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10 Ways to Build Restaurant Sales

Sep 30, 2011

In a new article appearing in the September 26 issue, Nation’s Restaurant News shares a number of great industry ideas for “10 ways to build business inside your restaurant’s four walls”—all of them “touch points” for the consumer’s dining out experience.

We’d like to add a few ideas of our own.

One: Make an Online Connection

• Be sure to post a current menu online, on both the website and Facebook, including prices
• Investigate a means for taking reservations as well as comments and criticism online
• Put your address and phone number on every page of your website

Two: Dress Up Your Outdoor Décor

• Ensure the safety of arriving guests with such basics as level pavement, minimal steps (if possible) or at least ones that are clearly marked, and adequate lighting so there are no darkened areas or blind spots
• Smooth the transition from indoors outdoors to in. If you operate in a cold climate, for instance, provide a heated “airlock”-type double entrance, or at least a heavy curtain with a clear way through to the dining or indoor entrance area
• If possible, display your menu somewhere that’s accessible and well-it, so passers-by can have a look before they decide

Three: Make Your Greeting Count

• In addition to friendliness and a warm welcome, there are nuts-and-bolts issues that should be addressed in the entryway or lobby as well, such as a place to put down packages or purses while removing coats (not to mention a place or a means to store coats), and/or a bench that’s enough out of traffic for a guest to wait for a car or another guest without having to go to the bar

Four: Tap Your Sales Keg

• Make sure there are nonalcoholic options for those who are not imbibing, for whatever reason. If they’re special enough—flavorful, signature items with appropriate glassware and garnish—you can even charge a premium for them.
• Make sure the bartender acknowledges a waiting guest even if he or she can’t take the order immediately

Five: Get a Rave Review

• Consider such tableside service touches as pouring a sauce onto an entrée, splitting up or providing additional plates for a dessert that customers say they will share, or tossing a salad tableside

Six: Fine Tune Your Food

• Try to respond to guests’ concerns about food allergies or intolerances, portion sizes, substitutions and “custom orders” by establishing clear policies and procedures with employees, and empowering both service and kitchen staff to follow through
• Make sure the menu is easy to read and understand from the point of view of such elements as typeface/size and layout, and the way the categories or organized, as well as table lighting

Seven: Show off Your Chef

• Consider including the name of your chef and other important kitchen personnel, such as the sous chef, on the menu
• Likewise, you may want to include a bio of your chef on the website, or even a blog, recipes and other, more personalized messaging from the kitchen. Chains such as Oceanaire Seafood Room are doing this to great effect

Eight: Rev Up Sales at the Drive-Thru

• At the risk of sounding xenophobic or un-PC, make sure the person taking order speaks clearly and without an accent that may be hard for the customer to understand
• Be cognizant of the fact that cars come in many sizes, from low-to-the-ground sports cars to big SUVs, when determining the height of speakers, window exchange areas, and the like

Nine: Make Guests Feel at Home

• Be aware and take steps to correct issues such as drafts and hot or cold spots, speaker “shadows” and the like
• Lighting, lighting, lighting (appropriate for your target customer, adequate without being too bright, and adapted to the function of the location—e.g., reading the menu at the table, the entrance to the restroom areas)
• On the subject of restrooms, if possible their entrance and layout should afford every possible privacy. They should not open directly into the dining room; if yours is a small restaurant with minimal room for a corridor, at least provide some sort of screen. And designate a staff member to check them regularly for cleanliness, availability of supplies, and so on

Ten: Leave a Lasting Impression

• Presenting loyalty cards, coupons and other materials to departing guests is all well and good, but make sure to do it with subtlety—consider leaving these on the table with the check or place them near the door where customers can grab them, if they want to

For more ideas on how to build your business, contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Sep 28, 2011

Buy me some peanuts… and pulled pork sliders with a local craft beer on the side?

No doubt about it, when it comes to concessions we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto—and we mean no disrespect to that great state in the middle of the country. Like all American diners, sports fans, moviegoers and other entertainment buffs have become more sophisticated in their demands, and the old model for concessions is falling by the wayside.

And this certainly spells opportunities for chefs, restaurateurs, and others in the food and beverage biz who are hungry for additional sales and ways to expand their brand recognition.

