January 2012 Blog Posts (63)

If your restaurant takes reservations you must have at least considered online booking. The pitch is enticing; free-up the staff, dump that 19^th Century paper and pencil and use the application to reach savvy professionals who prefer booking their restaurant reservations online. So, what's the catch?

For starters, online booking…

For those of you who think you’ve dropped a lot of cash on a bar tab in your day, we direct you to this receipt from the exclusive Cavalli Club in Dubai that made its way around Twitter last week. It’s from a Jan.2 birthday party at the nightclub that resulted in a final bill of 387,988 dirham, or…

This week I made a Random Act Of Kindness (RAOK) video for one of the concepts I do marketing for, Café Metro. The vibe was awesome! The feeling of getting out there and doing random acts of kindness on a 12 degree morning were appreciated by all. We gave out gift cards, free…

Recently I read a blog, Elusive Cuteness and Building Approachable Systems, on a project run by the MIT Media Lab that leveraged people to try and make systems more intelligent, efficient and successful. The team built a robot named ‘Boxie’ designed to appeal to the masses — then let it roll through different parts of the campus…

Once you've developed the skills needed to manage a restaurant, successfully, and develop a strong team who are motivated and goal oriented, it is time to sell your skills.  The restaurant manager's job requires good communication skills, and the ability to present projects and reports in a way that will sell ideas to the team, management, investors, and to the customers who walk through the doors each day.

The resume is the first place you have to highlight your…

The immediate concern with a catastrophic event like a nuclear meltdown is going to be loss of life and damage to critical infrastructure. Soon after, however, issues such as long-term access to safe food takes center stage.…

Counting Beans, Cooking Peas

1^st owner: A restaurant is a business.  When push comes to shove, it is all about the bottom line.

2^nd owner: A restaurant is part of the hospitality business.  It is all about the customer experience. 

Of course, they are both right, and of course, they are both wrong.  The reality is: it’s about balance:…

I have you noticed that Kodak is nearly out of business. Growing up in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, every family had a Kodak Camera and I still have one of mine. Those yellow boxes were everywhere and getting your very own Kodachrome camera…

Restaurant Operations Notes:  Money left on the table

We had the opportunity to travel through the US in November and December and got into a lot of restaurants. We saw good things, and good people, but also some operational issues that have the result of leaving dollars on the table—revenue enhancement and expense related. We have seen these issues often enough throughout 2010 and 2011 to mention the commonalities.

None of this is brain surgery; restaurant professionals…

mmmmmm i had escolar in lanuistine butter with cajun rice tonight with a f*r*st**e stout dark ale. both were sooooo delicious!!! granted, if youre looking for a great pairing, dont use this one lol. however if you just want to appreciate a really great beer and some really great food go here!!!

the  stout was quite good. on the smoother side, nice wheat, a dark sweetness. had a nice head ((ps beer is supossed to have head, some more than others) it helps to aerate the beer,…

Now that the presents have mostly been opened, let’s evaluate our position.  I was prompted to undertake this exercise by a recent conversation which ranged from (1) the errancy of Harold Camping’s 2011 end of the world forecast, which was surely a gift for many, to (2) the as-yet unproven accuracy of Mayan calendar predictions that Mr. Camping was only a year premature, to (3) the uniquely American apocalypse being…

I remember the first POS terminal that I ever saw and used was way back in 1977. It was a monster and weighed a ton! I have no idea what this thing cost or who made it. It was all metal and brown. It didn't have a screen but it did have a keypad for entering data It was not exactly an elegant design, so I know Steve Jobs wasn't consulted.  I learned about PLU (Price Look Up) codes, and remember the thing churning like it was thinking, or trying to.…

It will come as a shock to no one that the use of smartphones is at an all-time high. At last check more than 1/3 of American adults own one of the devices. And according to at least one study, 90 percent of owners use their phones as an Internet portal, with 4 of 5 doing so every single day.

Which means if you’ve been listening to…

Social media experts create engaging content and have adapted extremely well to the idea of influence and the need to motivate share-ability. Yes, social media offers advantages. Most notably, ease of convergence across platforms, but can social media support loyalty simply through engagement?

People are changing and everyday life will never remain suspended, even briefly…ever again.

People are increasingly involved in brand activities and are seeking…

Are you sitting down….Take a deep breath.. because what I am about to tell your may make you want to throw our computer out the window due to frustration with your AdWords campaign. If you are like tens of thousands of business owners you’ve been slapped in the face by Google. You have every right to…

Happy New Year!

With the beginning of a New Year, I challenge you to take stock in your business career. Where have you come from, where are you right now, and where would you like to be 3 months, 6 months, or a year from today?

Where is the economy today, where is it headed in the near future, and how will it affect your decision making?

Are you employed, unemployed, underemployed?

Do you like your job, tolerate your job, or hate the job you have right…

In the days of yesteryear your marketing plan was just a mere section of your overall business plan and more often than not an afterthought with very few budget dollars or labor hours allocated to it.  Gone are the day’s of the storefront sign, maybe an ad in the local newspaper or on your favorite radio station and if you were really investing in your marketing and advertising you might have had a billboard along a busy street or highway or an ad in the phonebook.  Today’s storefront sign…

Last week, a couple of friends and I decided to go out to lunch at The Counter. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a standard burger joint, and the menu is a check list of items available for your burger, and you check off what you want. There was a 20-30 minute wait, but instead of giving you the standard pager or simply calling the name of the party, they asked for my phone number. I thought it was odd, but then when I asked why they needed it, they said they would send me a text…

When you realize that foodservice buyers are dealing with perishable time tables and changing supply markets, you begin to understand some the of complexities of determining if your buyer is doing a good job.

Based upon our firms'consulting experience with emerging chains, here are the top 5 performance measurements.

1. Cost $avings / Cost Avoidance

2. Percentage of spend under contract 

3. Department…

Once you've developed the skills needed to manage a restaurant, successfully, and develop a strong team who are motivated and goal oriented, it is time to sell your skills.  The restaurant manager's job requires good communication skills, and the ability to present projects and reports in a way that will sell ideas to the team, management, investors, and to the customers who walk through the doors each day.

The resume is the first place you have to highlight your…