Young entrepreneur opens up new Chinese restaurant

Former IU student Aobo Zou saw an opportunity and he took it.\nLast summer, the 23-year-old saw the empty space on 10th Street across from Ashton residence center, where a Vitabody health store used to be, and decided to open a restaurant there.\nFortune Cookies opened the Wednesday before winter break.\nWith more than 300 items on the menu, the “Americanized Chinese” restaurant caters to Chinese and American tastes. \nZou said he decided to open a restaurant where the atmosphere was more contemporary.\n“This is basically my ideal restaurant,” Zou said.\nJust about any restaurant would be successful in Fortune Cookies’ location, he said. \n“Being Chinese, I thought a Chinese restaurant would probably work out,” he said.\nZou decided to open a restaurant because he wanted to stay close to his parents in Bloomington, where they moved to from China 19 years ago. He also said he didn’t look very hard for a job his senior year. \n“I was kind of lazy in the job search department,” he said.\nHe said he liked college, and the traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job didn’t appeal to him. \nFortune Cookies’ building is owned by the IU Foundation. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Zou said he’s there most of the time.\nZou thought the name Fortune Cookies would go along with the atmosphere. He said he didn’t want a typical name, but wanted something fun. As a gimmick to tie into the name, he makes a point of highlighting fortune cookies by only serving chocolate fortune cookies with the meals.\nEverything about opening a restaurant was hard, Zou said. He said everything was new to him, from the construction and remodeling to the actual running of a business. Zou said his young age and inexperience makes it harder.\nOne mistake, Zou said, was expanding the business too fast by pushing the delivery service and not preparing enough before opening. His biggest worry is that orders will drop off when summer comes and many students leave Bloomington.\n“I don’t know what it will be like,” he said. “Sales could drop off completely.”\nHowever, “business is very good,” Zou said. He divided sales by average meal size and discovered he sold 250 to 300 meals a day.\nThe most important thing for a business such as Zou’s to survive is to have a good product, said Johannes Denekamp, a senior lecturer at the Kelley School of Business. He said there needs to be a steady flow of customers, not just at peak times. \n“Get some satisfied customers in the door and get some regulars,” Denekamp said. “You need to do what you do well.”\nFreshman Alex Eu, who eats at the restaurant once every other week, said that he likes it because it’s close, the food is good and it’s inexpensive.\nHe also said Fortune Cookies is the only place around that cooks duck well.\n“It’s a very hard dish to do,” he said.\nEu said other places are basically a kitchen and some tables, while the atmosphere at Fortune Cookies is good.\n“You can bring a date here,” he said.\nZou is currently working on a drink for the restaurant called bubble tea, a tea mixed with a flavor, such as mango, milk and marble sized tapioca balls that absorb the flavor, he said. \nFor the future, Zou said he hopes to take a class he needs to finish up his marketing and operations management degree. He said he hopes to expand and add a patio to the store and “just make everything better, I guess.”