6 Keys to a Great Management Bonus Program

Structuring a bonus program in your independent restaurant   is actually not that difficult. The bigger challenge is having the right systems in place to build it properly. Without the right systems, many management bonus programs are what I call management “entitlement” programs, where managers expect a bonus just for showing up. Here are the six systems you need to have in place to write a useful management bonus program...

Table Turnover: The Tradeoff Between Experience And Business

Every server hates “campers” – those diners who stay firmly parked in your section for hours on end, taking up a table that could have been given to another party ready to order (and tip) all over again. For restaurant owners, table turnover can be a tricky balance.  On the one hand, you want customers to enjoy a great atmosphere while they dine.  It goes without saying that an enjoyable experience is more likely to bring...

The Age of the Groupon: Does It Make Sense For Restaurants?

Groupon.com, along with BlackBoardEats.com (which I covered in an earlier blog post) 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...

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 are 12 ounces, others are 13, and some are even as large as 16 ounces, but you charge the same price for all of them. Think you’d be losing a little money...

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...

How To Rock Your Restaurant Marketing Efforts

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 so the theory goes. Yet many establishments have proven time and again over the years that bringing in local bands is a great way to connect with...

Klick Kitchen: Can Your Restaurant Save By Ordering Online?

Last summer I wrote about Klick Kitchen, an internet-based replenishment service for food service businesses.  At the time it struck me as odd that despite all the press Klick Kitchen had been getting, there didn’t seem to be any feedback from real chefs/managers/owners in the field who could substantiate Klick Kitchen’s claim that...

Need To Reach Your Customers? How About Communal Delivery?

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 different ways to reach their customers even though they weren’t coming into the restaurant anymore. Restaurants in St. Cloud,...

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 how the labor...

Restaurant Equipment: 4 Factors For Calculating Total Cost Of Ownership (cont)

To read the first installment of this article, click here. 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...