whoa, when an idea strikes

This may be one of the longest posts I write. I enjoyed quite a bit the working on it with Copilot doing some of the heavy lifting. Below are my words, but after having had a very lengthy chat.

There is a bill C-18 which is to implement a trade agreement with Indonesia. At the same time I paid attention to this I heard on the radio an interview with a guy in Tokyo who opened up a Quebecois food restaurant, including poutine when he was able to get cheese curds.

I combined these two ideas for me to open poutine and Montreal smoked meat restaurant in Indonesia. I asked what was the second biggest city and so I learned about Surabaya. After all of the discussion I picked Surabaya to also have a production facility in an industrial zone to prepare the beef briscuit that I get locally, that I turn into smoked meat. This facility will do more as explained further. A facility like this can produce far more than a single restaurant can do, so I decided I would expand to open similar restaurants in nearby countries, specifically:

• Surabaya, Indonesia
• Johor Bahru, Malaysia
• Cebu, Philippines
• Da Nang, Vietnam
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Luang Prabang, Laos

And, given my production facility can do even more, that I would double up in all but one of the above countries:

• Malang, Indonesia
• Melaka, Malaysia
• Davao City, Philippines
• Hue, Vietnam
• Battambang, Cambodia
• Khon Kaen, Thailand

All of this assumes I have at least 10M$CAD to begin as I will be buying all of the restaurant properties. In Indonesia they are called ruko, in Malaysia they are called shoplots, the principal is a three story deep and narrow building that is commercial on the ground floor, and more or less anything on floors two and three. So my restaurants will have the restaurant on the ground floor, a women's dormitory on the second floor and a men's dormitory on the third floor. The tenants in these dormitories are the employees of the restaurant.

I will hire two local foreman, a front of house (FOH) woman and a back of house (BOH) man who are required to live in the dormitory to provide leadership and who get paid the best of all employees. In my dealings I decided I would pay these employees 600$CAD per month, but that 100$CAD per month is deducted for the lodging component, so they would keep 500$CAD per month. Entry level workers will start at 300$CAD per month and also pay 100$CAD for rent and so keep 200$CAD per month. If they work well, cross train, and do well, they can move up to be an assistant which pays at 400$ less 100$ for rent, so they keep 300$.

I always ask that these initial foremen have English language skills so that I can interact with them, but once they hire additional workers, the English language requirement is lessened. What I found through my research is that in all of the cities I have named, there is bound to be 2-5% of the population that is sufficiently skilled in English speaking, reading and writing to meet my needs.

In all of the countries where I picked these salary amounts, it works out very well for the employees but still allows for the company to be profitable once we are ramped up. What also works well for these employees is in the living conditions as the dormitories will have central HVAC with dehumidifcation, in unit laundry and a shared bathroom of a good quality. These are living conditions that are rare for common workers like these.

Okay, so here is the rough order of events.

I first need to get a PT PMA (foreign‑owned company) so that I can be permitted to buy commercial titles in Indonesia

I would hire a local notary who understands industrial leases to help with my production facility.

I would hire a tax consultant / accountant to structure VAT, import duties, and payroll and any other accounting needs I would need

And finally I would eventually need a halal consultant (for future certification) as Indonesia is a primarily Muslim country and without Halal certification my resto wouldn't work.

Next I would get in touch with SIER to get a SUIK. SIER is a government run industrial site where they lease to businesses industrial spaces. A SUIK is a small industrial space for the needs of a small or artisinal business. Ideally mine would be between 250-300m2. An issue with the SUIK is that the power supplied does not meet the needs of my production facility, so I would offer a 30 year + option of 30 year lease in exchange for them to upgrade the power of my SUIK to the power of their larger facilities. If they agree to this my project is a GO.