• In San Francisco’s AT&T Park and other big baseball stadiums, fans can get a glass of wine to go with their hot dogs, thanks to vintner-sponsored wine bars and other by-the-glass programs

• Movie theaters are now becoming destinations for dinner and a movie. At Lincoln Center in New York City, for instance, Indie Food & Wine offers up organic veggie dogs and artisanal chocolate courtesy of the folks who own the hip local ’inoteca restaurant group. There’s popcorn, yes, but it’s truffled Indie Food & Wine at Lincoln Center

• Meanwhile, Nighthawk Cinema in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, offers burgers, smoked brisket sandwiches, and drinks in your seat, thanks to a Prohibition-era law that’s finally being overturned. Care for a Southern Vacation (Old Forester with mint, lemonade and orange bitters) to wash down that viewing of “The Help”?

• Matt Del Regno, new executive chef at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Ohio, where foodservice is provided by Levy Restaurants of Chicago, manages all the concessions at the facility, including clubs, the VIP Lounge, and tailgate catering

• Following the pattern developed at the Mets’ new Citi Field complex—where Danny Meyer famously headed up the development of concessions—management at the giant Madison Square Garden have brought in prominent local chefs like Drew Nieporent and Jean-Georges Vongerichten to prepare such specialties as lobster rolls and hand-carved prime rib

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September 2011 Newsletter

Sep 28, 2011

Greetings!

This month, we take another look at the growing small-plates trend, courtesy of our associate Patricia Liu. Certainly, there are plenty of examples of restaurants that serve only small plates, but you don’t have to overhaul your menu completely to offer them. Simpler strategies, like increasing the proportion of appetizers to entrees, can help you meet increasing customer demand for small plate options, and there are a number of benefits, as our Culinary Project Manager points out. In addition, there’s an article about the reasoning behind the industry’s reliance on limited-time menu programs (LTOs) and some shame-on-you’s in the service department.

To your success,

Dean and Danny

 


 

Get in on the Small Plates Trend

By Patricia Liu, Culinary Project Manager

The tapas or small plates restaurant concept is not new, but the popularity of such establishments is prompting restaurants to adopt the menu model in their own ways to great success. Even mainstream restaurants, such as The Cheesecake Factory with its Small Plates and Snacks section, are getting on this trend by providing many more appetizer selections.

There are numerous advantages to adding more small plates selections to your menu:

• It provides additional dining options. With more variable serving size offerings, it is now possible to capture not only the customers who want to have a traditional dinner but also those who want to sample a variety of different things or those coming in as a large group to mainly socialize and drink.

Appetizers are usually more profitable, so having more small plates provides additional profit opportunities.

• Increased small plate offerings lowers average price per plate, which has two main upsides. One is the restaurant is viewed as a more cost-effective dining option. Also, the restaurant’s cost category would be downgraded in reviews and write-ups, which can entice more cost-conscious diners to try the restaurant. On a side note, people often tend to order more small plates because of the perceived low cost, even though in the end, the costs add up.

• By categorizing the menu by plate size, it also gives more freedom to menu creation – you no longer need to provide a certain number of salads, soups, appetizers, and entrees, etc.; it is more by plate size.

• The small plates model of creates a more social atmosphere, which can result in higher beverage and alcohol sales.

There are different variations of the small plates concept. Some restaurants, especially wine bars and gastropubs, offer only small plates. Others are adopting the model by offering many more appetizers than entrees. Another variation: In addition to having appetizers and entrees, having mid-size offerings (i.e., between appetizer and entrée-size), or having bite-sized items similar to pintxos in Spanish restaurants. With so many different flavors of this concept, there is sure to be a model that fits your establishment.

small plates

Whichever variation you decide to implement, you will need to consider kitchen, operational, and equipment impacts, very similar to how you analyze any changes to a menu. For example, with more offerings, how will the load on your different stations shift? Will you need to purchase more plates, share plates, or utensils? How will your expediting and ticketing systems change?

Small plates options can be an exciting modification to your menu that can be relatively low cost and effort to implement. So, give it a try!

To find out how Synergy can help you adopt the small plates trend, contact us for a free consultation.


 

The Word on Service: Try Harder

By Joan Lang

A recent post in Eater brought up an extremely interesting point about service: As restaurant concepts become more casual, many people think that service has suffered. There’s even a movement afoot in many quarters to replace servers altogether, with iPads and other high-tech devices. But while this is a fun novelty at the moment—and very appropriate for tech-savvy Gen Y’ers and early adopters of any age, for whom texting has replaced telephoning and even the slower email—restaurants have always been a high-touch business. There’s a reason it’s also called the hospitality industry, after all.

Even in fast food or quick-casual outlets, where there’s no table service per se, attitude and the technical aspects of customer service are paramount. And that takes proper hiring, training and empowering. A shift in paradigm from formality to a more laidback style is no excuse for ineptitude, rudeness, or misguided notions of what “casual” means.

A few examples, by way of illustration.

