Archive for October, 2005

Zagat Releases 2006 America’s Top Restaurants Survey

Covering 1,352 Eateries in 41 Cities as Americans Dine Out and Spend More; East Coast Diners are the Best Tippers, Despite Myriad Complaints About Service; Japanese Net Highest Food Ratings in Nearly All Cities, While Chinese Tread Water

Zagat Survey released its 2006 America’s Top Restaurants guide. The book covers 1,352 eateries in 41 cities nationwide, surveyed by over 115,000 avid restaurant-goers. In addition to rating and reviewing the most significant eateries in each city, the Survey includes a great variety of comparative data regarding meal costs, tipping, favorite cuisines, customer complaints, frequency of dining out and much more. It also points to a variety of national dining trends and issues.

“Its an eater’s market out there,” Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey said in announcing the guide’s results. “The number of really good restaurants in every city has soared over the last few years while meal prices have remained relatively consistent.

“Facts and Figures: When comparing various U.S. cities, there are some surprising findings this year. For example when it comes to average Food Ratings, San Francisco (21.50 on Zagat Survey’s trademark 30 point scale), Las Vegas (21.10) and Miami (21.01) lead the pack. And there is nation-wide good news too: food ratings are at their highest point ever, after inching up in city after city for the past ten years.

Food vs. Service: Unfortunately, Service Ratings lag behind food ratings everywhere by almost two points on the Zagat scale. When asked what irritates them the most about eating out, there was a great deal of consistency in diners’ responses — “poor service” led the way in every city. Nationally, 72% of complaints focused on service. The remaining 28% of complaints were about Noise/Crowds (11%), Food (5%), Prices (4%), Traffic/Parking (4%), and Other (4%). “Year after year, our surveys show that service is the weak link in the restaurant industry,” added Mr. Zagat.

Dollars and Cents: On the whole, meals this year are 3% more expensive than they were a year ago. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that New York is the most costly restaurant city in the nation. With an average meal tab of $37.61, New York restaurants cost at least 50% more than those in Atlanta ($24.72) or Seattle ($25.56). In fact, New York exceeds the national average ($32.60) by 15%. However, when compared to foreign cities such as Tokyo ($70.64), London ($67.69) and Paris ($62.97), New York’s restaurants are a bargain.

Tipping: On the question of tipping, the results present a clear contrast between residents of the East and West Coasts. Restaurant-goers in Philadelphia (19.2%), Atlanta (19.1%) and Boston (18.9%) are the nation’s most generous tippers, while diners in Seattle (18%), Los Angeles and San Francisco (both at 18.3) turn out to be the worst. Nationwide, the average tip has been going up over the last several years from 18% in 2000 to 18.7% today.

Dining Out: By comparison, the frequency with which surveyors dine out or take out does not reflect competition between the two coasts, but rather a clear distinction between the two coasts and the center of the country. So, whereas residents of New York and Los Angeles are among the national leaders (with 60% and 55% of meals coming from outside the home, respectively), Phoenix (50%) and St. Louis (47%) trail well behind. The national average has reached 53% and is continuing to grow.

Changing Palates: Another trend signaled by the guide is the continuing movement of the American palate away from rich, elaborate preparations toward the simple natural flavors of fresh local produce. As a result, the mark of an acclaimed chef today is no longer the formal French recipe (note the recent closings of such formal French bastions as Maison Robert in Boston, Maisonette in Cincinnati and Le Cirque, La Cote Basque and Lutece in New York), but rather the ability to incorporate the freshest possible produce, meats and seafood from the best local suppliers — like Union Square Cafe in New York, the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Mistral in Seattle, L’Espalier in Boston, Green Zebra in Chicago, and Chef Allen’s in Miami.

Dressing Down and Up: While informality has become the mode when it comes to customer attire (hardly any top restaurants require a jacket and tie anymore), restaurants themselves are becoming more and more stylish everyday. High-profile chefs are requiring high-style settings and designers like Frank Gehry, Richard Meier (New York’s 66), Todd Oldham (Miami’s Wish) and David Rockwell (New York’s Nobu) are creating more and more memorable restaurant spaces. With hoteliers, real estate moguls and casino operators subsidizing million dollar restaurant build-outs, it’s no surprise that chefs are dressing up their dining rooms.