I would then hire an industrial designer that I would work with to put into this SUIK the following

• walk-in fridge and freezer
• curing station
• smoking and steaming stations 
• a flash freeze station
• vacuum seal and boxing section
• boxes and dried goods storage 
• receiving/shipping area
• wood drying and storage
• office and bathroom

Taken individually, the fridge is used for when we receive the raw meat briscuits from our supplier, held there until ready for processing. The fridge is also used for the curing process - in food grade containers the meat that has been coated with the cure, is left in the fridge for 7-10 days and is flipped almost every day during that span. The freezer is for vacuum sealed smoked meat that is destined for any of the shipped locations and for cheese curds that are delivered to this facility. And finally, the freezer is where shippable orders will be stored until the cold chain shipping company comes to get them.

The curing station is where the raw beef briscuit is taken out of the fridge, is smothered with a spice blend that is worked in, and then the briscuit is put into a food grade container and put into the fridge. Each food grade container will have a large number taped to it, simple sequential numbers. At the beginning we'll just have 1-10 but as we grow we'll get to 1-100. The worker that does this will enter into a computer an entry like:

April 1, 10h30, cured 2kg meat into container 1, put in fridge

With each subsequent step container 1 would get updated in the system, and subsquent containers would get used in order.

The smoking station is an actual smoker that has coconut hulls as a base for burning and rambutan wood chips for smoking. In the early days, the briscuit will be smoked starting early on the morning to have 8 hours of being smoked until it reaches a specific temperature. After the 8 hours it will be steamed, described in the next paragraph. The smoke itself will go up a chimney that has an Electrostatic scrubber + carbon filter to clean up the smoke as much as possible before it enters the troposphere. When production increases and we have the need for an FTE of labour in this production facility, the smoking period can be longer and slower and go overnight with the steaming to happen the next morning. Finally the food grade bin is washed and returned to the cure station stack.

The steamer steams the briscuits for 3-4 hours to 

• Break down collagen
• Soften the cure
• Create the signature texture
• Finish the cook gently
• Prevents dryness

The steamer is a closed system, so steam will adhere to the inside roof of the steam compartment and settle back down again, a little bit of steam will be lost with each door open, so occasionally water will need to be added.

Once the steaming is over, the meat will be quick cooled somehow, and then vacuum sealed and fast frozen and then boxed and put into the walk-in freezer.

We will order boxes from a local supplier that the meat is shipped in. We will work with an Indonesian large dairy company to have them create the cheese curds after I bring to them a few unopened bags of cheese curds that I bring with me from Quebec, asking them to reproduce these. Given I will produce a standing order that grows consistently over time, I believe I will be able to get this agreement done. This dairy company will deliver directly to this production facility in frozen boxes that I put into my walk in freezer.

We will order bulk bags of poutine powder from a Quebec manufacturer and these will get stored in a dry goods area, in the same space that the collapsed unused boxes are stored. When a shipment of meat and cheesecurds is sent out to a location, one or two or three bags of poutine powder can be put into the box that has the meat or cheese, so that this is a way we can supply that too.

We will order from local suppliers coconut husks and rambutan wood chips. In those early months I will always order more than what is needed and store them in a drying room that is not a kiln, but is dry due to the facility being HVACed, and has one or two fans to provide airflow. There can be pallet shelves that allow airflow between the wood that is stacked upon it. The idea is to eventually have a drying period of 6-8 months of the incoming wood so that it is dryer at the time it gets burnt, so it burns cleaner.

With respect to HVAC at the production facility, there will be effectively two zones. In the receiving and shipping zone, this will be closed off from the rest of the facility as the garage door that opens and closes for receiving goods and shipping goods will allow a large amount of humidity and hot air in, so this will be uncontrolled. In the HVAC controlled area, this will be kept at a comfortable temperature and a low humidity so as to help the stored wood to dry, to help with the processing of food and to keep the workers comfortable. Additionally, the HVAC zone will have a higher pressure so as to push invading air out rather than letting it in.

A receiving and shipping area with enough movement area to have pallets be moved around, and easy access to/from the walk-in freezer so as to move deliveres to the cold chain shipper's truck.

And finally, a simple bathroom and office, the latter to have the computer that tracks the shipping and receiving and the internal processes within the facility. The office can also simply be a place for the worker(s) to hangout when there are gaps in task time.

