【Event Preview】On April 16, LizeTian Street, Longhu, Zhang Lan's "My Nine Lives" book sharing meeting
"My Nine Lives" by Zhang Lan/Author
Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House
Published in April 2019
At 11:00 a.m. on April 16, 2021, on Lizetian Street in Longhu, two new stores, Ma Liu Ji and Yue Er Tang, will open soon, and Ms. Zhang Lan will also share the book "My Nine Lives" with readers on the occasion of the opening.
Born in April, Aries women have a stubbornness that never accepts defeat, a tenacity that never bows to fate, and a fiery pride. In the book, Ms. Zhang Lan recalls the highlight moments and valley bottom haze experienced in the first half of her life, and her experiences are ups and downs, gripping people's hearts, really as wonderful as TV dramas. The book also details the complex process of the Chinese Sichuan cuisine brand "Pretty Jiangnan", which she founded, encountered foreign capital fraud at the time of listing, and the company fell at its peak, helplessly changing owners.
In recent years, Ms. Zhang Lan has never given up on deep cultivation in the catering industry. In February 2021, the new Sichuan cuisine brand "Ma Liu Ji", founded by Zhang Lan and Wang Xiaofei, opened a store in Guomao. As soon as it opened, it was overcrowded, and its fiery scene made people feel that they had returned to 20 years ago.
She is a successful female entrepreneur, she is a woman who has experienced setbacks and stubbornly stood up, she is a person with strong life force. As it is said in "My Nine Lives" – the power of life lies in disobedience.
Don't you all say that women are like cats, and say that "cats have nine lives"? I wonder if I have experienced ups and downs again and again, and even been forced into desperate situations several times, and finally have a desperate life, do I also have nine lives? If so, then this time, I will not be knocked down, and likewise, as long as there is a breath, I will live. ”
- "My Nine Lives" Introduction
The following text is excerpted from chapter 9 of "My Nine Lives" - the first "Pretty Jiangnan"
Rise from the ruins of life
Fast forward to the end of 1999, half a year after losing my brother, I fell into the deepest and deepest black hole in my life, and was on the verge of collapse several times. "Alan Restaurant" and the "Bird Garden Shark Fin Seafood Restaurant" in the Asian Games Village have been sold, and the "Alan Roast Duck Hotel" in Guang'anmen is also in the process of being sold. How many sleepless nights, how many tears gushed, how many times it seemed that he could no longer hold up his strong heart, and he was vulnerable in front of people...
However, there is a saying that says, "One thought of hell, one thought of heaven." "A lot of desperate changes, sudden let go, often come from a fortuitous opportunity.
That day, as usual, I drove to the IKEA store as soon as I woke up in the morning, wandering aimlessly inside, and didn't come out until it closed at night. For months, this has become my habit. There were so many people there that I could forget the loneliness and helplessness in my heart for a while. After my brother left, I kept his phone with me. Only in this way can the heart be more solid. But in the evening, I suddenly found that the phone was missing!
My heart suddenly lifted, and I immediately returned along the road I had just walked to find it, asking everyone, and even alarming the manager of the mall, and finally did not find it. I was full of regrets and hated myself for how I could be so careless. This is the last thought my brother left me!
But strangely enough, the next morning, when I woke up, I didn't want to go to IKEA again. The fear and dependence that could not be shaken off for months, just that morning, miraculously left me without a trace.
I think this is the hint that my brother gave me in the dark. He was reminding me that I couldn't be so decadent and depressed anymore. I have tried many ways to find peace of mind. I could not imagine that I would finally stand up from the ruins in such an incredible way.
I'm going to start my business again and make my own Chinese food brand.
When I was running Alain Restaurant, I took the time to study stocks, analyze the financial statements of various listed companies, and invested a considerable part of my savings in three stocks: SAIC, Tsinghua Tongfang, and Sinopec.
I have a characteristic, one thing is done, and only do long-term investment, never drag mud and water. Now that the three stocks had been chosen, they bought them and put them there, turning around and busiing themselves with running several restaurants.
I think that in the future, I will make money and leave it to Xiaofei to press the bottom of the box when she gets married.
I rented a one-bedroom apartment in the Guang'anmen Ministry of Water Resources dormitory, where the house price is relatively cheap. There was almost nothing in the house except a mattress, a TV, and a table, in today's parlance, "minimalism." At that time, Xiaofei was studying abroad, and I was at home by myself, and I didn't go back until late every night. Before going to bed, I read a book under the lamp, occasionally watched TV, and got up the next day to work. And so it goes day after day.