Japanese vs. Chinese: Among the key trends this year is the rise of Japanese food, which clearly isn’t just for Californians anymore. In fact, sushi restaurants lead the Top Food and/or Most Popular lists in Boston (Oishii), Charlotte (Niko), Chicago (Mirai Sushi), Dallas (Tepo), Denver (Sushi Den), Las Vegas (Nobu), Long Island (Kotobuki), Los Angeles (Matsuhisa and Katsu-ya), Miami (Matsuri), New York (Sushi Yasuda), Portland (Saburo’s), San Diego (Sushi Ota), San Francisco (Sushi Ran), Seattle (Nishino) and Washington D.C. (Makoto), among others. On the other hand, fine Chinese dining, once the leading Asian cuisine in the U.S., seems to have stalled, with not even one Chinese restaurant reaching the Top Food Rankings.

New Orleans: Zagat surveyors hold a special place in their hearts for New Orleans. The new guide addresses the city’s future hopes head on, saying “Our hearts and minds have also been with New Orleans, which at press time is just starting to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Nevertheless, we have included the Crescent City section here, in the hope and faith that one of America’s richest restaurant capitals will rise again.

“The Book: The 2006 America’s Top Restaurants guide ($14.95) was edited by Troy Segal and is available at bookstores, via http://www.zagat.com/ or by calling 888/371-5440.

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Zagat Releases 2006 America’s Top Restaurants Survey

Covering 1,352 Eateries in 41 Cities as Americans Dine Out and Spend More; East Coast Diners are the Best Tippers, Despite Myriad Complaints About Service; Japanese Net Highest Food Ratings in Nearly All Cities, While Chinese Tread Water

Zagat Survey released its 2006 America’s Top Restaurants guide. The book covers 1,352 eateries in 41 cities nationwide, surveyed by over 115,000 avid restaurant-goers. In addition to rating and reviewing the most significant eateries in each city, the Survey includes a great variety of comparative data regarding meal costs, tipping, favorite cuisines, customer complaints, frequency of dining out and much more. It also points to a variety of national dining trends and issues.

“Its an eater’s market out there,” Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey said in announcing the guide’s results. “The number of really good restaurants in every city has soared over the last few years while meal prices have remained relatively consistent.

“Facts and Figures: When comparing various U.S. cities, there are some surprising findings this year. For example when it comes to average Food Ratings, San Francisco (21.50 on Zagat Survey’s trademark 30 point scale), Las Vegas (21.10) and Miami (21.01) lead the pack. And there is nation-wide good news too: food ratings are at their highest point ever, after inching up in city after city for the past ten years.

Food vs. Service: Unfortunately, Service Ratings lag behind food ratings everywhere by almost two points on the Zagat scale. When asked what irritates them the most about eating out, there was a great deal of consistency in diners’ responses — “poor service” led the way in every city. Nationally, 72% of complaints focused on service. The remaining 28% of complaints were about Noise/Crowds (11%), Food (5%), Prices (4%), Traffic/Parking (4%), and Other (4%). “Year after year, our surveys show that service is the weak link in the restaurant industry,” added Mr. Zagat.

Dollars and Cents: On the whole, meals this year are 3% more expensive than they were a year ago. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that New York is the most costly restaurant city in the nation. With an average meal tab of $37.61, New York restaurants cost at least 50% more than those in Atlanta ($24.72) or Seattle ($25.56). In fact, New York exceeds the national average ($32.60) by 15%. However, when compared to foreign cities such as Tokyo ($70.64), London ($67.69) and Paris ($62.97), New York’s restaurants are a bargain.

Tipping: On the question of tipping, the results present a clear contrast between residents of the East and West Coasts. Restaurant-goers in Philadelphia (19.2%), Atlanta (19.1%) and Boston (18.9%) are the nation’s most generous tippers, while diners in Seattle (18%), Los Angeles and San Francisco (both at 18.3) turn out to be the worst. Nationwide, the average tip has been going up over the last several years from 18% in 2000 to 18.7% today.

