Fries Factory - First Loaded Gourmet Fries Restaurant in Latvia
Fries Factory was a first-to-market loaded/gourmet fries restaurant in Latvia, one of the world's highest potato-consuming countries. The concept introduced new fries recipes with various toppings, reinventing how Latvians eat their favorite food. The restaurant experienced viral success on opening Friday, which paradoxically led to its downfall: the overwhelming customer response depleted raw materials, exhausted the team, and damaged quality reputation when suppliers were closed until Tuesday. Khaled sold the restaurant for a small profit rather than fight reputation damage with depleted resources. The experience provided deep understanding of restaurant operations that later proved valuable for consulting on ERP/POS systems.
Problem Solved
Latvia lacked loaded/gourmet fries options despite being one of the world's top potato consumers, missing an opportunity to elevate a beloved food category.
- •Conceived first-to-market loaded fries concept for Latvian market
- •Created custom recipes with various toppings
- •Managed full-time operations including menu engineering and marketing
- •Built custom C++ POS backup system for personal workflow
- •Handled supply chain, staffing, and customer service
- •Made strategic decision to sell after viral incident
- ✓Launched first loaded/gourmet fries concept in Latvia with zero competitors
- ✓Achieved viral marketing success through social media creating overwhelming opening demand
- ✓Created custom recipes reinventing how Latvians eat their national favorite food
- ✓Built custom C++ POS backup system for fast personal workflow
- ✓Successfully sold restaurant for small profit rather than losing investment
- ✓Gained deep understanding of restaurant operations valuable for future consulting
Technology Stack
Challenge
Opening Friday social media marketing exceeded all expectations, creating customer queues that overwhelmed operations, depleted raw materials, and exhausted the team.
Solution
Attempted emergency supermarket purchases at higher cost, but with suppliers closed until Tuesday and team exhausted, quality dropped by Sunday, spreading negative word of mouth.
Impact
Classic startup scaling failure - success killed the business faster than failure would have.
Challenge
Team exhaustion from opening weekend combined with different raw materials led to lower quality, which customers noticed and discussed.
Solution
Made strategic decision to sell the restaurant for small profit rather than fight reputation damage with depleted resources and exhausted team.
Impact
Preserved capital and learned valuable lessons about infrastructure requirements before viral success.
Challenge
Professional POS systems were useful for learning but sometimes slower than needed for fast personal workflow.
Solution
Built custom C++ terminal application with Excel spreadsheet and SQL database integration for fast personal operations backup.
Impact
Technical solution for operational efficiency demonstrating software skills in restaurant context.
Situation
Latvia has one of the highest potato consumption rates in the world, but lacked any loaded/gourmet fries restaurants. Khaled saw an opportunity to be first-to-market with a concept that would reinvent how Latvians eat their favorite food.
Task
As founder and owner, Khaled was responsible for all aspects of launching and operating the restaurant, from concept and recipes to operations and marketing.
Action
Khaled created custom loaded fries recipes with various toppings, funded the venture with personal savings and family investment, and launched with social media marketing. The marketing worked too well - opening Friday brought overwhelming queues that depleted raw materials. With suppliers closed until Tuesday, emergency supermarket purchases at higher cost and team exhaustion led to quality drops by Sunday. Rather than fight reputation damage with depleted resources, Khaled made the strategic decision to sell.
Result
The restaurant was sold for a small profit, preserving capital. The experience taught crucial lessons about infrastructure requirements before viral success. The deep understanding of restaurant operations, POS systems, and inventory management later proved valuable when consulting for ERP/POS clients at ORKA Solutions. The failure also led directly to finding the Axle position, continuing the software development career.
Technical
- • C++ terminal application development
- • POS system operations and architecture
- • Inventory management systems
- • Kitchen display system integration
Soft Skills
- • Restaurant operations management
- • Menu engineering and recipe development
- • Social media marketing (too effectively)
- • Supply chain management under pressure
- • Strategic decision-making to cut losses
Key Insights
- 💡 Infrastructure must precede viral success - rapid scaling requires preparation
- 💡 Success can kill a business as fast as failure if systems cannot handle growth
- 💡 Deep operational experience in one domain (restaurants) creates consulting value in another (software/ERP)
- 💡 Sometimes the right decision is to exit while capital is preserved