One night at two o'clock, I came out of the shower, dried my hair, and turned on the TV to see the news. I didn't expect that a certain station is replaying the stock market, and I fixed my eyes on it, my 300,000 shares of Sinopec have risen from 1.47 yuan per share to 3.7 yuan per share when I bought it, and Tsinghua Tongfang and SAIC Motor have reached a historic high! Fingers crossed, oh my God, I'm not dreaming, am I? Three stocks, actually made 60 million!
I rarely read books on stock investing, and I only remember a quote by an American who was very accomplished in the field of investing, to the effect that "investing in stocks is a process of starting from scratch and ending up at zero." ”
I thought, if there is experience first, why let it go to zero at the end?
At the opening of the market the next morning, I decisively threw away all three stocks I held, including Sinopec. Since then, I haven't touched stocks again.
I made 60 million yuan from selling stocks, plus later transferring several stores, and I scraped together nearly 100 million yuan.
This fund is also a great support for me who has just come out of the bereavement, so that I have enough confidence to start again.
I started getting busy again.
A Sichuan restaurant with a foreign name
As early as more than a decade ago, I worked in Canada, and I cultivated a keen sense of smell about what kind of specialty restaurants can go out of the international road. After returning to China to start a business for nine years, he has also accumulated a lot of industry experience and market judgment.
In that era when Cantonese cuisine was dominant, Lu cuisine was booming, Hunan cuisine came to the fore, and the old brand sat firmly in the country, only Sichuan cuisine, the most "hundred dishes and hundred flavors" among the eight major cuisines, and the most worthy of development and innovation, was far from receiving the market recognition it deserved.
There is a difference to have a future! The future is gradually becoming clear before our eyes.
I want to be a high-end boutique Sichuan cuisine brand - inheriting the rich Bashu food culture, mixing a little bit of Hubei fish and rice town of the mood - the name is "Pretty Jiangnan", South Beauty.
Since then, I have secretly vowed in my heart that I must make "Pretty Jiangnan" an international big brand and a "LV of the catering industry". I hope that in the future, where there is Louis Vuitton, there will be "Pretty Jiangnan".
A grand blueprint was generated in my mind little by little, and I imagined that "Pretty Jiangnan" would open in Milan, open in New York, open in Paris... Imagine it growing and becoming known to people all over the world.
However, at that time, the international community generally did not know enough about Chinese food. Although there are some Chinese restaurants in foreign countries, most of them are "family workshops" run by overseas Chinese, scattered, and it is impossible to avoid shortcomings such as small scale, dirty environment, and unauthentic taste. Because of this, foreigners at that time had a misunderstanding of Chinese food. At that time, foreigners often said "French food, Chinese small dishes", And Chinese food meant cheap and low-end in their hearts. Even in the hearts of many Chinese, "sublime and charming" is also a matter of course.
I am not willing, our Chinese food has a cultural heritage of 5,000 years, and is rich in nutritional value, should not be evaluated in this way. I am determined to change the impression of Chinese food among foreigners, but even if I have great ambitions, I must take it step by step.
The first step is the location of the first store.
I position the consumer group of "Pretty Jiangnan" as "business people", most of them have strong spending power, but they will not consume blindly, usually very rational, and pay special attention to quality.
I am well aware that for a high-end restaurant brand positioned as a business person, the location must be within 3 kilometers of the bustling business district. Moreover, the lasting communication of the brand depends on the reputation of the consumer, which type of population is the most effective? Bring the highest conversion rate to consumption? It must be a business person. If they approve of a restaurant, they are usually introduced to their friends, and they also trust the recommendations from friends
Therefore, the area that most met these two points at that time was none other than Guomao , which was one of the few business districts where foreign enterprise elites gathered, the world's top 500 brands competed to settle in, and the core area of Beijing's CBD.
At that time, many friends advised me that the cost of opening a store here was too high, there were not many customers, and the risk was very large. I don't change my mind and believe in my judgment of the market.
So I started contacting a real estate agent.
Cushman & Wakefield is a well-known international real estate agency, specializing in the leasing of Guomao shops, Ms. Jin Yun, helped me contact the Wu manager of guomao leasing department.
