March 2010 Blog Posts (119)

Non-Operator Why Your Bar Needs A "Ritual" To Crush The Competition

Would anyone buy a bottle of Corona if it didn’t come with a lime? Isn’t Stella Artois a lot like many other beers on the market except that it’s served in a Belgian Chalice. What about Guinness? Doesn’t the two part pour make it unique? And wouldn’t Crispin Cider be just another standard cider if it wasn’t for the fact that it has a ritual of being served over ice?

Rituals are what separate these products from their competitors. The… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 22, 2010 at 10:20pm — 4 Comments

An eye on the industry’s future

Earlier this month, nearly 100 high school students descended on Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Sacramento for the eighth annual Boyds Coffee Culinary Cup competition. Teams competed in culinary and management events, which involved preparing a three-course meal in 60 minutes and presenting a new restaurant concept, respectively. The students… Continue

Added by Angelica Pappas on March 22, 2010 at 10:14am — No Comments

Non-Operator Blood Donors Lose Pint of Guinness in Ireland

It’s the end of an era in Ireland. Guinness, whose best-known advertising campaign proclaimed that its stout “was good for you”, has scrapped the long-standing tradition of providing free drink to blood donors.

Diageo, its parent company, has decided to abandon the tradition of providing complimentary bottles of Guinness to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS). “We felt this style and type of donation was not best suited to us… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 21, 2010 at 10:38pm — 1 Comment

Non-Operator Announcement: Bevinco Partners With TheBarBlogger.com

BEVINCO, an independent profit control and revenue enhancement service for the hospitality industry, is announcing its partnership with TheBarBlogger.com. The new alliance will foster growth and enhance information sharing throughout the hospitality community.

Barry Chandler, aka The Bar Blogger, is known for his bar and nightclub management Web sites that provide online resources for bar operators.… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 21, 2010 at 10:36pm — No Comments

Whose menu is it, anyway?

The world today seems to be filled with people who call themselves "food writers," which may in itself be a catchall phrase for people with lots of time to write about their personal views of service, recipes, food/restaurants/etc.

We find many (too many?) blogs these days with lots of comments about food, recipes, restaurants, etc. - some bright, informed and well-written, others rambling, not particularly perceptive and sometimes very uninformed about the world those of us in the… Continue

Added by susan holaday on March 21, 2010 at 8:31am — 16 Comments

Non-Operator Servers: Would You Sacrifice Money For Manners?

Ok, I realize this is hypothetical and idealistic because unfortunately, we’re never going to change them all…

Nonetheless, I’m curious to know where you stand.

As I’ve been receiving emails and questionnaire responses from readers, I started thinking, Would customer service industry workers be willing to give up some of their compensation if they were guaranteed that all of their customers were good people? Is respect more important than money?

Here’s a… Continue

Added by Patrick Maguire on March 20, 2010 at 9:58am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator FOHcus: Crowdsourcing FohBoh

We have meetings regularly at FohBoh to discuss the state of the community. As you can imagine, managing a network of nearly 14,000 members is tricky. We spend hours brainstorming ways to revitalize the network. We noodle various content strategies and outreach measures. It's all very exciting, actually. But we're just a handful of people with administrative access and fancy titles at FohBoh. In a community this big, our voice is but a… Continue

Added by FohBoh on March 19, 2010 at 12:12am — 7 Comments

Non-Operator Top 10 Tips For Taking Photos Of Your Bar

If you run a bar and have any intention of making a little money while you do, you’ll probably want to advertise your promotions locally in magazines/newspapers, online on social media channels as well as on your own website.

One of the most important things to consider with print/online advertising is the photography. In an age where we have become immune to advertising and scan pages quicker and quicker, it is even more important… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on March 19, 2010 at 12:02am — 5 Comments

DAWG Talk: 5 Things Every Candidate Should Know

It’s an employer-driven marketplace. Despite how determined and confident you are, as a candidate, you have little control over the hiring process. That’s why I decided to help you get a leg up on the competition.

Following, please find 5 things that every candidate should know before embarking on a career search:

Grammar matters. We’ve grown accustomed to short hand. We use abbreviations, acronyms, numbers and characters in our daily life texting, tweeting, or… Continue

Added by David Rose on March 18, 2010 at 6:04am — 3 Comments

Non-Operator Teaching Taste

We like what we know and we eat what we like. The idea of “comfort food” is based on what is familiar to us, particularly from our childhoods. My friends find it strange that my idea of comfort food involves anything that comes from the freezer and is re-heated, but that’s what I grew up eating with two working parents. Fish sticks and tater tots were a very common meal along with Marie Calendar’s Pot Pies. I would think that a lot of kids these days will associate comfort food with the fast… Continue

