Since its opening in 2003, Oriental Teahouse has built a reputation as Melbourne’s best teahouse, thanks to its selection of handmade dumplings and yum cha, served alongside a carefully curated range of cocktails and herbal teas.
Owned and run by the tight-knit Zhou family, Oriental Teahouse has helped to reimagine authentic Chinese experiences in Melbourne alongside the family’s three other venues – Zhou Zhou bar, the Dumpling Studio and David’s Restaurant.
Spearheaded by David Zhou, the family have made their mark on Melbourne’s hospitality scene with their incredible venues.
We sit down with Yanan Zhou, General Manager and Adam Chen, Operations Manager, to discuss the importance of building solid foundations when growing a business, why data and communication are the keys to success and how the family have reimagined authentic Chinese experiences for modern times.
Building a family business
Before Oriental Teahouse became the institution it is today, the business started life in a very different form – as a small stall selling herbal teas.
“David was a Chinese herbalist, a Chinese doctor. He actually consulted patients at that time and then started selling herbal tea,” explains Adam.
“So that was the very first OG sort of tea that was sold on Chapel Street. It was a very small stall, and then from there, before it was Oriental Tea House, he had this idea that he wanted to serve tea and small food to accompany the tea, but the tea was the main component.”
David made the move from his small stall to a more permanent outpost and decided to open a teahouse in an old pub – which didn’t go down well with locals at first.
“When he went there, he got a bit of hate for wanting to open something like that because back then, yum cha and dumplings weren’t as common as it is now.” – Yanan.
“People would say to him on the streets, what are you doing opening a teashop? That’s never gonna survive.”
“He’s quite funny; he said to me… 20 years later, we’re still here.”
“So it started from tea, then food was the add-on, and over time it developed, and our dumplings and yum cha became such a big part of [the business].”
Starting out
Yanan and Adam both started out in the family business at a young age, helping their grandfather pack tea at the kitchen table.
“Probably when I was 12, I started packing tea… We would have buckets of liquorice and goji berries… then we’d pack them into little paper bags, seal them and then that’s what my family would sell at the store.” – Yanan.
“So although I wasn’t physically in the business, just by being at home and seeing what my grandpa and dad were up to. They’d be like, come, come, why don’t you try packing?”
After years of exposure to the ins and outs of the family business, Yanan took her first role at the age of 19, running David’s Restaurant, which is named after her father.
Adam recalls similar memories of his childhood, helping pack tea for the family business, before eventually starting work in the restaurants in his late teens.
“We got exposed very early, just at home packing teas, but then when I first started, I was 17, 18 on the floor – just as a waiter carrying dishes around. That was the first job, and then I started managing the restaurants at 22.” – Adam.
Learning the ropes
After years of seeing her parents and extended family working together to build a number of successful venues, Yanan quickly realised university wasn’t for her and that joining the restaurants would teach her everything she needed to know.
“When I’m watching that, I naturally wanted to get into it. I remember at uni; I was studying business management and was sitting there in class, and my teacher said, can you define business management? And at that moment, I was like; I’m out. This isn’t for me.” – Yanan.
“So it was good timing when dad said, why don’t you see what it’s really about?”
“This is your personal university. You will learn a lot, and you’ll gain the experience I think you’re looking for. And I did.” – Yanan.
While Yanan and Adam were exposed to the family business from a young age, learning the ropes and actually working in it was a whole different ball game.
It’s great to have new ideas and want to implement change in a business, but Yanan learned early on that it’s always important to consider your team when making decisions.
“When you’re 19, you’re full of ideas, and I learnt the cost of doing things if you don’t consider others around you.”
“I think one of the biggest things I learned was you are not very popular going into a longstanding team and trying to make changes so quickly.”
Solid foundations
While finding your feet in a new role can be challenging, Yanan and Adam were fortunate to be working in a business that has solid foundations, allowing them to thrive in their roles.
“Adam and I were lucky enough to have gone into a family business that had a lot of structure and a lot of, I think, consistent standards.” – Yanan.
“I am so thankful and so grateful for those years that I spent at David’s because I think that gave me a lot of insight into the front end of hospitality, the don’ts or the dirty parts of hospitality, the great parts as well.” – Yanan.
