Part 14: The theme is a metaphor for its financial situation

Episode 13: The theme is a metaphor for its financial situation



Hey Armand. So… how's everything going?

I've been doing better thanks to you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.

Think nothing of it Armand. It's what friends are for or have you forgotten?

How's Delia doing?

I haven't talked to her in a while actually… I don't know what to tell her. I'm just afraid I'll mess everything up again once I see her.

Don't worry too much Armand. You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out.

…


Even Armand's not buying that one, Klaus.



To digress for a bit, our numbers for the F1 restaurant have been fantastic so far wouldn't you say?

As you said: fantastic. I think we're on to something here.

I'm glad you said that Armand. Which brings me to my next point…

Considering our progress with the restaurant, I think it's a good time for us to expand our operations.

What do you have in mind?

Hmm, well… I don't know. It's part of the reason I came to talk to you actually. I was hoping you had some good ideas on the direction that we should take our next establishment.

I did like the sound of that underwater theme you told me about before. We could dress up the place into a sort of underwater palace. Deep sea fishes, plant life, seashells, the works! The place would look amazing I think. Why don't we go for that then?

Yes, now that you describe it like that, I am liking that idea better. Yeah, we should do that. And we should name it after your missus!

What?! Why?

Well, you've been trying to think up a way to get back to Delia's good side haven't you? And you told me before that that was exactly how you impressed Delia when you guys first started going out right? Naming your restaurant after her will be your chance to win her back.

Hmm… Delia has always been very fond of diving and the sea… You know this could work… You're a swell guy Klaus.

As long as we're making money, I'm always a swell guy haha…


I mean, impressing Delia with stupid stunts like that has worked in the past. Just make sure that the restaurant you name after her isn't really ugl…



Hello Del.


Nevermind.

Armand. Like what you've done to the place. And the name, I like that too. It's very flattering.

It was the only way I could get you to meet me.

That's not true; it's never the only way.

Although it does seem that you're finally on your way back again. Things must be going well.

Some things have been. Others are… still up in the air.

I guess so… For a while there though, I actually thought it was over between us when…

Del, please. I need to tell you something…

What?

I've lied to you. I did see another woman. I lied to you and I'm ashamed of it.

All my life, I thought that the world revolved around me: that I was a success because I willed myself to be one. My ego has clouded me from seeing what's real.

I've resented you and hurt you because of that. And it took a colossal failure and another woman for me to understand that none of my success was because of me… but because you were there with me.

I know this is something you didn't want to hear, and I would understand if you don't want to get back together… Delia, believe me when I say that I am truly sor…

I'm ashamed of myself. And I am so… sorry.

Stop. Stop it.

You had me at hello.

…

I heard that from a movie.

I love you…

I know you do.



Well, that was easy. Thank God Delia is such a pushover.



And we have a new restaurant!



Welcome to Delia's Aqua. Aqua I believe is a Latin word which roughly translates to "a sucker".



Based on the incredibly tacky sea-themed décor, you might be led to believe that this is a seafood restaurant. You would be wrong! This is a traditional French restaurant located in downtown Paris, celebrating the city's rich maritime history and the incredible diversity of its coastal flora and fauna.

Oh, Paris is a hundred miles inland? I'm sorry, my bad!



I'll set up this restaurant in a moment, but first, let's go to The Speed Trap and check out its tastefully renovated décor.



Oh, it's an abomination? I'm sorry, my bad!



While the race track downstairs follows the ludicrously offensive CCC décor style, going upstairs to the ABC feels like a relief. Most of the floor is taken up by the ridiculously huge stage at the back of the room. I've signed up a Christian rock group named Rapture to play there every day from 18:00. I've never actually tried doing that, so I look forward to seeing what they've got!



Our first guests RUDELY ignore all the traffic cones and flashing signs and just cross over the middle in order to get to their tables, instead of doing a lap around the circuit. I ought to have them thrown out, but we're still not quite out of debt.