Dining Out: By comparison, the frequency with which surveyors dine out or take out does not reflect competition between the two coasts, but rather a clear distinction between the two coasts and the center of the country. So, whereas residents of New York and Los Angeles are among the national leaders (with 60% and 55% of meals coming from outside the home, respectively), Phoenix (50%) and St. Louis (47%) trail well behind. The national average has reached 53% and is continuing to grow.

Changing Palates: Another trend signaled by the guide is the continuing movement of the American palate away from rich, elaborate preparations toward the simple natural flavors of fresh local produce. As a result, the mark of an acclaimed chef today is no longer the formal French recipe (note the recent closings of such formal French bastions as Maison Robert in Boston, Maisonette in Cincinnati and Le Cirque, La Cote Basque and Lutece in New York), but rather the ability to incorporate the freshest possible produce, meats and seafood from the best local suppliers — like Union Square Cafe in New York, the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Mistral in Seattle, L’Espalier in Boston, Green Zebra in Chicago, and Chef Allen’s in Miami.

Dressing Down and Up: While informality has become the mode when it comes to customer attire (hardly any top restaurants require a jacket and tie anymore), restaurants themselves are becoming more and more stylish everyday. High-profile chefs are requiring high-style settings and designers like Frank Gehry, Richard Meier (New York’s 66), Todd Oldham (Miami’s Wish) and David Rockwell (New York’s Nobu) are creating more and more memorable restaurant spaces. With hoteliers, real estate moguls and casino operators subsidizing million dollar restaurant build-outs, it’s no surprise that chefs are dressing up their dining rooms.

Japanese vs. Chinese: Among the key trends this year is the rise of Japanese food, which clearly isn’t just for Californians anymore. In fact, sushi restaurants lead the Top Food and/or Most Popular lists in Boston (Oishii), Charlotte (Niko), Chicago (Mirai Sushi), Dallas (Tepo), Denver (Sushi Den), Las Vegas (Nobu), Long Island (Kotobuki), Los Angeles (Matsuhisa and Katsu-ya), Miami (Matsuri), New York (Sushi Yasuda), Portland (Saburo’s), San Diego (Sushi Ota), San Francisco (Sushi Ran), Seattle (Nishino) and Washington D.C. (Makoto), among others. On the other hand, fine Chinese dining, once the leading Asian cuisine in the U.S., seems to have stalled, with not even one Chinese restaurant reaching the Top Food Rankings.

New Orleans: Zagat surveyors hold a special place in their hearts for New Orleans. The new guide addresses the city’s future hopes head on, saying “Our hearts and minds have also been with New Orleans, which at press time is just starting to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Nevertheless, we have included the Crescent City section here, in the hope and faith that one of America’s richest restaurant capitals will rise again.

“The Book: The 2006 America’s Top Restaurants guide ($14.95) was edited by Troy Segal and is available at bookstores, via http://www.zagat.com/ or by calling 888/371-5440.

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Businesses face perfect storm over talent, skills and older workers

Productivity. Recruitment. Retention.

