I eat food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am certified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.
In assessing the operations of lots of clubs/resorts every month, I discover that a person of the most poorly operated, inconsistent locations of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Particularly in member owned environments, which are frequently supervised by a club board, people appear to think that since they eat in restaurants, they somehow have some level of proficiency that permits them to make business decisions about this important 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 couple of questions!
Is your Food and Beverage experience suitable 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 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 altered 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 goal for a la carte food expense? Do you understand the contribution margin on every item on your menu?
What about your unique occasions. Are they truly unique? Do they produce 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 event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to try brand-new occasions? New rate points?
Got Value?
What about worth included shows? It's happening every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other nationwide franchises are actively programming to keep people coming in. Any wonder the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned dining establishments 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 Drink offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass wondering why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you attempting brand-new ideas that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of only "unique occasion" dining?
Something as easy as Happy Hour can produce extra use. Comfort food such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half cost on bottles of home white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at a special cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetizers at a special cost, home entertainment, and many other concepts and occasions drive usage, provide incremental profits, and keep the personnel working. Are you try out new events in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it creates.
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, 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 make sure the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every employee using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Is there 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 composition of every product, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied a minimum of regular monthly? Is your personnel offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How often do you take a physical stock? Is there "self-reliance" in the stock procedure to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is stock rates changed regularly to show the most recent expense the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the cost the club paid last year still being utilized to figure out stock value?
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 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 exact same room as the products that were delivered let alone examining the packaging slip or billing versus the items received. Delivery individuals become savvy really rapidly to those who med store online hold them liable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing out on liquor there costs a great deal of money over an extended amount of time.
How much unusable food is stored in the freezer, typically a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted each month throughout inventory yet is essentially worth little or absolutely 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 specific monetary result, train the staff, and maintain standards? Or are they paid simply for revealing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Tip 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 very same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have specified put sizes? Are they being stuck to? Do you have pourers which permit only for the pour size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is tied up in wine stock? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make good sense for your club? Do you have a minimum regular monthly service fee? Should you?
Do you provide a worker meal? How is it accounted for? Is it represented at all? Do you allow staff members to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you allow your employees to consume alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced ideal mean? Have you examined the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of establishing and breaking down every room based on the differing requirements of each occasion?
Do your personal occasion policies make good sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment completely required? Do you require a signed agreement? Do you even have a contract that you need be signed?
An Option
Great deals of concerns! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and produce a tailored food and beverage experience that shows your unique situation and offers what your members/guests want and want to spend for.