Chapter 153.3 – To Make Amends
Two days later, the Zhuo family indeed handed over the promised restaurant. The restaurant was located behind Xiao Jin Street. This street has one of the greatest foot traffic, which meant this restaurant was located in a popular place. For Elder Zhuo to be willing to give this restaurant to An Zi Ran spoke of his sincerity to make amends.
An Zi Ran also had no intention of getting into a dispute with the Zhuo family. Their two families did not have much dealings with each other, so there was no need to start a feud. But if An Zi Ran wanted to expand into the restaurant business, that might not be the status quo in the future.
An Zi Ran was quite satisfied with the Zhuo family restaurant, but in order to differentiate it from other Zhuo family restaurants, he still had people renovate it and slightly change the layout inside. However, the overall layout remained the same. Five days later, the restaurant was full revamped.
His restaurant in the West District has already gained a reputation. Even the people in the East District have already heard about his restaurant, and they were also very interested in the so-called hamburgers. When they heard that Prince Fu’s Mansion was planning to open a restaurant in the East District, many of them looked forward to the restaurant’s opening, especially those who have already eaten in the An Family Restaurant in the West District.
Translations by Vanilla Muse. Read on vmnovels [dot] com
If it weren’t for the distance between the two areas, they would definitely go there every day to satisfy their cravings. Some relatively wealthy families were very interested in the convenient hamburger food.
On the day when the restaurant opened, it almost resembled the scene on the day when Tian Long Gambling House opened.
The crowds for the grand opening was even worse than that of the grand opening for the restaurant in the West District. An Zi Ran hired twice as many waiters and Zhuo Hai Tang was also summoned to the new restaurant.
Chef Wang and Jiang Yu also came over to help. Holding down the fort on the other side were the two apprentices that Chef Wang had taken on from An Yuan County.
To some extent, this situation also had an affect on the other surrounding restaurants.
When they saw that the hamburger – which was basically a piece of meat wrapped in two slices of steamed buns – was so popular among the people, they began to get ready to take action.
The next day, another restaurant shamelessly launched the same type of hamburger food. They also used beef, but the quality of the meat was not as good as that of the An Family Restaurant, so the price was slightly cheaper by two or three copper coins.
Some people were stingy and liked the cheaper price. Moreover, the hamburgers at the An Family Restaurant were so popular and there were countless people queuing up, so they didn’t know when it would be their turn to eat. Thinking so, they went to the other restaurant to buy their hamburgers for twelve copper coins. The hamburger was of a similar size to the one from the An Family Restaurant, but after taking just one bite, the taste was so bad that they spit it out.
After eating the seasonings used by the An Family Restaurant, the food prepared by the other restaurant was bland and flavorless in comparison.
Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.
In the end, those customers eagerly ran back to line up.
The other restaurant tried to draw a tiger but ended up with the likeness of a dog*. Their attempt fell flat on its face and they even lost money. They made a lot of hamburgers but were unable to sell them, so they had to force their employees to buy the hamburgers, which caused a lot of complaints.
[*T/N: “tried to draw a tiger but ended up with the likeness of a dog” – idiom meaning “to try to do something overambitious and end up botching it”]
Other restaurants treated it as a comedy show to watch.
They had all eaten the hamburgers from the An Family Restaurant, and the taste was unforgettable. They had tried to recreate the hamburger themselves before, but they couldn’t get it to taste the same, so they knew it had something to do with the seasonings. Therefore, they were not in a hurry to sell hamburgers in their own restaurants.
The An Family Restaurant was bustling with business for several days, but the people who were the most jealous were none other than the Zhuo family.
From the start, the eldest son and the third son were against the idea of their father giving one of their family’s restaurants over to Prince Fu’s Mansion. Not only would their Zhuo family’s restaurant business be affected, but also the second son was the one who caused this mess, so why should the whole family have to suffer for it? But they did not dare to say such thoughts out loud; otherwise their father would say they lack brotherly love.
On the other side, Luo Yang and Jiang Sheng were almost finished with their investigations.
