Restaurateur SERA reveals how she built Evviva from scratch in Dhaka, survived near-shutdown, and why 2 CRORE is really what you need to open a restaurant.
Sera is the founder of Evviva, Luna, and Layali โ a Canadian-Bangladeshi restaurateur who left a pre-med path to chase her passion for Italian food. With experience working kitchens in Toronto and training in southern Italy, she returned to Dhaka during COVID and built one of the city’s most recognized Italian restaurants, famous for its 99-layer lasagna and wood-fired pizza.
She explains:
โผ๏ธ The real cost of opening a restaurant from scratch
โผ๏ธ The one design mistake that almost killed Evviva financially
โผ๏ธ How to price a menu when ingredient costs double overnight
โผ๏ธ The cheapest marketing move that fills restaurants better than influencers
โผ๏ธ Her 3 must-track numbers that keep a restaurant alive
Follow Sera:
Sera – https://www.instagram.com/okserasera
Evviva – https://eatevviva.com/menu
Follow Kazi:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kazi.ar/
Business Of Food: https://www.instagram.com/bof.pod
00:00 Intro
04:55 Do You Really Need Culinary School?
07:17 What Working Abroad Teaches You That Bangladesh Can’t
09:23 What Her Family Said When She Chose Restaurants
10:36 The No Turning Back Moment
11:17 The One Decision That Changed Everything
13:01 Why Italian and Not Something Safer?
13:57 Testing Demand Without Spending a Fortune
15:07 What Dhaka Did Badly That She Could Do Better
16:00 Designing for Locals vs. People Who’ve Been to Italy
18:23 Why Dhaka and Not Toronto or Dubai?
19:49 How Niche Is Too Niche for Dhaka?
20:37 What She Got Wrong About Dhaka’s Taste
22:15 How Much It Really Costs to Open a Restaurant
24:06 Lease Negotiations and Hidden Costs
25:07 Biggest Mistake Before Opening Evviva
26:10 From Idea to Opening Day โ The Full Timeline
28:58 The Pre-Opening 30-Day Checklist
30:32 What She’d Simplify If She Did It Again
31:23 Getting Legally Set Up in Dhaka
32:22 How Much the Interior Actually Cost
35:02 Biggest Interior Design Mistake New Restaurants Make
36:06 Designing for Instagram Without Being Cringe
37:10 Design Decisions That Make Guests Stay and Spend More
39:16 Why Food Is Actually Secondary
41:02 How to Decide How Many Seats You Need
42:26 Did She Design the Menu for Lunch, Dinner, or Instagram?
43:39 Where to Spend $50K on Restaurant Design
44:52 Authenticity vs. Adaptation โ Cook for Italy or Dhaka?
45:29 The Authentic Dish That Completely Flopped
47:19 Three Dishes That Actually Pay the Bills
49:02 Set Menus, Tasting Menus, and Driving AOV
52:53 How to Know When to Kill a Dish
54:14 How Often to Do Menu Engineering
55:33 How Many Dishes Is Too Many?
57:12 Pricing: Emotionally or Mathematically?
58:16 The Moment She Realized Food Cost Would Kill the Restaurant
1:00:13 What to Do When Costs Go Up Overnight
1:01:37 Biggest Mistake Negotiating With Suppliers
1:02:53 Tracking Food Costs Dish by Dish
1:04:03 Cost Cutting Moves Guests Never Noticed
1:05:22 The Only 3 Numbers a New Restaurant Must Track
1:07:20 Looking Premium That Quietly Makes You Broke
1:08:52 Why Most Restaurants Don’t Fail Because of Food
1:10:26 The Fastest Way to Destroy a Good Restaurant
1:11:47 Would You Rather Be Empty and Profitable or Busy and Broke?
1:13:06 One Menu Item She’d Delete Tomorrow
1:13:47 The Dumbest Growth Expense Restaurants Justify
1:15:32 What to Do Instead of Paying Influencers
1:17:18 What Owners Brag About That Makes Investors Nervous
1:18:25 Restaurant Flex That’s Actually a Red Flag
1:20:07 The Most Dangerous Phrase a Restaurant Owner Can Say
1:22:28 Most Expensive Customer: Discount Hunters, VIPs, or Critics?
1:23:33 Red Flags When Hiring Restaurant Staff
1:24:19 How to Know When It’s Time to Fire Someone
1:25:18 Training Staff Who’ve Never Seen Half Your Ingredients
1:26:34 Dealing With Toxic High Performers
1:27:33 Marketing After the Honeymoon Phase
1:30:47 The Marketing Move That Gave the Biggest Spike
1:31:47 Should Restaurants Pay Influencers?
1:32:34 Turning First-Timers Into Repeat Customers
1:33:32 How She Handles Bad Reviews
1:35:42 Cheapest Marketing Move That Works Surprisingly Well
1:36:38 How to Double Revenue in 12 Months
1:37:26 The Closest Evviva Came to Shutting Down
1:38:50 The Worst Day Running Evviva
1:40:13 The Mistake That Almost Killed the Restaurant Financially
1:41:22 Have You Ever Thought About Quitting?
1:42:32 Fix the Restaurant or Pivot the Concept?
1:43:42 30-Day Survival Plan for a Restaurant in Trouble
1:44:54 What She’d Tell Her Younger Self
1:50:29 One Hard Truth Nobody Told Her About Owning a Restaurant
1:51:42 3 Questions You Must Answer Before Opening
1:52:34 What Mattered at the Start That Doesn’t Matter Now
1:54:10 The One Decision That Made the Biggest Difference
1:55:09 What Does Success Look Like Now?
1:56:10 Best Advice for Opening in an Emerging Market
1:57:56 Where Does She See Evviva in 10 Years?
1:59:32 The Future of Restaurants and Gen Alpha
2:06:03 Where to Find Sera
1 Comment
Good one podcast