The owner of a new French bistro had hired a sommelier with a following from a previous job, but the gentlemen in question was too busy chatting up friends at the bar to attend to the tables. For some people, working in restaurants is fun, and very social, but there have to be lines drawn. Having a job in the hot new place doesn’t mean all your friends should come in and visit you. Never mind that the wine guy looked like an unmade bed, with his rumpled suit and uncombed-looking hair. He dropped off the wine list, then skedaddled back to hold sway at the bar, even though I was clearly waiting for a friend and could have used something to sip. No amount of pointed eye contact or finger-raising could get him back, and when I tried to order from a server, she said she’d send the wine steward over. End result: The house lost a glass sale—and neither of us ever went back.

The Moral: Staff has to be on the floor, not hanging out having fun. And it’s fine to have a following, but not at the expense of other customers’ experiences. People who deal with the public need to have a certain temperamental willingness to serve the public, and shouldn’t be hired otherwise. The server, meanwhile, should have been trained to take the order, even if there is a wine specialist.

In a highly rated destination restaurant that had converted its bar area into a less expensive “small plates” concept, we were asked to order all our small plates at one time. I know why they did this: for the benefit of the kitchen, used to coursing standard orders that come in all at once. But that doesn’t cut it. Small plates are all about nibbling and noshing, building up the check gradually—and everyone knows that small-plate sales can really add up. We succeeded in getting a plate of warm olives with our initial round of drinks while we considered the rest of our order, but the bartender made it clear that he was making an exception because it was still early, and the main dining room hadn’t filled up yet. End result: We hadn’t actually decided whether we were going to have our entire meal there, and we didn’t—and neither of us ever went back.
The Moral: Don’t offer a menu service that you can’t support with customer service. Lacking the ability to reconfigure the kitchen or its staff, management could have taken a lesson from the ages-old tapas bar, and created a menu of small plates that the bartenders could have served: meats and cheeses, prepared items, bowls of marinated olives or mixed nuts. Or only offer the bar menu on traditionally slow nights.

During a teeming rainstorm, a waiter setting up his tables wouldn’t open up the door for us ten minutes earlier than the designated noon start of lunch service. He pointed to his watch, and kept on polishing silverware. Yes, the dining room needs to be set up and the silverware spotless before opening, but that’s just a guideline. Maybe he didn’t have the key. Go and get it from the guy in the back office, no matter what it says on the door. Needless to say, we went elsewhere—and none of us ever went back.

The Moral: This one’s all about lack of training and empowerment, if not common sense. There are rules for a reason, and there are plenty of reasons to break them. Staff members should understand what the policies and procedures are, and one of the policies should always be that judgment must trump procedures when it comes to keeping the customer happy. The people with their feet on the ground—the service staff—need to trained to the priorities and empowered with the flexibility to meet them.

If need some help with your training policies and procedures, contact Synergy for a free consultation.


 

How Do You Spell Sales? L-T-O.

By Joan Lang

Many chain restaurants have long favored LTOs (limited time offers) as a way to create news, keep customers engaged, offer seasonal favorites (such as fish during Lent), and test possible new menu items. Generally speaking, LTOs are a more rigorous and codified version of the daily specials offered in independent restaurants.

Lately, however, thanks to the sagging economy and the advent of new technologies, the industry has been upping the ante on this time-honored practice, accelerating both the pace and the number of menu specials. Popeyes, for instance—long known for its creative special-menu programs—is making LTOs a priority this year.

limited time offer

There are a number of reasons to mount limited time offerings:

  • Bolster business during a typically slow season – Whether it’s summer in Florida or the weeks surrounding tax time, virtually every kind of restaurant will have traditional slow-traffic periods where there is both a need and the capacity to boost business (you don’t necessarily want to increase sales when a location is already bursting at the seams)
  • Take advantage of seasonal availability and pricing – Items like fresh produce can be less expensive during the growing season, not to mention more appealing to patrons. That’s a double whammy reason for offering something like more entrée salads during the warmer months
  • Offer a different price point – With either premium items or discounts such as a Two for $20 promotion, companies can manipulate average checks or change consumer perception of the concept’s affordability
  • Keep employees on their game – From the menu R&D and marketing departments to the line cooks on location, everybody gets to stretch their creativity, learn new things and alleviate job boredom with LTOs
  • Create a consumer rallying point – From traditional media to the website landing page and social media vehicles like Facebook and Twitter, LTOs are one of the best promotional devices that exist, creating news and a sense of excitement
  • Test new items for the menu – A focused long view of LTOs can be part of a disciplined approach to the evolution of the menu. For instance, if management has identified the need to offer more boldly flavored ethnic items to address changing consumer preference, a program of LTOs can be used to identify the kinds of items that are best suited to the organization’s particular concept and operations
  •  Tracking technology is much more sophisticated – POS systems and tracking programs that pinpoint everything from sales velocity per hour to the point at which the novelty of a given LTO wears off make the process much more meaningful and quantifiable
  • Respond more effectively to the local market – LTOs that are offered on a market-by-market basis allow a large chain to be more a part of the local marketplace, trends and preferences

Want more tips on how to create and manage LTOs? Contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.


