The Courage To Lose Sight Of The Shore
Diving head first into the sea of the unknown, Mark Zubovskyy makes the sacrifice to save his family’s restaurant, Kapitan. In doing so, he shows off his resourcefulness by acquiring skills on his own. Mark shares his journey of withdrawing from university and the struggles of managing a restaurant. All that while looking on the brightside.
Written by: Alyssa Tavarro
Photos by: Kapitan
When the Russian-Ukraine war surfaced, Kapitan, a restaurant known for its Russian cuisine, received backlash and hateful comments that drove out their customers in 2021. However, customers started flooding back in with the help of yet another media feature by Mothership. “They came, but their retention rate was very low,” says Mark Zubovskyy, on observing how the restaurant’s customers were not coming back.
Mark Zubovskyy in front of Kapitan.
Mark, 22, is the son of the owner of Kapitan, Vadim Zubovskyy. Just days away from his first academic year, he withdrew from his course in Maritime Business at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He says that he did it so he could help with his family restaurant - which the family had invested lots of money in.
In its early days, Kapitan first started off with multiple outlets. One was a food kiosk at Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, a hawker stall at Lau Pa Sat, and a kitchen in City Gate Mall, which have since closed. Now, their cosy restaurant is located in Maxwell Chambers. After graduating in 2019, he began helping out part-time at Kapitan. Then, when he completed his National Service in early 2022, he decided to jump in full-time while his academic year in NTU was just six months away.
Coming all the way from Luhansk, the Zubovskyys are reaching their 20th year since they’ve migrated to Singapore. “As a family, we were willing to work for, you know, cheaper rates. Or no money at all. Just to keep the business afloat. So I had to...” Mark says as he explains why he withdrew from NTU so hastily.
Mark and his family. From left to right: Mark Zubovskyy, Alena Zubovskyy (Mother), Vadim Zubovskyy (Father).
Initially, he planned to do a gap year and return to school once the business stabilised. However, till date, they still aren't seeing the results they want. “Some people may say: ‘Can't you do both...studying and working?’” However, Mark argues that it isn't feasible because “In our business, we need to be physically here. We work very long hours.”
“When you’re running a small business, and your team isn't very big, you are expected to play a lot of roles.” From his first small role in the kitchen, washing dishes, he’s learnt from his hard working parents and does a bit of everything in the restaurant now. From stock take, ordering, and refurbishing their food and drink menu, to marketing on social media.
Knowing that one-time customers are a problem, Mark, despite not ever running a business, knows how to run a restaurant with only a couple of years of experience up his sleeves. “We’ve noticed that 90-95% of our customers are locals, so that's who we should be focusing on,” Mark says as he introduces a fusion dish - Salted Egg and Mala Slavic Dumplings.
He has observed more regulars now that he has added more pasta and Slavic-Italian dishes. This was after noticing “that people want something more carby”. He also brought down their prices for lunch, introducing a set lunch menu.
Mark also thinks about the restaurant’s marketability, as he knows that a media feature from time to time just wouldn’t cut it. He decided to take things into his own hands and started promoting Kapitan on TikTok. “I feel that with TikTok, you're constantly on people’s feeds.”
In fact, it was a viral TikTok video that has helped market the restaurant more. Without the help of an external team, Mark used his own knowledge, researched through other successful TikToks promoting restaurants and followed their formula - which was to tell his story. Now, Mark continues to create content multiple times a week to promote Kapitan. “I think it's difficult, but I think the experience you get doing all of these things... it's good.” Mark continues to hold an optimistic mindset. Seeing as how Mark has to juggle so many roles in the restaurant, it gets difficult to cope. Despite ending his shifts late, he sometimes finds himself coming to the restaurant “super early” just to do his TikToks.
Part and parcel of managing a restaurant comes with its challenges. Mark expresses his struggle with gauging the amount of staff he needs. On some days, he only expects a few customers but a wave rushes in at the last minute. Therefore, he and his team were forced to learn to work as a team when thrown into unexpected scenarios. They also followed the footsteps of other restaurants, installing QR codes where customers can browse and order.
Running a business together, having squabbles with the family is common. Although Mark enjoys getting to see his family more often, especially his sister, the downside is that everyone has a different perspective. “Knowing what we know now, of course, we would have approached this project three years ago differently.”
However, Mark sees it as “the whole beauty of it.” Despite facing barriers, he and his family still overcame them and learned from their lessons. In the face of challenges, they know they must do this authentically to progress even further.
As for school, he is waiting for the opportunity to come by again but is still undecided about whether he should change to General Business after all that he’s experienced. “I feel like I learn better working on the job as compared to sitting in school,” Mark says with deep thought. Of course, he expresses that he still has more to learn and improve on.
Ultimately, Mark and his dad’s goal is to expand to a couple of outlets in the next five years. Applying his experience and knowledge, he wants to expand to smaller kiosks and explore other cuisines.
