Foods For Pondering - Is Your Meals And Drink Establishment Being Run Correctly?

I consume food. I drink beverages.

For that reason, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.

In evaluating the operations of many clubs/resorts every month, I discover that one of the most badly operated, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Particularly in member owned environments, which are typically supervised by a club board, people seem to think that due to the fact that they eat in restaurants, they somehow have some level of expertise that allows them to make company choices about this crucial element of the club. The reality is that this is among the most complex departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a consistent experience.

Let's ask a few questions!

Is your Food and Drink experience appropriate for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced effectively, too expensive, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?

Are your food choices stuck in yesteryear, a great balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu designed for function or fashion? Do you change your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or two and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your product specifications and portion sizes? Is every item on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food cost? Do you know the contribution margin on every item on your menu?

What about your special occasions. Are they truly unique? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly expected or the same thing that was done the last 10 years with nothing more than the year changed in the newsletter and marketing piece promoting the occasion? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to attempt new occasions? New rate points?

Got Value?

What about value included programming? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and lots of other national franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals can be found in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned restaurants has to do with 10%?

What are you carrying out in your club to create a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Drink offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass questioning why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you trying new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of just "unique occasion" dining?

Something as simple as Delighted Hour can produce additional usage. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or similar for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half rate on bottles of home red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at a special cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique rate, entertainment, and many other concepts and occasions drive usage, provide incremental income, and keep the staff working. Are you try out brand-new events in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be amazed at the buzz it creates.

The Experience

How is your dining-room presented? With white table linens? No tablecloths? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are providing?

How are your buffets presented? Elegantly with skirting, floral screens, and shiny silver chafing meals? Or basic with little or no frills? Does it make sense?

Do you have requirements of operation to guarantee the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every team member wearing a clean and pressed designated uniform? Exists a particular way to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and wine? Are members called by name? Are specific actions of service in location?

Does the service personnel know the structure of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least regular monthly? Is your staff offering suggestively?

The Technical Aspects

How frequently do you take a physical stock? Exists "self-reliance" in the stock procedure to guarantee that the counts are precise? Is inventory pricing adjusted regularly to show the most current expense the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid last year still being used to figure out stock value?

Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying products?

If you purchase it by the pound, weigh it. If you buy it by the piece, count it. If you purchase it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no circumstances, accept it blindly.

I am surprised at how often shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the exact same room as the items that were delivered not to mention hardware suppliers checking the packing slip or invoice against the products got. Shipment individuals end up being savvy very rapidly to those who hold them liable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing alcohol there costs a great deal of cash over an extended time period.

How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, typically a chef's friend, and continues to be counted monthly throughout inventory yet is essentially worth little or absolutely nothing?

What does the organizational structure look like in your club's F&B operation? How are your managers compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific monetary outcome, train the personnel, and keep standards? Or are they paid merely for showing up?

How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Tip pool? Some mix of both? Does your pay structure promote period or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Lawfully?

In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the same for alcohol, beer, and white wine? Do you have defined pour sizes? Are they being complied with? Do you have pourers which permit just for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's money is tied up in wine inventory? Have you recognized par stocks?

Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make good sense for your club? Do you have a minimum month-to-month service fee? Should you?

Do you offer an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you enable staff members to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you allow your employees to take in alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).

Private Events

What about your Private Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced right mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of establishing and breaking down every space based upon the varying needs of each occasion?

Do your private occasion policies make good sense? When is the "assurance' due? When is payment completely required? Do you require a signed contract? Do you even have a contract that you require be signed?

A Solution

Great deals of concerns! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and produce a tailored food and drink experience that shows your special situation and provides what your members/guests want and are willing to pay for.