The Place

Julie-Ann Bell redefines an iconic restaurant. Di Billing catches up with her.

There was a time when Iguaçu restaurant was the toast of Auckland. The city’s glitterati simply couldn’t afford not to be seen there. As celebrated as its downtown rivals like Cin Cin on Quay and The French Café might be, Iguaçu had an edge. It was one of Auckland’s biggest and most elegantly decorated restaurants. It had the right address in the heart of wealthy Parnell.

The restaurant and its habitués regularly featured in the monthly glossy Metro, often behaving with newsworthy disgrace. In the food pages, it was lauded as one of the first restaurants to introduce fusion food and a Pacific influence.

Iguaçu reigned in Parnell for a memorable eight years but in the early years of the new millennium it stagnated. More moderately-priced restaurants and cafes were opening. In a period when change was fashionable, even Iguaçu’s familiarity and former popularity worked against it.

By late 2005, when Julie-Ann Bell was completing her MBA, the business was struggling, with no clearly defined style, ambience or client base. Julie-Ann was looking for the right investment. Having sold her online travel business (the first of its kind in New Zealand when she started it in 1998), she wanted a business with the potential for development, with weaknesses that could be identified and corrected and strengths that could be enhanced. She had no experience in the restaurant trade but she had done her research: few New Zealand restaurants, she found, were managed according to good business practice.

By the time she had completed due diligence on Iguaçu, she was confident she had a potential winner. “The tired decor could be brightened and modernised, still keeping the natural, rustic feel of the place. The furniture definitely needed replacing. The size – 1,100 square metres – was an asset that was not being exploited.

“Staff training was almost non-existent. There was room for a much greater focus on customer service, which has always been a priority for me and was certainly reinforced during my MBA studies. Some members of the management team clearly didn’t have the right skill set – nor any sense of working as a team.”

Julie Ann bought the restaurant at a price that reflected the red in the balance sheet. Then she prepared a strategy. Among other things she planned to redefine Iguaçu’s clientele: They were to be people in their late thirties upwards, already doing well in their careers and with disposable income. They would perhaps have children. They would appreciate quality food and wine but at the same time prefer a more relaxed dining environment. Perhaps they would retain some loyalty to the Iguaçu of their youth.

One of her first moves was to create a staff-training programme, bringing in expert tutors and preparing a blueprint based on advice from the Hospitality Standards Institute. “It was all about customer service and communication. That means looking after people from the moment they walk in until they leave the restaurant. It means taking a constructive approach to any complaints: if someone isn’t happy with their food, our staff replace it immediately. It also means understanding that all customers are different in their expectations and needs.”

She introduced a system, again supported by MBA wisdom, under which staff would classify customers’ personality styles by colour as they came in the door, and plan their approach accordingly. “A Red person, for example, is likely to be flamboyant and to enjoy being made a fuss of. They love to talk and engage in conversation with restaurant staff and are always looking for recommendations on what to order.

“A Blue person is very focused, strong-willed and decisive. In all likelihood they are in a position of authority in their career. A Blue person has high expectations: they know what they want and would be insulted if you told them otherwise.

“A Green person is often a perfectionist who likes facts and precise information. They tend to like assurance that they have made the right choices, so this type of person appreciates a detailed explanation of menu items.

“A Yellow person is very warm and most concerned about the needs of others. They present the greatest challenge from a satisfaction perspective: they dislike confrontation so they may not give you their honest opinion. Body language is the best way to determine if you have met the expectations of a Yellow diner.”

The training programme, plus regular staff awards for good performance, improved customer service and produced an added bonus, “Staff turnover dropped dramatically,” says Julie-Ann. “Some of the casual staff, who are usually the bane of the restaurant trade, asked for permanent jobs. Several who were studying for other degrees, one in IT for example, decided to study for a hospitality qualification instead.”

A vision statement was established, a rarity in the restaurant business, and, in a still rarer move it became a prominent feature of the menu: “To develop a lifetime relationship with our customers by delivering an experience that consistently exceeds their expectations.”

It runs just below the welcome to Iguaçu by Julie-Ann herself. This touches on the many awards the restaurant has recently won and reveals that its kitchen team make many of the items that other restaurants have to buy in. The bread, the biscotti, the chocolates... all are made in house. Iguaçu is also one of the very few restaurants in Auckland to pickle its own pickles and smoke its own meat.

Most important to Julie-Ann, the welcome urges diners to tell her what they did or did not like so that improvements can be continuously made. A simple questionnaire – almost always filled out – also helps.

“I haven’t made any changes without getting feedback from the customers,” she explains. “I didn’t even buy new chairs until we had trialed them in the restaurant to make sure diners found them comfortable. We consult them all the time. And they like that.”

Before Julie-Ann arrived, she says the printed menu left a lot to be desired. “Cumbersome and uninviting with paper pages that often showed traces of the food and wine chosen by previous diners.” The new professionally-designed “sales tool” is laminated and features vivid, clearly-written prose complemented by photographs of the food, the restaurant and the featured wines.

A neglected separate private dining room complete with open fire was renovated and is now regularly hired for private functions. Up to 65 people can be seated here and in the adjoining enclosed pergola. Because Iguaçu has the rare asset of a double kitchen, these events can be serviced without disrupting regular business.

The mezzanine floor, which includes the area known as The Landing, also received a spruce-up. Overlooking the main dining area, The Landing is ideal for avid people-watchers. Here new furniture was installed, including clean-lined, tall, bentwood chairs, but the famous big gilt mirror, and the photograph of Iguaçu in an earlier life as the Alexandra Hotel, remain.

Live music was introduced one night a week and on Sunday afternoons and evenings. On Sundays the private dining room is turned into a dedicated children’s’ area, with games and a 42-inch flat-screen TV to screen the kids’ favourite movies. A new eight-page kids’ menu encourages children to “build their own meal” and includes puzzles and colouring-in pictures as well as a section on how to find fun in healthy foods. A Sunday ‘kids’ club’ is a meeting place for the offspring of regulars.

For the grown-ups, special event nights have become a popular feature: Iguaçu is now the place to be for the Melbourne Cup and New Year’s Eve, and plans are under way for a themed mid-winter’s ball in June. The restaurant’s website was extended and restyled and an e-mail newsletter introduced for regular customers and other stakeholders.

But Julie-Ann had the ace of hearts in her sleeve. Throughout the restaurant’s lean times, the quality of the food, with its emphasis on Pacific meets European, had remained high. As a long-time patron, she had first-hand knowledge. Iguaçu’s food had always been her favourite. Award-winning head chef Mohammed Arun has been with Iguaçu since leaving Cin Cin 12 years ago.

In February, diners voted Iguaçu Best Fine Dining Restaurant in Auckland in the authoritative, international Entertainment Guide, beating the likes of Cin Cin, Sails and the Hilton Hotel’s White. This, and the black in the balance sheet, proves the pudding, says Julie-Ann.