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

Posted by Mariko on January 21st, 2021

I consume food. I drink beverages.

For that reason, I am certified to manage a Food and Drink operation.

In evaluating the operations of lots of clubs/resorts monthly, I discover that one of the most badly run, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Especially in member owned environments, which are typically supervised by a club board, individuals appear to believe that since they eat in restaurants, they somehow have some level of knowledge that permits them to make service decisions about this essential aspect of the club. The truth is that this is one of the most intricate departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a consistent experience.

Let's ask a couple of questions!

Is your Food and Drink experience proper 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 good balance of old favorites and brand-new selections, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or fashion? Do you change your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or more 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 expense? Do you understand the contribution margin on every item on your menu?

What about your special occasions. Are they really special? Do they develop a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly anticipated or the same thing that was done the last 10 years with absolutely nothing more than the year changed in the newsletter and promotional piece touting the event? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to try new occasions? Brand-new rate points?

Got Value?

What about worth added programming? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and numerous other nationwide franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals being available in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned dining establishments is about 10%?

What are you carrying out in your club to create 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 trying new ideas that may offer "meal replacement" dining instead of just "special event" dining?

Something as simple as Happy Hour can create additional use. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or similar for" at or throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half go here rate on bottles of house red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at a special price on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetizers at a special cost, entertainment, and numerous other principles and occasions drive usage, offer incremental revenue, and keep the staff working. Are you try out brand-new occasions in your club/resort? Provide it a shot. You'll be surprised at the buzz it produces.

The Experience

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

How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral displays, and shiny silver chafing dishes? Or primary with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?

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

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

The Technical Aspects

How frequently do you take a physical inventory? Exists "self-reliance" in the stock procedure to ensure that the counts are precise? Is stock pricing adjusted routinely to show the most recent expense the club is paying for all inventoried products or is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being used to identify inventory worth?

Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying products?

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

I am amazed at how often deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the very same room as the products that were delivered not to mention checking the packaging slip or billing against the goods got. Delivery individuals become smart very quickly to those who hold them responsible and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a lot of cash over an extended time period.

How much unusable food is stored in the freezer, often a chef's friend, and continues to be counted monthly during inventory yet is essentially worth little or nothing?

What does the organizational structure appear like in your club's F&B operation? How are your managers compensated? Are they incented to produce a particular financial outcome, train the staff, and preserve standards? Or are they paid simply for showing up?

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

In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the exact same for alcohol, beer, and red wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being adhered to? Do you have pourers which allow only for the pour size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's cash is bound in red wine inventory? Have you established 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 enable employees to get rid of food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you allow your staff members to consume alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).

Personal Occasions

What about your Personal Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you assessed the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of setting up and breaking down every space based on the varying needs of each occasion?

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

An Option

Lots of concerns! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and develop a customized food and drink experience that reflects your unique circumstance and provides what your members/guests want and want to pay for.