A popular topic lately, in a couple different restaurant discussion forums I participate in, is the question of who owns the recipes your restaurant uses? Let’s look at a couple possible scenarios that could affect your restaurant: Your executive chef or kitchen manager quits. Maybe one or two members of …
Read More »Data Management: 3 Spots Where Your Restaurant Is At Risk
Technology has made data easier to store, manage, and collect than at any other time in human history. That power has resulted in amazing improvements in the efficiency of business, and restaurants have benefited just as much as any other – few restaurateurs can imagine running their business today without …
Read More »The Pre-Shift Meeting (Part Two)
In part one of my discussion of pre-shift meetings, I discussed the things a manager can do to harm the effect of a pre-shift meeting. It was by no means a comprehensive list. There are many other mistakes managers can and do make that harm their pre-shift meetings. It does …
Read More »How To Make Your Restaurant A “Third Place”
The concept of the “third place” was first developed by Starbucks, and anyone who has been in a Starbucks immediately understands the principle: make your business feel like a home-away-from-home. Unfortunately for Starbucks they made way too many homes just as the economy turned south – tripling the number of …
Read More »The Pre-Shift Meeting (Part One)
I have worked for a number of companies over the years that held pre-shift meetings with the servers. They have been called a variety of things: line up, fresh talk, jump start, family meal, and many other names have been used to refer to these meetings. I have also managed …
Read More »Should You Allow After-Shift Drinks in Your Restaurant?
Some restaurants allow an after-shift drink, after which the staff is allowed to hang around and become regular paying customers. The issue has come up in my trainings and I have a definite opinion on it. I prefer that employees do not sit at the bar and drink after their …
Read More »How To Deal With Rising Food Costs In 4 Steps
More and more it looks official – the U.S. economy is pulling out of recession slowly but surely. The restaurant industry is cautiously optimistic about sales growth this year and consumers appear to be venturing out of their downturn shells. Unfortunately a growing economy – even one that’s growing so …
Read More »So You Want To Start A Restaurant: 3 Things That Will Decide Your Fate
So, you’ve thought about it and decided that starting a restaurant is your dream job. Good luck with that. Nearly 50% of restaurants fail in their first three years. That’s an astronomically high casualty rate. There are many factors that add up to the success or failure of a restaurant. …
Read More »How to Give Customers the Extra Information They Want
Beyond recommendations about food & beverage, there are many other questions that locals and tourists ask. Use this list to build your ‘fact file’ for staff, and quiz them regularly to check they’re offering correct answers. #1 issue for most managers is ‘staff motivation and attitude’. The interesting thing is, …
Read More »Why You Should Tell Your Guests To Order Themselves
If you do it right, guest prefer to order themselves. This has been proven by the advent of interactive electronic ordering kiosks, which have quickly become commonplace in European and Asian quick service restaurants. Americans are finally catching up to their European counterparts when it comes to self-service kiosks. Early …
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