So while the production facility is being built and the equipment being brought in I will engage with a real estate agent to buy a ruko in desirable location, where there is already good foot traffic, and already a good amount of people within a food delivery radius.

Once I have the ruko I will hire a demolition company to gut it, and I will hire an architect firm to plan the three levels

1. The ground floor with the resto, kitchen, bathroom, back office and mechanical room
2. The second floor, the women's dormitory
3. The third floor, the men's dormitory

Local contractors won't have experience with central HVAC installations as this is not common in southeast asia, so I will hire a specific HVAC regional distributor that I would use for all of my buildings that can assign a team to do the HVAC installation. It will be a heat pump and A/C unit so that the heat pump can do most of the work and the A/C unit can kick in during the hottest periods. This system will also include a dehumidifier as this part of the world can be extremely humid. The main machines will be in a mechanical room at the rear of the building at the ground floor, with duct work rising straight up to feed floors two and three and with horizontal ducts going towards the front for all three levels. By being at the rear of the building the HVAC machines will have access to exterior air through the rear of the building.

I would also hire a global fire protection company to install a fire protection sprinkler system across all of the floors. I would use this same company for all of my buildings.

Finally I would hire a general local contracter to do the more traditional construction based on the architect drawings for the three floors described in more detail below. 

The restaurant will have a diner design with booths along the left wall, and a diner counter with stools along the length of the resto, with the kitchen behind a wall, behind the counter. A bathroom and a small office at the back. The office is for the two foreman to share and use to meet, to plan schedules, and so on.  At the counter side of the front window there will be an opening with a window that can slide up or to the left or right to allow for food delivery couriers to pick up orders without having to enter the resto. An awning above this food courier window will be added so that in cases of rain the courier can be protected. The interior resto walls will have various photos of Montreal, some in the fall of Mount Royal, some of murals in the Plateau, some of winter after snowfall in NDG, some of Old Montreal.

The two floors of dormitory will be identical, they will have:

• either two bedrooms with three beds, or three bedrooms with two beds, depending on the space available
• a bathroom with two shower stalls, two toilet stalls and two sinks
• a small kitchen with a basic two induction burner and a fridge and a coffee maker
• a lounging area with a sofa, a chair and a coffee table
• lockers near the entrance, six of them, for the tenants
• a laundry closet with a vertically stacked washer/dryer

As this construction continues, I will keep an eye on both the production facility and this first resto location to make sure the construction proceeds as expected. Early during this period I will spend a week in Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia, to get the same types of business license and permits and to hire a real estate agent to buy a shoplot in a secondary street of a desirable area that has foot traffic. Ideally I am able to buy this shoplot before 8 months have passed since the first location started to be gutted. On that 8th month, I begin the gutting of the JB location, hire an architect to take the plans from the Surabaya location and tweak them to the JB location following local regulations. The HVAC and fire protection crews would come after the JB gutting takes place.

Back in Surabaya I would begin working on my ingredients supply chains. I would work out an agreement to receive beef briscuits in a low number at first, but eventually a standing order. I would bring Quebec cheese curds to a nearby large dairy company and ask them to make the cheese curds. For potatoes, at the begining I could just buy them retail, but eventually I partner with a local producer. In each restaurant, in the kitchen, will be a potato prep area where 10kg bags of potatoes are peeled by a worker, and using a manual fry-press, are pressed through the metal grid into a bucket, to soon after be fried in refined palm olein. For the rye bread, I would pay for test development at two bakeries for them to make rye bread like we get in Montreal, I would have them prepare it for us, but not slice it. Each of my restaurants will have a bread slicer so that the baker doesn't have to do it, and so that the bread is sliced identically at all of our locations.

There would be two or three additional Indonesian style poutines made with local ingredients that ought to be easy to source, since they are indonesian. As new locations are opened up in other countries, the restaurants in the cities in those locations can add two or three local to that country types of poutines.

