We’ve talked before on The Back Burner about the importance of greening your restaurant operation for two reasons: because customers appreciate it (and are beginning to expect it) and because frequently green practices mean cost savings. Unfortunately recycling is not a practice that usually saves your operation money. It is, …
Read More »4 Tips To Keep Inventory Shrink From Making Profits Smaller
Every month your restaurant spends thousands of dollars buying food. More than likely, it’s the second largest expense on your balance sheet after labor. And every month, that inventory of food products might be “shrinking,” meaning a percentage of it is disappearing due to either unintentional waste or very intentional …
Read More »How to Recruit, Train, and Keep Top-Notch Restaurant Staff
High turnover rates are a perennial challenge in the restaurant industry, with many contributing factors. But while many restaurant owners and managers shrug their shoulders and dismiss the problem as something they can do nothing about, there are in fact several practical things you can do to recruit, train and …
Read More »Simplify Your Life: Reduce Your Restaurant Menu Items
In these times of economic uncertainty, it is easy to get lost in trying to do many things all at once. A good example is restaurateurs trying to manage their inventories, their staff, their operations, their books, their sales, their marketing… do you know anybody like that? I thought so. …
Read More »50 Restaurant Resolutions For A Successful Year
If ever there was a good time to make some positive changes to your restaurant’s operation, now is that time. The time to kick things up a notch and really go after more business. If you’re going to beat out the competition then you need to trim down, work harder, …
Read More »Portion Control: Are You Losing Money To Food Waste?
Imagine for a second that you run Coca-Cola instead of your restaurant. You sell millions of cans of soda every day, and you’re making a decent profit. Now imagine that as the founder and owner of Coke, you never bothered to standardize the size of each can, so some cans …
Read More »Restaurant Management Tips: Hiring and Training Employees
Restaurants and commercial kitchens have always been relatively high turnover work environments, making new employee recruiting and training a constant chore for management. A few basic procedures can help you maximize employee retention and reduce turnover, which in turn reduces costs and increases efficiency. Cast a wide net. When you have …
Read More »Restaurant Dishwasher: A Complete Buying Guide
Deciding on the right dishwasher for your restaurant or commercial kitchen depends on a few important factors, and it’s vital to get the right machine for the job.There are multiple types of dish machines depending on what you plan to wash and how much of it you plan to wash …
Read More »Can You Trust Generic Restaurant Equipment Parts?
Any restaurateur who has dealt with equipment parts has heard of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and generic parts. If you haven’t, here’s a quick rundown: OEM parts are produced by the manufacturer of the piece of equipment or a subcontractor commissioned to make parts for the original manufacturer. OEM parts …
Read More »Adventures In Restaurant Maintenance: Replacing Equipment
“Which _____________ do you recommend?” This is a question I have been asked countless times by owners/managers that operate the restaurants I have worked in. The real question they are asking is: “What equipment will run the longest and have the fewest breakdowns and cost the least to fix?” The …
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