 

Tip of the Month

If you’d like to track what other chains are doing in the LTO and promotions area, or how trends are developing in various segments, check out Datassential. In addition to providing custom research, the company has a variety of resources in its archives, including the Menu Trends e-newsletter tracking such trends as upscale barbecue and food trucks.

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Name That Promotion

Sep 19, 2011

Now more than ever, it’s important to promote your restaurant. And a promo that’s about to debut at New York City’s Smith & Wollensky steakhouse illustrates why it pays to think out of the box when it comes to developing an event or program.

In a city with more than 150 steakhouses, each with its own cadre of diehard devotees (Sparks, Ben Benson’s, Peter Luger, The Palm—not to mention outposts of chains like Ruth’s Chris and Morton’s), S&W parent Fourth Wall Restaurants is asking customers to “pledge allegiance” to the 34-year-old bastion of beef in exchange for having the restaurant renamed after them … for a day. From October 3 through the end of the month, a different pledgee will be chosen daily at random and their last name will replace the “Smith,” on everything from the signs and awnings to the matchbooks and cocktail napkins.

The beauty part of this promotion is that it’s aimed straight at creating ownership and brand superiority. The pledge includes such credos as “Smith & Wollensky is MY steakhouse. I will have no other,” and “If I am taken to another steakhouse, I will politely direct the table conversation to the inferiority of the steakhouse to Smith & Wollensky”: 10 Wollensky-centric promises in all.

Facebook fans have furthered the message in kind ( “I pledge allegiance to S&W of midtown NYC and to the midtown for which it is in, one NY strip, medium well, uncut, with creamed spinach and fries for all!”)

The brilliant catch? You have to make a reservation in order to enter, which means—as the website points out—means you’ve already won.

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Biodynamic Wines go beyond Organic

Sep 18, 2011

The word may sound a bit strange, but “biodynamic” wines are the next trend in food and drink. What exactly is it? Biodynamic viticulture (grape growing) refers to the agricultural farming methods of handling and processing of grapes for wine making. This farming method was inspired by the teachings of Dr. Rudolph Steiner, a professor and philosopher from Austria, which predates most of the organic movement. Steiner’s approach to viticulture actually has much to do with the cosmos in addition to good farming principles. He believed and taught that growth of leaves,roots, flowers and fruit was influenced by the position of the moon and stars. Essentially, there’s an ecological rhythm of earth and plant life with respect to the moon, sun and stars.

Today, you can think of Biodynamic farming as beyond just organic. Farmers use a general holistic approach and specifically utilize the vineyard’s natural resources to cultivate the highest quality grapes possible without the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, or growth stimulants. The result is a healthier soil, healthier vines and better tasting wine.

Interested in trying some Biodynamic wines? LYFE Kitchen will be introducing them on their menu. Likewise, visit this master list of Biodynamic wine producers.

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Can These Crazy Ideas Possibly Work?

Sep 14, 2011

If there’s one thing that springs eternal, it’s hope—and what more evidence do you need than these two wacky-sounding new-concept ideas springing up?

Just opening in New York City, Taka Taka is an ultimate mashup of “Mexican sushi & Japanese tacos.” There have always been similarities in foods across the globe—think of all the meatballs, for instance, from Swedish to Italian to Shanghai-style Lion’s Head —but Taka Taka pushes the boundaries, from the menu of mixed-up rolls to the origami-meets-Mexico City décor.

The real hook, though, is the conveyor belt that snakes through the booth-filled dining room, delivering cross-cultural finger food like shrimp tempura taco with avocado and masago in a flour tortilla, and a chipotle-sauced maki roll filled with cheese and avocado—all on plates that are color-coded by price. The a la carte selection from the kitchen includes “sushi bomb” rice balls, soft-shell tacos, and Shabu Shabu that’s heated at the table on induction grills, the better to help hipster customers keep their cool. The cocktail list includes—surprise!—sake, tequila, and mezcal specialties, along with beers from both countries.

