Johannesburg - There’s a maxim that Natasha Sideris likes to apply to the restaurant business: “The fish rots from the head down.” It speaks to her work ethic and leadership style. Sideris believes in setting a good example for staff at Tashas, a chain of 10 trendy and bustling eateries that are also popular haunts for celebrities.
“I like to get my hands dirty,” she says.
Sideris, 37, is the brains behind the Tashas brand, which promises a boutique café experience.
We meet, one nippy morning, at the Tashas in Atholl Square in Sandton – the first one she opened in 2005 – to talk about her entrepreneurial journey.
She made her foray in the food business 20 years ago. After matriculating in 1993, she worked at the Fishmonger in Rivonia. Her father, who owned the restaurant, told her that she had to work her way up if she wanted to learn about the business.
She managed to balance her studies, a BA in sociology and psychology at the University of Witwatersrand, with work at the restaurant until 11pm. She kept her work clothes in her car to change into after lectures. “It was tough, but exciting.”
She then got involved in a fast-food restaurant in Pretoria in 1998. She hated it. The customer interaction was limited.
The first restaurant she owned on her own was Nino’s in Bedfordview in 2001. Years later, she changed it to a Tashas, the only one she owns today.
The concept for Tashas came to her eight years ago, when it dawned on her that there was a big gap in the market for daytime eateries.
“In Europe and Australia, a café of this style is the norm,” she says. Itching to realise her concept, she found space at Atholl Square. The landlord there happened to be a regular at her Nino’s café. “I told him that I wanted to do my own brand that was unique. He loved the concept.”
When she opened the restaurant, she assumed that she would have a 50 percent turnover. She never expected that there would be a constant stream of people. “It’s unheard of that a restaurant has done well from day one. We’re not even positioned in Sandton, really. Atholl pretty much stands in the middle of nowhere.”
The café-style, served in a beautiful setting, became a winning combination. A bit of luck, blessings from God and maintaining the philosophy of serving fresh food, she says, were also part of the success.
Famous Brands approached her at the end of 2007 with the proposal to grow the brand. It took eight months to conclude the deal. Her initial reservations were due to fears of her business becoming an ordinary franchise.
She wanted her brand to remain “bespoke and more artistic”.
“It had to be an anti-franchise franchise,” she says.
But she knew that Famous Brands were “the king of franchises” and they had the skills to expand her business.
She sold 51 percent shares to the company. She ensured that, as the brand’s managing executive, she retained control of the roll-out. Compared to other franchises that Famous Brands has rolled out – “a minimum of 10 to 15 stores a year” – Sideris says Tashas’ expansion has been slow. “Part of the negotiation was that I’d grow the brand slow and steady. You don’t want to saturate the market.”
Ideally, she’d like to grow it to a maximum of about 14 to 15 stores. At the end of the year, she will be rolling out two more franchises, one of them in Dubai. She believes the unique designs of each Tashas is what makes it different from other franchises.
Over the years she has worked closely with interior designers. The emphasis on a venue’s interior decor, she says, goes hand in hand with food. She doesn’t understand restaurants who pay scant attention to their space.
“People can always eat at home. What would restaurants be if not for the whole experience? Part of the experience is the space that you are sitting in.”
To create a timeless quality, the Tashas interiors and furnishing are mostly in pastel and cream tones.
But she conceived a different signature style for each franchise. To accomplish that, she analysed how her brand would speak to its market. She studied the area, the style of the complex and its target customers.
For example, the Tashas in Bedfordview exudes a Mediterranean ambience that caters to a host of Greeks, Portuguese and Italians who live in the area. The interior of this branch is reminiscent of old bakeries in Mozambique or Greece.
The Hyde Park site leans towards a chic Parisian design, while the Morningside branch caters for a more health-conscious market. “Our customers there have aloe vera shots on the menu.”
The franchise in Brooklyn, Pretoria, offers a menu for the Afrikaner palate, with dishes that include cranberry bobotie. The interiors are done in a Dutch design and a ceiling ceramic installation encompasses utensils for campfires.
The ceiling installations, “which speaks to the store”, are central to creating the uniqueness in each franchise. The Tashas in Melrose Arch, for example, has a cutlery, crockery and salmon installation, a reference to the café’s salmon, oyster and champagne bar. There, the menu revolves around sushi and offerings of 20 types of champagne.
At the Rosebank branch, the decor radiates a New York ambience with its books installation and floor designs of a metro station. Its menu offers food like curly fries and chilli cheese burgers.
Sideris says the unique looks were done to firstly move away from a chain café image and to prevent her customers from getting bored. Secondly, it gave each of her franchisees an authentic brand.
“People say that no one really takes notice, but subconsciously customers do make the connection. Customers do see all of these little details. Little things can create the experience.
“And if a restaurant can get that right, it’s ticked all the important boxes. You have to see the bigger picture.”
Elements such as good service, fresh ingredients and the decor have all contributed to create a perfect alchemy of the brand’s distinctive character.
Did she know her concepts would succeed?
She laughs. “This idea was either going to work or not. Or it could have just flopped. But I knew that if I did this properly, it would work.”
Out of all the franchises, she admits that she has a soft spot for the one in Atholl Square.
When she sold her first Tashas to its current owner, Peter Otto, three years ago, she cried for months, she says. “It was a tough thing for me because people here are like family.”
She sits back and offers a contented smile. “This is where it all began. It’s my first love. I often come here and think about how it all happened.”
When she started, she recalls that getting finance was a big challenge. “Any young entrepreneur needs someone to believe in them. I was lucky that I had a silent partner.”
But she admits she also turned to a loan shark. “I took a big risk, because I believed in what I wanted to do.”
She managed to pay off her loan in three-and-a-half years. “If it meant that I wouldn’t be paying myself, then I didn’t.”
Training her staff and getting people to believe in her dream was also challenging. One thing that people need to learn about the food industry, she says, is that “this is a business of repeat, repeat, repeat”. No matter how skilled or incentivised the staff is, it’s exhausting because of the monotony of every day, adds Sideris.
“It can drive a person insane. And you’re dealing with human elements, they’re not machines.
“There are good days and bad days. But you have to ride the bad, because the good will come.”
The youth, these days, think that it’s easy to start a business, but in the restaurant industry “it’s about not sitting down and socialising”, she says. “It’s about getting your hands dirty.”
Maggie Dube, a waitress who has been working at Tashas from the beginning, overhears this.
“She’s right you know. She’s the best. I remember how she used to scrub floors with us. I copied everything from her. She taught me everything,” says Dube, with a grin.
The rapport between Sideris and the staff is evident. And I ask her how she got that right. “It’s built out of respect. I don’t know what I would do without the staff. Tashas wouldn’t exist,” she says.
“They know if you are prepared to put some effort. Paying someone is not enough. They have to believe in what you are doing, you have to show them. Teamwork is an important thing.”
“Restaurants can’t succeed if a leader does not set the example and if you don’t pay attention.”
She feels blessed that she has evolved in her position. “There is a big difference to where I was eight years ago to where I am now. I look at things now from the top. I go to the office once every two weeks to do admin work. I balance my time with that and going to the stores.”
Marriage and having children are not on the table at the moment. “If it happens, it happens. But being in the restaurant business, it’s all-consuming if you want to do it properly.” - The Star