Impending baby boomer retirements, a widening skills gap and outdated approaches to hiring and retaining talented workers are combining to produce a “perfect storm” that threatens long-term business performance, a study has suggested.
The global survey of 1,396 HR professionals by the Irish arm of consultancy Deloitte found nearly seven out of 10 felt attracting new talent was the greatest threat to their competitiveness.
This was followed by the inability to retain key talent (66 per cent) and incoming workers having inadequate skills (34 per cent).
“Deloitte’s new research points to an inescapable conclusion: the widening skills gap is a global phenomenon, particularly among the categories of key workers who disproportionately drive an organisation’s performance,” said Deloitte partner Cormac Hughes.
“This trend will leave behind companies that do not begin to rethink their approach to talent management,” he added.
Ireland’s economy is currently operating close to full employment, meaning that talent shortages are not only a concern for the HR departments in Irish businesses but are also a top priority for senior management as a whole, said Hughes.
Organisations were offering money, perks and new challenges in order to attract and retain staff.
But such knee-jerk measures were often ineffective because there was inadequate medium and long term resource planning, he added.
“Rather than fight a futile ‘war for talent’, business leaders should ‘build talent’ by looking within their organisations for the critical skills, knowledge and attributes required to execute their company’s most important roles, while continuing to seek to attract the best people,” said Hughes.
“Irish companies can avoid sustaining a direct hit from the looming talent crisis by rethinking and reinventing their talent management processes into a well-designed talent strategy that drives productivity and differentiates a company from its competitors,” he added.
More than 70 per cent of those surveyed confirmed they were experiencing or expected to experience a shortage of white-collar workers.
Worryingly, just 13 per cent identified approaching baby boomer retirement as a concern, despite overwhelming evidence indicating a large exodus of experienced staff from the labour market in the next three-five years.
“Retirement legislation is under review in some countries but the current situation sees skilled workers continuing to leave their profession or trade around late middle age and too few people are joining the workforce to fill their place,” said Hughes.
“Governments are able to partially alleviate the depth of talent pools through policies on immigration, taxation and education but their impact is likely to be superficial in the face of global working population forecasts,” he added.
The survey found the level of significance accorded to recruitment and retention of able staff was consistent across every region surveyed, irrespective of the size of the organisation.
Almost half stated demographic changes and the impending skills shortage had been discussed at board level and most identified a clear link between talent management and business performance.
A total of 54 per cent believed talent management issues would have an impact on their overall organisational productivity and 40 per cent felt it affected the firm’s ability to innovate.
Three out of 10 acknowledged it would limit their ability to meet production requirements and fulfil customer demand.
“It is encouraging to see that so many organisations have discussed the impending skills shortage at board level,” concluded Hughes.
“Given the potential impact on business performance, it is essential that board-level commitment is gained to help drive rapid change to talent management strategies,” he added.
Author: Nic Paton

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Documentary Defends Fast-Food

2005-10-24

If fast food consumers were left feeling disturbed after seeing the documentary Super Size Me, then seeing the recently released Portion Size Me will might bring a sigh of relief .

On Oct. 22, 2005 at the Downtown Cantina in St. Louis James Painter previewed his Portion Size Me documentary to members of the media. The Eastern Illinois University (EIU) professor and chair of EIU’s School of Family and Consumer Sciences’s film demonstrates that even cheeseburgers and fries can be included in a healthy diet. The film follows two EIU students who eat nothing but fast food for a month and lose weight in the process.

Portion Size Me is showing at an EIU alumni gathering being held during the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference in St. Louis, October 22–25.

The documentary was filmed and produced by Pete Grant and Antoine Thomas from EIU’s Center for Academic Technology Support. The data on the subjects was analyzed by Karla Kennedy Hagan, assistant professor of nutrition in the EIU School of Family and Consumer Sciences.

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Where Dining Is Headed: Five Trends

Uncomplicated, Straight from the Garden & Sea, Inexpensive, Exploding with Flavor

Benchmark Hospitality International, which manages 28 award-winning hotels, resorts, and conference centers throughout the United States and in Asia, has announced Five Top Dining Trends for the Future, as observed by its properties.

Trend #1 Build Your Own Meal!

Today’s consumers are educated in the kitchen and discerning in the restaurant. This is sparking a hot new trend toward customer freedom while dining out — building their own entrées. Discriminating guests are getting involved with assembling and accenting their own entrée plate at restaurants, suggesting alternative side dishes and more. Forward-thinking chefs welcome this consumer involvement, offering a menu of suggested pairings, letting the customer decide what will best please the palate. And customers are loving it!

Trend #2 Excellent Cuisine for just $20

An excellent meal doesn’t have to cost a king’s ransom … or a month’s grocery budget! Restaurants and bars are taking giant leaps towards more affordable yet wonderfully creative menus, sometimes featuring lesser expensive cuts of meat exquisitely seasoned, prepared and accented. Top restaurants on both coasts are taking the lead and holding prices to around $20 per entrée, making up the difference in volume and creative cooking techniques. Brisket, clod steak, bottom round, duck - which is inexpensive but expressive, and seafood such as squid, bay scallops, clams and mussels are being featured at highly affordable prices.

Trend #3 Less Formal. A Lot More Fun.