About six weeks before the restaurant is ready but that the processing facility is near completion I would post an ad to hire the foremen. Below is a copy/paste from Copilot that is what the job offer would look like:

About Us

We are opening a Montreal‑inspired deli and smokehouse in Surabaya, bringing authentic poutine, smoked meat, and Canadian comfort food to Indonesia. Our restaurant is built on craftsmanship, teamwork, and a strong sense of community. We provide on‑site staff housing, cross‑training opportunities, and a supportive environment where every team member can grow.

We are seeking two dedicated leaders to join our founding team:

• FOH Foreman (Female) – to lead the front‑of‑house team and serve as the leadership presence in the women’s dormitory

• BOH Foreman (Male) – to lead the kitchen team and serve as the leadership presence in the men’s dormitory

Both roles are essential to building a stable, respectful, and well‑organized workplace.

Position Overview

The Foreman is responsible for daily operations, team coordination, training, communication, and maintaining high standards of service and professionalism. This is a hands‑on leadership role within a small, tightly knit team.

Because our staff live on‑site in gender‑separated dormitories, the Foreman must reside in the dormitory corresponding to their gender. This ensures strong leadership presence, safety, and support for the team.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Coordination

• Lead and supervise daily FOH or BOH operations
• Support and mentor staff living in the dormitory
• Maintain a positive, respectful, and collaborative team culture
• Communicate clearly with the owner and assistant foremen

Operational Excellence

• Ensure consistent food quality and service standards
• Oversee cleanliness, organization, and safety
• Manage inventory and coordinate with suppliers
• Assist with scheduling and shift planning

Training & Development

• Train new staff in their roles
• Support cross‑training across FOH, BOH, and the production facility
• Delegate tasks to assistant foremen as needed

Problem Solving

• Address operational issues quickly and calmly
• Support staff with dormitory concerns
• Maintain smooth communication between FOH and BOH

Requirements

• Strong English communication skills (spoken and written)
• Willingness to live in the on‑site staff dormitory
• Female candidates for FOH Foreman; male candidates for BOH Foreman (due to dormitory leadership responsibilities)
• Experience in hospitality, food service, or team leadership
• Ability to work collaboratively in a small, high‑trust team
• Professionalism, reliability, and a positive attitude
• Willingness to learn and embrace Montreal‑style cuisine

Compensation

Probation Period (First 3 Months)

• 400 CAD per month (paid in local currency)
• Dormitory rent: 100 CAD per month (deducted automatically)

After Successful Probation

• 600 CAD per month
• Dormitory rent remains 100 CAD per month
• Opportunities for annual performance bonuses
• Eligibility for future staff trips to Montreal (rotation‑based)

Benefits

• On‑site staff housing (shared dormitory) with free Wifi
• Cross‑training in FOH, BOH, and production facility operations
• A respectful, fair, and stable work environment
• Clear leadership responsibilities
• Long‑term career stability
• Opportunity to be part of a founding team
• Potential future travel to Montreal for cultural and culinary training

Work Environment

Our restaurant is built on:

• teamwork
• mutual respect
• clean communication
• pride in craftsmanship
• a calm, intentional working style

We value people who take initiative, support their teammates, and want to grow with the business.

How to Apply

Please send:

• Your CV
• A short introduction about yourself
• Your English proficiency level
• Your availability to relocate to the on‑site dormitory

Applications can be submitted via WhatsApp or email (details to be added).

-----

So the one thing that may be noted from above is a future trip to Montreal. This is an idea I have, that in the third year of operation of all of my restuarants, I begin a once a year trip to Montreal. For the location just opened it would be a foreman and a worker so that the other foreman can stay in the resto to keep watch and order. In the subsequent year it would be the other foreman and a different worker. The idea is to give them a sense of Montreal since the resto is based from there, to walk on Mount Royal, in Old Montreal, to try a poutine that is locally produced. I will encourage the two people from each location to get photos of them in Montreal places, so that then these photos can be printed, framed and hung in their restaurant in their city. This will give other emloyees at that location, and even clients who come in for food, something to talk about, or even, to look forward to.

I would set up the business acount out of which I will pay my employees, and into which I will receive the payments for food orders and for QRIS payments using a resto specific mobile device setup specifically only for QRIS payment verification. Obviously I fund it generously to begin with so as to be able to pay the staff until the resto location is self sustaining.

