If I had one wish to be granted to make my job easier, it would be that the people I work with could somehow know what I know about restaurant equipment. As much as 50% of equipment breakdowns (possibly more) are due to equipment being misused by staff. Commercial restaurant equipment is …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2011
In The Field: Food Safety At Turley’s
Here at The Back Burner we have talked a lot about food safety. It’s an ongoing project for any restaurateur, and also a potential matter of life and death for any food service business given the stakes if a food borne illness were to break out in your restaurant. So …
Read More »Restaurant Management: Why Nick’s Isn’t Just Another Pizza Joint
Inc. Magazine did an article recently about pizza and pub owner Nick Sarillo, a restaurateur with blue collar roots based in the Chicago area. Sarillo has built his business based upon a corporate culture that emphasizes customer service and employee development. Sarillo’s Nick’s Pizza & Pub is another example of …
Read More »80/20 vs. 4: Restaurant Marketing By The Numbers
The Pareto Principle has long been hailed as the Holy Grail of marketing, the one rule by which all marketing efforts succeed or fail. The principle itself is pretty simple: 20% of your customers drive 80% of your sales. There’s always a core group of loyal customers who not only …
Read More »How To Beat Groupon With Core Value Marketing
For years now restaurants have been instructed that marketing through social networks is the wave of the future. A second dot.com boom has surfaced with companies promising closer ties to consumers for restaurant owners. Social networking does provide a tremendous opportunity to restaurants that commit to successfully managing their online …
Read More »Color Code Your Food Safety Program
Bacteria, contaminants, and pathogens are all the enemies of your restaurant’s kitchen. It’s a battle you fight every day. The first line of defense is controlling the growth of pathogens that could make your customers sick. That is best accomplished through a robust HACCP program. Unfortunately, as effective as HACCP …
Read More »25 Marketing Ideas Restaurant Owners Overlook
Most restaurant owners get the basics of restaurant marketing down pretty well: they get a Facebook page, buy a couple local media ad spots, and get some big signs for the front of their location. But there are a lot of marketing ideas that are simple to implement that can …
Read More »The Poseidon: The New God of Digital Portion Scales
Edlund has long been known for their tough, durable kitchen equipment. The Edlund “Old Reliable” manual can opener has been a kitchen standard in thousands of restaurants for years. And Edlund portion scales have long been favored for their toughness and accuracy. Luckily, Edlund hasn’t decided to sit back on …
Read More »10 Tips For Commercial Water Conservation
Restaurants use a lot of water. Between cooking, washing dishes, cleaning up, and serving guests, your water bill takes a good chunk out of your monthly budget on a consistent basis. Commercial water conservation is also a big concern of a majority of your customers, especially if you operate in …
Read More »Restaurant Equipment: 4 Factors For Calculating Total Cost Of Ownership
There’s always a significant amount of cost involved whenever you buy a new piece of restaurant equipment. Those costs only continue as that equipment ages in your restaurant – from energy use to repairs, the consequences of new equipment will be around for a long time after you’ve written the …
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