interviewing Alexander Aquilina; Proprietor, Shakinah
Design & Build often meets people in different areas of the market
spectrum who can somehow offer interesting and intriguing insights
on business methods and their resulting experiences in trying to
create and maintain that competitive edge. This is what happened
when we met Alexander Aquilina, now also an established
restaurateur who has over the span of less than ten years already
garnered an excellent reputation of bringing a fuse of authentic
Indian cuisine with contemporary/high-end interior design.
But Alexander also fused in all his manufacturing background heading
a well-known and long-established company too into the equation.
Our interview proved very interesting since anyone in a client oriented
business – including the construction one – can learn
tremendously – and adapt too – on how to keep maintain
operational efficiency whilst delighting one’s clients.
Alexander Aquilina is not a restaurateur di natura but an entrepreneur. What’s the difference?
Having been a manufacturer with decades of experience under his belt, Alex’s mind is hard wired towards operational efficiency. “Increasing efficiency in turn increases production, and quality of the finished product,” he explains. Alex was born and bred running a factory and the work floor is his natural habitat. And in many businesses – restaurants included – one of the most important things is workfloors. “The flow of work, the timing to put the required things together, the manners in which they are assembled, the quality of the components – this is how I view things, and to make happen that which is needed to happen!
“we have continually built a good team and respected them well, paid them well, even during the lock-down periods”
Looking at all this from a marketing point of view, if a client is well taken care of, then when he or she leaves, they are ready to become “loyalists”, selling their experience to family and friends. And, obviously, they are ready to return. Alexander feels that one can never take the utter importance of delighting one’s customer for granted because “attracting the customer over is just the beginning of the relationship – a client must be eager to return; to be “hungry for more”, he smilingly said.
Putting his feet squarely on the ground and reacting to the problems that the current Covid pandemic brought upon all businesses, “When things pick up, if one lacks the required amount of staff, especially regarding the qualified people you need to offer the kind of service that must be given, then it will simply be impossible to cope with the influx of clients at a constant level of quality and efficiency,” he opined.
“attracting the customer over is just the beginning of the relationship”
“This goes for all businesses, not only the catering and hospitality ones. Thankfully we are not facing that problem because we have continually built a good team and respected them well, paid them well, even during the lock-down periods.” Again, Alex’s operational background has given Shakinah the ability to allot an adjusted and evolved workload to its then current staff pool; “all done in a manner which did not create angst but rather, a desire to add new and valid experiences to one’s skill sets, ” he enthusiastically explained. This too instils a mutual respect from the employees, and respect keeps the team together and the wheel turning. “One has to learn to strike the balance between being over- or under-staffed, and this is one of the more important aspects to successfully running an upmarket restaurant at great prices,” he mused.
A Family Run, well-oiled restaurant
“My second role at Shakinah is to be the host, to make sure everything is running well and to be there for our guests every night. Is the air-conditioning working well? Is the lighting too bright or too dark? Since we realise that older clients may have eyesight issues, we also have special soft lighting that helps one to see more comfortably and thus enhance the experience,” he explained.
There is also that special touch with the customers. The fact that the owner is around and that he is discretely taking care of them is always very much appreciated.
At the same time, the business is truly family owned and run “so my wife and two sons are here to support Shakinah with me.
My children have lived and worked overseas and this infuses Shakinah with a different, Londonesque vibe.”
Notwithstanding their family ties, the Aquilinas have weekly sit-down marketing and management meetings, wherein they discuss the restaurant from different perspectives, brainstorming on how to keep the restaurant ‘alive’ and buzzing with positivity.“This synergy, developed behind the scenes, is what keeps pushing the restaurant forward,” he proudly explained.
Indeed, these meetings are the birth place of enhancements to the dining experience such as their innovative and sought-for Summer Menu and Watermelon Extravaganza Cocktails!
“The restaurant will never feel crowded – indeed, the sumptuous seating is fixed”
To make client-company relations more effective “we have one consolidated booking system which works online as well as via telephone. It is extremely fast, simple, and effective; easily accessible by clients even through Facebook and it allows us to be aware of the booking situation at all times. This booking investment enhances one’s experience and enhances our booking efficiency especially since bookings are taken on every half-hour.
Alex strives to ensure that not more than 20 regular clients are seated at a time, to both enhance their experience and also to not overload and stress the kitchen in the process. “We feel that if too many people come at the same time, then we would have a problem on our hands. People waiting around isn’t good… and it mars their overall experience,” said Alexander. This also means that the restaurant will never feel crowded – indeed, the sumptuous seating is fixed.
Coaching the team
“At the same time, another big challenge in catering is your own staff who are really the face of your business. We depend on them to always be top-notch, which, to be honest, is why we are somewhat picky in our staff selection process.” There is always ongoing training and meetings with the staff, with the management always ensuring that everyone’s attention to detail and to customer happiness is constantly at the highest levels possible. They are not just clock-in persons but people who can and do give feedback and suggestions on how things can be further improved.
“Shakinah has maintained a separate outlet and operation for take-aways”
“The joke between us is that I’m the coach and they’re the team!” added Alexander. “In fact, I used to coach Melita Football Club for twenty six years, and having been this wonderful club’s Head Coach; training and developing young footballers was a vastly time consuming pleasure which has contributed heftily to whom I am today. So, yes, coaching is in my blood too… and is an important element of management. This concept of teamwork skills can be applied to a lot of situations.
