I eat food. I consume beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to manage a Food and Beverage operation.
In evaluating the operations of lots of clubs/resorts monthly, I find that one of the most inadequately operated, inconsistent areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are often overseen by a club board, people appear to believe that because they eat in restaurants, they somehow have some level of competence that permits them to make service decisions about this essential element of the club. The reality is that this is one of the most intricate departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a consistent experience.
Let's ask a few concerns!
Is your Food and Beverage experience appropriate for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced correctly, expensive, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food choices stuck in the past, a great balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or style? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it changed every year or more and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your item specs and part sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food expense? Do you understand the contribution margin on every item on your menu?
What about your unique events. Are they truly special? Do they develop a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly prepared for or the same thing that was done the last ten years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and promotional piece promoting the occasion? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to try brand-new occasions? New price points?
Got Worth?
What about worth added shows? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and numerous other nationwide franchises are actively programming to keep individuals being available in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned restaurants has to do with 10%?
What are you performing in your club to produce a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Beverage offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass questioning why you are doing so few covers? Or, are you attempting new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining instead of just "unique event" dining?
Something as easy as Happy Hour can create extra usage. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half cost on bottles of house wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at an unique cost on slower nights, sushi nights, appetizers at a special cost, entertainment, and lots of other ideas and events drive usage, provide incremental profits, and keep the personnel working. Are you experimenting with new occasions in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it creates.
The Experience
How is your dining room provided? With white table linens? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are offering?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, flower displays, and glossy silver chafing dishes? Or primary with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have standards of operation to guarantee the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every staff member using a clean and pressed designated uniform? Exists a specific manner to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and wine? Are members called by name? Specify steps of service in location?
Does the service staff know the structure of every product, sauce, and portion size from the menu? Is training provided a minimum of month-to-month? Is your personnel selling suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How often do you take a physical stock? Exists "independence" in the inventory process to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory prices changed routinely to show the most current cost the club is spending for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid last year still being utilized to identify inventory worth?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying items?
If you purchase it by the pound, weigh it. If you buy it by the piece, count it. If you purchase it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no situations, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how typically deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the exact same space as the items that were delivered not to mention examining the packing slip or invoice versus the products got. Shipment individuals end up being savvy really rapidly to those who hold them liable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing alcohol there costs a great deal of money over an extended period of time.
Just how much unusable food is stored in the freezer, typically a chef's best friend, and continues to be counted every month throughout inventory yet is basically worth little or absolutely nothing?
What does the organizational structure look like in your club's F&B operation? How are your managers compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific financial result, train the staff, and keep standards? Or are they paid merely for showing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Pointer swimming pool? Some mix of both? Does your pay structure promote tenure or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Legally?
In addition to costing every product on every menu, have you done the very same for liquor, beer, and wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being complied with? Do you have pourers which allow just for the pour size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's money is bound in red wine inventory? Have you recognized 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 supply a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it accounted for at all? Do you enable staff members to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you enable your staff members to consume alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).
Personal Events
What about your Personal Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are explanation you doing to bring weddings and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of establishing and breaking down every room based on the differing needs of each occasion?
Do your private occasion policies make good sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment in full needed? Do you require a signed contract? Do you even have a contract that you need be signed?
An Option
Great deals of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to respond to all of these and any others and develop a customized food and beverage experience that reflects your special circumstance and supplies what your members/guests desire and are willing to pay for.