I consume food. I consume beverages.
For that reason, I am qualified to supervise a Food and Drink operation.
In examining the operations of lots of clubs/resorts monthly, I discover that one of the most inadequately run, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are typically managed by a club board, people appear to believe that due to the fact that they eat in restaurants, they in some way have some level of knowledge that enables them to make company decisions about this crucial 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 few concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience suitable for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced correctly, 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 the past, a great balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or style? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or two and become a club dinosaur? What are your item specifications and portion sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food cost? Do you understand the contribution margin on every product on your menu?
What about your special events. Are they actually special? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly expected or the same thing that was done the last ten years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and marketing piece touting the occasion? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to try brand-new events? Brand-new rate points?
Got Value?
What about worth included programming? It's taking place every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and lots of other national franchises are actively setting to keep people coming in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned dining establishments has to do with 10%?
What are you carrying out in your club to produce 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 trying brand-new concepts that may supply "meal replacement" dining rather of only "unique event" dining?
Something as basic as Happy Hour can create extra usage. 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, burger night, half price on bottles of home white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at a special price on slower nights, sushi nights, appetisers at a special cost, home entertainment, and numerous other concepts and events drive usage, supply incremental earnings, and keep the staff working. Are you experimenting with new events in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be amazed 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 presented? Elegantly with skirting, floral displays, and glossy silver chafing dishes? Or rudimentary with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have requirements of operation to ensure the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every staff member using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Exists a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and wine? Are members called by name? Are specific steps of service in location?
Does the service staff know the composition of every product, sauce, and portion size from the menu? Is training provided at least regular monthly? Is your staff offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How frequently do you take a physical inventory? Exists "independence" in the stock procedure to make sure that the counts are precise? Is inventory prices changed regularly to show the most recent cost the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the expense the club paid last year still being utilized to identify inventory worth?
Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying items?
If you buy it by the pound, weigh it. If you purchase it by the piece, count it. If you buy it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no scenarios, accept it blindly.
I am impressed at how typically shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the same room as the products that were delivered not to mention examining the packaging slip or invoice against the products got. Delivery individuals become savvy extremely quickly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing steak here or a few bottles of missing liquor there costs a lot of cash over an extended amount of time.
Just how much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, often a chef's friend, and continues to be counted each month during 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 supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific financial result, train the personnel, and maintain requirements? Or are they paid merely for revealing up?
How is your service staff paid? By per hour wage? Suggestion 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 item on every menu, have you done the very same for alcohol, beer, and wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being abided by? Do you have pourers which allow just for the pour size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's money is tied up in wine inventory? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Drink minimum? Does it make good sense for your club? Do you have a minimum monthly service fee? Should you?
Do you offer a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you allow staff members to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you permit your workers to take in alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Events
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 home gardening and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of setting up and breaking down every space based upon the differing needs of each event?
Do your private occasion policies make sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment in full required? Do you require a signed agreement? Do you even have a contract that you require be signed?
An Option
Lots of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to answer all of these and any others and develop a customized food and drink experience that reflects your distinct scenario and provides what your members/guests desire and are willing to pay for.