Manager Wu is usually responsible for attracting investment, and most of the contacts are world-renowned foreign brands, and the potential commercial value of this eight-character "pretty Jiangnan" has not been judged. As soon as I heard that it was Sichuan cuisine, the impression of "low-grade" was still preconceived. It is no wonder that when people talked about Sichuan cuisine, their first reaction was probably the "Chengdu snacks" all over the street.
At that time, compared with foreign brands, even Chinese food itself gave people the impression of low-end, not to mention the Sichuan cuisine that could not be ranked in Chinese food at that time.
In order to let him personally understand what is "fine Sichuan cuisine", I invited him to visit my Guang'an store (at that time, it was still in the transfer negotiation), patiently told the heat of mapo tofu, the allusion of Dongpo elbow, and also invited him to taste the special Sichuan cuisine in the store - thirteen color saving boxes.
A dark and shiny round lacquer box, a small round box in the center, surrounded by twelve fan-shaped boxes, each box contains the same exquisite cold dishes: strange flower kernels, sweet and sour steaks, husband and wife lung slices, garlic white meat... Excellent quality, mostly exclusive features in our shop.
Every time a foreign guest is received, the waiter opens the paint box, and the guests all exclaim "wow". Of course, this time, Manager Wu was also "towned".
He promised me that I would try to help and report back immediately. I knew I was facing a strong competitor – The Hong Kong Tsui Wah Restaurant. Hong Kong brands are more attractive to elites, and the merchant side is more confident in Hong Kong capital.
Almost at the same time, the other one I was negotiating, the Wantai Building next to the East Second Ring Road, was going well. The general manager, Zhang Xiaojing, is a Beijinger and knows Alain Restaurant well, so it is easy to reach an agreement.
But I am still waiting for the news from Guomao, hoping that my first store can open in Guomao, make an influence, and then open a second store in Wantai.
At this moment, Manager Wu called: "Sorry, Alain! The shop was still leased to Cuihua, and the requirements of the superiors could only be high-end Cantonese cuisine. ”
"Is there any other way?" I asked reluctantly.
"There is another bunk nearby, which is a little bit smaller, 624 square meters. It used to be a Korean restaurant. He said.
"I want it too!"
I think that only by occupying the golden area of Guomao, can we have the opportunity to make a name for ourselves, and we are not afraid of being small, small and refined! After that, thanks to Xiao Jin's docking and running-in at both ends, I had no concept of such commercial terms, and after a series of signing processes, I had my own place in Guomao.
Standing on this small but boxy, fairly transparent territory (the only fly in the ointment is a narrow strip of land at the entrance, a bit like a "knife handle"), I thought of a friend who once suggested to me that shops must ask people to look at feng shui. But at this moment, I trust my intuition even more: this is bound to be my blessed land.
This is the end of December 1999, and the first new year of the new century is coming.
"Zhang Peel" took up his post
At that time, some of the highest-grade dining establishments in Beijing were known as "three knives and one axe", because the consumption was too high, and eating the last time was like cutting meat on the body. The so-called "three knives" refers to the Hong Kong Food City in Wangfujing, the Pearl Seafood east of Di'anmen, and the fat beef hot pot north of the Oriental Hotel; "one axe" refers to the Sanbu Restaurant on the shore of Xihai Lake, which specializes in Korean barbecue.
The decoration style of these restaurants is nothing more than big red beams and pillars, draped in gold and silver, which looks very grand, but it is not what I want.
How to renovate the new storefront? I have a "whimsical idea": I want to ask a foreign designer to design a standard style like "Starbucks", which is in line with international trends and has Chinese characteristics.
My "whimsy" is not a wild idea, and standard-style stores are easier to replicate, more conducive to expansion, and thus more conducive to going global. All my thoughts revolve around the main axis of "internationalization". In the following years, in Beijing, throughout the country, "Pretty Jiangnan" was born like a mushroom.
Once I ate at a restaurant and was fascinated by the décor there. Isn't that the sense of design I want? So I visited the restaurant over and over again, pretending over and over again to ask the boss for information about the designer. The owner was initially wary and refused to reveal it. I had to tell him that I wanted to open a coffee bookstore. After making sure that he would not form a competitive relationship with himself, the boss finally gave me the designer's phone.
The designer, Jacky, a native of Hong Kong, graduated from the Harvard School of Architecture, is based in San Francisco, is familiar with Eastern and Western cultures, and is best known for his design work in China, the Shanghai Opera House.
I didn't have an office of my own, so I had to stand downstairs at Guomao and call him on my mobile phone and ask him to do interior design for "Pretty Jiangnan".
