7May2010
Posted by Crystal under: News; Restaurant Business.
Mother’s Day is one of the most popular occasions to eat out, and a large percentage of Americans choose to dine out on this day at some of the best US restaurants. In fact, taking a mother out for dinner is one of the most popular gifts on Mother’s Day, after flowers and holiday cards. On Mother’s Day many restaurants offer special menus, bargain prices, free drinks, and other excellent deals. Here are a few tips on how to best celebrate Mother’s Day at your dining establishment:
Festive Brunch. Brunches are so popular on Mother’s Day; they often get sold out well before the actual holiday. Providing your diners with a great Mother’s Day brunch experience will not only increase your sales – it will ensure future strong bookings and increased customer retention. Make Mother’s Day brunch an enjoyable and relaxing experience for your patrons by proper planning and preparation. Decorate your restaurant, using flowers, centerpieces, ribbons, and other decorative items. The brunch menu can contain traditional items, such as waffles, pancakes, omelets, French toast, or Eggs Benedict. You can also offer an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet, with carving stations and complimentary Champagne. Alternatively, you can offer 3 or 4 course brunch, including more sophisticated items, such as oysters, Eggs Benedict Florentine, prime rib, or King Crab.
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6May2010
Posted by Crystal under: News.
Gayot is one of the most popular online resources featuring expert opinions regarding the best restaurants, travel destinations and lifestyle in general. Gayot provides professional reviews of restaurants, hotels, spas, wine, cookbooks, fashion, etc., helping consumers make the best entertainment choices based on the expert opinion of the savvy restaurant critics and lifestyle experts. For Mother’s Day, Gayot has published the list of the best restaurants for Mother’s Day Brunches. Here is an overview of several of them:
A Voice Columbus, New York City, NY. The restaurant is located within Time Warner center in New York City, in the vicinity of major shopping areas, theaters, hotels, and other restaurants. A Voice Columbus offers contemporary Italian cuisine, with executive chef utilizing seasonal ingredients and adding a modern twist to traditional Italian dishes Menu offers classic Italian meals, such as ravioli, cavatelli, pansotti, and pappardelle, among many. For Mother’s Day, this restaurant offers three-course prix-fixe special brunch menu.
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5May2010
Posted by Crystal under: Recession Tips & Tricks; Restaurant Business.
Every restaurant should implement an effective training program to teach their employees basic selling techniques. Servers’ function should be not just to serve food, but enhance customer experience, effectively sell menu items and increase restaurant’s profits.
Server Training. Teach all new employees the basics of selling. Training should also include educating your servers about menu items, including detailed knowledge of ingredients and preparation processes. When servers know more about menu items, they will be able to provide more persuasive and sincere recommendations to customers and, thus, increase sales. Another way to train employees is to have new servers follow along the experienced ones and learn by watching. Identify your best servers, use them as trainers, and compensate them accordingly.
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4May2010
Posted by Crystal under: Restaurant Business.
Having an employee manual is one of the best ways to train your restaurant’s staff and keep them informed of the restaurant’s policies and procedures. A written employee manual is designed to teach your employees how to do things correctly in a restaurant setting and how to provide the best possible customer service. A good manual at the very least should contain the following information:
General Policies. Define how employees should answer the phones and provide your staff with the exact phrases you want them to use when greeting guests on the phone. Prohibit harmful activities, such as smoking in the kitchen, food preparation area, or in front of the customers. You may also prohibit personal phone calls during business hours. Define the exact dates that employees get their paychecks and your policy towards advances.
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3May2010
Posted by Crystal under: Restaurant Business.
If the restaurant’s staff is not familiar with issues surrounding food allergies, dining at a restaurant may turn into an unpleasant experience for people with food allergies. Such individuals may experience a range of symptoms if they consume foods containing allergens. These symptoms include difficulty breathing, swelling, hives, abdominal pains, and many others. In severe cases, people with food allergies may experience a potential fatal allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, which leads to a drop in blood pressure, loss of consciousness, and, sometimes, death. This article provides an overview of common food allergens and some tips on how to safely prepare and serve food to restaurant’s guests:
Common Food Allergens. Food allergy is an abnormal response of a human immune system to a particular food, when the body perceives that food to be harmful and generates antibodies to fight it. Some of the most common food allergens are fish, shellfish, peanuts, wheat, milk, eggs, and soy. In addition to allergies, some people have certain types of food intolerance. Food intolerance, unlike food allergies, does not involve immune system response. Instead, food intolerance is simply body’s inability to digest a particular food, which is why it is important to be aware of common types of food intolerance, such as lactose intolerance – individual’s inability to digest milk products and gluten intolerance – inability to digest a protein in wheat.
