Past Times

Running a restaurant kitchen in Randburg means adapting to load shedding schedules, sourcing ingredients consistently despite supply chain friction, and keeping staff morale steady through power cuts and unpredictable trading hours. Past Times manages these logistics daily—timing prep work around electricity windows, ensuring fridges stay cold during outages, and sometimes pivoting the menu when suppliers fall short. The front-of-house operation depends entirely on this backstage coordination: managing customer flow when you can't rely on normal operating hours, training staff to deliver service without kitchen support at times, and maintaining food safety protocols when standard utilities aren't guaranteed. It's a skill that separates restaurants that survive load shedding from those that fold.