"What is 'Pretty Jiangnan'?" he asked.
"It's a fine Sichuan cuisine brand." I say.
Hearing that it was a restaurant, Jacky was a little reluctant, and it didn't sound like the opera house. But in the week that followed, I called him several times, still standing at the foot of the International Trade Center, Beijing's most elite symbol, and spared no effort to lobby him with passion and ideals:
'You know what?' 'Pretty Jiangnan' will be a world-class brand, in the future like Starbucks, McDonald's all over the world, in every business center will have a place, it will become the world's window to understand China... And this window, all the design criteria are up to you! Your name will also be written into the brand story. ”
This time, when I finished, the other party was silent for a moment and replied: "Let's see the specific situation." ”
I immediately booked him a ticket. A week later, we met in Beijing.
After seeing the undecorated storefront of Guomao, almost non-stop, I took him to Chengdu and Chongqing. I chose a few restaurants with a very suitable decoration style, and invited him to eat authentic Sichuan cuisine, especially the peppers of Bashu.
The trip was so rewarding that Jacky's creativity and enthusiasm were fully activated, and after a private visit with my microservice, he flew back to the United States and began to design.
The LOGO of "Pretty Jiangnan" also took a lot of brains at that time. I have studied the face-changing characters of Sichuan opera, Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin, in the folk have a nickname called "Wu Cai Shen", the image, the meaning is very good, and in line with the characteristics of the brand, so I used 140,000 yuan - at that time also considered "huge capital" - to buy the copyright from the painter, ask Jacky to carry out the overall creation on this basis, with the final LOGO.
About the interior design, I told Jacky: "I like small bridges and flowing water, I like bamboo. "The rest, he plays.
Next, while going through the cumbersome entry procedures and conducting construction bidding, I rushed to communicate with Jacky by phone and fax every day. About a month later, I paid a deposit of 60,000 yuan to the property owner, and the construction team entered the site, and at this moment we have not yet got Jacky's drawings.
Time didn't wait for anyone, and without saying a word, I flew to San Francisco and headed straight for Jacky Studio. After getting the drawings, he did not dare to delay at all, and flew back to Beijing on the same day, setting a record of 24 hours around the earth.
At that time, Jacky repeatedly said to me: "Sister Zhang, you don't want to die when you start working!" ”
In order to save money, I chose the way of "package light industry", and the main materials were all purchased by myself. Every day, he carried a small military satchel and wandered around the building materials market. Almost everyone in the booth knew me, and they greeted me from afar: "Alain is coming!" "This habit was retained until the end, and even the huge white stones in the Wangjing store were picked by me one by one."
I hired a construction team in Hebei, but I couldn't afford to ask for a project supervisor, so I built a bed on the construction site and personally supervised the work. What smell, what pollution, can not take care of. This link is slightly inattentive, the materials are exchanged, the construction is overlooked, and 100,000 yuan evaporates easily.
I had already planned that this restaurant would open on April 16th. So the construction time is only about a month. Every morning at 6 a.m., I woke up, picked up a washbasin and began to "bang" and shouted at the workers: "Get up and get up!" ”
They gave me the nickname "Zhang Peel".
Dig people everywhere
While doing "peeling the skin", there is no day and night to rush to work; while thinking, my new store that will open in two months, even the total number of stores and chefs, where to find it?
In the cold winter months, sleeping on the construction site is too cold, one day, I went to Wangfujing Department Store to buy quilts. Hungry and tired at noon, passing by the Crowne Plaza Hotel, through the side door, I saw that there was a small Western restaurant inside, and I walked in.
A well-behaved young man with glasses came up to me and asked if I wanted a cup of coffee. Originally, I only planned to order a salad to fill my stomach, and seeing his sincere appearance, I agreed.
When he was making distilled coffee for me on the spot, I took the initiative to talk to him.
"Boy, how many years have you been doing this?" I went straight to the subject.
"Not long after working here, I worked in a Korean restaurant in Guomao for seven or eight years."
"Which Korean restaurant?"
"Arirang."
Arirang? I was secretly surprised, this is too coincidental! I rented a storefront at Guomao, wasn't it Arirang before?
Then, I quietly inquired that he had graduated from a good university, his wife was Korean, and his family was stable. The more we talked, the more I felt that this was God's arrangement, and he was the person I was looking for!
