say no, right?"
"Ahem... don't worry, I've already got everything prepared."
Normally, he planned to have 15 seats, but for the pre-open, he intended to accept 5 people per day for three days.
And after that, the official opening would be a fully reservation-based system with 4 time slots per day...
And he'd set up a permanent reserved seat for A-ra.
It was arranged so that A-ra could simply show up whenever her schedule permitted and just eat and leave.
Some might call it preferential treatment.
Honestly, it was exactly preferential treatment.
Special treatment reserved only for his wife.
Since it was his private business anyway, no one could interfere.
"But you're going to sell alcohol there, too, right?"
"Alcohol? Hmm... I suppose I'll have to sell it?"
He hadn't given much thought yet to beverages.
Simple things like soda, beer, and soju could be easily sourced from a wholesaler, so that wasn't much of a problem. But he hadn't thought at all about how to bring in things like Western liquor or Japanese sake.
"How about just doing bring-your-own-bottle with a corkage fee?"
"If you do that, you'd have to make the corkage fee free, wouldn't you?"
"Umm..."
Even so, free corkage was a bit...
The revenue from selling alcohol would be quite high.
Some people would bring their own, but he needed to charge corkage fees to generate some revenue.
Because he couldn't run the business at a loss.
"Now that I think about it, Lee Min-ho, couldn't your side help sort this out?"
"Huh? Us?"
"Didn't you take over an entire store near Dongdaemun that was buying Japanese sake and Western liquor?"
"Ah... that's Mother's hobby, actually..."
Lee Min-ho began tapping his forehead with his fingers.
He maintained that posture for a while, then pulled his phone out of his pocket and started texting someone.
It wasn't the first time Seong-hwan had heard of this, either.
He'd heard that there were a great many places selling foreign alcohol in Dongdaemun.
It was easy to think they only sold clothes, but Dongdaemun was surprisingly a place where many different kinds of goods were traded.
Well, he'd never properly visited one himself.
"For now, Mother said she'll look into it once."
"Th-there's no need to go that far..."
"Do you know how much Mom likes you? You probably can't even imagine, really."
Seong-hwan was well aware that something had felt different since he'd helped find Ji-ye.
So I'm secretly doted on by middle-aged ladies...
"Still, the fact that Mom is willing to look into it is basically the same as saying 'trust me and leave it to me.' You're in luck."
"Whoa... Seong-hwan-a, do you know some kind of secret to getting on older people's good side?"
"I don't have any such thing..."
"Then why is my mom and Lee Min-ho's mom absolutely crazy about you?"
"How should I know..."
In Lee Min-ho's case, it could be because of a sense of gratitude for finding Ji-ye.
But he had no idea why Jeong-hwan's Mother held him in such favorable regard.
It was nice that she adored him like a son, but where exactly was this fondness coming from?
"You're polite, you're good-looking, you sell a lot of king crab... honestly, there's no way not to like you."
"Umm..."
It seemed that in the eyes of the two of them, he appeared to be a pretty decent guy.
But since he himself didn't think that way at all, he just felt a strange sense of disconnect.
"And you're frugal. For a guy your age with so much money, if you're frugal, older folks can't help but like you."
"I'm frugal?"
Had these two finally lost their minds?
They'd be shocked if they heard how much money his monthly fixed expenses consumed.
An ordinary person might even faint upon hearing it.
And that was 'frugal'?
"Hey, from our parents' perspective, that's frugal."
"You'd probably pass out if you knew how much our house's monthly electricity bill was."
Jeong-hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho smirked and crossed their arms.
Other things aside, he was curious about how much Lee Min-ho's household paid in monthly electricity bills.
They were running hundreds of air purifiers around the clock, so it couldn't be just a small sum.
Residential electricity was quite expensive, so would it come out to about 3 million won a month?
"Search it on the internet sometime."
"? Sure."
Was it really something that would show up if you searched for it online?
Just how much were they spending...