We will be very soon, though! Between all our restaurants, we made more than $220,000 last month. Of this, Treize à Table made around $108,000, Heiliger Klaus $68,000 and The Speed Trap $65,000 for a total of $241,000. Meanwhile, all the cafés and patisseries put together can't even cover our $60,000 research fees.



I can't get over these chairs. And the grown adults sitting in them, sipping wine and eating roast guinea fowl with rosemary while going "VROOM! VROOM!"



Meanwhile, in Delia's Aqua, we have a total of one guest. It seems the Delecoeur curse has followed us even to this traditional French restaurant. I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to make this place decently profitable with a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of advertising, though.



Chefs come in and ask to work for us every once in a while. However, I believe this goonlord is the first chef to tell us that our food is fucking garbage while he's applying for a job here. I give his application my most earnest consideration.



Meanwhile LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR RAPTUUURE! Woo, we'll hopefully be spared the apocalypse!



I buy a new dessert recipe during the concert. It's pretty decent. A blessing!



And also this. Finally, a proper German recipe!



During the mission, our recipe research pays off with another batch of recipes. This is our new German appetizer, scallops in chive sauce. Flush with profits from our handful of good restaurants, Armand sprung for almost half a sprig of chives for the sauce!



This is our new German soup. It's not the beer soup, so who cares. I am, however, impressed that they managed to make a soup out of 230 grams of cabbage and 20 millilitres of chicken stock.



This is a really good German main: garlic cloves in wine with a sprinkling of pike-perch.



And our last German recipe, an incredibly good German dessert.



We also researched this American main.



And a decent Italian soup. This helps diversify our repertoire, as we have very few Italian and American recipes. Of course, we don't have any Italian or American restaurants yet, so it's not an urgent issue.



After a couple of months, I have to acknowledge that Delia's Aqua is failing. I'll have to bring in the big guns.



Armand! Save this restaurant!

Throughout the game, I've been buying lots of items for boosting chefs' cooking skill. The ones that boosted café and patisserie cooking I gave to Delia and Jules, everything else I dumped on Armand. As a result, Armand is now a master of basically every cuisine. He's also a celebrity chef, which should hopefully draw in more customers. If anyone can save this restaurant, it's Armand.



It turns out to be extremely difficult to fix Delia's Aqua. Even with Armand and months of advertising, I'm barely getting any customers, but we have a profit target of $30,000 for the mission. Hopefully we'll be able to scrape by on the last month, but it's looking dicey.



With the mission deadline approaching, I remember that we also have a dessert competition to win.



Round one, cakes! We are making our excellent marble cake. At this point, I'm very concerned that Jules' cooking skill with this recipe hasn't gone up at all since the last contest. Do they get literally no customers at our patisseries?



Woah. I might need to take this one seriously.



Okay, nougat parfait for round two. This is a really good recipe, so if we can't win this round, I'm in trouble.



That's better. We're ahead by a little bit, but we're not out of the woods yet.



Round three, we're going with the jelly roll. It's a good thing we completely researched all types of patisserie recipes. I didn't do any patisserie research the first time I played through this game, and this was painful.



Team Brown Cookie screwed up on round three, so we should be pretty safe now.



Finishing with our savoury cheese éclairs.




These baking competitions are getting cutthroat. But we win!



We win a rice pudding recipe that we have already researched. What a ripoff!



And mercifully we barely meet the mission objectives. This was a pretty tough mission. Really had to wring the guests for every last cent.

Clearly, the problem with Delia's Aqua must be the décor. If this restaurant is going to be of any use to us at all, I'll need your help more than ever before!




These are the wall, floor and table options for Delia's Aqua.




And these are the wall- and floor-mounted decorations. It's fish.

Thread poll: what décor should we have in Delia's Aqua?

Vote on wall, floor and table design. For example, to vote for wall type C, floor type D and table type B, vote "CDB". The winning combination will be whatever has the most votes when I play the next mission. Also, let me know if you want me to add any of the floor or wall decorations.