November 2009 Blog Posts (129)

5 Ways Restaurant Paging Connects You with Customers

With the iPhone revolution, there is an app for everything. Now, there’s one for you too. Discover new ways to leverage a restaurant paging system to your advantage. You can control wait time logistics and handle promotional communication at the same time. This goes way beyond having your eatery’s name printed on a coaster with some flashing lights. Read useful tips for getting the most out of a restaurant paging application that’s been developed specifically for your business.

Read… Continue

Added by Vitaliy Levit on November 30, 2009 at 5:38pm — No Comments

Non-Operator Bar Owner Fined $13,000 For Open Wi-Fi Network

Alcohol has been blamed for some pretty outrageous things over the years, but this is the first time I’ve heard anyone blame it for copyright infringement.

It’s a bizarre argument to make, but its likely one a UK bar owner will be considering after being handed down an £8,000 fine, which works out to about $13,000 USD after a customer downloaded copyrighted material over the open wi-fi hotspot in the bar.

According to Internet… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 29, 2009 at 10:17pm — No Comments

Non-Operator The Curse Of Knowledge

When was the last time that you entered your bar or restaurant from the street as a customer, keen to order or simply to find a table?

How easy or difficult do you make it for your customers to find what they are looking for? How hard have you worked at creating that all important first impression? Whatever the first impression is for your customer, it will take a long time and significant effort to change their opinion

As… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 29, 2009 at 10:09pm — No Comments

Thanksgiving Is It The F&B Black Thursday?

We had a great day; we did 400 covers in 4 hours. Beverage sales were good and the crowd displayed a high level of seasonal joviality. Many of my colleagues reported similar results and are positive about a strong holiday season.

Is it a sign of better times to come or just a seasonal holiday spike that could soon fade away? Next week is a great week for us as well, as is the week after that. Last minute decisions are being made in our favor and it would seem that people are willing… Continue

Added by Chef Len Elias CEC on November 29, 2009 at 8:43am — No Comments

Non-Operator The 10 Keys to Great Hospitality Service

Your establishment, whether it is a restaurant, bar or a hotel, is made of bricks and mortar and this gives the customer an initial impression of what your establishment is like. But it happens too often that staff are rude, pretentious or simply not up to the task at hand. Needless to say; you won’t return!

The biggest reason for customers not returning to an establishment is due to a staff member’s attitude or… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 27, 2009 at 6:00pm — 3 Comments

Non-Operator Brewery launches Tactical Nuclear Penguin: ‘World’s Strongest’ Beer

A Scottish brewery, with a history of controversy, claims to have made the world’s strongest beer!

The drink, named “Tactical Nuclear Penguin” is so strong that it should be served in small measures usually reserved for spirits.

Its maker, BrewDog brewers of Fraserburgh described the 32 per cent proof tipple (or 64 proof) as its “most audacious and ambitious project to date”.

Only 500 bottles of its latest beer have been produced, with half going on sale for £30… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 27, 2009 at 5:52pm — No Comments

Non-Operator Reasons To Be Thankful

Of course, we each have many reasons to be thankful, even though you’re probably like me and don’t reflect often enough on them all. In this brief column, I only want to focus on some industry-related reasons to be thankful ... some for operators, some for consumers, and perhaps even some for investors and lenders.

Be Thankful you’re not some other industry. Yes, it’s been a tough year (or two), but -- unlike some other industries I can think of -- your customers don’t really… Continue

Added by Rod Guinn on November 27, 2009 at 3:00am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator Take the Thanksgiving Day Calorie Quiz

I hope that everyone is enjoying a nice relaxing day off and enjoying some good traditional Thanksgiving Day fare. In the spirit of Thanksgiving (and days off) I am going to take a break from business (yes, again for any of you who caught my Top 10 list a couple weeks ago) and have some fun.

Below, I have listed the descriptions of eight different Thanksgiving Day must haves, some home-made from… Continue

Added by Alyson Mar, RD on November 26, 2009 at 7:00am — No Comments

Non-Operator LetsSayThanks.com - A gift for our military away from home during these holidays

XEROX IS DOING SOMETHING REALLY NEAT! It takes less than a minute to participate! If you go to www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed s...ervices.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers… Continue

Added by Paul Paz on November 26, 2009 at 12:21am — No Comments

Non-Operator Consistency In A World Gone Mad

A few years ago, Beamish Irish Stout had a slogan on their advertisements that read: “Consistency In A World Gone Mad”.