Ever been to a tuna sandwich tasting … or had shots of clear soup varietals using seasonal ingredients? Believe it or not, this is a strong trend that may have its roots in classic caviar tastings when small samplings of Osetra, Sevruga and Beluga were commonplace at first-rate Russian restaurants, back in the day.Today, mini sandwiches featuring Albacore with seaweed salad, a miniature tuna burger and cured Ahi with cucumber relish can be a delicious and fun luncheon experience. Or shot glasses of potato leek soup, shiitake mushroom and consommé with simple croutons — a trio tasting - is becoming as popular as a cocktail service with martini varieties, Bloody Mary expressions and short whiskey tastings — all in threes and fours.The idea is variety to increase interest in flavors and make the dining experience fun, less formal.

Trend #4 Mundane “Snacks” Now Homemade & Fabulous

Homemade or “house made.” Authentic French Bistros, Italian Trattorias, German Bierhauses and American Pubs are all creating their own simple yet delicious “snacks” to help guests take the edge off while ordering and kicking back before dinner. Customers, having officially discarded their Atkins diets, are snatching these up and requesting more. Even mundane popcorn is now spiked with highly fragrant truffle oil, offering a gourmet flavor (yes, popcorn!); potato chips are given panache by adding roasted garlic and other stimulating seasonings; and common oyster crackers are transformed with fresh herbs like thyme, oregano and rosemary that truly elevate the snack to a high level of taste.

Trend #5 Fresh & Uncomplicated

The freshest ingredients are coupled with simple, uncomplicated preparations. This trend is so hot that many chefs have redesigned their kitchen, bringing it out to their guests. In these exhibition kitchens guests can select the freshest ingredients - in some cases straight from the chef’s own kitchen garden. With seafood, they select fresh from the daily catch: shrimp, clams, lobsters, whole eviscerated fish, and more. Hot cauldrons stand by simmering with herbs, citrus and mirepoix. The chef plunges requested ingredients into the flavorful Court Bouillon followed by the selected daily catch and then serves with seasoned drawn butters and plenty of lemons. A feast for the eyes and the body - fresh from the ocean, right out of the kitchen garden and onto the plate with no masked flavors or long production techniques.And One More … Zinfandel is Back!Today there’s a Zinfandel to go with just about every dish. Depending on the growing region and style of a particular winery, Zins can range from lighter, fruitier wines to some with wildly robust, lingering flavors. That’s the beauty of this grape. There’s a wine for everyone — Zinfandel Rosé, Zinfandel Port and a Sparkling White Zin that’s wonderfully refreshing. With more people willing to experiment today, Zinfandel is once again being considered to accompany seafood, steak, game — or dessert. Zinfandel Port, composed of fruit from four different vines, is an amazing accompaniment to chocolate selections, especially those with raspberries or blackberries.

Benchmark Hospitality International, an independent hospitality management company based in The Woodlands (Houston), Texas, operates resorts, conference centers and hotels both domestically and internationally. For locations of Benchmark Hospitality properties and for additional information, visit Benchmark’s Website at www.benchmarkhospitality.com.

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Diners want more info and smaller entrees

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Diners would like to offer restaurants some tips, but we’re not talking cash. They want restaurants to offer half-portion entrees and nutritional information on the menus.
These were among the findings of a nationwide online survey of 5,279 adults for ARAMARK Corp., a food services company.
The report was presented this week at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.
The survey found that Americans eat away from home an average of 5.6 times a week.
Six kinds of diners
Health-focused (very concerned about nutrition) - 20%Passive dieters (somewhat concerned about nutrition) - 17%
Nutrition-curious indulgers (health conscious but sidetracked by busy schedules) - 17%
Indulgent risk-takers (never ask for nutrition information) - 17%
Health-riskers (heaviest diners) - 17%
Restaurant regulars (half say they never diet) - 12%
For more information: www.diningstyle.comSource: ARAMARK Corp.

