Friday, March 24, 2017
Today's Specials:
MARKETING: 6 Reasons Your Sports Bar Social Media Sucks
If your sports bar social media platforms are ghost towns, guess what? It's your fault. Learn how to improve your restaurant's social media marketing.
BUSINESS: When Did Cash Lose Its Crown in Restaurants?
Once we received an inquiry from a Citizen of the Rail that raised a fascinating question: "What happened to cash as a method of tender in my restaurants?"
DID YOU KNOWS…
Which Industry Has the Most Immigrant Workers?
Take a guess. Then see if you’re right.
Cat Deely Stiffs Tip on $200 Tab
Cat Deely is famous for being the host of So You Think You Can Dance, but apparently, she can’t give her servers a tip. She stiffed staff a tip on a $200 bill of which $123 was comped for screwing up. The server claims the manager went above & beyond the normal call of duty to appease Cat.
Girl Scouts Make Cookie Bet with SF Pot Dispensary
The Girl Scouts know an untapped market when it sees one. Some local SF Girl Scouts made a bet with a local marijuana dispensary. The Girl Scouts have challenged the Apothecarium to convince as many of their customers to donate to the Girl Scouts.
TIRED OF HANDOUT REQUESTS? YOU AREN’T ALONE
Why it matters to you: How to respond to charity requests.
Do you often receive requests for charitable donations? Well, you’re not alone. Restaurant PR person Angel Postell wrote a thoughtful plea to non-profits begging them to stop seeking charitable donations from restaurants. The advice is great, calling out organizations for trying stale methods to try and sell tickets.
While donating gift certificates to a cause you care about is admirable, acquiescing to every request for a chef’s time or services is a sure-fire way to go out of business. We couldn’t agree with Postell’s post more. Restaurants need to take care of themselves and their staff first.
RESTAURANTS & MUSIC
Why it matters to you: many of the challenges we face are dealt with in other industries.
The service industry resembles challenges faced in many related industries. A recent Eater article discusses how a restaurateur Ken Friedman frequently used his experiences in music to describe certain aspects of being a restaurateur. “Bob Dylan makes an album that he wants to make, not an album that he thinks will sound good on the radio,” Friedman says. “And the same with painters, and poets, and chefs, I think, too, and restaurateurs.”
Passion and creativity stem from the same aspects of both industries. The very best songs, as well as restaurant concepts, are made by the artist for the artist which is a major similarity. The same goes for learning from past successes and adjusting course along the way. Both industries thrive from originality and uniqueness while maintaining a common goal of pleasing the audience.
LET’S DO SOME DAY DRINKING [Song]
Why it matters to you: Should you be selling booze in the morning?
We sometimes forget the rent we pay is for 24 hours a day. If you are struggling to make lunch work, especially on the weekends, you might want to consider how brunch can help. Take Burtons Grill of North Andover Massachusetts; their brunch service was doing three times the volume that their other 11 units traditional lunch service on the weekends. The switch just made sense, but they did so gradually. The good news is that not only is brunch popular, it’s also populated by high margin items that have visual appeal.
Add to the culinary cost and culture improvement, but you can also fill your bar on a late morning, early afternoon weekend, where you might have been lonely all day. It’s also an opportunity to highlight beverages that match well with the brunch atmosphere. Whether it’s a Bellini or a craft beer, brunch presents a unique opportunity to both transform your weekend bar traffic part, but also fill stools with engaged and happy guests. Who doesn’t want an excuse to day drink?
