Without any catering experience, but in good spirits, teenagers Dean and Ashwin David from Hollandscheveld took over a restaurant in Hoogeveen last October to introduce residents to Surinamese cuisine. With success, because restaurant De Surinamer runs like a charm according to Dean. Nevertheless, the brothers stop.
They announced this yesterday via the Facebook page of the restaurant on Schutstraat. ‘It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that De Surinamer Hoogeveen will be offered for sale’, you can read, which may suggest that there is no place for Surinamese cuisine in Hoogeveen. But nothing could be further from the truth, because according to the eldest of the two brothers, things are going very well.
“But we still want to sell the restaurant,” says Dean. This is mainly due to the fact that, in addition to running the restaurant, the brothers do not sit still. “I also have a car company that has continued to grow and is getting bigger in Europe, so I am abroad a lot. Ashwin also wants to go back to studying in Zwolle and we are also working on starting up some other things. No, no restaurant,” he laughs.
In short, De Surinamer does not always get the attention it needs due to the other activities of the brothers. “During the first months we had to get into it, but now it’s really busy,” Dean continues. The restaurant built up a regular customer base, with the expansion of the delivery area to include Zuidwolde, Ruinen and Slagharen turning out to be a golden move. “Actually, we both have to be there every day, otherwise we won’t make it. That’s getting more and more difficult.”
Regular customers of the restaurant, which has one permanent employee and several on-call employees in addition to the brothers, do not have to say goodbye to their beloved cod sandwich or roti dishes just yet. “We will not close until a new buyer has been found. We hope that we will be able to do that sometime in the coming months,” he concludes.