I eat food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.
In evaluating the operations of many clubs/resorts monthly, I find that a person of the most improperly operated, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are often supervised by a club board, people seem to believe that since they dine out, they somehow have some level of knowledge that enables them to make business choices about this essential aspect of the club. The truth is that this is among the most complex departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a constant experience.
Let's ask a couple of concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience appropriate for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced effectively, too 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 the past, a nice balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or fashion? Do you alter 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 item requirements and part sizes? Is every product 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 occasions. Are they truly special? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly prepared for or the very same thing that was done the last 10 years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and marketing piece touting the event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to try new events? New price points?
Got Value?
What about worth included programming? It's taking place every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and lots of other national franchises are actively programming to keep individuals can be found 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 doing 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 questioning why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you attempting new concepts that may supply "meal replacement" dining instead of only "unique celebration" dining?
Something as easy as Pleased Hour can generate additional usage. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or similar for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half rate on bottles of house white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at an unique rate on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique cost, home entertainment, and many other ideas and occasions drive usage, offer incremental profits, and keep the staff working. Are you try out new occasions in your club/resort? Provide it a try. You'll be surprised at the buzz it produces.
The Experience
How is your dining-room presented? With white table linens? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging properly for the experience you are supplying?
How are your buffets presented? Elegantly with skirting, flower 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 staff member using a clean and pressed designated uniform? Is there a specific way to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and red wine? Are members called on yahoo by name? Are specific actions of service in location?
Does the service staff understand the composition of every product, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training provided at least regular monthly? Is your personnel selling suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical stock? Is there "independence" in the stock procedure to guarantee that the counts are precise? Is stock rates adjusted routinely to show the most current cost the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid in 2015 still being utilized to figure out stock value?
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 circumstances, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how typically deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the very same room as the items that were delivered let alone examining the packing slip or billing against the items received. Shipment individuals end up being smart extremely quickly to those who hold them responsible and those who do not. A couple of pounds of missing steak here or a few bottles of missing out on liquor there costs a great deal of cash over a prolonged time period.
How much unusable food is stored in the freezer, often a chef's best friend, and continues to be counted every month throughout stock yet is basically worth little or 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 financial outcome, train the staff, and maintain standards? Or are they paid just for showing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By hourly wage? Suggestion pool? Some combination 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 alcohol, beer, and red 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? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is bound 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 month-to-month service fee? Should you?
Do you offer a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it accounted for at all? Do you permit workers to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you permit your staff members to consume alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Occasions
What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you assessed the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of setting up and breaking down every space based on the differing requirements of each event?
Do your personal occasion policies make sense? When is the "guarantee' due? When is payment in full needed? Do you need a signed agreement? Do you even have an agreement that you require be signed?
A Service
Lots of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to answer all of these and any others and produce a customized food and drink experience that shows your special situation and provides what your members/guests want and want to pay for.