Your extreme, most whiny, customers may be your best friends. I speaking metaphorically, but the literal may be true as well. In extremes you will find valuable information. It’s like when someone explained the bizarre fashions, that you see on the runway, to me. I would always think “Who would ever wear that? How do you even pay for the show?” That was when someone explained to me it was bits and pieces, fabrics, collars, cuts, that were sold. Not that I understand the fashion industry other than that they are very good at recycling, but I do now at least understand that extreme edge of fashion, since my fashionista interpreter showed be a picture of a runway dress and then a picture of it’s carnation as a department store dress.
It’s sort of that way with extreme customers. They may sound like trouble makers and rabble rousers that you can’t take seriously, because they are acting absurdly, but there can be a truth buried under that Tourette’s syndrome. We opened on less than a shoe string and served our food in to-go boxes as we had planned on doing only to-go in the beginning, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to cut it, if we wanted any business. We got waitresses before plates and had a customer come in and order a salad then loudly proclaim to the dining room, if it came on Styrofoam he wasn’t going to pay for it, knowing full well that we didn’t have plates. Well I was tempted to send the salad in one of our stainless steel,16 quart, mixing bowls, they’re bigger than the bowls Jethro used for cereal on the Beverly Hillbillies, but opted for the bowls we had bought to heat things in. We were happy if we got a table when we opened, so I wasn’t risk their having a sense of humor about themselves, I find few customers do. What this told me was that we had to squeeze some more blood out of our stones and buy some plates. If he was willing to be that rude about it then other people were thinking it and not saying anything. Some things aren’t going to be pertinent such as, the red beans are hot. Of course they are! Red beans are a Cajun dish served with Andouille sausage. They’re spicy.
I learned you can’t force people who were raised on country music to listen to hard core jazz. You may like the music you’re playing, but you’re not buying the food you’re selling it. I would have people who were jazz aficionados come over and talk to me about jazz when we first opened. They were amazed at my collection and that I was playing it in the dining room. The other 98% of the people hated it, even my own wait staff. Out with the Fusion and in with the greatest hits collections, middle of the road pop, bluegrass, and country. At least I didn’t start with my vast Latino collection, though I do throw one in every once it a while. I considerate Latino music some of the happiest music on the planet and I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t love it, but apparently there are some that don’t. Go figure.
I won’t pulverize you with examples, but you get the idea, if someone says something, even in a boorish manner, don’t let your ego, or your musical tastes, get in the way of learning something that might save your restaurant.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Throwing Out the Rice
It is impossible to be so perfect with your food prep and predictions that you never have to throw food in the trash. This hurts on a few levels, especially if you’re a hands-on owner like myself. I’ve spent time preparing that food, as well as money. We work Thursday through Monday and do eat leftovers on our weekend, which is Tuesday and Wednesday, this has the double duty of checking the quality of our food in addition to feeding us, but you can only eat so much. We’ve taken to making care packages for our friends on Monday afternoon so the food doesn’t go to waste. But the one thing that bothers me the most, and I throw out every day, is rice. We do have a very good rice cooker. It’s an Aroma 8-cup and I highly recommend it, it will genuinely keep your rice fresh for hours, but there is always some left at the day and if it isn’t a big day for rice dishes I can end up throwing out a whole pot. I will stand there and eat a couple of spoonfuls just so it won’t all go to waste. I know you might think, “Well rice isn’t that expensive.” but every time I throw it out all I can see is those images of starving children so grateful for just a cup of rice. The restaurant has been open for over three years and I still think about it almost every day.
What you want to do is keep track of your food sales, not just the amount, but what is selling and when. Like I know that on Fridays I have to prep a lot more catfish than on Thursday. With things like fish that have such a short shelf life this can be critical to your success and profitability. Another thing to consider is what to keep in a steam table and what to heat to order. Once something has been in a steam table for a while it’s time for the dumpster. Heating to order might slow you down a bit, but if it saves you from throwing out a lot of product you might want to give it a try. Keep an eye on that menu too, if something is continuously getting tossed then it’s probably time to 86 it from the menu. Here’s a question where did the phrase 86 come from. I have worked in restaurants for more years than I care to remember and have used that saying since the beginning and have no idea where it comes from. If you know, fill me in.
