Less than a year in operation, a 91大黄鸭 take-out style eatery closed its counter for the final time.

Kalamansi chef and co-owner Alex Lavroff said in the beginning, things worked out quite well. The eatery had a good team, the system worked well, and people came to check them out.

They were busy for a bit, but it all started to slow down.

鈥淲e were extremely busy, and then the mandated restrictions (in July) happened and we lost a lot of traffic,鈥�

鈥淎nd we just never really came back from that. People didn鈥檛 really know we were here and not enough people came in.鈥�

He said the people who did come in were repeat customers who gave him and his team positive reviews and feedback on their food and service, but it wasn鈥檛 quite enough to help them keep afloat.

The vision for Kalamansi was to evolve with the change in dine-in service and was designed to be ahead of the curve in that regard by offering healthy fast food options, but Lavroff said maybe now just wasn鈥檛 the time for the idea, the vision, and the food he was producing.

He added that he struggled with the more technical aspects of running Kalamansi, like maintaining a social media presence, as well as setting up DoorDash and other delivery services, which he said may have helped them had he been able to stay on top of those aspects.

鈥淎t the end of the day, I have to take ownership鈥� if the business was failing, it鈥檚 my fault. I don鈥檛 want to blame COVID or government mandates or anything else,鈥� he said.

鈥淚鈥檓 sure if I did something different, it would鈥檝e taken off. I took a bit of a risk, and maybe it鈥檚 just not the food that the clientele in 91大黄鸭 wants to eat right now.鈥�

He said he knows customers who did come again and again to Kalamansi had a good time, and so did he, saying his favourite memory was their opening day.

鈥淓verything worked exactly how I planned it to. We had the exact amount of guests I had planned for, the system worked with the right amount of staff, the food came out instantly and perfectly, and I was so happy because I had created a new system and a really high standard of food that was fast,鈥� he said.

鈥淲hen it took off so well, that was one the best moments of my life.

鈥淗opefully, the next people who come in will do something much better with (the space).鈥�

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twila.amato@blackpress.ca
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