I eat food. I drink beverages.
For that reason, I am certified to manage a Food and Drink operation.
In evaluating the operations of lots of clubs/resorts each month, I find that one of the most poorly operated, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Particularly in member owned environments, which are typically overseen by a club board, people seem to believe that due to the fact that they eat in restaurants, they in some way have some level of proficiency that permits them to make service choices about this important element of the club. The truth is that this is one of the most complicated departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a consistent experience.
Let's ask a few concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience proper for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced correctly, expensive, or too low? How do you understand? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food choices 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 change 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 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 events. Are they actually unique? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly expected or the exact same thing that was done the last 10 years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and advertising piece promoting the event? Is supermarket supplies your staff challenged every quarter to try brand-new occasions? New price points?
Got Value?
What about worth added shows? It's taking place every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other nationwide franchises are actively programming to keep people can be found in. Any wonder 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 develop 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 couple of covers? Or, are you trying new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining rather of just "special occasion" 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 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half price on bottles of home red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at a special price on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at a special rate, entertainment, and lots of other concepts and occasions drive use, offer incremental revenue, and keep the personnel working. Are you experimenting with new events in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be surprised at the buzz it produces.
The Experience
How is your dining-room presented? With white tablecloths? No tablecloths? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are offering?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, flower display screens, and shiny silver chafing meals? Or basic 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 team member using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Exists a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and red wine? Are members called by name? Specify steps of service in location?
Does the service staff understand the composition of every item, sauce, and portion size from the menu? Is training provided at least monthly? Is your staff offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical inventory? Exists "independence" in the inventory process to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is stock prices changed regularly to reflect the most current cost the club is paying for all inventoried products or is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being utilized to figure out stock value?
Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying products?
If you buy it by the pound, weigh it. If you purchase it by the piece, count it. If you buy it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no circumstances, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how often deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the very same room as the items that were delivered let alone examining the packing slip or invoice versus the items got. Delivery people become savvy very rapidly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a lot of cash over an extended amount of time.
How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, typically a chef's friend, and continues to be counted on a monthly basis during 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 particular monetary result, train the personnel, and keep requirements? Or are they paid just for showing up?
How is your service staff paid? By per hour wage? Pointer swimming pool? Some combination of both? Does your pay structure promote period 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 white wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being stuck to? Do you have pourers which allow only for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's money is bound in white 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 offer a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it accounted for at all? Do you permit staff members to get rid of food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you allow your employees to take in liquors at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Events
What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced ideal mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of setting up and breaking down every room based upon the varying requirements of each event?
Do your private event policies make sense? When is the "assurance' due? When is payment completely required? Do you need a signed agreement? Do you even have an agreement that you require be signed?
An Option
Lots of concerns! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to answer all of these and any others and develop a tailored food and beverage experience that shows your special scenario and supplies what your members/guests desire and want to spend for.