Greetings!
Happy November!
We can’t be alone in thinking that the whole world’s gone casual. The absence of big-deal upscale-restaurant openings this season is just the latest nail in the coffin of the hushed, formal, jacket-and-tie dining destination. Instead, consumers are getting more of what they were starting to want anyway, even before the Great Recession: approachable, affordable restaurants that still offer quality, variety and a memorable dining experience. In a word: casual.
And speaking of casual, getting rid of the trappings of upscale dining, like embossed menu covers and white linen tablecloths, is one of six new-economy cost-cutting measures that we explore in the article linked below. From breaking out the 1-oz. labels to implementing an online ordering system, we’ve got all sorts of ways to hold the line on costs this month.
And if you’re interested in the subject of sustainable design, please be sure to check out Gary Wiggle’s article covering best practices for “Going Green.”
To your success,
Dean and Danny
Keepin’ It Casual
By Joan Lang
It seems that the New York City Parks Department is looking for someone to operate a “high quality casual restaurant and café” in the old Tavern on the Green location in Central Park. But the worries of a few UES residents notwithstanding, are there any other kind these days?
Think about it: How many new restaurants could accurately be called formal? The kind where the waiters wear tuxedos and gentlemen wear jacket-and-tie, the atmosphere is hushed and the tables are separated by acres? Although established destinations like the French Laundry may still require a jacket, the marketplace has been headed in another direction since even before the recession killed off the concept of old-line fine dining. And the issue isn’t really sartorial anyway: It’s all about the overall experience.
The trajectory of Cleveland “cheftrepeneur” Michael Symon could be a case study for the casualization of the restaurant industry in the new millennium. His first restaurant, 1997’s Lola, may have a rep as being the best restaurant in town (and one of the most expensive), but make no mistake: This is an American bistro, with a high-energy atmosphere fostered in part by an open kitchen and servers in shirtsleeves.
Next came Lolita, in 1995, more casual still and with prices that Symon has worked very hard to keep at under $20 for an entrée. And now, with his B Spot mini-empire of burger joints, the chef has taken the same high standards that brought him to the party and applied them to menu items and ingredients like housemade pickles and sausage, custom-blend beef proudly sourced from star butcher Pat La Frieda, and a serious craft cocktail program (the B stands for burgers, bourbon, beer, bratwurst and bologna).
Service is majorly casual: “All food will come to the table together,” says B Spot’s mission statement. “This way we’ll keep everything running ship shape & keep waits to a minimum. If you’re interested in courses…ask your caddie.” Tellingly, they’re not kidding about the word waits.
A glance at some of the new higher-profile restaurants on the docket for this year’s restaurant-opening season provides more fuel for the fire of this quality/casual trend, from wine bar/retail markets to Mexican small plates:
• Bread & Wine – This new wine bar-cum-market in Chicago will specialize in farm-to-table options like lamb–mustard seed meat loaf and house-made pappardelle with braised beef shank, pickled radish, and crème fraiche. There will also be a bar-snack menu, available from 3 p.m. onward (snacks including fried pickles with a horseradish dip, house-made kielbasa, and tacos with house-made chorizo); an extensive selection of small-batch and other unique wines; and a retail market dispensing housemade jams, jellies, baked goods and artisanal cured meats and pate
• Despite his much-touted Italian provenance, Mike Isabella—runner-up in Bravo’s first “Top Chef All Stars”—will be opening a new “modern Mexican” small-plates restaurant called Bandolero in Washington, DC, early next year. The Jose Andres protégé, who opened an Italian-inspired restaurant called Graffiato in June, aims to attract the college-student crowd with items like salsa, guacamoles, ceviches, tacos, and fajita-like “carbons” served family-style for the table. There will also be a large tequila- and mescal-based cocktail menu
• Among the more than 50 new restaurants that were set to open this season in New York City: a sports bar called AOA Bar & Grill; Viktor & Spoils, a taqueria and tequila bar in the boutique Hotel Rivington; and Parm, a much-awaited Italo-American lunch counter from the creators of Torrisi Italian Specialties. Even the more upscale openings have that bar-and-grill “ampersand” casual vibe going on, including Pillar & Plough in the new Hotel Williamsburg (with a Joel Robuchon acolyte at the helm) for “New York neighborhood food,” and the seasonal American Battersby in Brooklyn, courtesy of alumni from Gramercy Tavern and the Mark.
