Are You Running a Restaurant or a Business?

I spent 20 years starting and operating restaurants. When I first began, I had virtually no experience, so I needed to give myself every advantage. The biggest advantage (I called it my “Secret Weapon“) was systems. I knew instinctively that creating systems would make all the difference between succeeding or becoming another statistic.

 
From the get-go, I decided to work on my business now so I could decide how I would work in my business later.
This took some serious work up-front in creating the systems, but this ultimately led to freedom. Now, I could manage from afar (so many operators are so close to their restaurants, they’re missing a fresh perspective) and look at the big picture from 30,000 feet. These systems exploded sales, built my “Dream Team” staff, and created a dominant powerful brand that crushed my competition. They also allowed me to pay great people to run my business as “their own business,” taking “ownership” of the results. You have a system when you can leave your business for a week, a month, or a year, and it will be just as successful—or more so—when you return. I can show you how…

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Does your restaurant offer a consistent experience?

We ordered drinks and they were expertly prepared, poured into appealing glassware and properly garnished. After enjoying our first drink and their gracious service, we decided to stay for dinner and move to the dining room to join two additional friends.  That’s where the experience dramatically shifted and fell short.

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Affinity: The Secret Weapon

Affinity means having a feeling of belonging. In a restaurant setting, it means an intense loyalty because of this feeling of belonging.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to capture lightning in a bottle with all your customers?

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How to Choose Restaurant Furniture

You’ve written your business plan, chosen your location, written up your menu, you’re thinking about staff and you’re eager to get out there and run a successful restaurant. You’ve got all your bases covered, right? Furniture is a crucial part of the restaurant experience and is an often overlooked aspect of opening and managing a restaurant. 

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Train your staff to SELL not just serve

In the May issue of Restaurant Hospitality, Roger teaches you how to train your staff to SELL not just serve.  There are superstar servers in just about every restaurant. You know who they are. They’re personable, attentive, love meeting the public and make great money for themselves and your business. 

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Focus On These 12 Guest Contact Points

The restaurant business is one of 1,000 details. Even though we get 990 of them right, it’s the 10 we miss that the guest always sees. And these impressions are lasting ones with the potential to have a highly negative impact on our businesses.

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Is it Groundhog Day in your Restaurant?

If you’ve seen the film, the one with Bill Murray…you know the message take away is “those who are reluctant to change the past are condemned to repeat it”. In other words, we’re all really close to our restaurants and we think we got it covered, but old (bad) habits die hard.

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When a Restaurant Gets it Right!

I often say that “the restaurant business is one of a 1000 details and even though your restaurant gets 990 of them right, it’s the 10 you miss that the guest always sees”.   This happens to the best of us but, some restaurants just get it all right! My wife and I had such a dining experience recently in Hailey, Idaho (more on this in a minute). 

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Hit the Million Dollar Mark at Your Pizzeria

How long does it take your pizzeria to make a million dollars? Has it ever? What if you could achieve the million-dollar mark in a matter of months by simply training your staff to be enthusiastic about the place they work and the food they’re serving?

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Restaurant Service Snafus to Avoid

Avoid These 10 Common Habits of Ineffective Restaurant ServiceWith many summer Restaurant Week events underway or soon scheduled, it’s the perfect opportunity for local eateries to shine and win new customers. Restaurant Rockstars issues this reminder: it’s consistently getting small tasks right that sets the best restaurants apart from the rest.

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Not Just Any Warm Body Will Do

In the heat of battle, many restauranteurs and their managers spend their time putting out personnel fires.  When a server quits or isn’t working out, their first thought is to get a “warm body” on the floor ASAP.. After all, when you’re short on staff, everybody has to pick up the slack and money is being lost… right?

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AN OTHERWISE GREAT DINING EXPERIENCE…

From start to finish, our dining experience was led by what I call an “Order Taker”, albeit a very knowledgable one.   You see, serving is an “art” and a great dining experience is more than just about presenting great food & drink.

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THE TRUE COST OF TRAINING

As restauranteurs we’re “In It to Win It” aren’t we?,  Working 6 or 7 days per week, two to three meals per day… putting out fires, working on product quality, making sure our restaurants and menus are inviting and so on…  It’s a daily challenge and we all know all too well the failure rate of restaurants in the first 5 years. 

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