With the production facility ready about a month before we begin the restaurant, I would hire the two foreman and if the dormitories are mostly ready, allow them to move in. We would spend the next few weeks at the production facility so that they can learn and we can write the standard operating procedures (SOP) for what goes on there.

On the first and possibly second day, just do a walk through of the whole facility, turn the fridge/freezers and HVAC on and explain the procedure to the foremen.

On the third day we process our first raw beef briscuit. We'll learn to trim, weigh, calculate the cure % based on that weight, apply the cure, put it in the food bin and put it in the fridge. Log the entry.

On subsequent days we go to the production facility just to turn over the beef briscuits in their food containers. We would also together write the SOPs for Receiving the beef briscuit, the curing, the turning and sanitation.

On day 11 we prepare and start the smoker, remove the briscuit from the food grade container, set it up in the smoker and let it smoke for 8 hours. Once it is in the smoker, the smoker SOP can be written. After the 8 hours the briscuit is to be steamed for 3-4 hours, so in the last hour of smoking, set up the steamer. Once steaming is done, cool the briscuit down and then vacuum seal it, and then put it in the fridge.

On day 12 we use the steamer to heat up the smoked meat and then we try eating it. We keep some aside for a taste test comparison with next batch. We make adjustments to the cure recipe as needed. Then the two foreman follow the cure SOP with any adjustments on a new raw briscuit.

On subsequent days we flip the meat in it's food grade container, the three of us can take turns. During this time I work with the foremen to write up the job requirements for the entry level BOH and FOH positions, hiring two of each. We post them and interview them during this period such that they are to start on day 30 below.

On day 20 the foremen smoke, then steam, then cool, then vacuum seal under my supervision

Day 21 we steam up the batch #1 and the new batch #2 and taste test compare them. We then cure a large amount in preparation for restaurant opening making any final adjustments to the recipe. We adjust the SOP as needed.

Subsequent days we take turns rotating all of the meat we have prepared.

During this time we return to the restaurant to practice on potatoes. All three of us peel, we take turns using the potato to fry press device, we practice cooking the fries in the oil, getting used to how much time it takes, and how to know they are ready. We also practice making poutines, since we will have the cheese curds and the sauce, we'll get either a 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup metal measuring cup to scoop the cheese curds atop the fries, and a ladle of a specific size for the sauce.

I would travel over to JB for a day or two to see how the second location is coming along in terms of construction, leaving the production facility meat flipping to the two foreman.

Day 29 we smoke and steam and vacuum seal the large order, we cure another batch of the same large order size, and we bring the vacuum sealed order back to the restaurant.

Day 30 We open the restaurant for a soft launch, perhaps only three hours per day. We can invite neighbours of the business, the six employees can invite friends. For the new employees, we train them prior to our three open hours. We organize with the two main food delivery companies to be included on our Grand Opening date.

Day 37 Grand opening, we try being open 11am to 9pm with courier deliveries open until 11pm. We offer the Quebecois standard poutine at a discount for the first week. We can evaluate those opening hours as the weeks progress.

For that first week or two I stick around and help when help is needed, we get into a routine with respect to the production facility about how much to prepare and how often, and how often to order the beef briscuits and how often to order the cheese curds, the potatoes, the gravy and so on.

By this time the first location should be running fairly smoothly, so I start to spend more time in JB to get local producers of rye bread and to source potatoes.

I travel back and forth between Surabaya and JB and now make my first visit to Cebu, Philippines, where I get the permits to open a business, find a real estate agent to scope out a shoplot in a desirable location.

In JB as the resto gets close to being ready, I hire the male and female foreman who have the same requirements as the ones in Surabaya except they won't have any role at the production facility. Also as the JB location gets close to being ready, I hire a cold chain shipping company to do shipments from the SIER SIUK production facility to the JB restaurant location. 

Orders are placed from the JB restaurant probably by the JB BOH foreman that arrive at first to the BOH foreman at the Surabaya location. Eventually there will be enough production work at the production facility that another foreman will be hired who works full time at the production facility, and who is trained by the BOH and FOH from Surabaya. Once we have a foreman at the production facility, all orders will come to this person instead of the Surabaya BOH foreman.