Look to Synergy Restaurant Consultants for help keeping your restaurant in step with the latest trends.
Cutting Costs in the New Economy
By Joan Lang
Everybody’s feeling the pinch these days. With the economy still shaky and food costs forecast to increase 3-5% in 2012, restaurant operators are facing a real dilemma as to how much they can raise prices or offer discounts and deals to their customers without eroding margins irreparably.
The need to cut costs is nothing new. What is new are a few ways to achieve that crucial goal, coupled with the need to double-down on such age-old concerns as reducing theft and making sure your scales are accurate.
1. Consider implementing an online ordering system
A recent study by The Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration suggests that as many as one-quarter of restaurant operations that accept takeout orders use an online ordering system. The issue for consumers is not so much convenience as taking control of the ordering process, while operators are finding that the savings in labor costs associated with telephone ordering contributes to ROI on the system. In addition, enhanced accuracy of the orders means less need for refunds and replacement orders. Can you say cost savings?
2. Fast-track new-product introductions
New products are the life blood of any retail organization. But the traditional product rollout process can be lengthy and expensive. Make the testing process work harder to build sales and brand engagement. Create an advisory panel of regular customers who can weigh in on potential concepts even before the actual recipes are developed, winnowing out potential clunkers at the conceptual stage. Then conduct tastings of the most well-received ideas before they’re put on a test menu; this also helps to create consumer loyalty at the local level, by making your customers part of the process. Utilize daily specials, LTOs and other new-product introduction techniques that generate revenue and excitement during the initial evaluation stage.
3. Standardize recipes, and give kitchen staff the tools to follow them
“Eyeballing” amounts in a recipe is the enemy of food-cost control, not to mention product consistency. If you haven’t already, go through every recipe produced and establish ironclad measurements for every single ingredient, including spices and condiments. Don’t forget sub-recipes like sauces and marinades. Do the same in the bar: You and your employees should know and follow drink recipes right down to the number of teaspoons of celery salt in the bloody Mary mix. Perhaps while you’re at it, you can find ways to improve flavors or better cross-utilize common ingredients.
Make the recipes available to all employees by whatever means works for you, and then put systems in place to see that they’re followed. And if that means recalibrating scales for weighing proteins and buying more 1-oz. ladles for sauces, do it.
4. Work harder to minimize “shrinkage”
The difference between the theoretical or ideal food cost that you’ve established and actual food cost is called shrinkage, and it can wipe out your hard-won margins. To prevent theft and less deliberate slipups, you need to implement such procedures as:
• Monitoring food costs on a constant basis (preferably by the shift) so you can identify problems immediately
• Reconciling guest checks and kitchen chits
• Locking the store room doors
• Making sure someone in charge checks in any deliveries, and double-check to see that you receive credit from suppliers for product returned
• Accounting for items that are sold or taken by management or employees for personal use
5. Get creative with labor costs
One of the first things many operators do when trying to cut costs is cutting labor, but that can be a mistake—you could easily erode service or fail to cover an unexpected surge in business. Figure out how to get enough people on the clock during peak hours to deliver excellent service without having to carry extra labor during the down times. Look for people willing to work 2-3 hours a day so that you can schedule them just over lunch or dinner when you are busy—moms with school-age kids, for instance, who might be available between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Split shifts for folks who may have afternoon classes. Cross-train willing employees so that they can do prep work or set up for catering when they’re not waiting tables.
