TECH: 6 POS Features that Improve the Guest Experience
As a restaurant owner or operator, guest satisfaction should be your number one priority. A modern POS system is an excellent solution to fill any gaps in your business’s customer service. Devote enough time to finding the right system with all the features your restaurant needs, and your business will reap the benefits. Let’s get started!
DID YOU KNOWS…
Oktoberfest Attendees Try to Steal 100,000 Mugs
I mean… not at once. But throughout the course of 2019 Oktoberfest in Munich, guests tried stealing about 100,000 mugs over a 16-day stretch. This is actually lower than 2018 where 101,000 guests attempted to steal mugs as a souvenir. The number of recorded alcohol poisonings, pickpockets and liters of beer consumed were also down this year.
20 Companies Produce a Third of Global CO2 Emissions
An investigation by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute and covered by The Guardian has found that 20 fossil fuel companies can be directly linked to more than a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. Between 1965 and 2017, those 20 companies contributed to 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide and methane worldwide, totaling 480 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Space Beef!
Aleph Farms announced this week that it had successfully grown a small piece of meat on the International Space Station. The process included duplicating a cow’s natural muscle tissue-regeneration process in a lab and then combined with growth factors and other materials on ISS before being “printed” with a special 3D bioprinter. A great step forward for cultured meats.
THAT’S A BAD IDEA
Why it matters to you: A restaurant with an open bar program…what could go wrong?
Innovators in our industry have tried for years to shift the paradigm on alcohol service to deliver guests the experience they want while maintaining their profitability. Great ideas, like tableside bottle service and buckets of beer, have been born of these innovations and became trends pretty quickly. So, when Open Concept premiered in St. Louis this past Friday promising open bar with an hourly rate, we were naturally intrigued. The bar boasts a $10/hour price point for house pours and $20 for top shelf liquor with a variety of mixologies. Unfortunately, their variety doesn’t extend to beer or wine, with Bud Light topping one side and Franzia box wines on the other.
The bar claims to be able to avoid overserving by asking guests their height and weight to engage a calculation on what is appropriate for you to consume. They have other systems in place to ensure you can’t arrive, drink for one intense hour and stumble out to your next “per drink” bar destination. All that being said, this just sounds like a gimmick. Sure, we all understand an open bar. Who hasn’t enjoyed them at weddings and sponsored events? But this is asking for trouble. Besides it sounds more like a Spring Break promotion from Panama City than a serious strategy to build a business. But hey, if you think it will work in your operation, give it a shot and please let us know how it turns out.
[Source: Vice]
NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS AFTER 1AM
Why it matters to you: Be careful letting staff drink after your bar is closed.
Eater Young Gun Jayce McConnell recounted a story from his beginnings as a bar manager by telling the story of his first f’up as a bar manager. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: He had closed the bar and a few staff members were hanging around after hours drinking, smoking, and listening to music. Those of us that have worked a 15 Saturday know just how reflexive it is to want a drink and to decompress after a long-ass day. According to McConnell, he always locked the door -- until this one night when he didn’t. Of course, you know what happened next, a cop walks in and tells them they are all busted for drinking after hours. The cop issued McConnell a $660 ticket and which McConnell was convinced wasn’t worse than him likely being fired the next day.
Turns out the operators of McConnell’s restaurant understood our business better than the cop did and was forgiving and empathetic, so no major consequences for a fairly normal practice in our industry. That being said, McConnell made the observation that nothing good happens after 1AM and we think he’s dead on. As an owner/operator, you are responsible for what happens at your restaurant regardless of your presence there.
So, if your staff take it upon themselves to have a little party with your inventory and under your licensing, then you are fully exposed with no defense if something happens. Just ask Tiger Woods. Heaven forbid a staff member gets intoxicated and has an accident on the road or someone while drunk assaults another staff member. Isn’t it safer to send your team home when they’ve finished a long day or at least limit them to one shift drink and then send them home? Either way, whatever happens at your bar after hours isn’t likely to stay in your bar.
[Source: Eater]