What you want to do is keep track of your food sales, not just the amount, but what is selling and when. Like I know that on Fridays I have to prep a lot more catfish than on Thursday. With things like fish that have such a short shelf life this can be critical to your success and profitability. Another thing to consider is what to keep in a steam table and what to heat to order. Once something has been in a steam table for a while it’s time for the dumpster. Heating to order might slow you down a bit, but if it saves you from throwing out a lot of product you might want to give it a try. Keep an eye on that menu too, if something is continuously getting tossed then it’s probably time to 86 it from the menu. Here’s a question where did the phrase 86 come from. I have worked in restaurants for more years than I care to remember and have used that saying since the beginning and have no idea where it comes from. If you know, fill me in.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Hiring Wait Staff
Hiring Wait Staff
Your wait staff is your first customer contact and it’s a cliche that first impressions are what makes or breaks you. You could have the best food in the world and your wait staff could turn you restaurant into an empty hole.
There is no magic formula, set of questions you can ask, or strict guidelines you can follow that will guarantee that you’ll be happy with who you hire. We set down the absolute rule that we would not hire anyone under 18 as a waitress. The first person we hired was a high school girl that was 16, because she walked in and impressed the hell out of us before we knew she was 16. She is the only employee that we’ve had the entire time we’ve been open and she now comes down from college to work on the weekends and we call her our daughter. My hard and fast rule is my gut and it ranges from, well they’re the best that’s come in, to not today, not ever, no way, no how, to I sure hope that person comes back. Truthfully the later is rare, usually it’s door number one or two.
One thing I have learned is that people seem to last a month, or forever. If you have to have a talk with an employee 3 times, more than likely there’s going to be a fourth. Unless it’s a really good waiter just let them go instead of bothering with that fourth talk. As always this is not a hard and fast rule. There are times that you’ll have somebody who’s late on a regular basis, but makes customers swoon. Hey as long as they’re not doing something egregious, sometimes it’s better just to let your superstar have a little wiggle room.
Make sure your wait staff understands how the kitchen works. When they’re on the floor and get triple sat, unless your kitchen is so strong you can handle massive orders, tell your wait staff to put the orders in one at a time. Take one order tell the other tables that they’ll be right back for their order and if possible start with the smallest table and work up. This will create a better flow not only in the kitchen, but with the server. If that server has three tables all ready at the same time they won’t be able to give proper attention to each table. With the orders staggered they can serve staggered and by starting with the smallest table the other customers in that section will see food coming out faster.
Lay down the law about cell phones before you hire someone and become friends with them. Texting seems to be the worst, because they just go into a ethereal realm when their texting. I like to drop a big phone book on the floor next to anyone I find in a clicking trance. It makes quite an impression hitting a hardwood floor. As far as other rules or guidelines, spend some time thinking about it and write yourself a wait staff manual and have every new hire read and sign it. Include a list of things that can result in termination with cause. This will protect you when you have to fire somebody and you will at some point all your losers won’t just disappear of their own volition. The last thing you want to end up doing is paying unemployment to someone who wrecked your restaurant. It’s the nature of wait personnel to be on the fringe. Some are going to be overqualified people that didn’t make it to college or have a degree in a field that pays so little they can actually make more money waiting tables, others are going to be people that reach their peak table-side, then there are those who think anyone can wait tables and can’t. Mixed into these lives will be a lot of drama. Do you best when you’re interviewing to ferret out the drama-rama. If it’s in your wait staff it will be in your restaurant.
In closing take notes on what works and what doesn’t and have training. It’s a lot easier to tell everyone what to do than to be singling out workers for individual scoldings. Push team work. A wait person should never pass an empty plate on anybodies table without busing it, nor pass an empty glass if they are filling tea and water. Good luck and try to keep your sense of humor. In the restaurant business it’s your best friend.
Your wait staff is your first customer contact and it’s a cliche that first impressions are what makes or breaks you. You could have the best food in the world and your wait staff could turn you restaurant into an empty hole.
There is no magic formula, set of questions you can ask, or strict guidelines you can follow that will guarantee that you’ll be happy with who you hire. We set down the absolute rule that we would not hire anyone under 18 as a waitress. The first person we hired was a high school girl that was 16, because she walked in and impressed the hell out of us before we knew she was 16. She is the only employee that we’ve had the entire time we’ve been open and she now comes down from college to work on the weekends and we call her our daughter. My hard and fast rule is my gut and it ranges from, well they’re the best that’s come in, to not today, not ever, no way, no how, to I sure hope that person comes back. Truthfully the later is rare, usually it’s door number one or two.
One thing I have learned is that people seem to last a month, or forever. If you have to have a talk with an employee 3 times, more than likely there’s going to be a fourth. Unless it’s a really good waiter just let them go instead of bothering with that fourth talk. As always this is not a hard and fast rule. There are times that you’ll have somebody who’s late on a regular basis, but makes customers swoon. Hey as long as they’re not doing something egregious, sometimes it’s better just to let your superstar have a little wiggle room.
