Tag Archives: restaurant management

One of the biggest sources of contamination in any restaurant are the people who prepare and serve your customer’s food.  According to official food safety regulations, sick workers are supposed to go home, or even better, not come in at all while they are capable of spreading germs. Unfortunately, two …

Groupon, along with BlackBoardEats.com and a whole array of other discount coupon websites have proliferated in the last year as restaurants struggle to get customers through their doors.  These sites operate by getting large discount vouchers from restaurants (usually in the 50% range) and then marketing them to a large …

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 …

A common misconception in the food service business is that booking live music takes more time and effort than it’s worth.  The process of finding bands, paying them, and providing enough space for them to perform can be a distraction at best and a downright money loser at worst, or …

If you’re a regular reader of The Back Burner, then you know how I feel about diversifying your revenue stream so that when diner’s spending habits change, you have multiple sources of income for your business.  As dining room visits declined last year, more and more restaurants started looking for …

McDonald’s hasn’t grown into a multinational restaurant chain without doing a lot of things right.  And whatever you think of their culinary achievements (or lack thereof), you can’t deny that they’ve built an empire in food service. If one lesson is clear from the rise of McDonald’s, it should be …

Fine dining restaurants in Denver, CO are pooling their resources this weekend to kick off Denver Restaurant Week, an annual event that allows diners to sample the city’s fine cuisine over the course of a week for an incredible price: $52.80 for two.  Tons of restaurants are participating in the …

Every restaurateur has been through the baptism by fire known as Opening Night.  Those who have survived can testify to the nerve-racking experience of preparing menu items for the first time for a dining room full of people.  Many hopeful entrepreneurs have had their dreams realized or crushed on opening …

Since last August, when I first posted about the blossoming underground fine dining scene in San Francisco, the phenomenon has grown exponentially and started spreading up and down the west coast.  From Vancouver to L.A., chefs are ditching the kitchens of established restaurants and setting off on their own, and …

About this time every year the food service industry starts buzzing about the trends that will shape consumer preferences and affect business in the next 12 months.  We are lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on how you view it) to be in the midst of a transition period for many …