Findings:
• 52% of consumers say restaurants should offer half-portion entrees. (Related story: Bigger portions will get eaten)
• 51% say they would be more likely to order more healthful items if those foods were offered as part of a value-priced combo meal.
• 83% say restaurants should make nutrition information available for all menu items.
• 88% would like to have healthful items highlighted separately on the menu.
• 62% say it’s difficult to figure out what menu items are healthful.
• Time and convenience are the top reasons people eat meals away from home.
• 62% say they are not on a diet this year, up from 57% in 2004.
“As people go through different stages of life, their eating style at restaurants changes, and their needs change,” says Chris Malone, senior vice president of marketing for ARAMARK.
Malone discussed consumer dining-out styles that range from nutritionally vigilant to reckless. Some people don’t get serious about nutrition until they get older and illness sets in, he says.

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Menu strategy is about more than good tastes …

… It’s about marketing, competitive positioning, and the ability to ride the crest of a trend.
It’s the old chicken-or-egg question—or, in this case, the chicken-or-beef question. Do quick-serve companies educate consumers about what to expect on the menu, or does menu development happen from the grassroots up?
When NPD Foodworld studied consumers and menu trends over the past year, the firm found that consumer demand has been driven recently by quick-serve companies rolling out menu offerings focused on higher quality, more innovative foods. The firm noted significant growth in foods such as higher-quality chicken products, premium burgers, and main-dish salads. In short, consumers are demanding more from menus, in large part because quick-serve companies have been providing more.
We were intrigued. So, here, QSR drills into six recent quick-serve menu additions, looking for competitive strategy and asking how well each item fulfills corporate goals and consumers’ desires. For insight and, we admit, fun, we conducted unscientific taste-tests, sometimes with surprising results.
Call them case studies in menu strategy. Taken together, these six items reveal much about the status of menu innovation in the industry—and what’s on tap for menus in 2006.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/issue/81/advertised-1.phtml

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Holiday Season Is in the Cards

October 18, 2005

(After October 26, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

About 70% of US consumers have purchased at least one gift card in the past, and about one-quarter of those who haven’t expect to make their first purchase of one this holiday season.
It looks to be another good year for gift card sales, according to a survey conducted by Stored Value Systems (SVS), a gift card manufacturer. US consumers are planning on spending an average of $248 on gift cards this holiday season, a big increase from past years. They’re also buying more cards on average, 6.5, compared to 4.5 in 2004. The average value of each planned card purchased is $40, a level consistent with past years.

The SVS survey found that gift cards have become an item people specifically plan to buy for others. Almost 85% of those surveyed said they included gift cards on their list of planned present purchases, up from 69% last year.

And gift cards are not just popular during the holidays. In fact, 81% of those who purchased gift cards got them for a birthday, compared to 67% who bought them for Christmas, Hanukah or Kwanza.
It’s difficult to say whether the increased popularity of gift cards is particularly good for retailers. A gift card purchase could be made in lieu of a merchandise purchase, and not end up making the retailer any more money. The profit on a gift card could potentially be higher if the card is not used or used only partially (though SVS found that only 6% have not redeemed the full value of a card within a year). Gift cards may also expose the gift recipient to a merchant they were not familiar with, or entice them to spend more in a store since they are getting a discount. Gift cards also give retailers an opportunity to integrate their in-store and online spheres more closely by allowing the card to be used online as well as in person. Quite a few merchants have done this, according to a shop.org and Forrester study from earlier this year.

To learn more about gift cards and other aspects of the upcoming shopping season, read eMarketer’s Online Holiday Shopping Preview.

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Are Weekend & Dinner Only Venues Possible?

I can feel a rant coming on. So forgive me, but it’s not directed at you personally. Historically, Mon thru Wed are the slowest days for our industry (more specifically Mon & Tues). However, this just means that these dayparts are more of a challenge for the operator to be creative in finding ways to put butts in seats. Notwithstanding my bottomless well of idealism already of note on this forum, I KNOW there’s a model that will let you be successful in the venue of your choice - I have built several (corporate and independent) and there exists several thousand in every city in this country.

