I consume food. I consume beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to supervise a Food and Beverage operation.
In examining the operations of lots of clubs/resorts every month, I discover that one of the most improperly operated, inconsistent areas of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are typically managed by a club board, individuals seem to believe that because they dine out, they somehow have some level of competence that allows them to make company choices about this crucial element of the club. The reality is that this is one of the most complicated departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a consistent experience.
Let's ask a couple of questions!
Is your Food and Beverage experience suitable for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced appropriately, expensive, or too low? How do you know? Are you tracking cover counts by day? By shift? By hour?
Are your food choices stuck in yesteryear, a good balance of old favorites and new choices, or edgy? Is your menu created for function or fashion? Do you change your menu quarterly, or at least semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or two and become a club dinosaur? What are your item specifications and portion 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 unique occasions. Are they really unique? Do they create a buzz in the Club? Are they excitedly prepared for or the very same thing that was done the last ten years with nothing more than the year altered in the newsletter and advertising piece promoting the event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to attempt new events? Brand-new price points?
Got Value?
What about worth added shows? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and numerous other national franchises are actively configuring to keep people can be found in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of separately owned restaurants is about 10%?
What are you performing 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 couple of covers? Or, are you attempting new principles that may provide "meal replacement" dining rather of only "special event" dining?
Something as easy as Pleased Hour can create additional use. Home cooking such as meatloaf, chicken casserole, lasagna, or comparable for" at $8 or $9 during the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half cost on bottles of house red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at a special price on slower nights, sushi nights, appetizers at an unique rate, entertainment, and many other ideas and events drive use, offer incremental earnings, and keep the personnel working. Are you experimenting with brand-new occasions in your club/resort? Give it a try. 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 presented? Elegantly with skirting, floral displays, and shiny silver chafing dishes? Or basic with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have requirements of operation to guarantee the food and beverage experience for your members/guests? Is every employee using a tidy and pressed designated uniform? Is there a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, cocktails, and red wine? Are members called by name? Specify steps of service in location?
Does the service personnel know the composition of every item, sauce, and part size from the menu? Is training provided a minimum of month-to-month? Is your staff selling suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How typically do you take a physical inventory? Is there "independence" in the stock process to ensure that the counts are accurate? Is inventory rates changed regularly to reflect the most current expense the club is spending for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid in 2015 still being used to identify inventory value?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying products?
If you buy it by the pound, weigh it. If you buy it by the piece, count it. If you buy it by ounce or length, determine it? Under no situations, accept it blindly.
I am amazed at how typically shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the very same space as the items that were delivered let alone inspecting the packing slip or invoice versus the products received. Shipment individuals become savvy really quickly to those who hold them liable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing out on alcohol there costs a great deal of cash over a prolonged amount of time.
Just how much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, frequently a chef's friend, and continues to be counted every month throughout stock yet is essentially worth little or absolutely nothing?
What does the organizational structure appear like in your club's F&B operation? How are your supervisors compensated? Are they incented to produce a specific monetary result, train the staff, and keep standards? Or are they paid merely for showing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Idea pool? Some combination of both? Does your pay structure promote period or turnover? What about overtime? Are you paying overtime? Lawfully?
In addition to costing every product on every menu, have phone signal booster you done the exact same for liquor, beer, and wine? Do you have defined put sizes? Are they being stuck to? Do you have pourers which allow just for the pour size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's cash is tied up in wine inventory? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Beverage minimum? Does it make sense for your club? Do you have a minimum regular monthly service fee? Should you?
Do you provide an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you enable staff members to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you permit your staff members to take in alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Personal Events? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced best mean? Have you assessed the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and conferences to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of establishing and breaking down every room based upon the varying needs of each occasion?
Do your private occasion policies make sense? When is the "guarantee' due? When is payment completely required? Do you require a signed contract? Do you even have a contract that you require be signed?
An Option
Great deals of questions! Get a management company that will work collaboratively with you to answer all of these and any others and produce a personalized food and beverage experience that reflects your special situation and supplies what your members/guests want and want to spend for.