I consume food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to oversee a Food and Beverage operation.
In assessing the operations of many clubs/resorts monthly, I find that one of the most poorly run, inconsistent areas of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are frequently managed by a club board, people appear to think that since they dine out, they in some way have some level of knowledge that allows them to make business choices about this essential 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 few questions!
Is your Food and Beverage experience appropriate 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 choices plastic manufacturing companies stuck in the past, a nice balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or style? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or two and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your item specs and part sizes? Is every product 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 unique occasions. Are they actually unique? Do they produce a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly expected or the very same thing that was done the last 10 years with absolutely nothing more than the year changed in the newsletter and promotional piece touting the occasion? Is your personnel challenged every quarter to attempt new occasions? Brand-new price points?
Got Worth?
What about worth included programming? It's taking place every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and lots of other national franchises are actively configuring to keep people can be found in. Any wonder the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned dining establishments is about 10%?
What are you doing 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 few covers? Or, are you attempting new concepts that may offer "meal replacement" dining instead of just "special celebration" dining?
Something as basic as Pleased Hour can generate additional usage. 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, hamburger night, half rate on bottles of home white wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's selection at an unique cost on slower evenings, sushi nights, appetisers at an unique cost, home entertainment, and lots of other principles and occasions drive usage, supply incremental income, and keep the staff working. Are you try out brand-new occasions in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be shocked at the buzz it produces.
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 supplying?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral screens, and shiny silver chafing dishes? Or simple 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 employee using a clean and pressed designated uniform? Is there a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and red wine? Are members called by name? Specify actions of service in place?
Does the service personnel know the structure of every product, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied a minimum of monthly? Is your personnel offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical stock? Exists "independence" in the inventory procedure to make sure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory rates changed routinely to reflect the most current cost the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being utilized to determine inventory value?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying items?
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 situations, accept it blindly.
I am astonished at how frequently shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the exact same space as the items that were delivered let alone inspecting the packing slip or invoice versus the items got. Delivery people end up being smart extremely quickly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A couple of pounds of missing out on steak here or a couple of bottles of missing out on liquor there costs a great deal of money over an extended amount of time.
Just how much unusable food is stored in the freezer, typically a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted on a monthly basis throughout stock 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 supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific monetary outcome, train the personnel, and preserve requirements? Or are they paid simply for revealing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By hourly wage? Tip 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 product on every menu, have you done the very same for liquor, beer, and red wine? Do you have specified pour sizes? Are they being stuck to? Do you have pourers which allow just for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is bound in red wine inventory? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Drink minimum? Does it make sense for your club? Do you have a minimum monthly service fee? Should you?
Do you supply a staff member meal? How is it accounted for? Is it accounted for at all? Do you allow workers to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you enable your workers to take in alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Occasions
What about your Personal Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you examined 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 space based upon the varying requirements of each event?
Do your personal event policies make good sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment completely required? Do you require a signed agreement? Do you even have an agreement that you need be signed?
A Solution
Lots of concerns! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and develop a customized food and drink experience that shows your special circumstance and provides what your members/guests want and are willing to pay for.