Food For Thought - Is Your Food And Beverage Operation Being Handled Properly?

Posted by Jantz on January 21st, 2021

I consume food. I drink beverages.

For that reason, I am qualified to supervise a Food and Beverage operation.

In examining the operations of numerous clubs/resorts each month, I discover that one of the most badly run, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Particularly in member owned environments, which are often managed by a club board, individuals appear to believe that due to the fact that they dine out, they somehow have some level of knowledge that allows them to make company decisions about this essential element of the club. The reality is that this is one of the most complex departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a consistent experience.

Let's ask a couple of questions!

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

Are your food selections stuck in yesteryear, a nice balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu designed for function or fashion? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it changed every year or more and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your product specs and part sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your objective for a la carte food expense? Do you know the contribution margin on every item on your menu?

What about your special occasions. Are they truly special? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly expected or the exact same thing that was done the last 10 years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and advertising piece touting the event? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to try new occasions? Brand-new cost points?

Got Value?

What about worth included shows? It's taking place every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other national franchises are actively programming to keep individuals being available 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 doing in your club to develop a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Drink offerings? Are you standing pat on your filet and sea bass questioning why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you trying new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of just "special event" dining?

Something as basic as Pleased Hour can generate extra use. Comfort food such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or comparable for" at or throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half rate on bottles of home red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at a special cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at a special rate, entertainment, and many other ideas and occasions drive use, supply incremental revenue, and keep the personnel working. Are you try out new occasions in your club/resort? Offer it a try. You'll be amazed at the buzz it creates.

The Experience

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

How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral display screens, and shiny silver chafing meals? Or basic with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?

Do you have requirements of operation to make sure the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every team member using a clean and pressed designated uniform? Exists a specific manner to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and wine? Are members called by name? Are specific actions of service in place?

Does the service personnel understand the composition of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied a minimum of month-to-month? Is your staff selling suggestively?

The Technical Aspects

How often do you take a physical inventory? Exists "self-reliance" in the stock procedure to ensure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory rates changed routinely to show the most current expense the club is paying for all inventoried items or clothes and shoes is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being utilized to figure out stock worth?

Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying items?

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

I am astonished at how often deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the very same room as the products that were delivered let alone checking the packaging slip or billing versus the goods got. Delivery individuals become smart extremely quickly to those who hold them responsible and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing steak here or a few bottles of missing alcohol there costs a great deal of cash over an extended amount of time.

How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, typically a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted every month during inventory yet is basically worth little or nothing?

What does the organizational structure look like in your club's F&B operation? How are your managers compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific monetary result, train the staff, and keep requirements? Or are they paid just for showing up?

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

In addition to costing every product on every menu, have you done the exact same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have specified put sizes? Are they being adhered to? Do you have pourers which allow just for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is tied up 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 regular monthly service fee? Should you?

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

Private Occasions

What about your Personal Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of establishing and breaking down every room based on the varying requirements of each event?

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

An Option

Lots of questions! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to respond to all of these and any others and produce a customized food and beverage experience that shows your distinct situation and offers what your members/guests desire and want to spend for.