Saturday Night's Alright for Closing (for These Chefs)

When he started planning the opening of JuJu, a modern Korean eatery in Copenhagen's Kartoffelrækkerne neighborhood, chef Kristian Baumann knew from the beginning that the restaurant would only be open from Monday to Friday. Saturdays and Sundays would be for him, his partner, and his team to enjoy the weekends with family and friends. "For the first time, we could consider the chance to attend all the family events, birthdays, weddings. To have a life more similar to that of many people who are not part of this industry," he says.

Working in a restaurant usually means being on duty every weekend, often on a double shift. On hectic days, it's almost impossible to have a Saturday night off, for example, when most people are socialising and celebrating their lives. "I lost count of how many important moments of friends and family I missed. I just concluded that it made no sense to keep going like this,” says Baumann.

Open every weekday for lunch and dinner, JuJu is a casual venue serving unfussy yet well-elaborated Korean dishes meant to be shared family-style: kimchi, mandoo (Korean dumplings), noodles, fried chicken wings, and BBQ ribeye. With a reduced staff and an unpretentious service, Baumann calculated that it would be possible to have an income that allowed the business model to work without depending on weekend revenues.

Today, he says, the priority has been to have a life outside the restaurant. "I can spend more time with my wife and my parents, who are not so young anymore,” explains the former chef at Noma's renowned 108 restaurant. "Our staff seems content as well. They were very confused in the beginning, since it's not a regular move for a restaurant", he adds.

Baumann says the new version of his celebrated restaurant Koan, to be opened this winter at a new address in Copenhagen, will follow the same path. "To open a business, we plan the menu, the wine list, the service, everything. So why not put the lifestyle we want to have into the equation? Why can't we redefine the pillars that will shape a restaurant to fit our needs as persons?”

_{Juju's White kimchi with crudités and summer berries is only available from Monday to Friday.}

Like JuJu and Koan, more businesses — from Barcelona and New York City, to Paris and Rio de Janeiro — are following the decision to not open between Saturdays and Sundays, in a movement that has grown as the restaurant industry re-evaluates the working conditions of its employees. The goal, this time, was not driven by government impositions (as at the height of the pandemic), but by a staff shortage and a reflection that should transform the way restaurants work.

Chef Enrique Casarrubias no longer remembers what it's like to work in the kitchen on Saturdays. When the yellow vests (gilet jaunes) protests hit Paris in 2018, his Michelin-starred restaurant Oxte, near the Champs Elysee, was forced to close its doors on weekends due to demonstrations and clashes close by. "We had virtually no guests," he says.

Then the pandemic arrived, and with it a crisis that made it difficult to find staff. "People have rediscovered the pleasure of spending time with their family, and have realised that working in restaurants is very taxing," he says. To give them a better option, and to help find more motivated people to join their project, he decided to continue closing on weekends. He had already tested it and it seemed economically feasible.

Mondays have been profitable, since most of the guests are business people looking for a meeting spaces. "It's also a good day for sales, because the employees are more motivated after spending the whole weekend at home," he adds. For the chef, the administrative routine, which used to be done on weekdays, has to be carried out on weekends, which forces him to work on Saturdays or Sundays. He says it’s when he can perform some “business owner roles”, like opening the restaurant for the cleaning company. "Their work is more expensive on weekends, but we find a way to balance the costs. It has been worth it, as our staff are happier,” says Casarrubias.