6. Go casual
There’s a reason so many restaurants are more casual in the new economy: Casual restaurants are less expensive to operate. For example, doing away with tablecloths saves money on both linens and laundry. Gone, too, are pricey fresh flowers and elaborate tablescapes. Place settings and plates can be more multipurpose (no more fish forks). Menus can come straight from the computer—or even live on a blackboard—rather than printed and placed in a binder or cover. You won’t need as many production people in the kitchen, and you can probably get by with fewer servers—or at least busboys and wine stewards. And menu items that depend on less expensive ingredients (ground beef, “lesser” meat cuts for long braising, tri-tip instead of filet mignon) carry lower food costs.
Synergy Restaurant Consultants can help you find ways to cut costs and build sales throughout your operation. Call us for a free evaluation.
Best Practices in Architectural Design: Going Green
By Gary Wiggle, AIA, Architectural Design
In the world of design, the current hot color is green. I don’t mean green-colored upholstery or green-colored paint: In the context of facilities, “green” is the common term used for sustainable design. Sustainable design offers a solution that minimizes the environmental impact of the end product. That impact can be using less energy to operate, being recycled or recyclable, choosing materials that protect the air that we breathe, or even using materials that are more durable and therefore will not need to be replaced as soon or as often. “Going Green” is not an all-or-nothing decision. Every aspect of the design seems to have a more sustainable solution available, and each decision has to be made based upon the client’s requirements, the financial implications, and the suitability to the overall project.
New sustainable products are being introduced in the marketplace at a rapid pace. LED lighting is a great example of a technology making significant strides in a short amount of time. Historically available only as a blue white lamp source, you can now specify the color temperature of most LED lamps, allowing you to approximate the warm glow of an incandescent source that is still dimmable. This feature allows us to use a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient light source and still achieve the warm look that we are accustomed to when setting the atmosphere in a dining room.
As a part of their standard workflow, architects and designers make decisions that impact people on many different levels. When a component of a building, such as a cabinet, for instance, is designed and specified, this can affect the people who live near the forest where the raw materials are harvested. (Using wood that comes from a forest certified by The Forest Stewardship Council can help to address this.) The craftsmen who assemble and finish the cabinet can be exposed to glues and finishes that may have volatile fumes, and staff and customers may be exposed to poor interior-air quality by these finishes, especially if they wear out too quickly, requiring reapplication or replacement. (Selecting finishes with low- or no-VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds, will help to address this issue).
Designers are able to easily research online the available products. Manufacturers are very anxious to let you know the sustainable qualities of their products, many with cross-references to their entire product line, and most with references to many of the third-party independent sources that monitor the claimed compliance. The U. S. Green Building Council, GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, and The Forest Stewardship Council (mentioned above) are examples of these organizations.
As a part of the Synergy Design Team, we recently completed a prototype restaurant, LYFE Kitchen, in Palo Alto, CA. Our client specified at the start of the design process that sustainable design was to be the minimum standard we look at, and be “more green” whenever possible.
As a new concept restaurant, the design phases spanned a period of about 14 months. Within that timeframe, we were able to consistently upgrade many of our design choices as new and upgraded products came to market. Paint choices went from Low–VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) to No–VOC. Design decisions were made that moved heat-creating equipment to the exterior so that we did not need to add additional air-conditioning to handle the extra heat. Light sources included compact fluorescents and LED sources. Furniture cushions were specifically selected to eliminate any off-gassing that could compromise the indoor air quality. Energy Star-rated equipment was used throughout the kitchen. All of these were small pieces of the whole design. When combined, we were able to achieve the client’s goals of great indoor air quality, energy-efficiency, and a commitment to sustainable practices in the day-to-day operation of the business.
As an architect I keep reminding myself that every one of these small decisions towards sustainable design makes a difference, today and in the future.
Let Synergy Restaurant Consultants help you achieve more sustainable design and operational standards by calling us for a free initial consultation.
Tip of the Month
If you’re thinking about tapping in to location-based services, make sure you do your homework. From well-known GPS-enabled market leaders like Yelp and Foursquare to newer startups, there are a lot of different options. To get you started, here’s an article from American Express’s Restaurant Briefing Newsletter to help lay some groundwork.