Foods For Thought - Is Your Meals And Drinks Operation Being Dealt With Properly?

I consume food. I drink beverages.

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

In examining the operations of numerous clubs/resorts each month, I find that one of the most inadequately operated, inconsistent areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are frequently managed by a club board, people appear to believe that because they dine out, they somehow have some level of expertise that enables them to make company decisions about this essential aspect of the club. The truth is that this is among the most complicated departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a consistent experience.

Let's ask a few questions!

Is your Food and Drink experience suitable for what your members/guests wish to have in your club/resort? Are you priced properly, 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 good balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or style? Do you change your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it changed every year or 2 and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your item specifications and part sizes? Is every item on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food cost? Do you know the contribution margin on every product on your menu?

What about your unique events. Are they really special? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly expected or the exact same thing that was done the last ten years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and marketing piece touting the event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to attempt brand-new events? Brand-new cost points?

Got Worth?

What about value included programs? It's occurring every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, and many other nationwide franchises are actively configuring to keep people coming 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 performing in your club to produce a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Beverage offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass questioning why you are doing so few covers? Or, are you trying new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining instead of just "unique celebration" dining?

Something as basic as Delighted Hour can generate extra use. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half price on bottles of house wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at a special rate on slower nights, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique price, entertainment, and numerous other concepts and occasions drive use, provide incremental profits, and keep the personnel working. Are you experimenting with brand-new occasions in your club/resort? Provide it a shot. You'll be surprised at the buzz it develops.

The Experience

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

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

Do you have standards of operation to guarantee the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every staff member using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Is there a particular manner 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 personnel understand the structure of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least regular monthly? Is your staff selling suggestively?

The Technical Aspects

How typically do you take a physical inventory? Is there "self-reliance" in the inventory process to ensure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory pricing changed frequently to reflect the most current cost the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the cost the club paid last year still being used to determine inventory worth?

Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying products?

If you buy 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 situations, accept it blindly.

I am impressed at how often shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the same room as the items that were provided not to mention checking the packaging slip or billing versus the goods got. computer hardware and software Shipment individuals end up being smart very quickly to those who hold them liable and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing liquor there costs a lot of cash over a prolonged amount of time.

Just how much unusable food is stored in the freezer, typically a chef's friend, and continues to be counted every month throughout stock yet is essentially worth little or absolutely 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 specific monetary outcome, train the staff, and keep standards? Or are they paid just for showing up?

How is your service personnel paid? By hourly wage? Tip 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 liquor, beer, and wine? Do you have specified put sizes? Are they being followed? Do you have pourers which permit just for the put size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's money is tied up in white wine stock? 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 monthly service charge? Should you?

Do you supply an employee meal? How is it accounted for? Is it accounted for at all? Do you allow staff members to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you enable your workers to take in alcoholic beverages 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 evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of establishing and breaking down every room based upon the differing needs of each occasion?

Do your personal occasion policies make good sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment completely needed? Do you require a signed contract? Do you even have a contract that you need be signed?

A Solution

Great deals of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to answer all of these and any others and create a customized food and beverage experience that shows your unique situation and offers what your members/guests desire and want to spend for.