I consume food. I consume beverages.
Therefore, I am qualified to supervise a Food and Drink operation.
In evaluating the operations of numerous clubs/resorts monthly, I find that one of the most inadequately operated, irregular areas of club/resort operations is Food and Drink. Specifically in member owned environments, which are typically managed by a club board, people seem to think that because they dine out, they in some way have some level of knowledge that enables them to make company choices about this crucial aspect of the club. The truth is that this is among the most complicated departments in a club to manage, control, and produce a constant experience.
Let's ask a few questions!
Is your Food and Beverage experience proper for what your members/guests want to have in your club/resort? Are you priced appropriately, too 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 nice balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu developed for function or style? Do you change your menu quarterly, or a minimum of semi-annually to keep it fresh? Or is it altered every year or more and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your item specifications and part sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food cost? Do you know the contribution margin on every product on your menu?
What about your special occasions. Are they actually unique? Do they develop 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 altered in the newsletter and marketing piece promoting the occasion? Is your staff challenged every quarter to try new events? New price points?
Got Worth?
What about value added programming? It's taking place every day in the hospitality industry. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and numerous other national franchises are actively programming to keep individuals being available 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 doing in your club to develop a "WOW" for your members/guests in your Food and Drink offerings? Are you standing pat on your $32 filet and $28 sea bass wondering why you are doing so few covers? Or, are you trying new ideas that may provide "meal replacement" dining rather of only "special celebration" dining?
Something as easy as Delighted Hour can generate 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 evenings, sushi nights, appetizers at an unique rate, entertainment, and many other ideas and occasions drive usage, provide incremental earnings, and keep the personnel working. Are you try out new occasions in your club/resort? Give it a shot. You'll be amazed at the buzz it develops.
The Experience
How is your dining room provided? With white table linens? No table linens? Placemats? Are you charging properly for the experience you are offering?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral displays, and shiny silver chafing dishes? Or rudimentary with little or no frills? Does it make good sense?
Do you have requirements of operation to guarantee the food and drink experience for your members/guests? Is every team member using a clean and pushed designated uniform? Is there a specific manner to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and white wine? Are members called by name? Are specific actions of service in place?
Does the service personnel understand the composition of every product, sauce, and portion 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? Is there "self-reliance" in the inventory process to ensure that the counts are precise? Is inventory rates changed routinely to reflect the most current cost the club is spending for all inventoried products or is the expense the club paid last year still being utilized to figure out stock value?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying items?
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 scenarios, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how often shipments are accepted and signed for without even physically being in the exact same space as the products that were delivered not to mention checking the packaging slip or billing versus the items received. Delivery individuals become savvy really rapidly to those who hold them accountable and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing out on liquor there costs a lot of money over an extended amount of time.
How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, often a chef's friend, and continues to be counted monthly throughout inventory yet is essentially worth little or 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 outcome, train the personnel, and preserve standards? Or are they paid just for revealing up?
How is your service personnel paid? By per hour wage? Pointer swimming 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 you done the exact same for alcohol, beer, and red wine? Do you have specified put sizes? Are they being adhered to? Do you have pourers which allow just for the put size for which you are charging? Just how much of your club's resort's cash is bound in white wine inventory? 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 monthly service charge? Should you?
Do you provide a staff member meal? How is it accounted for? Is it accounted for at all? Do you permit workers to eliminate food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you permit your employees to consume alcohols at the end of a shift? (An even worse idea!!).
Personal Occasions
What about your Personal Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced ideal mean? Have you evaluated the competitive environment? What are you doing to bring weddings and meetings to the club/resort? Are you covering the expenses of setting up and breaking down every room based upon the varying requirements of each occasion?
Do your private occasion policies make sense? When is the "assurance' due? When is payment in full needed? Do you need a signed agreement? 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 answer all of these and any others and produce a customized food and drink experience that reflects your services unique scenario and supplies what your members/guests want and want to spend for.