There is no easy answer, if there were, everyone would own a restaurant that wanted one and would be raking it in. The reality is that you must analyze your market and build a better mousetrap. If you do that, they will come. I guarantee it. But people simply don’t want to do the homework/due diligence it takes to plan for success. Instead they think that just because they have money to open one, it will be the next greatest thing since sliced bread. The usual platitudes are that they have “mom’s” recipe for this or that or that they intend to set a new high in guest service -then fail miserably and blame it on the economy, dumb customers, mom’s recipe, stupid teenager employees, Pol Pot, the Black Plague, locusts, what have you…

There are now over 1 million FSO’s (Food Service Operations) in the US today. The ultimate question is why would anyone want to come to yours? The secret to success is building a great plan for it. Then executing it every guest, every table, every day, with NO exceptions. The question is how to define great. This is where your understanding of this business and dedication to digging into the information available to you in your market to discern those niches that need to be scratched, exists. Is there a need for a weekend only place? I doubt it. Can you build a financially successful business model that is open on only a few days of the week? The answer is not if that number is only 3 - and certainly not with only 50 seats that have to be filled 4-6 times over with an avg check of $675pp!

You need “A” level players in all positions. BOH, FOH and TOH. You can’t get them with only 15 hours a week. People need to eat, shower, raise children, go to school, etc…So you break even or even lose a couple of dollars by staying open on Mon-Wed. and working like hell to achieve large enough volumes on the rest of the week to make your greenbacks. Not a problem to be a dinner only restaurant either- plenty of very successful examples of that model. Or you try to open up multiple streams of income like on-site or off-site catering, party or banquet rooms, delivery, wine and cooking classes, retail of private label products, etc…Now are there exceptions to every rule? Of course. But only short-term. You only read about them in the courthouse report’s listing of newly filed bankruptcies.

Have Fun Today!
Jeffrey Summers, Head Coach
GameOn! Restaurant Coaching Solutions
jeffrey@getgame.biz
www.getgame.biz
http://getgameblog.blogspot.com/

“My job is to make your competition suffer!”

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Cutting Back to Improve Quality of Life

Cutting back to improve quality of life
Restaurants rejigger managers’ workweeks

Larry Halstead
Web Editor/Staff Writer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
From the October 10, 2005 print edition

The tradition of the restaurateur as an auteur departing a distinctive style holds that the pivotal person in charge needs to be ever-present physically or at least in spirit. Compelled by the desire to create a signature eating establishment, the traditional manager makes the restaurant his or her life.


Increasing numbers of today’s casual dining establishments are taking a hard look at following such a tradition. With the blessing of a new generation of managers who work within a formula and are likely not control freaks, big chains are seeing the advantages of scaling back managers’ hours.
Today’s managers, many with young families, are clamoring to cut back on the workload to free up more family time.
“The real issue is the number of days worked not the hours,” said Malcolm Knapp, president of restaurant industry consulting firm Malcolm M. Knapp Inc. in New York. At Cracker Barrel, managers work five-day weeks, said Knapp.
CBRL Group Inc., owner of the Cracker Barrel chain, guarantees its managers a five-day workweek, but that comes out to about 55-60 hours per week, said Robert Harig, senior VP of human resources. “In the restaurant industry, work days average 10-12 hours,” Harig said.
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. moved its managers into a 40-hour workweek in 2002 after testing its “Best Job” concept for five years. Known as Sweet Tomatoes in the Tampa Bay area, the soup and salad chain made the move to cut costs.
It worked, to the tune of more than $1 million per year, by reducing the number of store managers from four to three and streamlining operational systems by eliminating redundancy.
But the real benefits showed up as improved morale, lower turnover and better systems.
During the testing period, Garden Fresh analyzed all its systems and cut where it could, said Wendy Jewell, executive director of human resources. Every daily responsibility in the stores was looked at and prioritized.
Inventory frequencies were changed to twice a month instead of weekly, cash counting was reduced to twice a day and more tasks that managers had been performing were delegated to the key crewmembers.
“It frees me up to spend more time with the guests,” said James “Smitty” Smith, GM of the Brandon store. Smith has been with Sweet Tomatoes for 12 years and was promoted to GM after six.
When the plans to change managerial duties came down from corporate, all the GMs thought the idea was crazy, Smith said. Nobody wanted to give away any responsibilities.

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/retailing_restaurants/restaurants/

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