Make sure your wait staff understands how the kitchen works. When they’re on the floor and get triple sat, unless your kitchen is so strong you can handle massive orders, tell your wait staff to put the orders in one at a time. Take one order tell the other tables that they’ll be right back for their order and if possible start with the smallest table and work up. This will create a better flow not only in the kitchen, but with the server. If that server has three tables all ready at the same time they won’t be able to give proper attention to each table. With the orders staggered they can serve staggered and by starting with the smallest table the other customers in that section will see food coming out faster.
Lay down the law about cell phones before you hire someone and become friends with them. Texting seems to be the worst, because they just go into a ethereal realm when their texting. I like to drop a big phone book on the floor next to anyone I find in a clicking trance. It makes quite an impression hitting a hardwood floor. As far as other rules or guidelines, spend some time thinking about it and write yourself a wait staff manual and have every new hire read and sign it. Include a list of things that can result in termination with cause. This will protect you when you have to fire somebody and you will at some point all your losers won’t just disappear of their own volition. The last thing you want to end up doing is paying unemployment to someone who wrecked your restaurant. It’s the nature of wait personnel to be on the fringe. Some are going to be overqualified people that didn’t make it to college or have a degree in a field that pays so little they can actually make more money waiting tables, others are going to be people that reach their peak table-side, then there are those who think anyone can wait tables and can’t. Mixed into these lives will be a lot of drama. Do you best when you’re interviewing to ferret out the drama-rama. If it’s in your wait staff it will be in your restaurant.
In closing take notes on what works and what doesn’t and have training. It’s a lot easier to tell everyone what to do than to be singling out workers for individual scoldings. Push team work. A wait person should never pass an empty plate on anybodies table without busing it, nor pass an empty glass if they are filling tea and water. Good luck and try to keep your sense of humor. In the restaurant business it’s your best friend.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
14 Golden Rules to Opening a Restaurant
These are fourteen simple rules to follow that could save your business. If you follow this advice you will greatly increase your chances of succeeding. A lot of people get good advice and think yeah that’s good advice for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but I’ve got it under control. If you choose to ignore this advice please take all the money you have to start a restaurant and send it to me. If you’re going to throw it away you might as well throw it to a good cause.
1) The first piece of advise I can offer you is Don’t Do It. If you choose to ignore that little gem we’ll move on.
2) Finding an existing kitchen is a whole lot easier than building your own. Your best bet is looking for a location that’s empty and has a kitchen. Buying an existing restaurant can be dicey. You risk overpaying for the clientele the owner has recently put on the books, and you could inherit some employee nightmares, who may in their hearts feel they outrank you.
3) Do not pay rental or mortgage on a place until you have your equipment. Rent a garage if you don’t have room. If you check out auction sites and local auctions you can pick up great deals, so while you’re planing your restaurant start buying your equipment. It will save you thousands, many thousands of dollars. Trust me on this. If you don’t know what to look for you probably shouldn’t be opening a restaurant, but if you’re determined ask at some of your favorite restaurants if you can see their kitchens. Tell them you’re thinking of opening a restaurant ask them if they have any advice, other than not doing it.
4) If you’ve got to do a lot of plumbing to do, find a place with a basement or a crawl space, because indirect drains run above the floor suck and breaking concrete costs a fortune. Make sure about the grease trap regulations before you rent any space and make sure you can put in what you need and it’s not going to break the bank to do it.
5) Make friends with your health and building inspectors before you lift a paint brush. Health codes vary, you might be some where that requires a certain paint on the wall, at least a certain type.
6) Be prepared to work 80 plus hours a week. Let’s face it the only thing worst than food costs are employee costs. You need to be taking up the slack of whatever employee duty you can. Cooking, hosting, cleaning, whatever. If you leave it all to some high cost manager, you’ve more than tripled your chances that you’re going to fail.
7) Check out the local economy of the area you want to open your restaurant. Can you make your menu for what your competition is making theirs? If not is your menu really good enough to make people used to paying one price for dinner to pay yours?
8) Watch every restaurant show on TV. Get all of Gordon Ramsey’s stuff. If you are opening a restaurant this is must watch TV. The regular cooking shows won’t help you as much, because you’ll find a lot of those recipes won’t translate to a restaurant environment, but if you’ve got time, Knock yourself out. You should not be watching anything other than food, sources, trends, sauces, and things with fins.
