I eat food. I consume beverages.
Therefore, I am certified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.
In evaluating the operations of numerous clubs/resorts monthly, I find that a person of the most improperly operated, inconsistent areas of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are often supervised by a club board, people appear to think that because they eat in restaurants, they in some way have some level of knowledge that allows them to make company choices about this crucial aspect of the club. The truth is that this is one of the most complex departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a constant experience.
Let's ask a couple of questions!
Is your Food and Beverage experience suitable for what your members/guests wish to have in your club/resort? Are you priced appropriately, too high, or too low? How do you understand? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food selections stuck in yesteryear, a nice balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or fashion? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it changed every year or more and become a club dinosaur? What are your product specs and portion sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your objective for a la carte food cost? Do you understand the contribution margin on every product on your menu?
What about your unique occasions. Are they truly special? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly anticipated 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 attempt new occasions? New price points?
Got Worth?
What about worth included programming? It's occurring every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, and numerous other nationwide franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals coming in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned dining establishments is about 10%?
What are you performing in your club to create 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 few covers? Or, are you attempting brand-new ideas that may offer "meal replacement" dining instead of only "unique celebration" dining?
Something as easy as Pleased Hour can create extra use. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 during the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half rate on bottles of home red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at a special cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at a special rate, entertainment, and many other concepts and events drive use, supply incremental earnings, and keep the staff working. Are you try out brand-new events in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it produces.
The Experience
How is your dining room provided? With white tablecloths? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are supplying?
How are your buffets presented? Elegantly with skirting, floral display screens, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or fundamental with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have standards of operation to ensure the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every employee wearing a tidy and pushed designated uniform? Is there a specific manner to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and wine? Are members called by name? Specify actions of service in location?
Does the service personnel understand the structure of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least regular monthly? Is your personnel offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical inventory? Exists "self-reliance" in the inventory procedure to make sure that the counts are precise? Is inventory pricing adjusted routinely to show the most recent expense the club is paying for all inventoried products or is the expense the club paid in 2015 still being used to figure out inventory value?
Do you follow this mantra when getting 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 scenarios, accept it blindly.
I am astonished at how typically deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the same space as the items that were provided not to mention examining the packing slip or invoice versus the goods received. Shipment people end up being savvy really rapidly to those who hold them responsible and those who do not. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a lot of cash over a prolonged period of time.
How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, often a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted each month throughout stock yet is basically worth little or nothing?
What does the organizational structure look like in your club's F&B operation? How are your supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a particular financial outcome, train the personnel, and maintain requirements? Or are they paid merely for revealing up?
How is your service staff paid? By hourly 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 item on every menu, have you done the exact same for liquor, beer, and wine? Do you have defined pour sizes? Are they being adhered fashion shoes for men to? Do you have pourers which allow only for the pour size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's money is tied up in wine stock? 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 offer an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you allow workers to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you enable your employees to take in alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced right mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of establishing and breaking down every space based on the varying needs of each event?
Do your personal occasion policies make sense? When is the "guarantee' due? When is payment in full required? Do you need a signed agreement? Do you even have an agreement that you need be signed?
An Option
Lots of concerns! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to respond to all of these and any others and develop a personalized food and beverage experience that reflects your unique situation and supplies what your members/guests want and want to pay for.