Q: Can you tell me the history behind Maxhari’s Family Restaurant?
A: “We originally bought the restaurant in 2021. It had many problems when we bought it, so it took a little bit to get running. My dad has worked in the restaurant business his whole life, and owning something of his own has always been what he dreamed of doing with my mom. On the other hand, my mom was a preschool teacher, so all of this was new for her, but she was on board with the idea. When my parents came to America, they had nothing. They both worked multiple minimum wage jobs to provide for my brother and me, so I’m really happy with how far they have come.”
Q: What are some challenges you and your family have faced while running the restaurant?
A: “When we bought the building, it had a lot of problems. The past owners abandoned it because they couldn’t meet all the codes, leaving us to fix everything. We originally bought the building in 2021, so it took us a while to open it; even though the building is open, we still have challenges with it today. For example, the cooling system for a while did not work at all, leaving customers sweaty on summer days, so we had to work around it by incorporating fans and making customers spread out. Another challenge we faced was only being allowed to have our “we are open” sign out for a month. Because the building doesn’t look like a restaurant necessarily, we noticed that without the sign, not as many people would be coming in, so we had to figure out a way to advertise, which was Facebook. An additional challenge we faced was being understaffed during the beginning, especially when we would have waitresses call off or not show up right before their shift, causing us to scramble to find somebody to take their place.”
Q: Where do you see the business in the future? What are the goals for its growth?
A: “Hopefully, we can expand our menu and do more catering in the future. Also, we want to expand our target audience. Mostly it’s just older adults and families, but it would be great if more younger individuals came in.”
Q: How has the Downriver community supported Maxhari’s Family Restaurant?
A: “We have people all around Downriver come out and support us. It’s really nice to see people post us on Facebook and leave reviews. The best part, I feel, though is when people tell their friends to come in, and then those friends tell more friends, and it becomes this big community.”
Q: What day did the restaurant open? What was opening day like?
A: “The restaurant opened on Wednesday, July 13th. My parents, my brother, and I all woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get everything ready. The morning was very slow, and by the time it was 11:00 a.m., we only had about two or three customers come in. We were really worried it would be like this for the rest of the day, but thankfully, things turned around, and we had a lot more people come in the afternoon. The first days and weeks were tough, but we had to learn everything while not disappointing the customers.”
Q: What makes Maxhari’s Family Restaurant different than other competitors?
A: “Even though we have similar food as other Coney Islands, what sets us apart is that we care for our customers. We want everyone to feel welcome and ensure our servers are attentive to our customers. Whenever my mom sees regulars that come in, she will give them rice pudding. It’s become a cute little tradition that makes customers feel appreciative.”
Q: What was your worst working day? What have you learned?
A: “One of the worst days was when our appeals system crashed. People formed long lines to cash out, and there was nothing we could do because the computer was not working. We were on the phone for what felt like hours with the company, which was frustrating. Frustrating. Despite being a Saturday, we didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was, so we were short-staffed. In the end, we got everything fixed, thankfully. Even though it was very stressful, we learned that there is nothing we can do in this situation except try our best. Our customers understood what was going on and how it was not our fault, so we must not get hung up on things like that.”
Q: How do you advertise your business? Does it work?
A: “We mostly advertise our business on Facebook since most of our customers are usually older, and that is the app they use most. We post our daily specials, photos of the food, and promotions. It works well, but it can be hard to expand the audience on there, so we post in community groups like the Downriver group on Facebook to reach more people.”
