Choosing A Restaurant Signature Dish

A restaurant signature dish should be something that is special for your region, cuisine, or interests. There are many ways to pick an entree or a meal that comes to represent the facility itself in your customers' minds. It can be based on economy, or taste, or various other factors. These ideas may help you to define what would serve as a dish that will keep your clients coming back.

One obvious way of picking or designing a special dish is to link it to the region of the country in which the restaurant is located. There are certain regions that are known for their ability to prepare specific foods. For example, the Pacific Northwest is known for its wild salmon. In Texas, barbecue dishes are popular. On the Gulf Coast, Creole flavors might be the dish of choice.

Another way of creating a popular dish is to think about your typical customer. If your restaurant serves mainly couples who want to sit and relax for a leisurely dinner date, the main dish probably should be more elaborate than what you would select if your typical dining crowd is teenagers dropping by after school.

It is important to realize that a house specialty should be one that has readily available ingredients. One that is overly elaborate or requires hard-to-find components may be a poor choice. Diners who make the effort to come for a special dish that has been praised in one venue or another will feel cheated if you can't provide the meal on demand.

LOOKING FOR A RESTAURANT RESERVATION BOOK?

Another factor to consider when designing this item or meal is that it must have consistence. If several people are doing the cooking, decorating or plating it must look and taste the same each time it is served. Strict guidelines for its preparation must be available to avoid a disappointment when your diners can't depend on a well-loved flavor or texture from one time to the next.

If you take all these factors into consideration, you will be more likely to produce a restaurant signature dish that will reflect the type of dining establishment that customers return to again and again. Your specialty of the house might be related to the region of the country or to the typical diner. If the restaurant features an ethnic menu, this should help you determine the right dish. Be sure that your choice always taste the same way each time, and that you can be fairly assured of having the necessary ingredients on hand.

How To Retain Your Restaurant Employees

When you want to save on operational expenses, one area of expense that can be effectively reduced is the cost of recruiting and training employees. You may not realize how expensive it can be to find a replacement employee. In addition to the cost of placing a recruitment ad, spending time reviewing resumes, interviewing prospective employees and outfitting the person in necessary uniforms and name tags, you must take time to set up financial records and payroll records.

Once the person is on the job, there is time that must be set aside for orientation and training. These tasks could be done by the manager or owner. Alternatively, another employee must take time to explain processes and procedures. This tends to reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the employee who is doing the training. Some restaurants provide an employee manual to help in the training.

All of these training and orientation measures cost money which is often never recouped in later efficiencies. You would be far better off to put in place measures that retain trained and experienced employees wherever possible. You might make the pay level somewhat higher than other similar employers in the area. You could put training money into courses that allow employees to move up within your organization.

The retention of restaurant employees doesn't necessarily have to cost a log of money. Recognize good job performance with perks such as a parking place with a sign to honor the "Employee of the Month". When a person is praised for accomplishments on the job, it is a boost to the morale of everyone. Encourage praise cards from customers and share them with the employees.

Employee safety and health should always be of primary concern. In a restaurant, it is easy for food spills to make slip-and-fall accidents too common. Awareness of one's surroundings will help protect you from losing an employee to an accident that could have been prevented. Make sure that each employee has food handling certification and that proper lifting techniques are known and applied.

You can retain your employees by identifying common issues that can arise in a dining establishment and ensuring that the worker knows what is expected in each instance. These events could include things like choking, and allergic reactions to food items. When you own or operate an establishment that recognizes the importance of your staff in ensuring the success of the business, you will be encouraged to make sure employees are valued for their contributions.

What You Should Know About Leasing

You may be reviewing whether or not to purchase restaurant furniture and fixtures or to lease them. This is a decision that can mean the difference between a profitable bottom line or one that is less so. Before making the choice between buying or leasing, here are some suggestions to review, so you have a better understanding of the topic

Review the lease contract with care. You shouldn't assume that anything is included in the contract unless you have seen it. Better yet, have your business attorney and your tax accounting review the contract. In most instances, negotiation to get the exact terms you need is beneficial. The lease should be set up in a way that your bookkeeper and your attorney each approve.

There are advantages of choosing leasing over purchasing the equipment and fixtures you need. For example, the cost of monthly payments tends to be less than the cost of purchasing using a payment plan. When you have limited financial resources, your cash flow is improved when you lease rather than pay your nest egg out for purchased fixtures.

When you use leased equipment, you can probably arrange a clause so that you always have the latest model or style in your facility. You will also want to ensure that maintenance for mechanical or electronic equipment is included within the terms of the contract. This feature is an advantage you get when you lease rather than buy. However, you will need to ensure that the contract speaks to the topic.

Leasing the restaurant equipment you need does have a disadvantage or two. You ordinarily don't own the equipment. If should go out of business before the lease term is completed, chances are that you will have to pay a penalty, which could be substantial. Because the equipment is not owned, it may have have tax implications. For example you may lose the tax benefit of depreciation, depending upon how your accounting system is designed.

When you are deciding between purchased and leased equipment, you will want to consider price, both for the original purchase, the monthly payment amounts and the tax-adjusted amount if that apply. It's important to be sure that your lease agreement is clear, easy to read, and doesn't contain any unpleasant surprises. Using leased equipment may allow you to keep the latest model or style in your facility. You will also have the option of including the maintenance in the cost of the lease.

Designing The Ideal Restaurant Opening Checklist

Before you decide to open your dream restaurant, it is vital to design a restaurant opening checklist in order to get the best business up and running. The checklist ensures that you budget is carefully spent on the activities that are most required to effectively boost your restaurant's reputation.

