Maquis Tante Marie is not in an aeroplane
The latest rumour in the hospitality industry that Maquis Tante Marie had acquired the defunct DC10 and operating under the name La Tante DC10 was absolutely wrong.
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Through this article, we the owners and directors of Maquis Tante Marie seek to tell our patrons and stakeholders that we have no affiliation with it; no association or any links whatsoever with the aeroplane restaurant.
Recently, the management of Maquis Tante Marie has been bombarded with a lot of queries: “why would you want to expand into a defunct aeroplane?” “I do not think your move to open up a restaurant in an aeroplane is a good one!”
These are some of the milder comments I can include in this write up, but for the most part, the concerns have been genuine but masked with sarcasm and disapproval.
‘Copy cating’
While Maquis Tante Marie has nothing against the aeroplane restaurant, what we take issue with is that when their customers ask if La Tante DC 10 is Maquis Tante Marie, they say ‘yes’ and this has led to this misinformation.
Again, since we (Maquis Tante Marie) pioneered the African dish concept in the year 2000, why would any restaurant entrepreneur who was sure about the company’s vision and pedigree want to piggy back off our name; a brand that flies high in the city?
Of course the Registrar General would not have a problem with registering the name, ‘La Tante…’ since it was not word for word with Maquis Tante Marie but could they (the owners) not have been original by choosing a different name? Couldn’t they have said to themselves they were out there getting on with their brand and “we are where we are?”
From where I sit, I find out that in Ghana, small and medium-scale entrepreneurs lack the vision and creativity that set them apart as distinct and individual business persons with strong personal identity.
Suffice it to say that when you hear about something, you are late; but does it mean that you should do the exact same thing? Again if you find out that tomatoes and pepper sell well on a particular street, does it mean that we should all go sell on that street?
Take the example of the micro-finance companies; most of them have taken their names and their taglines from the most successful micro-finance company (now turned bank).
Innovation
Coming back to the theme of originality, the Maquis Tante Marie concept was offered to the city of Accra in April 2000 in response to a growing need to enjoy Ghanaian and African cuisine in a clean and genial environment.
With the opening up of the Ghanaian economy and the rise of the middle class, expatriates working with multinationals, the executive corps mindful of eating right and Ghanaians returning home on holiday all longed to dine at world-class restaurants, but this time to savour local meals which would leave lingering tropical tastes.
Maquis Tante Marie is ready for this transition. We haven’t looked back. Like any other human organisation, we have learnt from our mistakes and rode on the back of our achievements. In addition to the upscale location where the mother branch is hosted in Labone, we have operated from the Accra Mall from 2008 and, from March 2013, at the Marina Mall.
Why would we want to spread ourselves thin by pitching tent right opposite the Marina Mall?