Art of Australian Cuisine in Vietnam

We started our first business at 23L Hai Ba Trung Street, Hanoi (Al Fresco’s cafe, bar and grill). Back in may 1996, we originally targeted the expatriate community missing their "comfort food" from back home, of pizzas, steaks, ribs and pastas; even the Mexican dishes sold well.

 

Business was steady with an emphasis on training our staff to the Western standards which we required. The Asian economic crises, SARS, bird flu, all came and went with very little affect to our business.

 

It was suggested by my Canadian manager James to do promos for the Vietnamese, I was very skeptical about this, but went ahead with a 50 percent off jumbo ribs and large pizza deal,

 

And the rest as you say, is history. We expanded out to the suburbs and to HCMC over the years, and now have 33 outlets catering to all nationalities. The Vietnamese make up about 60 percent of our customer base with 20 percent western, and the remaining 20 percent from east Asia.

 

Al Fresco’s simply means outside dining. When we first visited Vietnam the weather was perfect and the French villas and quiet streets encouraged us to dream of a street cafe culture here.

 

We always had concertina doors built at the front of our outlets, which we kept open to get the feel of the street atmosphere and offer a friendly welcoming frontage.

 

Unfortunately, Hanoi was building everywhere, and the trucks, dust and dirt made us close up those lovely doors. Winter was a shock as well. Thus, Al Fresco’s was not so al fresco, but guests still understood from our decor of plastic chairs and blue covers with the wall black boards, that the concept was casual and relaxed. Our motto, “Big food, come hungry” was exactly what we did, and guests passed on word of our great service to their friends. We became the benchmark for service in Hanoi, which I'm very happy about.

 

The advantage for us as a restaurant business are the strong desire amongst Vietnamese to have a better lifestyle, with more relaxation/ leisure time. This has encouraged a real restaurant entertainment dynamic which includes strong delivery service to home and office.

 

The Vietnamese people now have disposable income and they enjoy socializing together, so restaurants have become popular. The disadvantages are the rent increases. Monthly rental costs have risen considerably. However the upfront rental of 1 to 2 years plus deposits, means that only very well-established companies can afford to expand. Furthermore, adding to this is landlords demanding payment in USD, making inflation and the devaluing of the Vietnamese dong a very scary proposition for restaurants, as we are forced to price our menus in Vietnamese dong.

 

The Al Fresco’s group have enjoyed our 16 years looking after our loyal guests. We have seen our customers try our Pepperonis brand and the buffet style option we introduced back in 1997, then move on to Al Fresco’s and then on to Jaspas and even some have now started to come to Jacksons steak house.

 

This journey through our brands (and the different cuisines they offer) is a fantastic testament to the Vietnamese people's openness and desire to try different things.

We are proud to be part of Vietnam’s growth and hope to continue looking after our guests for many more years to come.