I consume food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to supervise a Food and Drink operation.
In assessing the operations of lots of clubs/resorts every month, I discover that one of the most badly operated, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Particularly in member owned environments, which are frequently managed by a club board, people appear to believe that because they dine out, they somehow have some level of knowledge that enables them to make company choices about this essential aspect of the club. The truth is that this is among the most complex departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a consistent experience.
Let's ask a couple of concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience appropriate for what your members/guests wish to have in your club/resort? Are you priced properly, too expensive, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food selections stuck in yesteryear, a good balance of old favorites and brand-new selections, or edgy? Is your menu developed 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 two and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your product requirements and portion sizes? Is every item on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food cost? Do you know the contribution margin on every product on your menu?
What about your unique events. Are they actually special? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly prepared for or the exact same thing that was done the last ten years with absolutely nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and marketing piece touting the occasion? Is your staff challenged every quarter to attempt brand-new occasions? New price points?
Got Worth?
What about worth added programs? It's taking place every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, and lots of other nationwide franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals being available in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned dining establishments is about 10%?
What are you performing in your club to produce a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Drink offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass questioning why you are doing so couple of covers? Or, are you attempting new principles that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of just "special celebration" dining?
Something as easy as Happy Hour can produce extra usage. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 during the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half price on bottles of home white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at an unique rate on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at a special price, entertainment, and many other ideas and occasions drive use, provide incremental revenue, and keep the staff working. Are you explore brand-new events in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be surprised at the buzz it creates.
The Experience
How is your dining-room presented? 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, floral displays, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or primary with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have standards of operation to make sure the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every team member wearing a tidy and pushed designated uniform? Is there a particular way to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and white wine? Are members called by name? Are specific actions of service in location?
Does the service staff know the structure of every product, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least regular monthly? Is your staff offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical stock? Is there "self-reliance" in the inventory process to guarantee that the counts are accurate? Is inventory pricing changed regularly to reflect the most recent cost the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid last year still being used to figure out inventory worth?
Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying items?
If you purchase it by the pound, weigh it. If you purchase it by the piece, count it. If you buy it by ounce or length, measure it? Under no scenarios, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how frequently deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the exact same space as the products that were delivered let alone examining the packaging slip or invoice against the products received. Delivery people end up being smart extremely rapidly to those who hold them responsible and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing alcohol there costs a lot of cash over an extended time period.
How much unusable food is stored in the freezer, frequently a chef's best friend, and continues to be counted on a monthly basis throughout stock yet is essentially worth little or nothing?
What does the organizational structure appear like in your club's F&B operation? How are your managers compensated? Are they incented to produce a particular monetary outcome, train the personnel, and maintain standards? Or are they paid just for revealing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Idea swimming pool? Some combination of both? Does your pay structure promote tenure or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Legally?
In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the very same for alcohol, beer, and red wine? Do you have specified pour sizes? Are they being stuck to? Do you have pourers which allow only for the put size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's money is tied up in wine inventory? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make sense for your club? Do you have a minimum month-to-month service fee? Should you?
Do you provide an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you enable workers to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you enable your staff members to take in alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Personal Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced ideal mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What recycling textiles are you doing to bring weddings and meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the costs of setting up and breaking down every room based on the varying needs of each event?
Do your personal event policies make sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment completely needed? Do you require a signed agreement? Do you even have an agreement that you need be signed?
A Solution
Great deals of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and produce a customized food and drink experience that shows your special circumstance and offers what your members/guests want and want to spend for.