From Fort Lauderdale comes news of the planned opening of an ice-themed restaurant called Tundra: Ice sculptures, ice-globe light fixtures, flowers encased in ice, and food and drink served in and on ice. Ice-freak owner David Berman also owns a company that does sculptured ice for all kinds of occasions.

Cocktails served in spherical ice glasses obviate the need for ice cubes. The signature Tundra Taste Tour menu item at $59 includes a selection of 16 small plate options. Ice flatware and plates, shipped in from Sculptured Ice Occasions, will display the likes of duck prosciutto and curried crab.

The décor is billed as tundra-style, an earthy look that calls to mind the frozen landscape of a natural arctic tundra, with a moss-lined entrance and tones of browns, greens and deep reds. A chandelier styled to look like icicles (though it’s not actually made of ice, thank goodness) hangs from the center of the dining room, and there’s a snow white LED-lit bar. The overall effect, according to press reports, will be intimate, rather than cold.
Berman and his partners have plans, for two additional ice-themed restaurants in South Florida: a more upscale Miami location called Chill and the more casual Alaska Ice Lodge, set to open next year.

Tell us: Do you think these crazy concepts can work?

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LYFE Kitchen Teams up with Synergy Consultants In National Healthy Restaurant Rollout

Sep 13, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dean Small 949-499-5776

Palo Alto, CA. – As consumer demand heats up for good tasting, healthy restaurant fare, Mike Roberts, former global president and COO for McDonalds has been working with a highly-experienced and evolved culinary team to satisfy the changing palates of Americans. Although LYFE Kitchen has recruited notable celebrity chefs as well as other high profile individuals to fashion their upcoming offering, much of the crucial work has been guided by industry veterans from Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

“Today’s consumers don’t want to sacrifice flavor, convenience or affordability in favor of nutrition,” says Dean Small, founder and a managing partner. “That’s one reason why LYFE Kitchen selected Synergy. Our comprehensive experience convinced them we would help take their idea from incubation to reality. And we have. LYFE Kitchen’s first location opens in Palo Alto this month.”

Over a year ago, Roberts signed the Synergy experts to not only develop appealing tastes and lend its expertise in scaling up the LYFE Kitchen concept but “because we had extensive national chain account experience and know what it takes to create a fully realized restaurant organization,” explains Small. “Mike recognized our track record with so many world-class organizations validated that we had a firm grasp of all the critical disciplines required to grow a national brand.”

LYFE Kitchen (http://www.lyfekitchen.com/) is a transformational, socially-responsible “lyfestyle” brand whose acronym stands for Love Your Food Everyday. Its mission: To answer one of America’s greatest unmet consumer needs by providing great-tasting, affordable, good-for-you food while making a positive impact on all of the communities it serves.

The restaurant will be showcasing a diverse menu created by award-winning chefs Art Smith and Tal Ronnen delivering on the promise of great-tasting food that is nutritious, convenient, and affordable. While the food will always be the centerpiece of LYFE Kitchen, Synergy brought the full weight of its culinary, operations and design and human resources team to the table, helping LYFE Kitchen turn its initial vision into a well-tuned, expertly staffed, eco-friendly environment that captures the spirit of the brand.

Small, who shared project duties with co-managing partner Danny Bendas, “understood how important tight operating systems would be as LYFE ramps up for national expansion. Our mutual goal was to invent proprietary products that would permit the concept to be scaled quickly. Thus far, we are all very pleased and excited.”

Danny Bendas and Dean Small with LYFE Kitchen CEO Mike Roberts at LYFE Kitchen Forklifting

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Rising costs of healthcare reform and the hospitality industry

Sep 10, 2011

“The ‘baked in’ costs of health care reform are just one of the very compelling arguments for changing the way we manage hotels and restaurants,” said Chuck Conine, president of Hospitality HR Solutions, the industry human capital consulting group. Another impetus for change could be demographics, Conine added, “how those young people making decisions on whether to choose a hospitality career view what the industry has to offer — and are deciding whether the traditional style of top-down leadership our industry was built upon is appealing. Research, and our track record in bringing new talent to our industry, suggest that it’s not.”

Read the entire article here

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iPad systems enables restaurant efficiency

Sep 02, 2011

The future of restaurants is here.

Technology today has made a much more direct impact to the consumer these days, with devices like the smartphone and tablet enabling
consumers to do things on the fly that they couldn’t do before.

Business have certainly been able to benefit from this, by reaching out to consumers in new ways. But now, the tablet is helping restaurants from the front-of-house, to the back-of-house.

De Santo, an upscale Italian restaurant located in the West Village, is the first to have wait staff utilize a custom iPad system to take orders and swipe credit cards read the full Inc. article here.