The idea being that you would always get what you expected with Beamish. You knew what was coming! I was reminded of this slogan this morning as I had my breakfast. A couple of times a week I grab my breakfast at a local breakfast diner, one of a mid size… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 25, 2009 at 8:14pm — 1 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving from FohBoh | Let's create some jobs

Image by ~MVI~ via Flickr

Has it really been a year since I gathered with my family and friends for a day of dining and relaxation? Amazing. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Seemingly easy… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on November 25, 2009 at 10:37am — No Comments

Operator How to Pick a Sales Rep

Do you pick your sales rep? If you’re like most people, you just take whichever salesman walks through the door when your looking for a vendor. Seems OK, right? Well, let me ask you this, would you place a help wanted ad in the paper and then just hire who ever walked in your door from the ad? Of course you wouldn't!

Your sales rep makes his living off commissions from your purchases, so in essence, he works for you and you should pick a rep just as you would an… Continue

Added by beingthechef on November 25, 2009 at 9:57am — 1 Comment

Non-Operator Simplify Your Life: Reduce Your Restaurant Menu Items

In these times of economic uncertainty, it is easy to get lost in trying to do many things all at once. A good example is restaurateurs trying to manage their inventories, their staff, their operations, their books, their sales, their marketing, and so on.

Do you know anybody like that? I thought so.

This is the first of a series of blogs covering simplification. You need to simplify your life and focus on just a few basic core competences to make your… Continue

Added by Jose L Riesco on November 25, 2009 at 4:00am — 1 Comment

Non-Operator How To Flush Your Profits Down The Toilet

You might as well flush your hard earned money down the toilet. That is if you ignore the back door of your business and specifically your deliveries.

I have lost count of the number of businesses I have come across that spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on advanced point of sale systems, hi-tech digital cctv cameras and security on the door on busy nights, yet don’t even weigh their meat deliveries at the back door. Of those that… Continue

Added by Barry Chandler on November 24, 2009 at 7:01pm — No Comments

Shuttered Gourmet Magazine executive chef Sara Moulton - exclusive interview on the closing

Executive Chef Sara Moulton is known not only for her twenty five years at Gourmet Magazine but as a Food Network star for her Cooking Live, Cooking Live Primetime shows, food editor/executive chef for Good Morning America and multiple cookbook author. Sara’s Weeknight Meals is her most recent television endeavor on Public Broadcasting with a companion cookbook. Way before we all heard the news about Gourmet Magazine shuttering their doors,… Continue

Added by Dara Bunjon on November 24, 2009 at 2:23pm — No Comments

One thing to be thankful for this week - not getting arrested!

You never know what's going to happen next when you go looking for a good story. Take my interview today with the owner of a small, growing pizza chain in Boston.

I arrived at the restaurant, in a food court, and began looking for the unit. Found it and whipped out my digital camera and took a shot. Almost immediately I was approached by a security guard who told me I was not allowed to take pictures in the building without "management permission." I could only take pictures if they… Continue

Added by susan holaday on November 24, 2009 at 1:54pm — 20 Comments

Build a TEAM to build your Restaurant

So you’ve finally made the decision to build/remodel your restaurant. What comes next?

I know you’re thinking all you need to do is hire an architect or a designer and that’s it, right? Well, it’s not quite so simple. You need to build a TEAM to build your restaurant. By spending the time and energy in the beginning to build the right team you can save a lot of time and money in the end. We all want to save money, don’t we?…

Continue

Added by Christine van Rooy on November 24, 2009 at 5:30am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator Change.......

Recently an industry analyst at Goldman Sachs by the name of Steven Kron estimated that the restaurant industry especially casual dining was so over built that in order to for the laws of supply and demand to regain equilibrium that roughly 8% of the current restaurants now open need to close. That equates to 12,000! 12,000. That almost takes your breath away.

If you look at the restaurant industry and what is going on you will see that the main stream casual dining segment is… Continue

Added by Jerry A. Heilpern, CFBE, FMP on November 23, 2009 at 8:09am — 5 Comments

Non-Operator How Sweet It Is

“Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good?” Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers (1971)

Loathe as I am to prognosticate on such matters, (I prefer to leave such things to the experts like Nostradamus and Miss Cleo – besides if I really was good at it, I would be picking winning lottery numbers), I believe I have foreseen the next micro trend in food service. Call it “Culinary Intuition”. Its so cutting edge, so micro, a search of… Continue

Added by Mathew Mandeltort on November 23, 2009 at 3:00am — No Comments

Non-Operator Guns in bars law overturned - Should we also arm the staff?

Our industry ranks high in the US labor force when it comes to death in the work place. Given the stresses of the job, in all positions, what's the practical benefit of arming the customers when imbibing their favorite alcoholic beverage? Interesting points made in the editorial column below.

Any thoughts?

Paul

Guns-in-bars ruling is a win for tourism industry

BY GAIL KERR • TENNESSEAN.COM - NOVEMBER 22,… Continue

Added by Paul Paz on November 22, 2009 at 3:15pm — No Comments