When life gives you lemons, squeeze the day

The story of how fish 'n chips inspired a lemonade pop-up

While watching Chef on my Tuesday evening redeye (which I highly recommend, by the way), I found myself drooling over Jon Favreau’s Cuban sandwiches and was reminded of a idea I’d tested a couple of years ago. While it wasn’t a “failure” in the traditional sense, it was certainly an experiment - featuring a refreshing blend of lemons, ice, sugar, and a hefty splash of gin.

CHEF, Jon Favreau’s latest Netflix release

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All good things start with Fish ‘n Chips

To sound like Bryan Adams: It was the Summer of ‘22!

I was visiting a friend for a weekend away in Cornwall, a county nestled in the southwest corner of the English mainland that cradles some of our most divine beaches and villages. On our way to the beach (and pub) around 11 a.m., I noticed a gentleman with a fish-and-chips food truck occupying prime real estate right by the car park of Boobies Bay (yes, this is a real place). Naturally, there was a line of about 10 people eagerly waiting to order their battered haddock, each selling for about £12 per serving.

At approximately 6 p.m., we left the beach to head home and noticed, once again, about 10+ people in line for the fish ‘n chippy. I said to my friend, “This guy must make a killing here!” Curiously, I decided to stay and watch a couple of people order to see how long it took the master at work to churn out one order.

Each person received their order within roughly 6 minutes. Each was ordering anywhere from 1-4 portions per order. The delivery time varied, but 6 minutes for roughly 2 portions was a happy median. At £12 per portion, that’s £24 every 6 minutes in sales, or £240 per hour (approx. $300) From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., that’s £1,680. Given he closed at 8 p.m. and opened around 11 a.m., it’s safe to assume he’s making roughly £1,800 per day in revenue. Selling fish and chips!

Apparently, the stand is on location 7 days a week in the summertime without fail, from the start of June to the end of August. That means, with a broad estimate, if foot traffic is somewhat consistent, the truck pulls in approximately £150,000 from 3 months of work. Let’s cut 50% off June, just for argument's sake, so £125,000 (approx. $160,000).

Naturally, running a food truck that supplies all of the above comes with numerous variable costs: Produce, permits, fuel, staff, and likely a few others. Nonetheless, very impressive. But as I began to dive deeper into the food truck rabbit hole, a few key questions came to mind:

• What high-margin product could be sourced at a low cost without compromising quality?

• What product could be served quickly, at high value, and require minimal skill to prepare?

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The lemons hit the streets

Typically, restaurants and bars make significantly higher margins on alcohol than food, and the output time is significantly faster. So, what alcoholic drink, with flavor, can be served with as few ingredients as possible, as fast as possible, and priced as high as possible? After extensive research, I settled on lemonade: a summer favorite.

As for the ingredients? Sparkling water, mint, ice, syrup (just sugar and water), cups, lids, straws, gin (optional) and a hell of a lot of lemons. I decided that at our local tennis club, on a match day (with their permission), I was going to test this theory. Sinking about £200 in one-time fixed costs (gazebo, etc.) and £82.89 in ingredient costs, we had a lemonade stand and agreed to donate all our proceeds to charity.

We were selling fresh lemonade for £3.00 or £3.50 if you wanted a gin top-up. Assuming I sold all of my available units, the estimated cost per unit would be approximately £0.90. This was buying all my ingredients at retail price, not wholesale. That’s a 70% margin, at prices 50-60% lower than the market rate for a gin & lemonade (normally £6-8).

After 6 hours, accompanied by a dramatic victory for the Reigate Rhinos (our league team), we managed to sell 51 units for a total revenue of £171 and a profit of £88! At the end of the day, we still had roughly 50% of our original ingredients remaining. A valiant effort, mostly from my parents, who were manning the stand while I was on court. Given the environment was fairly low in terms of foot traffic, and certainly not a peak location, it wasn’t bad for our first attempt.

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Is lemonade in my future?

Let’s talk hypotheticals. With an average serving time of 2.5 minutes per order (24 per hour) and matching the pace of our local fish-and-chip shop in Cornwall, I estimated we could serve around 200 Gin & Lemonades in an 8-hour day - a conservative estimate. At £6 per drink, that’s £1,200 in daily revenue. With margins over 80%, we’re looking at roughly £1,000 in pure profit, and £30,000 in profit per month before fixed costs. So, what’s my point?

Firstly, it was great fun and that’s what was most important. I also realized the novelty is appreciating that commerce is everywhere, hidden among the most complex of models, or veiled behind the simplest of products. While I’m far from a culinary business expert after one showing, I genuinely believed that with a small investment, a prime location, and a simple product, Squeezies (the name I’d chosen for my lemonade stand) could be a viable pop-up business. Why not?! I can’t be that crazy.

And on that note, here’s a picture of my parents running the stand. I don’t think they quite knew what they were signing up for…

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Thank you Jon Favreau for inspiring this Substack.

Must Watch: CHEF on Netflix