Know Your Venue – Know Your Market

Posted by paul.letendre in Food, Management, Marketing & Trends, Restaurants, Tips & Guides

Dine Out – Eat Out

I was at a drive through this morning ordering coffee when the speaker on the order-taking end suggested that I try one of their deluxe stuffed cinnamon low-fat rolls with prosciutto and bologna …or whatever.  This is the norm at this donut chain, –which is why I try to avoid the place.  I don’t want to be upsold when I am just trying to get a morning coffee.  I don’t need the same scripted good morning welcome to xx donut shack, may I suggest…NO, NO, NO, I just want a frigg’n coffee.

This reminds me of sales training 101 in the early 80’s where we were taught to say, “Don’t you agree with me Mister Customer that…,” and to smile and nod while saying this.  When somebody says those words to you; watch out, -you are about to get screwed.  

Customers often will decide whether to dine out or eat out.  Your customer thinks of you as being in either one or the other category.  Their perception of you will determine their expectations.  Obviously the fast food joints are not dining out experiences; they are places to grab a bite, maybe choose to eat in the car for the extra ambiance.  Casual restaurants can be either, they can be seen by some as a dine out experience and others as an eat out experience.  If you have more than one television screen in the restaurant, you are definitely an eat out place.

When I go to a very nice (dine out) restaurant and I am wine-ing and dining my spouse or business associates, I expect to be able to relax, have a drink, study the menu, and then hear about whatever else the chef has concocted.  Although these menu additions might actually be an upsell, I expect it to be more of an information session on the chef’s latest creative excursion with some seasonally strong products.  I don’t feel like I’m being upsold, I feel like I’m learning. 

Some casual (eat-out) places have gone overboard with the upsells; their scripted smiley people describe frozen mozzarella sticks like they are delicacies.  Most of their specials are transparent; they are left-overs that they are trying to move before having to dump them in the trash.  Yes, more often than not, I feel like I’m being accosted when being upsold. 

Know your venue, know your market, and act appropriately.  Leave all of that glitzy marketing stuff to the chains; eventually those tactics will drive business back to you.  Train your people to treat your customer like you would like to be treated.  That’s not asking a lot. 

You know all of this stuff, but sometimes you see the other guy doing it and they might be driving a nicer car, so you might think it is a good idea.  It’s not.  So smile, be nice to your help, be nice to your customers, and go back in the kitchen and cook some more frigg’n peas. 

Life is always interesting, if you make mistakes.  – Georges Carpentier

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Labor Day – Important Matter

Posted by paul.letendre in Management, Restaurants, Tips & Guides

Labor Day

In our industry, Labor Day, more so than any other day of the year, traditionally signals the end of one period, start of the next.  It’s a time of change.  Urban areas are gearing up; seasonal areas are gearing down. Seasonals are getting ready to wrap up the year: probably working short-handed for a few more weeks, with very slow weekdays and crazy busy weekends, -“weather permitting.”

It’s as good a time as any to revitalize the most important part of any business.  This is not the equipment that needs tending to, nor is it the financials which might have been on auto-pilot for the summer.  Yes, this is even more important than your customers, for without it, there will   be no customers.  It’s more important than the key workers that help run the business.

Tired? Burnt Out? Overwhelmed? 4 Simple Ways to Increase Your Effectiveness

Posted by admin in Tips & Guides

“Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what they had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment”? – Nelson Mandela

In these days employees and job seekers must be effective in order to survive. If you feel tired, burnt out or overwhelmed, take a minute to read this post to focus on simple ways to boost your effectiveness and increase your productivity.

Costing Out Soda & Free Refills in Foodservice – How to Price Soda

Posted by admin in Tips & Guides

A traditional box of syrup or B I B (bag in the box) holds 5 gallons of syrup. Let’s say a five gallon BIB of your favorite Cola costs $50. The ratio of syrup to water is 5 to 1, meaning for every gallon of syrup served, 5 gallons of water is also used. In other words if you serve an entire BIB to Foodservice customers you have served 5 gallons of syrup + 25 gallons of water for a grand total of 30 gallons of product. As we know, there are 128 oz in a gallon. Therefore, 128 oz x 30 gallons yields 3,840 oz of product. To take this one step further, I am accustomed to getting around an 98.5% yield out of each BIB. Because I pay for 100% but only use 98.5%, my costs increase concurrently. To figure out the real usable product we will take 3,840 oz x 98.5% and the true amount of product to be sold is now = 3,782.4 oz.

To figure our soda cost we will need to uncover the $ cost per ounce and apply that to the soda sizes you offer. We will use a 20 oz beverage for this calculation. Knowing we get 3,782.4 oz out of a 5 gallon BIB we will divide into this quantity of 3,782.4 oz into our $50 BIB cost. Therefore, $50 / 3782.4 = .0132 This tells us that each oz of served product costs us $0.0132.

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World’s Best Cities To Eat Well

Posted by admin in Tips & Guides

Paris is known for its patisseries, Michelin-starred restaurants and perfectly prepared steak frites. In Rome, square slices of pizza topped with zucchini, Caprese sandwiches and of course, gelato, tempt foodies. In Tokyo, upscale favorites like sashimi and robatayaki rule alongside street food mainstays like Gyudon, a beef and onion mixture served over rice. Read More »