A tale of two new takeout restaurants
Sweet Lou's and Tres Chiles persevere through pandemic
“When (news) started trickling in, we had no idea there was going to be a lockdown. We had no idea how it would affect our business,” explains Sweet Lou’s Cookies’ founder, Lou Gazzola, whose bakeshop’s doors opened in March.
The spark to his biscuit emporium — there are at least a half-dozen freshbaked flavours available at any time — began years before as family expeditions for tasty cookies. Working with the Waterloo Small Business Centre, the BlackBerry alum created a business plan for delivering fresh-baked cookies. He secured financing, hired a skeleton staff and tested his ideas as a ghost kitchen out of Courtyard Kitchens. The proof of concept was in the cookie; it proved a tasty success. A little more than a year ago, he signed the lease for the Waterloo shop.
Reading initial news reports about the virus, Gazzola re-examined operating plans. Staffing up would have to wait as they kept a skeleton crew, while his contractor began site renovations sooner. “Quite honestly, if we had not started our construction in January, we may not be in business right now,” says Gazzola.
Word of mouth transformed into cookie in mouth as new customers arrived after seeing posts on their feeds or after receiving gifts from friends or neighbours. Delivery apps, the ghost kitchen’s backbone, continue to play a major role, not just in sales but also in attracting a social media-savvy customer base who ’grammed, Snapchatted, and FBed their biscuity bounty.
“We were extremely fortunate that this is an incredible community to be in for a startup because the community understands how hard it is to start a business. It’s been unbelievable how much support we’ve got,” Gazzola said.
Estuardo Ayala, manager of Kitchener’s Tres Chiles, shares that community appreciation. “We wouldn’t have made it these five months if it weren’t
for people spreading the word and telling their friends and family. That’s been the key so far.”
The pandemic delayed the opening of the former Waterloo restaurant from March until June. Returning to restaurants wasn’t the plan but, last year, owners Blanca Medina and her husband Baltzar Rodiguez (Ayala’s best friend) decided to bootstrap a revamped Tres Chiles. You’ll often find Medina taking orders, Rodriguez’s sister making salsas and Ayala running the plancha at the family-run spot. The streamlined menu features scratch-made Mexican dishes with quicker service for folks on the go and neighbouring St. Mary’s High School students on lunch. It’s not fast food, it’s expeditious eating.
“Thankfully things have been going pretty good,” says Ayala. “The biggest hit we took was not having the walk-in traffic from the students. That has probably been the hardest thing to adjust to.”
To make up for reduced student footfall, their $5 lunches and weekend-only Latino specials — bandeja paisas, soups, empanadas — entice new customers.
Ayala mentions the pandemic spurs many to try delivery apps; stay-at-home diners are actively exploring new options, with a core returning time and time again. Recommendations and social shares also steadily bring in new customers looking for fresh-made traditional dishes.
“We’re blessed that we actually got to open. We feel blessed that we’re actually open. If we go into lockdown, we can still feed people, out of the comfort of their own home,” says Ayala. “People will come, and that’s the beautiful thing.”
What to try:
You can get Sweet Lou’s ice cream sandwiches ($6.99), made with chocolate or vanilla Shaw’s ice cream and cookies of your choice, delivered, but walk-ins can be more creative. Fruity Pebbles cookies sandwiching a mix of pistachio and birthday cake ice creams is a colourful pick-me-up on a grey day.
Tres Chiles offers lots of favourite familiar Mexican fare, but for those wanting something beyond burritos or tacos, the Enchiladas ($9.99) filled with tender chicken and melty queso Oaxaca, draped with house-made salsa roja or Verde, and served with rice and beans, satisfies nicely.