When the JB location orders from the Surabaya production there will be a nominal charge, for example, 1$CAD per KG equivalent in MYR currency. This can be deposited in Indonesia's business account but in a subaccount in MYR currency; this way no currency conversion takes place. Eventually each of the different countries would do the same, and when the production facility needs to pay SIER's monthly rent, it can convert only what is needed from each of these sub accounts to get enough IDR to pay SIER.

There is an idea that if in the future we can build eight restos spread out among all of the Indonesian islands, there may be enough orders from just the IDR restaurants to cover all of the OPEX of the Surabaya production facility. If this happens, the 1$CAD per KG in local currency payments that other country restos make can be diverted to a sub account in that country's local business account. Then once a year I can pay a bonus to my staff, that in the MYR sub account where the MYR order fees were deposited, I divide that up among all of the MYR employees as a bonus. For IDR, I could forfeit my 5% royalty for a month or two so as to provide a bonus to those employees.

20 days before Grand Opening at JB, we hire two each of FOH and BOH entry level positions, for them to start on two days before Grand opening.

7 days before Grand Opening at JB, we receive our first shipment from the production facility, we have our potatoes, rye bread and poutine gravy. We do a soft opening of only three hours per day until the Grand Opening. We sign up to the food delivery systems to start on the Grand Opening date.

2 days before Grand Opening at JB, the four new staff members get trained by the two foreman. No cross training just yet.

Grand opening, we start 11h to 21h of resto and then 21h to 23h of delivery. We also have a one week opening sale that the traditional Quebecois Poutine is on discount.

I assist as needed for the next week or two, and then return to Surabaya to check things out.

The pattern is set, Cebu gets built and as Cebu gets built I go to Da Nang in Vietnam, get permission, licenses, real estate agent.

In each country I get a business bank account from which to receive the payments for food orders, to pay suppliers and to pay the staff. Once a location becomes profitable, I would take a 5% royalty per month from that location that I convert back to $CAD for me. I can issue a secondary debit card to the BOH foreman at each location that only allows for purchases, has limited or zero cash withdrawal, and no access to online banking, so no view of bank balance. This is so that the BOH foreman can buy potatoes, to-go boxes, toilet paper, cleaning supplies and so on.

At every location we gut, we get the same HVAC team and products (heat pump, A/C, dehumidifier, duct work) and the same fire protection sprinkler system. In each location we hire a local general contractor to use the same Surabaya architect plans but tweaked to the dimensions of the building and the local building regulations.

We hire a male and female foreman who can speak English and we train them well, then they hire two more FOH and BOH again female FOH and male BOH so as to settle the dorms evenly. We do a discount of the Quebecois traditional poutine the first week. We get our cold chain shipping company to add the new location.

Eventually each location will hire more entry level staff, and as the oldest entry level staff gain experience and become adept at all cross trained roles, the FOH foreman can pick an employee to become an assistant. Once promoted to assistant, their pay rate rises from 200$CAD net to 300$CAD net. All employees are eligible to eventually updgrade to assistant, however, there can only ever be one foreman for FOH and one for BOH. The foremen can delegate tasks to assistants.

Eventually a second location will open up in a new city within the same country. At that time, an offer will be made to the existing location for someone to become the foreman at that new location if they are willing to relocate to that location. The existing foreman will get first choice, and then the most senior assistant and then down by seniority. 

As discussed above, we would then expand to six more locations in Indonesia, spread out on the various islands, so as to hopefully be able to pay for the full SIER SIUK production facility OPEX in IDR so that we don't need those other country locations to send their money out of country when placing orders.

Okay, one last idea, I would get printed 300-500 t-shirts, perhaps with just MTL as a logo that would be the uniform for all of the staff across all of the locations. Perhaps similarly the restaurant sign out front would simply be MTL. Each staffer would get three t-shirts and every year we we would order one or two more for everyone.

That's all I have for this idea for now. It is quite a lot, I know.