Living and breathing the family business during their youth and now both at home and at work means Yanan and Adam have learnt the ins and outs of hospitality, have seen mistakes made and how to grow from them.
“We also see all the good that they achieved and also maybe some mistakes that they made. And when I was young, I remember I would observe a lot of times just how certain foundations got laid, and also certain things didn’t, and how that would’ve caused a bit of detriment down the line.” – Yanan.
Adam also believes that the work ethic of his family that he observed growing up has influenced his own work ethic and love for the business.
“We saw it happen literally when we were kids… we saw them working so hard, and it just came naturally for us.” – Adam.
On the same page
For many of us, working so closely with extended family would be challenging. However, Yanan and Adam believe it brings them closer together – fostering a deeper respect for each other as each family member understands the joys and struggles of what’s going on in the business.
“I think, just sitting around the dinner table, everyone has the same language – we sort of face the same issues every day. We’re just on the same page.” – Adam.
“I feel our family is much closer because of the family business, because everything we talk about, everything we face, we sort of understand where they’re coming from.”
“We understand each other’s pressures or each other’s excitement when they are faced with a win; we truly understand what that win feels like.”
Yanan echoes Adam’s sentiment and also believes the whole team at Oriental Teahouse have become one big family.
“I know it’s cliche, but because a lot of the team members we’ve worked with for over five years, they truly feel like family.” – Yanan.
“I’m just very grateful for Oriental Teahouse because it was there from as young as I can remember. So it’s almost like a sibling to me. It’s a hub of both our regulars and our team… I’m very lucky to have that.”
A supportive industry
Like many hospitality businesses across Australia, Oriental Teahouse faced initial challenges and insecurities when Covid restrictions and lockdowns hit Melbourne.
“Because of Covid, many things changed, the whole market changed, consumer behaviours changed.” – Adam.
Despite all of the uncertainty and change that Covid bought with it, the industry rallied together to help and support each other.
“When lockdown first started, dad had a really good friend of his, Andrew from Blake’s Feast… I remember dad was on the phone to him and just being quite honest like it’s quite a tough period for us… we’re not sure what we’re doing.” – Yanan.
“And what Andrew did… he understood, he was facing the same thing. And as soon as dad got off the phone with him, a couple of hours later, he put through a massive order, just said nothing. And, I don’t know if dad even knows this, but I watched that really, really touched my dad.” – Yanan.
It wasn’t just fellow hospitality businesses that came through to support each other – large corporations and regular customers alike also threw their support behind small businesses.
“Even big companies like Deliveroo and Coles, suddenly their shelves were full of local produce. I think it was just quite special.”
“Our customers, our regulars, they came because we were scrambling. We didn’t know quite what to do and they would still come in and have a chat with our managers and just say, how are you guys doing? You guys okay? The community was just amazing.”
Data is king
Hospitality can be an emotional industry, and decisions can be made on a gut feeling or educated guess. For the team at Oriental Teahouse, using data to underpin all of their decisions is paramount and ensuring everyone’s working from the same page sets the whole business up for success.
“One important thing is always analysing facts, figures and data, and then applying that to your KPIs, your customer feedback, even staff feedback… To be able to analyse those on a daily basis to a weekly basis, and then monthly, it keeps that rhythm going.”
“Those foundations are very important because otherwise, hospitality is full of emotion… So building that rhythm is very important.”
There are so many moving parts when it comes to running a hospitality business, and it’s easy to get distracted. However, setting regular time aside to analyse data is key to keeping everything on track – from the team to business goals.
“It all has to be linked from one week, to one month, to one quarter, to annual. So I think a very important foundation to have, is to have access to all those figures and data and then, when you have access, actually use them.”
“To be able to sit down and go through everything that happened the last week and just looking at facts, it anchors you, and it reprioritises you.”
Listen to Raw Podcast
Listen to the full interview with Yanan and Adam on pushing solid foundations for sustainable growth.
Subscribe to the RAW podcast series to get the latest episodes every other Wednesday.
News you care about. Tips you can use.
Everything your business needs to grow, delivered straight to your inbox.