Added by Alyson Mar, RD on March 17, 2010 at 7:00pm — 5 Comments

Operator - Chef Anti-oxidants in wine

There has been a resveratrol craze with wine. Resveratrol is an anti-oxidant found in wine, and most significantly in red wine. With all the talks and customer awareness on health this wine component is getting lots of attention. Here is a video that I did that talks about different resveratrol levels in red wines.

www.healthychefdude.com…

Continue

Added by Marcus Guiliano on March 17, 2010 at 1:04pm — No Comments

FohBoh Restaurant Industry Social Media Mixer~Tuesday March 23rd 4pm to 7pm

Invitation courtesy of Jared Young, FohBoh.com:

FohBoh Restaurant Industry Social Media Mixer

Tuesday March 23

4pm to 7pm

Faultline Brewing Company

1235 Oakmead Parkway

Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Join FohBoh and our partners for an informal mixer event. Meet Michael Atkinson, co-founder and CEO of FohBoh, Inc. and guest speaker at the Restaurant Leadership Conference, MEG and many other foodservice industry events.

Who is… Continue

Added by Jared M. Young on March 17, 2010 at 12:45pm — No Comments

Operator peanut allergy awareness restaurants

I am conducting a study to see the effects of peanut allergies and how they are affecting the restaurant industry. Restaurant owners, managers, sous chefs please help me out by filling out a quick 6 question survey. This survey will not reveal anything about a restaurant. No names will be used, unless you want them to be.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z9F5BSQ

Added by Colin Trievel on March 17, 2010 at 12:45pm — No Comments

As the First Lady says LET'S MOVE!

First Lady Michelle Obama has started a new campaign to end childhood obesity. Let's Move! focuses on four primary principles one of them being serving healthier food in school cafeterias. She has chosen to start this campaign with the hope that the next generation of children will reach adult life at a healthy weight.

This campaign was launched during President Obama's… Continue

Added by Dani on March 17, 2010 at 6:30am — 2 Comments

Food Server 2010

I am a server in the year 2010. All around me, every day, I hear of restaurant failures, rising unemployment, foreclosures, economic pain, and general unrest. A prolonged recession has morphed this industry into something entirely new and foreign. It has reshaped my guest's expectations, placed more pressure on my coworkers, and raised the level of tension and uncertainty in the kitchen.

At the same time, I serve incredible food sourced…

Continue

Added by Michael Biesemeyer on March 17, 2010 at 12:56am — 6 Comments

Non-Operator I know you missed me...

For a while it got quiet around here... my wrists hurt, I distanced myself from the 'puter... and now... watch out- I'm BACK!

I know you missed me, admit it.

I'm even back with a new profile picture.

Just wait for the stories that go with that picture. I'll also have to post more pictures from the charity event. GOOD TIMES!

Added by Connie, One Fat Frog on March 16, 2010 at 10:49am — 3 Comments

Non-Operator The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

By: Patrick Maguire

Book Chapter: Confronting without Confrontation

Opening and operating a successful and profitable restaurant takes an extraordinary amount of hard work. If you’ve never been part of opening a new restaurant, it is a frenetic, frightening and fantastic experience. Everything is in a constant state of flux, and you’re always a phone call or moments away from disaster. (Licensing delays, kitchen meltdowns, delivery issues, construction catastrophes, and… Continue

Added by Patrick Maguire on March 16, 2010 at 8:32am — 1 Comment

Building Effective Employee Feedback Sessions

Employee feedback surveys often identify the need for more one-on-one time between employees and their managers. An easy way to fulfill this is to hold regular one-on-one feedback meetings. This simple idea gets overlooked or bumped by supposedly more important priorities. Yet making time for one-on-ones can eliminate communication problems, boost morale and productivity, and guarantee higher scores on your next employee feedback survey. Here are a few reasons why this tool is so… Continue

Added by Jim McGinty on March 16, 2010 at 8:13am — No Comments

Lifecycle of a New Manager

I have seen two approaches to placing a new manager into a restaurant. The first angle is train them fast, throw them in the deep end of the pool and they either drown or they tread water long enough to find the edge of the pool and get out safely, learning never to be allowed to be thrown in the pool again, but it takes a lot of time and money to get them out of the pool. Some drown and don’t make it. The second approach is train them effectively, put them in a learning environment, and foster… Continue

Added by Andy Swingley on March 15, 2010 at 8:03pm — 9 Comments

Management Skills : The Shocking Truth about Delegation

If you're like me, no one can do the job quite as well as I. I know what I want and I don't feel like wasting a bunch of time trying to show somebody else what I need done. So of course, I DO IT MYSELF.

Well, it's easier. At least I used to think so.

So, what's the harm?

Who will know?

Who really cares?

I can think of at least 5:

1.) Me. While I'm running around trying to accomplish… Continue

Added by Bill Baumgartner on March 15, 2010 at 4:26pm — 4 Comments