I eat food. I consume beverages.
For that reason, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Drink operation.
In examining the operations of numerous clubs/resorts monthly, I find that one of the most improperly operated, irregular locations of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are typically supervised by a club board, people appear to think that due to the fact that they dine out, they in some way have some level of proficiency that enables them to make organization choices about this important element of the club. The truth is that this is among the most intricate departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a constant experience.
Let's ask a few concerns!
Is your Food and Beverage experience appropriate for what your members/guests wish to have in your club/resort? Are you priced correctly, too 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 the past, a great balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or style? 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 specifications 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 special events. 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 changed in the newsletter and marketing piece promoting the event? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to attempt brand-new events? Brand-new cost points?
Got Worth?
What about value added shows? It's happening every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and lots of other national franchises are actively configuring to keep individuals coming in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned restaurants is about 10%?
What are you carrying out 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 wondering why you are doing so few covers? Or, are you trying new concepts that may supply "meal replacement" dining rather of only "unique occasion" dining?
Something as easy as Happy Hour can create additional use. Comfort food such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or similar for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, burger night, half price on bottles of home wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at an unique cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique rate, home entertainment, and lots of other concepts and events drive usage, provide incremental income, and keep the personnel working. Are you explore new events in your club/resort? Offer it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it develops.
The Experience
How is your dining room provided? With white table linens? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging properly for the experience you are providing?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral screens, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or rudimentary with little or no frills? Does it make sense?
Do you have requirements of operation to make sure the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every staff member using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Exists a specific way to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and white wine? Are members called by name? Specify actions of service in location?
Does the service personnel understand the composition of every product, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training provided at bags for women least regular monthly? Is your personnel selling suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical stock? Exists "self-reliance" in the stock procedure to guarantee that the counts are accurate? Is inventory pricing changed frequently to reflect the most recent expense the club is spending for all inventoried items or is the cost the club paid last year still being utilized to determine stock value?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying products?
If you buy 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 circumstances, accept it blindly.
I am amazed at how often shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the very same room as the products that were provided let alone checking the packaging slip or billing versus the products got. Delivery individuals become savvy extremely quickly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing steak here or a couple of bottles of missing liquor there costs a great deal of money over an extended amount of time.
How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, often a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted every month during inventory yet is essentially 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 simply for revealing up?
How is your service staff paid? By hourly wage? Tip pool? Some mix of both? Does your pay structure promote period or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Lawfully?
In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the very same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have specified pour sizes? Are they being adhered to? Do you have pourers which permit only for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is tied up in red wine stock? Have you established 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 provide a worker meal? How is it represented? Is it accounted for at all? Do you enable employees to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you enable your workers to take in alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).
Private Events
What about your Personal Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced ideal mean? Have you assessed the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring wedding events and conferences 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 "assurance' due? When is payment completely required? Do you need a signed contract? Do you even have an agreement that you need be signed?
A Service
Lots of concerns! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to respond to all of these and any others and develop a tailored food and beverage experience that reflects your special circumstance and supplies what your members/guests want and want to spend for.