So Cuca turned 1…
and then 2 and we have been so caught up in this wonder that it has taken me
all this while to get back to my beloved blog. I started to write wanting to
share with you the magical adventure of moving to a new country and starting a
restaurant from absolute zero but once we got it up and running, daily
operations, a total dedication to our staff and of course to our guests took
over our life.
To narrate
Cuca’s 27 months of life would take me another 27 months so my goal is instead
to summarize these 2 years in order to bring you up to date and then hopefully be able
to resume my regular updates.
I guess one of
our biggest accomplishments so far has been to develop a team of wonderful
people who care about Cuca as much as we do. Our strategy has never been to hire
the most experienced professionals but the nicest ones. We believed from day
one that we could train skills but could never change an attitude and this
has led us to be surrounded by truly good guys we can trust. Operations in
Cuca are now a bliss because each of our staff is totally dedicated and trained
to do a great job and this allows us (Kevin and I) to focus on making sure Cuca
has a future for the many families that now depend on us. As you may know if
you are familiar with the culture in Bali, relationships are here always
personal so we feel our family is bigger than ever, with more than 60 “children”
buzzing around us. They definitely keep us busy.
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| Cuca Team celebrating our second birthday |
And what about
our customers? It may be possible to get people to give a try to a new
restaurant but how do we keep it interesting enough so new customers want to
come when is no longer new? This is a critical issue that more frequently than not
kills businesses in their second year so we had to take it to heart and come up
with ways to continue being talked about. All kind of events have definitely
kept us on our toes. Events take us out of our comfort zone and make us squeeze
our brains to be unique while still offering the highest standards in a more
unpredictable environment. We have done events in Cuca, in other restaurants in
Bali and in other cities both within Indonesia and overseas. We have delivered talks, created new dishes for a specific occasion
and deliver the same experience we offer in Cuca but outside Cuca. Our senior
team is thrilled every time we call for a meeting and excitedly share with them
the next Cuca stunt. If you haven’t attended any of our events, stay tuned,
there are many more to come!
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| From top to bottom, left to right: Cuca in Ku De Ta, Cuca in Surabaya, Cuca in Perth and Cuca in Ubud. |
So… busy with our team, busy with our customers and busy with keeping bright and shiny a restaurant that is well into its second year. And finally now back here and introducing a few sparks in our blog. Be warned that I have convinced Kevin to also share with all of you his unique perspective and will start doing so in the next entry. Don’t miss it!