RESTAURANT MEMES: How-To Quit, Smooth Yoda, Cooking Steak, and More!
Monday! Monday! Monday! This week’s crop of restaurant memes illuminates just how funny salad can be, Hoodsies, getting old, how to save on meals, the rush of the rail, and more! Share ‘em with your staff for some commiseration or with your followers online for some fun social fodder for the week.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Vermont Joins America's Marijuana Club
At the beginning of July, Vermont became the ninth U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana and adults are permitted to possess up to 1 ounce of the drug as well as two mature and four immature plants. Vermont joins other states including California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada where votes were passed to green light recreational marijuana in late 2016. And, amazingly, Democrats, Republicans and Independents all favor it being regulated at the state level.
Complete Intro to French Wines [Map & Infographic]
We love maps and infographics like this as they’re great little tidbits for your staff to know and facts to share with your guests on social media, on your digital signage or even on your menus. This map/infographic from VinePair details out the French wine regions, the most popular grapes, French wine classification and more. Enjoy!
Looking for a New Side/App?
Americans love their French fries and ketchup. In fact, Americans eat about 71lbs of ketchup per year. And while we use fries as a vehicle for our ketchup addictionconsumption, we’re missing out on a really other good pairing – ketchup chips. If you’ve had it before, you know it’s amazing, and serving freshly made potato chips & ketchup could be a fun and “new” side or app for your restaurant.
FOCUS ON YOUR TEAM
Why it matters to you: Chipotle’s focus on their in-store team is paying off and we should all take some notes.
Behind every great, high-functioning restaurant is an amazing team of well-trained employees. Accountability is key and the first building block of a great team. If each team member knows what they are accountable for everything will run much smoother. Clarity of one’s role within a team will always lead to a much higher success rate and far fewer speedbumps down the line. You know how it goes: someone slows down or screws up during a busy shift and it sends a hiccup down the entire line and before everyone knows it -- *cue spooky music*-- the weeds… If your team knows their roles and are comfortable, there is a far lower chance of turnover as well. Doing one’s job well will lead to a higher satisfaction rate overall and you can multiply that if everyone around them does as well.
Chipotle has also introduced a great employee tool aimed at easing shift swapping and providing flexibility to staff. Employees can see and swap their schedules remotely through an app on their phones, making for an easier and more satisfactory work environment. Imagine one of your staff wants to call out to go to a concert and they can do so right on their phone without having to put the burden of replacement coverage on managers? Awesome. This mobile tool really empowers your employees to self-manage, feel a greater sense of responsibility, schedule flexibility, and empathize with one another on a much deeper level than ever before.
[Source: Skift]
IT’S AN AVOCADOOOOOO [CLIP]
Why it matters to you: Avocado has been a thing for some time, but it is trending again.
The avocado craze is back with a vengeance that only Millennials can tame! Recently a non-dairy avocado-based ice cream hit shelves at Whole Foods, an avocado Frappuccino is selling faster than anyone would have imagined at Starbucks, and avocado toast is still the brunch powerhouse. Avocados really just won’t go away! We believe this once-“fad” has proven that it isn’t going anywhere and we should all be including it on our menus in one form or another.
Avocados are such a versatile fruit it should be relatively easy to incorporate it in one form or another. We like the novel idea of the avocado ice cream for a dessert or frozen drink. Finding ways of having it compliment your existing menu would be ideal but not necessary. It also could be a great non-dairy option for our lactose intolerant or vegan friends. For those with strong brunch-to-lunch crowds, avocado toast or avocado chicken salad sandwiches are a guaranteed hit, plus we doubt anyone in your area has that sandwich on their menu yet. Bottom line is you can do almost anything with avocados; time to take advantage within your establishment.
[Source: Spoon University]
