Food For Thought - Is Your Food And Drink Company Being Managed Correctly?

Posted by Shira on January 20th, 2021

I consume food. I consume beverages.

Therefore, I am qualified to manage a Food and Beverage operation.

In examining the operations of lots of clubs/resorts every month, I discover that one of the most poorly run, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are frequently supervised by a club board, individuals seem to think that due to the fact that they dine out, they somehow have some level of expertise that enables them to make service choices about this crucial element of the club. The reality is that this is among the most complicated departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a constant experience.

Let's ask a few questions!

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

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

What about your special events. Are they really special? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly expected or the same thing that was done the last 10 years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and promotional piece promoting the event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to try brand-new occasions? Brand-new price points?

Got Worth?

What about worth included programming? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other nationwide franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals can be found in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned restaurants has to do with 10%?

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

Something as simple as Delighted Hour can generate extra usage. Comfort food such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or similar for" at or during 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 cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetizers at an unique cost, home entertainment, and numerous other concepts and events drive use, supply incremental earnings, and keep the staff working. Are you experimenting with new events in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be amazed 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 offering?

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

Do you have requirements of operation to ensure the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every team member wearing a clean and pushed designated uniform? Exists a particular way to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and red wine? Are members called by name? Are specific steps of service in place?

Does the service staff know the structure of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least month-to-month? Is your personnel offering suggestively?

The Technical Aspects

How frequently do you take a physical stock? Exists "self-reliance" in the inventory process to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory pricing adjusted regularly to reflect the most current expense the club is paying for all inventoried products or is the expense the club paid in 2015 still being used to determine stock worth?

Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying items?

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

I am astonished at how often shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the very same room as the items that were delivered let alone inspecting the packaging slip or invoice against the goods received. Shipment individuals end up being savvy extremely quickly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing steak here or a few bottles of missing alcohol there costs a lot of cash over a prolonged time period.

Just how much unusable food is stored in the freezer, frequently a chef's friend, and continues to be counted every month throughout stock yet is basically worth little or nothing?

What does the organizational structure appear like in your club's F&B operation? How are your supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific financial outcome, train the personnel, and preserve requirements? Or are they paid merely for revealing up?

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

In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the exact same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being abided by? Do you have pourers which enable just for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is bound in 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 a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it accounted for next page at all? Do you permit employees to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you enable your staff members to take in alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).

Private Occasions

What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you examined 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 room based upon the varying needs of each occasion?

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

A Solution

Great deals of concerns! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and develop a personalized food and beverage experience that shows your special situation and supplies what your members/guests want and want to pay for.