The season of food festivals and farmer’s markets is rapidly disappearing — but that doesn’t mean the opportunities for bringing your food directly to the people are vanishing with it! In fact, the holiday season offers a unique chance to reach more customers than ever, right in their own homes. The secret? Encouraging your chef
Commence Catering: All the Components (and Cash) You Need
Whether in the form of a sandwich tray from the local deli or a full banquet from an upscale steakhouse, more and more consumers are looking for catering options from their favorite restaurants. But it’s not just a matter of giving customers more ways to eat your food. Offering catering can seriously benefit your bottom
Customer Service: It’s a Team Effort
A few weeks ago, I went to a restaurant with a group of friends. It was a busy Saturday night, and there were lots of servers — all dressed in the same black uniform — running around. After a while, we were ready to order drinks and, to save time, just asked the first server whose
5 Tips to Help You Strive for Sustainability
In the restaurant industry, trends come and go nearly as quick as customers during a dinner rush. But there is one buzzword floating around that you should definitely pay attention to: sustainability. At the recent National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, a panel of experts — including Kathleen Seeley, managing partner of Ricca Design Studios;
How Foodservice Trends Affect Your Back of House
As a restaurateur, you spend a lot of time trying to anticipate the next big consumer trend and how your business can capitalize on it. Most often, these changing tastes deal with new flavors, original preparations, and innovative presentations. Each change in what the customer sees and tastes, however, can have major effects on your
Restaurant Inventory Management: Keep Your Business Healthy
Managing a restaurant offers numerous challenges and something is always going to pop up to demand your attention, so it is important to have as many policies and procedures in place as possible. With your slim margins, controlling cost is a key to success. As food and labor are typically your largest expense, it is
Do You Trust Your Vendors Too Much?
Watching your business requires diligence in all areas, even with your vendors. According to a report from the University of Florida, 5.96% of shrink can be contributed to vendor theft. I had a hard lesson during my first days as a manager at TGIFriday’s regarding vendor theft. I have never forgotten what my mentor Ken
Three Ways to Increase Customer Spend in Your Restaurant
Once a customer makes the decision to dine at your restaurant, you probably depend on your food, service, cleanliness and overall experience to bring them back. But what are you doing to increase their spend while they are still there? 3 Ways to Increase Customer Spend: 1. Sweeten your dessert sales. Simply asking a customer
The Only 4 Ways to Increase Restaurant Sales
This article was originally posted in March, 2013, focusing on the only four ways to increase restaurant sales. A lot has changed in our industry since then as we saw the rise and fall of daily discounts, an ever-changing economy and a surge of new and focused restaurants in all segments. As consumers are dining
Restaurant Theft – It Happens but It Doesn’t Have to Happen to You
We all know that theft happens in our industry; it happens in any industry, really. And unfortunately there are stats to back up the prevalence of restaurant theft: 75% of employees steal from the workplace at least once, and half will steal repeatedly (U.S. Chamber of Commerce) Internal employee theft is responsible for 75% of inventory
