I eat food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Beverage operation.
In examining the operations of numerous clubs/resorts monthly, I discover that a person of the most poorly operated, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Specifically in member owned environments, which are often supervised by a club board, people appear to believe that since they dine out, they in some way have some level of competence that permits them to make organization decisions about this important element of the club. The truth is that this is among the most intricate departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a consistent experience.
Let's ask a few concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience suitable for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced effectively, too high, or too low? How do you understand? Are you tracking cover cpu parts counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food selections stuck in the past, a good balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or fashion? Do you change your menu quarterly, or a minimum of 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 specifications and part sizes? Is every item on your menu costed? What is your objective for a la carte food expense? Do you know the contribution margin on every item on your menu?
What about your special occasions. Are they really special? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly prepared for or the very same thing that was done the last 10 years with absolutely nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and advertising piece promoting the occasion? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to attempt new occasions? Brand-new price points?
Got Value?
What about worth added programs? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other national 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 separately owned dining establishments has to do with 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 wondering why you are doing so few covers? Or, are you trying brand-new principles that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of just "unique occasion" dining?
Something as simple as Pleased Hour can create additional usage. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or similar for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half price on bottles of house white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at an unique price on slower nights, sushi nights, appetizers at an unique rate, entertainment, and many other principles and occasions drive use, supply incremental revenue, and keep the personnel working. Are you experimenting with brand-new events in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it develops.
The Experience
How is your dining room provided? With white tablecloths? No tablecloths? Placemats? Are you charging properly for the experience you are offering?
How are your buffets presented? Elegantly with skirting, flower screens, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or simple with little or no frills? Does it make sense?
Do you have standards of operation to make sure the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every team member wearing a clean and pressed designated uniform? Is there a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and wine? Are members called by name? Specify actions of service in place?
Does the service personnel understand the composition of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training provided a minimum of monthly? Is your staff offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How frequently do you take a physical inventory? Is there "independence" in the inventory process to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory prices changed frequently to show the most current expense the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being used to determine inventory worth?
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 buy it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no scenarios, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how frequently shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the exact same space as the products that were provided let alone examining the packaging slip or billing versus the products got. Delivery individuals become smart very quickly to those who hold them accountable and those who do not. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing out on liquor there costs a great deal of cash over a prolonged period of time.
Just how much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, typically a chef's best friend, and continues to be counted every month during inventory yet is basically worth little or absolutely nothing?
What does the organizational structure appear like in your club's F&B operation? How are your supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a particular monetary result, train the personnel, and maintain standards? Or are they paid just for revealing up?
How is your service staff paid? By per hour wage? Idea swimming pool? Some combination of both? Does your pay structure promote period or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Lawfully?
In addition to costing every product on every menu, have you done the same for alcohol, beer, and wine? Do you have specified put sizes? Are they being complied with? Do you have pourers which enable only for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's money is tied up in red wine inventory? Have you recognized par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make good sense for your club? Do you have a minimum monthly service fee? Should you?
Do you provide an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you enable employees to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you enable your employees to take in liquors at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Private Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you examined the competitive environment? What 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 upon the varying needs of each occasion?
Do your private occasion policies make sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment in full required? Do you require a signed contract? Do you even have a contract that you require be signed?
A Service
Lots of questions! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and develop a tailored food and drink experience that reflects your special circumstance and supplies what your members/guests desire and want to spend for.