Food For Thought - Is Your Foods And Beverage Establishment Being Taken Care Of

Posted by Shira on January 21st, 2021

I consume food. I drink beverages.

Therefore, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.

In assessing the operations of lots of clubs/resorts monthly, I discover that one of the most inadequately operated, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Particularly in member owned environments, which are frequently managed by a club board, people seem to believe that because they dine out, they in some way have some level of competence that permits them to make service choices about this crucial aspect of the club. The truth is that this is among the most complicated departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a constant experience.

Let's ask a couple of questions!

Is your Food and Beverage experience appropriate for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced effectively, expensive, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?

Are your food selections stuck in the past, a nice balance of old favorites and brand-new choices, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or fashion? Do you change your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it changed every year or 2 and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your product specifications and part sizes? Is every item on your menu costed? What is your objective for a la carte food cost? Do you know the contribution margin on every product on your menu?

What about your special events. Are they really unique? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly prepared for or the exact same thing that was done the last 10 years with absolutely nothing more than the year changed in the newsletter and marketing piece promoting the occasion? Is your staff challenged every quarter to attempt new events? Brand-new price points?

Got Worth?

What about value included programs? It's occurring every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and numerous other national franchises are actively setting to keep people can be found in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned restaurants has to do with 10%?

What are you carrying out in your club to produce a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Beverage offerings? Are you standing pat on your filet and sea bass wondering analysis instruments why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you attempting brand-new ideas that may provide "meal replacement" dining instead of just "unique event" dining?

Something as basic as Delighted Hour can produce extra use. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or similar for" at or throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half cost on bottles of house wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at an unique price on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique cost, home entertainment, and many other concepts and occasions drive use, provide incremental revenue, and keep the staff working. Are you try out new events in your club/resort? Offer it a try. You'll be shocked at the buzz it produces.

The Experience

How is your dining-room provided? With white tablecloths? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are supplying?

How are your buffets presented? Elegantly with skirting, flower display screens, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or simple with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?

Do you have standards of operation to guarantee the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every employee wearing a clean and pressed designated uniform? Exists a particular way to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and white wine? Are members called by name? Specify steps of service in location?

Does the service personnel know the structure of every item, sauce, and portion size from the menu? Is training offered a minimum of monthly? Is your staff selling suggestively?

The Technical Aspects

How often do you take a physical stock? Is there "independence" in the inventory procedure to make sure that the counts are precise? Is inventory pricing changed regularly to reflect the most current expense the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the expense the club paid last year still being utilized to determine stock worth?

Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying products?

If you purchase it by the pound, weigh it. If you buy it by the piece, count it. If you purchase it by ounce or length, measure it? Under no circumstances, accept it blindly.

I am impressed at how frequently shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the very same space as the items that were provided not to mention examining the packaging slip or invoice against the goods received. Delivery individuals end up being savvy extremely rapidly to those who hold them liable and those who do not. A few pounds of missing steak here or a couple of bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a great deal of money over a prolonged period of time.

How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, typically a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted each month throughout stock yet is essentially worth little or nothing?

What does the organizational structure look like in your club's F&B operation? How are your supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a particular financial outcome, train the staff, and keep standards? Or are they paid merely for revealing up?

How is your service staff paid? By per hour wage? Pointer swimming pool? Some combination of both? Does your pay structure promote period or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Legally?

In addition to costing every product on every menu, have you done the same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have defined pour sizes? Are they being adhered to? Do you have pourers which enable just for the pour size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's cash is bound in white wine inventory? Have you recognized par stocks?

Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make sense for your club? Do you have a minimum month-to-month service fee? Should you?

Do you offer an employee meal? How is it accounted for? Is it represented at all? Do you enable staff members to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you allow your workers to consume liquors at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).

Private Events

What about your Private Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced right mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of setting up and breaking down every space based upon the varying needs of each event?

Do your private event policies make sense? When is the "assurance' due? When is payment in full needed? Do you need a signed contract? Do you even have an agreement that you require be signed?

A Service

Great deals of concerns! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to respond to all of these and any others and create a customized food and drink experience that shows your unique circumstance and supplies what your members/guests want and are willing to spend for.