GEISHA KOWLESSAR-ALONZO
Almost exactly a year after closing its doors at its Maraval location, Blue Star Diner which falls under the Trotters Group, reopened on Thursday, this time at the Festival Plaza in Movietowne, Port-of-Spain.
Trent Restaurant Group owner Peter George Jr told Guardian Media that approximately $1.6 million was pumped into the new establishment.
The site was previously occupied by another restaurant, Zanzibar, which was forced to terminate operations in 2021 due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
George, who is also the CEO of Trotters, said the Blue Star Diner brand was hopeful that moving to Movietowne, a high traffic area, would drive business to the restaurant.
"Blue Star Diner had huge success pre-COVID, but never recovered post. It was a traffic driver originally but never regained momentum. So the decision was to relocate to a high traffic area with the right demographic. And Movietowne was the best choice," he explained.
On whether the business model has been impacted by the foreign exchange situation, George said whilst in the broader Trotters group, there are some direct purchases, he said everything bought for Blue Star Diner is sourced from local distributors. This ensures that it is not directly impacted by foreign exchange challenges.
"So whilst we don’t feel the impact directly ourselves, we certainly do feel it in the everyday challenges that our suppliers have...We still try and use local as much as possible… But we are obviously severely limited by what’s available locally; the quantity that’s available and of course, the quality given our very stringent standards," he added.
Staff at the opening also expressed their excitement to be back in a new spot.
Chef Amrit Singh described the venue as " just a total remake of the old diner," adding that a lot of people already reached out to make reservations.
Blue Star Diner initially opened its doors in November 2019 and the business was on an upward trajectory, especially when it started operating around the clock over weekends.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020 and business fell off.
The restaurant struggled post-COVID and had initially planned to close in June 2023, but public reaction prompted the restaurant to reopen from July to December 31 2023.
In a previous interview with Guardian Media, George, when asked how much was invested to open the restaurant in 2019, said $4 million was spent to outfit the establishment with that retro feel and the vintage blue car that many customers flocked to take pictures of.
