San Francisco restaurants are often on the cutting edge of sustainability and green practices.  They’ve pioneered ways to turn food waste into fertilizer, reduce food miles by sourcing locally, and decrease waste through recycling and composting. More recently, the East Bay Municipal Utility District has started converting up to 200 …

If you’re looking to implement a HACCP food safety program, this series of Back Burner posts will help you get started.  If you’re looking for ways to improve your existing food safety program, this is also a great place to start.  Food safety is a critical part of your food …

Local food.  It sounds great on paper, and it may even be the thing restaurant patrons claim they care about most.  But the reality is that restaurants are businesses, and the restaurant business is one of the toughest gigs out there.  Sounding good isn’t going to be enough to justify …

I’m not telling you anything new when I tell you that inventory control is very important in any restaurant.  But I think it’s surprising just how few restaurants view the use of scales as a way to manage shrink and really control how food product is used.  In fact, scales …

Today is the big day – the day the Supreme Court begins hearings on the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare. Many want to see the whole thing repealed, many want to see the whole thing left intact, and most aren’t really all that sure what the …

Superstars you’ve never heard of are playing a professional sport you never knew existed… and video game geeks everywhere are staying home because you decided to show the ball game instead. Some restaurateurs are finally starting to catch on, like Mad Dog in the Fog in San Francisco, and those …

Your restaurant uses a lot of water.  Between the water you serve your guests, the ice machine, the dish machine, and the sink, any restaurant goes through a lot of water on a daily basis.  I don’t have to tell you how much that water costs you.  I’m sure you’re …

You don’t have to be a tree hugger to realize industrial agriculture creates some pretty cruel situations for animals.  “Gestation crates” are a perfect example – a two foot by seven foot cage that is used to confine sows at large pig farms – of ways cutting costs have led …

Now that we are entering the hottest time of the year, it’s a good time to examine the commercial refrigeration units in your restaurant and make sure they are operating as efficiently as possible.  No matter what you do, you’re going to end up spending more money on refrigeration this …

The short answer is yes, definitely.  As long as you build a decent site, it can’t hurt your marketing efforts and has the potential to be a big help.  Some of the things you can do with an internet presence for your restaurant: Get to know your customers.  A website …