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27April2010
Posted by Crystal under: Recession Tips & Tricks; Restaurant Business.
Knowing how to properly conduct a restaurant interview and which questions to ask can tremendously reduce turn-over rates at your restaurant. By carefully selecting potential candidates for important positions, you save yourself from future headaches by not having to deal with problematic employees. Here are several tips on how to properly interview potential job applicants:
Short Summary of Personality. It is always nice to start the interview with an easy, yet revealing, question, asking the job applicant to tell you briefly about him/herself. This will give you the chance to get a first glimpse at the candidate’s passions, hobbies, and overall personality. By asking the candidate what kind of social circles he/she is in can provide an employer with a lot of insight into a candidate’s personality.
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26April2010
Posted by Crystal under: Recession Tips & Tricks; Restaurant Business.
Internet can be a great resource for any business, and it is becoming especially important in the restaurant industry. Just about any restaurant has a website; however, restaurants utilize their websites with different degrees of success. Here are the best practices of how to optimally use your restaurant’s website:
Use Photography. Internet is a visual marketplace. When people browse for information, especially when it is food-related, they want to see pictures. Using high quality photography on your site is the best way to properly convey the brand image of your restaurant. Use high quality, high resolutions photos to showcase your restaurant’s décor, ambiance, and convey the overall atmosphere and mood of your establishment. Promote and market your restaurant with the help of photography. Include photos of people who represent your restaurant: chefs, servers, and even guests. And even more importantly – provide vivid and attractive photos of restaurant’s menu items and drinks to lure customers in.
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23April2010
Posted by Crystal under: Equipment Maintenance & Tips; Restaurant Business.
OpenTable is an on-line restaurant reservation service. The real-time reservation services offered by OpenTable are free to consumers, and OpenTable charges restaurants monthly fees for the use of their system. Started in 1998, today OpenTable provides reservation services to the restaurants in most US cities, and even internationally.
OpenTable allows guests to search for restaurants based on various search criteria, such as cuisine, price range, location, times, and dates. OpenTable provides customers with a snapshot view of a restaurant of their choice, allows diners to check the real-time availability of many restaurants, and provides diners with resources to make free reservations. OpenTable also offers restaurant management software: this popular software was designed by OpenTable with input from hundreds of restaurants. All the hardware is also supplied together with the software, including a touch-screen monitor for your restaurant’s host stand. Here are the main highlights about OpenTable restaurant management software:
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20April2010
Posted by Crystal under: News.
James Beard is an important figure in the American gourmet history. He is credited with bringing French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s. James Beard had lived in France for a while and had been greatly influenced by the French culinary culture. In 1955 he established the James Beard Cooking School. He is known for his appreciation of good food, prepared with wholesome, fresh ingredients. The James Beard Foundation champions American culinary tradition and honors aspiring food professionals by providing them with scholarships. Annually, James Beard Foundation hosts awards ceremony for the best of the breed in the restaurant industry. Here is a brief review of the upcoming 2010 James Beard Foundation Awards for the most outstanding US restaurants:
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19April2010
Posted by Crystal under: Restaurant Business; Wine.
Many restaurants deem selling wine by the glass unprofitable. That’s why most restaurants strongly promote selling wine only by the bottle, which sometimes results in completely neglecting wine sales by the glass. While it’s true that a restaurant can make more money by selling wine bottles vs. selling wine by the glass, with the right approach to the process of selling the wine, any restaurant can experience increased wine sales and higher customer satisfaction:
Selling Better Wine. These days, customer seeks quality dining and drinking experience. Often diners are willing to pay a premium for the right wine of a good perceived value. While in the last couple of years wine sales in the restaurants have decreased volume-wise, diners still seek quality and high value bottles of wine. Even if you sell fewer bottles of wine, there are huge opportunities to increase your overall dollar sales by providing your customers with strategically priced wines from a well-stocked wine cellar.
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