I eat food. I drink beverages.
For that reason, I am certified to manage a Food and Drink operation.
In assessing the operations of many clubs/resorts monthly, I discover that one of the most poorly operated, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are typically overseen by a club board, individuals appear to believe that because they dine out, they in some way have some level of proficiency that permits them to make company decisions about this crucial aspect of the club. The reality is that this is one of the most complicated departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a constant experience.
Let's ask a couple of concerns!
Is your Food and Drink experience suitable for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced correctly, too high, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food selections stuck in the past, a nice balance of old favorites and brand-new selections, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or style? Do you alter your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or two and end up being 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 product on your menu?
What about your special occasions. Are they actually unique? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly anticipated or the very same thing that was done the last ten years with absolutely nothing more than the year changed in the newsletter and promotional piece promoting the occasion? Is your online medicine shop personnel challenged every quarter to attempt new events? New price points?
Got Worth?
What about value included shows? It's occurring every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, and numerous other national franchises are actively programming to keep people being available in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned dining establishments has to do with 10%?
What are you doing in your club to create 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 few covers? Or, are you attempting new principles that may provide "meal replacement" dining rather of only "special occasion" dining?
Something as basic 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 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 a special price, entertainment, and lots of other principles and occasions drive use, supply incremental earnings, and keep the staff working. Are you experimenting with brand-new occasions in your club/resort? Give it a try. You'll be surprised at the buzz it creates.
The Experience
How is your dining-room provided? With white table linens? No tablecloths? Placemats? Are you charging properly 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 good sense?
Do you have standards of operation to guarantee the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every employee using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Is there 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 staff know the composition of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training supplied at least regular monthly? Is your personnel selling suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical inventory? Exists "independence" in the inventory procedure to guarantee that the counts are accurate? Is inventory pricing adjusted routinely to reflect the most recent expense the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the cost the club paid in 2015 still being utilized to determine stock value?
Do you follow this mantra when getting and inventorying products?
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 circumstances, accept it blindly.
I am amazed at how typically deliveries are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the same room as the products that were provided let alone inspecting the packaging slip or billing versus the goods received. Shipment individuals end up being smart extremely rapidly to those who hold them liable and those who do not. A few pounds of missing steak here or a few bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a great deal of cash over an extended time period.
How much unusable food is stored in the freezer, often a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted every month throughout 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 supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific monetary outcome, train the personnel, and keep standards? Or are they paid merely for revealing up?
How is your service staff paid? By hourly wage? Idea pool? Some combination 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 same for liquor, beer, and white wine? Do you have defined pour sizes? Are they being followed? Do you have pourers which allow only for the put size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's cash is bound in wine stock? 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 month-to-month service fee? Should you?
Do you offer a worker meal? How is it accounted for? Is it represented at all? Do you allow employees to remove food/beverage from the club? (A bad concept!). Do you enable your staff members to consume alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Occasions
What about your Private Events? 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 meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of setting up and breaking down every space based upon the differing needs of each occasion?
Do your personal event policies make sense? When is the "warranty' due? When is payment in full required? Do you need a signed contract? Do you even have an agreement that you require be signed?
A Service
Great deals of questions! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and produce a personalized food and beverage experience that shows your distinct situation and supplies what your members/guests desire and are willing to pay for.