By the time I had brought a steaming cup of coffee in my hand, I had succeeded in convincing him that I would wait for him tonight when I revisited my old place and returned to where Arirang had been.
At nine o'clock that night, after he left work, he came to my construction site. And not surprisingly, after listening to my passionate description of the development prospects, my eyes lit up, and I immediately decided to quit my job and join my grand cause. As for the salary, there is no mention of it.
His name is Yang Kai, and he is the first general manager of "Pretty Jiangnan".
A week later, Yang Kai officially came to work.
I stared at the construction site and couldn't leave. Yang Kai took the contact person and phone of the Sichuan Food Association and went to Sichuan alone. His task was to ask the Gastronomy Association to recommend the chef and try the dishes himself.
It turns out I didn't look at the wrong person. A dozen days later, Yang Kai brought back a chef, Chen Shunquan, who was nearly fifty years old. A native of Chongqing, Chef Chen has worked as a personal chef for state leaders and has also cooked Chinese food for the prime minister in Australia.
Yang Kai's only concern was that Chef Chen was older, and I said, "When you are old, you have a lot of experience." ”
I tried a few dishes on the construction site and it was superb!
His resume and craftsmanship are perfectly worthy of the international standards I would like, and can be described as a "national treasure". Even though he was still working, I decisively dug him up and told him to go to work immediately.
He went to the construction site to take a look and was happy: "Now that it's March, do you want to open in April?" No way! ”
"I said open, must open! You will go back to Sichuan and help me recruit a group of chefs. ”
I was afraid that he would joke with me and arrange for Yang Kai to go back with him. By the end of March, the two had indeed brought back a large army of more than a dozen people, all of whom were chef Chen's proud protégés. Several of these people,—Li Ping, Yang Chenghua, And Ji Bangyao—later became the mainstay of "Pretty Jiangnan."
After half a month, Chef Chen came to the construction site again and was stunned. Not only has the front hall been renovated, but the back kitchen has been properly decorated.
"Is this a trick?" He said, "You boss, I've identified!" ”
A moment of happiness that has been missing for a long time
Renovation, recruitment, training, and preparation for opening are carried out simultaneously in a very limited time. Many of my thoughts were very complicated, but the rhythm in my mind was not chaotic at all.
In order to promote the opening of the new store, I printed thousands of maple leaf bookmarks with the "Pretty Jiangnan" logo, red panda bookmarks, and hollowed-out Sichuan opera facebook bookmarks, and went to the Hongqiao Market in Beijing to buy back a lot of colorful ribbons, and led the staff to tie the ribbons to the bookmarks by hand. I think that with practicality, people don't throw it.
I also designed a gadget, "Southeast, Northwest", which many people played with when they were children, and folded out with a square piece of paper. Put the thumbs and forefingers of your left and right hands inside, and as soon as you open them, a small pepper will pop up.
These propaganda materials, which look simple today, were quite popular back then, and when they were distributed in office buildings, everyone was willing to take a look at them.
On April 16, 2000, the first "Pretty Jiangnan" was opened. As expected, it became a hit.
It was exactly what I had dreamed of: bamboo tents, small bridges, large glass balls between the seats as partitions. Very stylish, very Chinese.
The most interesting thing is the "flowing water" under the bridge, which is a genius idea from Jacky, composed of countless crystal clear small glass balls, sparkling in the distance. At the beginning, I called the Canadian manufacturer to order, packed it in several huge cartons, and airlifted it, and the cost was really not low. And the favorite of these glass balls, of course, is the children, while the adults are eating, sneaking over, secretly grabbing a small handful and hiding in the pocket, it is perfectly normal. So that every now and then, I have to airlift another batch to make up for it.
At noon on the opening day, 9 private rooms and 126 scattered seats were all full. In addition to the relatives and friends I invited, most of the guests were employees of foreign companies working at Guomao. In order to compete for a private room, the two companies almost fought between them.
I remember that day, I was always busy with a gray face, and I also dressed up rarely: a pink top, a black dress skirt. In the pain of the soul and the hardships of work, I survived a long day and night, and supported the way forward with faith and will. It's been too long since I've enjoyed the achievements and satisfaction of this moment! I know that a new page in life will begin here, even if everything is unknown.
The turnover that day was close to 20,000 yuan, and then it was a smooth ride. Three months later, the store recouped its investment.
On April 16, 2021, Yue'er Hall, LizeTian Street, Longhu, on-site book purchase can get dining discounts with books