An ideal restaurant opening checklist is the key to the successful start-up of a restaurant. With clear and organized business ideas listed in the checklist, there is less room for error and the possibility you will start a profitable business. First of all, your checklist should include employee training. All your restaurant employees must be fully aware of their respective jobs and responsibilities at all times. Also, before you open your restaurant to the public, you need to choose the food suppliers and develop a firm understanding with them on price. The restaurant opening checklist will ensure that you have all your "i"s dotted in the correct place.

A checklist designed for a new restaurant also includes maintenance services and an advertising plan. Whether your restaurant is loaded with high-tech equipment or offers a simple coffee shop, effective preservation is highly recommended. From cleaning of windows to repairing of equipment, your checklist must include all the necessary maintenance services that your restaurant requires. Advertising, similarly, is extremely significant for any business start-up. A restaurant opening checklist contains the advertising plans that are essential to enrich the status of your restaurant throughout the city.

A restaurant opening checklist is hugely important for starting a new restaurant. The checklist will ensure that you get the best site location for a reasonable price and perform all the business setup tasks that are essential for a successful start-up. With a perfect restaurant checklist at hand, it can become extraordinarily easy to open a restaurant with a low budget.

Restaurant Inventory

Is not restaurant inventory the most daunting task on the planet?  I dread the end of month where all the liquor, food,small wear,beer and everything else in the restaurant needs to be counted.  There I am coffee in hand, a coffee I should probably not be drinking as it is my seventh or eighth of the day and I am ready to enter the deep freezer pen and clipboard in hand. Ready to freeze my hands and ears to count case after case of frozen product.  Can you image my dismay finding multiple boxes open, empty boxes, and product that should not even be on the freezer.  Ahhh the life of a restaurant manager!

I remember a time when smart phones 1st came onto the market and I owned one hoping to be able to save myself a few golden moments of data entry after counting so many items but I always found that my old trusty clipboard an pen was best.  Always hunting down the months invoices to adjust my pricing on my restaurant inventory forms.

I so wish they had iPads when I started on the restaurant industry.  How easy it could be to access all your restaurant forms on the fly and adjust pricing as each invoice came in.  Never mind the ability to have your excel inventory sheets almost the same size of tradition paper an pen inventory forms.

Heres a great trick to play on a fellow employee next time inventory gets you down.  You know the plastic swords behind the bar they use for olives, onions and soon for cocktails.  Next time your working on bar inventory find an easy target and ask them for help with your inventory and get them to found something easy 1st like the katsup at the server station.  When they come back and give you the inventory total ask them to help again and ask them to count the bar swords of an open box.  Now remember you CANNOT smile at all when asking or you will give yourself away.

Have fun!

The Importance of Using Restaurant Opening Checklist

A lot of people would still want to engage in the food business despite the fact that the economy is not good. Well, this might not seem like a wise choice for some, but in fact, it is. There are a lot of people who have already started their own business. They just made use of restaurant opening checklist and they were good to go. This checklist contained all the essential ideas that they have to remember in order to finish the job well. The checklist is not just a simple checklist, but it contains the necessary details in putting up a restaurant.

Yes, you might just go on your own when it comes to opening a restaurant. However, if you are guided, it will feel so much different. You will have a lot of details that might be overlooked if you just do things your own way. However, if you have the checklist with you, you will be guided. You do not have to worry about what is missed out since you just have to look at the checklist. It is also easy for you to go back on the areas that were not yet solved. If you continue using the checklist until the end, it will be very easy for you to start the business in no time.

Most of all, the use of the checklist only signifies that you are a responsible owner. You know what to do from the very beginning in order to achieve the results as early as possible. Thus, if you can just go and see this checklist now, you will be more confident in putting up your own business. There will be no hassle and delays. Rest assured, when you have followed all the steps successfully, your business will be a blast just like the others who have made use of the checklist.

A Restaurant Prep SpreadSheet Will Have You Laughing All The Way To The Bank!

A restaurant prep spreadsheet is pretty much a given in the restaurant business. Have no idea what I’m talking about? Well, if you’re an aspiring restaurateur, then you need to do your homework! A restaurant prep spreadsheet lets you know exactly how much of each dish is prepared. This helps ensure that wastage is minimized and also helps you ensure that you’re making a healthy profit from your business!

Too Much Or Too Less?

Are your kitchen personnel preparing too much food? Well, you can’t serve up the leftovers the next day, can you? As a result of which you either have to throw them away or let your staff feast on them! Now this is all good occasionally, but on a regular basis, every day? That’s every businessman’s nightmare! Can you imagine the amount of loss you’ll have to incur?

On the other hand, if you don’t make enough food, you’re not going to be able to serve up your customers’ favorites. That’s really not good for the business as it draws negative publicity for your restaurant. Moreover, you’ll have to disappoint your patrons and they might just decide to go to the restaurant on the next lane to fulfill their culinary fantasies! That doesn’t sound so good either!

A daily restaurant prep sheet is the answer to all your woes. This way, you can regulate the amount of food your kitchen staff makes on a daily basis and ensure that you benefit most from it since it cuts down on your losses considerably. But how do you know how much of which item to make on what day?

Menu Engineering

Mind boggling isn’t it? That is where menu engineering comes in. Yep, opening a restaurant is all about being clever with your math. And you thought it was just about food, didn’t you! Menu engineering is a field of study which enables you to asses the popularity of the food items or dishes on you menu.

This means that it is basically a tool for you to asses your profits, since it takes into account the basic market price of the ingredients and the price you sell them for. So menu engineering is essential if you want to make a restaurant prep spreadsheet.

A free restaurant prep spreadsheet it available on my site for aspiring restaurateurs, of course, seasoned veterans have already mastered the technique of formulating a proper restaurant prep spreadsheet, but you can take a look too, you may be surprised by the things that slip your mind sometimes!