9) Avoid hiring friends. If a friend tells you he can do something you’ve never seen or heard of him doing before, he can’t do it. Firing a friend is really hard, because that’s what you end up doing, firing a friend. One well meaning friend can bring your restaurant down and you into bankruptcy. Speaking of which.
10) Form a Limited Liability Corporation and protect your home assets, this applies to both failure and lawsuits. Own everything and lease it to the LLC.
11) Nail your menu. Rent a commercial kitchen, get permission to do a cooking demonstration at a busy location. Let people try your dishes and tell them about portions and sides and the price and see if they think that’s something they would be happy with.
12) Don’t announce to soon. Local papers and media outlets aren’t going to give you but so much press. Don’t use it up before your doors are actually open.
13) Budget your monthly expenses as an open restaurant including food, employees, rent, utilities, insurance, the unexpected, then multiply that by 18 and if you have that much money in the bank the day you open, you have a very good chance of being successful if you have paid attention to all my other advise.
14) If you’ve never worked in a restaurant kitchen, and I mean in the kitchen not waiting tables, then go get yourself a job in a kitchen, even if it’s washing dishes. Watch what’s going on. That experience will probably let you know if you really want to own a restaurant or not.
1) The first piece of advise I can offer you is Don’t Do It. If you choose to ignore that little gem we’ll move on.
2) Finding an existing kitchen is a whole lot easier than building your own. Your best bet is looking for a location that’s empty and has a kitchen. Buying an existing restaurant can be dicey. You risk overpaying for the clientele the owner has recently put on the books, and you could inherit some employee nightmares, who may in their hearts feel they outrank you.
3) Do not pay rental or mortgage on a place until you have your equipment. Rent a garage if you don’t have room. If you check out auction sites and local auctions you can pick up great deals, so while you’re planing your restaurant start buying your equipment. It will save you thousands, many thousands of dollars. Trust me on this. If you don’t know what to look for you probably shouldn’t be opening a restaurant, but if you’re determined ask at some of your favorite restaurants if you can see their kitchens. Tell them you’re thinking of opening a restaurant ask them if they have any advice, other than not doing it.
4) If you’ve got to do a lot of plumbing to do, find a place with a basement or a crawl space, because indirect drains run above the floor suck and breaking concrete costs a fortune. Make sure about the grease trap regulations before you rent any space and make sure you can put in what you need and it’s not going to break the bank to do it.
5) Make friends with your health and building inspectors before you lift a paint brush. Health codes vary, you might be some where that requires a certain paint on the wall, at least a certain type.
6) Be prepared to work 80 plus hours a week. Let’s face it the only thing worst than food costs are employee costs. You need to be taking up the slack of whatever employee duty you can. Cooking, hosting, cleaning, whatever. If you leave it all to some high cost manager, you’ve more than tripled your chances that you’re going to fail.
7) Check out the local economy of the area you want to open your restaurant. Can you make your menu for what your competition is making theirs? If not is your menu really good enough to make people used to paying one price for dinner to pay yours?
8) Watch every restaurant show on TV. Get all of Gordon Ramsey’s stuff. If you are opening a restaurant this is must watch TV. The regular cooking shows won’t help you as much, because you’ll find a lot of those recipes won’t translate to a restaurant environment, but if you’ve got time, Knock yourself out. You should not be watching anything other than food, sources, trends, sauces, and things with fins.
9) Avoid hiring friends. If a friend tells you he can do something you’ve never seen or heard of him doing before, he can’t do it. Firing a friend is really hard, because that’s what you end up doing, firing a friend. One well meaning friend can bring your restaurant down and you into bankruptcy. Speaking of which.
10) Form a Limited Liability Corporation and protect your home assets, this applies to both failure and lawsuits. Own everything and lease it to the LLC.
11) Nail your menu. Rent a commercial kitchen, get permission to do a cooking demonstration at a busy location. Let people try your dishes and tell them about portions and sides and the price and see if they think that’s something they would be happy with.
12) Don’t announce to soon. Local papers and media outlets aren’t going to give you but so much press. Don’t use it up before your doors are actually open.
13) Budget your monthly expenses as an open restaurant including food, employees, rent, utilities, insurance, the unexpected, then multiply that by 18 and if you have that much money in the bank the day you open, you have a very good chance of being successful if you have paid attention to all my other advise.
14) If you’ve never worked in a restaurant kitchen, and I mean in the kitchen not waiting tables, then go get yourself a job in a kitchen, even if it’s washing dishes. Watch what’s going on. That experience will probably let you know if you really want to own a restaurant or not.
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