When a team is picked, you need to recognise the skills and capabilities of those individuals in the team. It is your job to blend them together into the perfect balanced team, whilst leveraging the individual’s strengths for his or her core functions” he said.
Introducing Shakinah!
Alex is thrilled to have reopened Shakinah’s doors following their 11 weeks of closure due to the pandemic, and to be welcoming people back. Although the kitchen did operate on a take-out level throughout the closures, Alexander explained that “it is definitely not the same as when customers are actually on site. Our core business is hospitality, meeting people, interacting with them, sharing experiences, so meeting customers face to face once again is very exciting for us.
People have started to ‘live’ again and the vouchers have definitely contributed to the movement. It was positive straight away. We’re busy every day,” he added. That said, Shakinah’s take-away efforts were so welcomed and consumed by Malta’s residents that today Shakinah has maintained a separate outlet and operation for take-aways – leveraging the restaurant’s core competences in order to provide the same level of cuisine for take-aways too. “This is nonetheless done in a manner which would never impinge upon the diner’s experience – a separate entrance with controlled access and staff to service the take-away packaging and collections always ensures that absolutely no spill-over to the dining guest ever occurs.”
Shakinah’s origins
Alexander explained that the idea of going into the restaurant business came casually in 2012. His first jesting reaction when someone had initially tried to plant the restaurant seed in his head was “Get out of my office!”. But being an entrepreneur, his business mind kept mulling the thought over. And over. “Eventually I sat down to give it a good think – the options, the problems that could be faced and so on. The businessman in me then did the usual market research and other activities, weighing out the project. And that’s where the niche we’re in was discovered. We had a chef from India and another from Egypt, that’s where our really story began,” he explained with much enthusiasm.
“it was time for us to expand and move to large premises, to a more exciting location…. this time to Msida’s bustling seafront”
Originally situated in St Julian’s, it was a rather smallish place “ideal for us to find our feet, so to speak,” he said. “We made loads of costly mistakes at the beginning but we were quick enough to react positively and take things in our stride.
After three years, things had started to look good and so we persisted, concentrating on gaining loyal custom, an impeccable reputation and so forth. We were practically reaching full capacity every single day and when we had started to constantly have to refuse customers, in our fifth year, it was time for us to expand and move to large premises, to a more exciting location…. this time to Msida’s bustling seafront.”
At this point, Shakinah was staffed and run by a tightly-knit family of entrepreneurs with a passion for different fine dining, backed by a team of loyal artists and professional servers who are committed to people and food alike. Operations were happening from a modernly designed chic and spacious environment, at a busy seafront location, with an open kitchen viewable to all diners.
Shakinah now has five exceptional chefs from the north of India so that the food that they serve their guests is authentic Indian, as one would expect to find in India; created by talented people passionate on delighting their guests with their very best.
The restaurant obviously carries the classic dishes too, all easily classified for those searching for vegan or gluten-free options.
“But we also have our Signature dishes which our patrons specifically seek us for.
Our offerings include our Signature cocktails and a lovely selection of wines, so that the fusion becomes quite special,” he said.
Creating the ambience
With this current 254m2 layout of their Msida locale, Shakinah could have easily lost the intimate setting of the original St Julian’s restaurant for which it had become so well known. “So we placed the bar in the centre of the main dining area, which is in turn opposite the kitchen; the restaurant’s beating heart.”
This enabled them to have a different decor for each of the two main internal dining areas, alongside the garden area, as lavishly designed as its inner counterparts. “We also have a private dining room that can accommodate up to 16 people, times permitting: a most versatile location as it can accommodate anything from family or special occasions to business meetings, product launches etc. Obviously with dinner too!”
The experience of Shakinah now takes on a different concept when one enters the garden area. Designed around a circular focal point, it continues the flow that is presented inside while introducing an additionally nice vibe altogether. Shakinah – whichever part you choose to dine in – “always plays with ambient consistency, colours, fabric, comfort and experiences for our guests!”
The future beckons
Walking by Shakinah and looking through its doors might give its passers-by a misguided impression of costliness. “But we’re not pricey at all,” Alex assured us: “in reality we compete very well on the market. In fact, we didn’t want our restaurant to be seen as a special-occasion-only place but one to be revisited time and time again.”
Where do you go from here? we asked Alexander. “Quality is always close to our hearts! We want to always maintain our values. It’s never more business at lower quality. That’s a bad policy in our opinion. We want to ensure that people’s expectations are always reached,” he concluded.
“we placed the bar in the centre of the main dining area, which is in turn opposite the kitchen; the restaurant’s beating heart”
Alex assured us that the catering industry is a very tough yet exciting one. “Every night is like a performance,” he told us. “There are the actors and there are the spectators. And as in all good theatrical productions, it’s a live show! If you put the wrong plate on the table, you’re done for….. whereas in production, if a product hasn’t reached the expectations of the QC department, the item is simply rejected; no harm done. Here in catering, that’s just not possible. You will be judged by the day, or night’s performance. This is why you will find us to be always at our best!”
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