MENU: Tips for Building Your Restaurant's Late-Night Menu
Building your restaurant’s late-night menu is a great way to boost business, especially if it’s an untapped market in your area. Here are tips for scaling your restaurant’s menu for your late-nightlife guest, staffing your restaurant shift properly, and marketing your new menu work seamlessly.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Off-Premises Orders Reach 60%
Off-premise orders continue to eat away at restaurant’s overall sales, now making up nearly 60% of foodservice occasions, according to a new National Restaurant Association survey. This includes drive-thru, takeout, and delivery because “consumer lifestyles are continuously driven by the convenience and speed of online and app-based ordering in other industries.”
The World’s Most Competitive Tax Systems
A well-structured corporate tax rate is important in promoting economic development, boosting government revenue and it ultimately plays an important role in determining overall economic performance. The International Tax Competitiveness Index sought to measure the extent to which a country's tax system adheres to two important aspects of tax policy - competitiveness and neutrality -- across more than 40 tax policy variables. Estonia had the top score for the sixth year running while the U.S. came in 21st.
How States Fall on Workplace Protection
Twenty-one states prohibit discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. Public employees have a slightly better chance of being protected under the law: four states cover discrimination based on sexual orientation, while another eight states have legal protections that address both sexual orientation and gender identity. Over half of the states in the United States, and the LGBTQ people living in them, are unprotected by the legal system.
A BIG LOSS
Why it matters to you: Use policy to improve security.
Of all the responsibilities heaped onto a restaurant manager loss prevention is among the most frustrating. It seems like everyone is stealing from you, from vendors to staff to guests. But it’s the latter that is by far the most vexing. With staff theft, you can simply eradicate the individual. With vendors that are dishonest, you simply switch the vendor. But with guests that want to eat and run, the problems can be myriad, and the solutions complicated. Do you demand a credit card before taking an order? Do you hover over them whilst they dine? And who is complicit in this loss? What role do your servers and bartenders you employ have in protecting you from these instances of dine & dash?
The law is clear about one point, you cannot force your staff to cover the cost of a check ditched by a guest. You can however enforce discipline if the person has more than one experience of a guest not settling their check. You must have a published and clear policy of which the employee is formally made aware. Then you have to document it, so the staffer acknowledges the issue. This will allow you to address more quickly and efficiently, if the person has a second incident. By making clear there are consequences for not monitoring your station and closing out all your checks, you can go a long way to ensuring your team is paying due attention to their guests.
[Source: FSR Magazine]
THERE’S A TARIFF FOR THAT
Why it matters to you: More tariffs drop next week and it’s for loads of stuff restaurants buy.
As soon as October 18, another round of tariffs are set for implementation, this time on European food and spirits items that are important components of your menu. The 25% tax on imports from Europe include cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano and single malt Scotch and European whiskey. For example, if you are an Irish Pub that pours your fair share of Jameson’s or Tullamore Dew then your base price will jump by 25% if your vendors just pass along the tax increase. While you can’t change the tariff’s impact, you can manage it in advance to mitigate the disruption it causes.
Start by stocking up. Many of the items on your menu that come from Europe have long shelf lives, so purchase a larger stock of the whiskeys you serve to push the tariff impact off. Some cheeses can also be stored safely for long periods as well, like olive oil and Spanish olives. Your other action can be to make transparent the increases so guests can fully appreciate why prices have increased. Guests read the news and know that these tariffs are causing price increases across many industries. Consequently, they won’t be particularly surprised when it hits their Balvenie or increases the price of their Fettucini Alfredo.
[Source: Eater]
