Thursday, February 9, 2017
Today's Specials:
VIDEO: How Does Valentine's Day Affect Restaurants? [Under 60 Seconds]
If so many people will be heading to restaurants for dinner, then restaurants should be making much more than a regular night, right? Well, we're going to show you what impact the infamous love-filled holiday will do to your restaurant in under 60 seconds.
STAFF: 4 Reasons Why You Need Staff Feedback
Restaurants concentrate so hard on pleasing the guest (and rightfully so), they often sometimes forget to get important feedback from their own staff.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Donkey Riding
A woman is suing a Mexican restaurant after she fell off their donkey statue. The woman claims she broke her back and is suing the restaurant for negligence. She claims the restaurant encourages guests to climb the statue without safety measures. The restaurant has replied with “Just because you are an a*s doesn’t mean you should be treated like one!”
Best Beer & Girl Scout Cookie Pairings
Your waistline might’ve noticed, but it’s Girl Scout Cookie season! But why drink some wholesome milk with it when you can pair your cookies with some great craft beer? That’s what River Horse Brewing Company is doing and we’re giving it thumbs up!
Chicken Fried Pizza is Apparently a Thing
Leave it to KFC to come up with this, but they’ve unleashed KFC Chizza, a fried chicken pizza crust. It’s… a thing. Check it out.
THESE BENNEFITS DON’T BYTE
Why it matters to you: create a sustainable career path for your team.
We are all aware of the struggles of working in a restaurant; low pay, long hours, no benefits etc. Well, two head chefs in Minneapolis had a vision where working in a restaurant was more of a “sustainable career path” for adults, so they created one! While both chefs say that they loved their job, and initially didn’t mind working 75-hour work weeks, as they got older, they had trouble envisioning a future. They’re new restaurant Byte, opens March 1 and will offer employees a 40-hour work week, $15 hourly to start (and overtime beyond 40 hours), full health benefits, and paid time off.
In exchange for the generous employee package, they do acknowledge that they need to cut back on other expenses such as table service and a few farm-to-table ingredients. One owner Mark Lowman quotes, “the restaurant kitchen industry is an outdated system... built on machismo and how hard you can work, which just feeds ownership and the corporate structure and allows them to pay you less. Well, you’re working with a new generation of people, and that’s not good enough anymore.”
STAFFING THE BEST
Why it matters to you: The right GM/KM/Chef is a key component for success in our industry
When building a management team, it’s imperative that you consider how the each person will mix with the others on your team and your concept. Not all restaurant are created the same with a wide variety of experience, backgrounds, and skills. If you are tasked with assembling a team, it is incumbent upon you to consider how each player fits into your overall business model. For example, a great KM in a high volume midscale restaurant might not be the right person for a mid-volume upscale operation.
Therefore as you recruit you should take the time to describe your ideal candidate and review it with your other managers, partners, and even your staff. By creating an ideal ‘persona’ you have a guide to searching for that perfect match. That doesn’t mean the ideal candidate will cover 100% of the persona, but by prioritizing the qualities or experience you value you can filter more efficiently. Additionally, you have to be ready to admit your mistakes and move on if it’s not working. Nothing can become toxic to your business more quickly than an unhappy or out of place manager. Remember, it’s your business and only you can decide what is best for it.
JOIN THE LIST OF ECO-CONSCIOUS
Why it matters to you: restaurants are a growing form of environmental sustainability.
Restaurants have become a gray area in terms of sustainability practices. Good Food 100 is here to change that using a customer generated list of restaurants so guests can understand how each establishment rank among their sustainability-minded competitors. The Good Food 100 consists of restaurants that have voluntarily participated in a survey about their sustainable practices in the kitchen.
The survey to be featured on the Good Food 100 list is not meant for shaming or calling out restaurants but more to inspire establishments to share their data for an industry study. The purpose behind the list is to encourage restaurant operators to offer an opportunity to give back and become more economically conscious in terms of their eco-friendly guests.
