Do Your Servers Give Your Guests the Service They Want?

Your guests don’t just come to your restaurant to eat – they come for the experience. Servers are there to do more than make drinks and take orders – they are there to “serve.” That means give the guest the experience they desire. It’s the server’s job to “read the table” or get a sense of what type of experience their guests want. Part of this is reading the mood of the guests. They can also capture the clues...

Grilling Season Is Here: How To Make Your Restaurant Everyone’s Favorite Backyard

Spring is well underway in most corners of the United States, and the warmer weather has every grillmaster from Oregon to Ohio itching to get some beef patties sizzling in the backyard.  For restaurants, the spring thaw can also be a great time as well as you clean off the patio furniture and start setting up the umbrellas of summer. One thing is certain: everyone is in the mood for a burger.  Whether your restaurant is known...

A Review Of Klick Kitchen By Chef Forfeng

The following is a great review of Klick Kitchen by an industry insider with a lot more personal experience in the food service industry than I have. I came across Klick Kitchen last year and while the concept was intriguing, the price at the time was not. Since then they have apparently changed it to a free basic service to the consumer/back of the house...

The Restaurant E-Book

The Restaurant E-Book is a great little handbook for anyone new to the food service industry looking to succeed.  If you’re reading this blog, then you’re obviously interested in learning as much as you can about the restaurant business.  This e-book is just another tool in your arsenal as you look to find that secret recipe that will...

Chefs: How To Decide Between Apprenticeships Or Culinary School

Having a formal education is a wonderful thing to be able to put on a resume. Training under an experienced Chef can also teach you just as much practical information. There are pro and cons to both. Culinary schools are more structured environments. Apprenticeships are more unstructured environments. If you have the opportunity to do both, I would highly recommend it. Culinary Schools Pros: * Culinary schools look good on a resume. *...

Sound Advice for Opening a Restaurant

Look Before You Leap I get a lot of inquiries from people kicking the tires so to speak, interested in opening their own restaurant. For a lot of restaurant owners, owning a restaurant is a lifelong dream. They can imagine every detail, and it’s filled with happy customers who return again and again. A lot of these independent restaurant owners, they had a certain idea of what it was going to be like to own their own restaurant. But...

Beg, Borrow, Or Blow Your Food Cost

In a restaurant, especially a newly started or taken over one, it is highly recommended you get to know the other area food facilities and develop good relationships with them.. While this may seem quaint, sort of like moving into a new neighborhood and making nice with the neighbors, there is a very good reason for doing this. Yes, technically, other area restaurants are competition, but they can also be allies and assets. Similar...

POS Systems: Love Them, Learn Them, And Please Don’t Ignore Them

I didn’t learn to program my first Point of Sale system until I actually become a head Chef at a restaurant and the POS system impacted my food cost. I taught myself how to use it, as there was no operating manual and none of the waitstaff or the owners knew how to program it either. After two weeks of not being able to program in specials and receiving hand written dupes with orders written on them, flank steaks coming through...

A Glossary of Restaurant Lingo, Slang & Terms

A     * All Day – the total amount.  If table 12 orders two orders of salmon and table 19 orders four orders of salmon, that’s “six salmon, all day.” B     * Back of the house – the back end of the restaurant, the kitchen and storage areas, where the chefs, cooks, prep people and dishwashers primarily work.     * Bev Nap – the little square paper napkin which a beverages rests on.     * Brigade...