Restaurant Questions

kaliraksha

Well-known member
Hey guys! This might be a long story... but in short I'm asking for any advice related to restaurants.

My family recently opened a large restaurant... and it's not doing AS well as it should be doing. Does anyone have family in the restaurant business? Have you ever been a waiter or a bartender? What kind of scheduling did you have? Rules? How did the hostess seat people in what sections? Anyone in PR or advertising? What would you do for something in a historical touristy part of town?

My family restaurant is starting to make more sales in liqour than food... which means it might be forced to apply as a liqour establishment instead of a foodservice establishment. Damn you delicious margaritas!

Even if you've never partaked in part of a restaurant... when you go to a restaurant... what do you look for most? Decor? Food? Service? Specfically, what do you like?


Thank you very much for any suggestions! I'm away from home where the restaurant is and I can't do too much from far away and I really want suggestions... even any book suggestions! :confused:
 

melozburngr

Well-known member
Hmm. tough question. I was in food service in some way shape or form (waitress, cashier, hostess, cocktail server, and bartender) for over 10 years, hopefully I can offer some insight.

Seating- hostesses are generally instructed to seat in a revolving pattern, a table to each server, one after another(up to a set amount of tables, predetermined by management- 3-6 is generally a safe bet depending on type of restaurant, i.e. fancy restaurants less, casual restaurants more), unless a special table/server is requested, then do that best to accomodate their request. Whatever you do- try NOT to double-seat a server, it puts a lot of strain on them for the first few minutes, having to greet, get drinks and take orders for two tables pretty much at once...its not a HUGE deal, but some servers can't handle it. (and they get MADDDDD) lol

Perhaps, if alcohol is starting to play a big part in the business, play it up, offer 1/2 off appetizers during happy hour, and perhaps even discounted meals, it'll give people the chance to taste your cuisine without shelling out what they normally would, and people LOVE that.

Scheduling really depends on the size of the establishment and how busy you are on given days/nights. Generally between lunch and dinner are really slow times, so there are generally a minimum amount of servers... and generally no hostess.. it's not irregular to see a bartender and one server during afternoon hours, depending on the size of the establishment.

HTH!
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IslandGirl77

Well-known member
I've never worked or had a family own a restatraunt. I think though, what I'd look for in a place...is nice enviroment, friendly people, and just great food. I like places that are authentic. What kind of cuisine is it? Like Mel said, maybe you should offer specials. This one place I like to go for Mexican food, it's not real fancy. But, the food is really cheap and good. They always have lunch specials and happy hour specials. Maybe you can try that. Maybe try to advertise more to get your names out there. Also, where is the location? Could it be in a place where not to many people can find it real easy?
 

serendipityii

Well-known member
Scheduling is a bitch... no one is ever going to be okay with their schedules and leave it be. People will always want to trade/switch/substitute and that's to be expected. Just ask that they notify you in advance (48 hours, 24 hours, whatever you choose).
Like melozburngr said, servers generally get their own "sections" of a certain number of tables. The hostess should seat the first section first (generally the person who got there first), and continue on. At my restaurant, we do "cuts". At dinnertime, 2 people come in at 3:45 and do opening prep, and 2 more people come in at 4:45 and will end up doing closing prep. (We open at 4:30.) One person that came in at 3:45 is "first cut" and is "cut" (not able to take tables) at around 7:30, followed by the other person who came in at 3:45, cut around 8 or 8:15. There's a "closer", one of the people that came in later, who stays until the very end.
 

brandiisamonkey

Well-known member
I've been in the resturat industry for quite some time now... I currently have TWO jobs, one at a national Chain and one at a privetly owned Fine fining Resturant. You Cant apply the same rules to both resturants, the small one would go out of buisness if they did some of the things a corporate resturant would. The small resturant advertizes on tv with a small comercial to reach areas outside of where we live and they also do small adverts in a local paper. Selling alot of liquor isnt that bad because generally thats where your money is... I agree with what was said earlier give some sort of special where you cn get an app or desert half off or something of that sort... Though I dont know what TYPE of food it is and thats important too... Because the fine dining place I work at could never do something like that it just isnt that type of place... Also make sure that you have well trained FRIENDLY server that have done this before it makes a diffrence trust me, give them a quiz see if they know whats on the menu if not them make em learn it, how can they sell food if they dont know what it is? Also you might have to close on slow days... slow days here tend to be sundays and mondays so the fine dining place I work at is closed those days as well as tus and wed nights... you have to cut your losses sometimes... Im sure theres more... ogh you could look in to catering or something liek that depending on the place... you just have to meet the needs of the people that you want to eat there, find out who your target audience is and hit em hard.... GOOD LUCK! I LOVE family resturants they always have the best food!
 

libra14

Well-known member
I've worked in a restauraunt for 7 years now. I think Melonzburger hit it right on the head. her advice is dead on. However, the above poster has great advice too. Try to play up certain aspects of your business. People come to my place because it's all freshly made and "anything goes" for guests. That's our niche. Definetly try specials or advertising. Get 'em in the door, wow 'em and I promise they will come back for more.
Good luck.
 

kaliraksha

Well-known member
Thank you all sooo much! It is a family owned casual restaurant... but it's still rather nice... it's huge because the setting use to be part of a Texas chain. That's the main problem... my grandmother is use to running small out of the way mom and pop places.... and this is so big... that we're having problems with orginization. For example, on the weekends we can have open tables and in my opinion plenty of servers (for busy times 4-5 tables/person) and they will get backed up if we seat everyone that comes in.

It is Mexican food and since it's in Texas.. it's a little on the TexMex side since that's what tourists seem to look for. We've tried some advertising, the food is delicious and we have some of the cheaper prices in that touristy area... yet everything else there has a rep and has been there forever... and since most locals there go for a purpose then they tend to flood the popular places and I think, of course, tourists are more drawn to a busy place for obvious reasons... it looks busy hence it must be good... or at the very least its lively.

A lot of people say that you don't even start to see profit until a year after... so my family members involved are holding on... but out of pocket they spend like 6,000 a month... which they can't do forever obviously.

I think the most complains that people tend to give the restaurant is service... because it takes too long from meet and greet to getting drinks and appetizer orders. That really bothers me... because if the waiters are not getting tips they will look for other jobs... and my family loses more money in training etc. But also, because when I'm the customer I go out to eat mostly for the experience... I'm a pretty decent cook so paying three times the price for a meal is not my idea of fun unless I'm there to be in a friendly hospitable enviroment. I would much rather spend more money on a place where I know the service rocks... than save a few dollars and go somewhere where I am going to leave feeling like it was a waste of money.

Plus, because of human nature if you hate a place you tell more people than if you like a place! So we really have to worry about making everyone happy.

95% of the time people rave about the food if they comment. So I guess that's a start!
 

melozburngr

Well-known member
Since you mentioned that this is a Tourist-y area- see what guide and coupong books are generally printed in the area, and PUT COUPONS IN THEM!!! Yeah, it sounds a bit hokey, but trust me, it'll work. A coupon or a special advertised in one of the local newspapers, tourist guides, etc. will really put your family's restaurant on the tourist's radar, and if a lower price is involved, you bet your ass they'll come and give it a try! (I know I would.. but maybe thats just cuz I'm cheap :p) Once people start flowing in, your place will get a reputation, and word of mouth is a very VERY good tool ---- very cheap, too! LOL.

As far as complaints that have been coming in about service. Is it the servers fault for not getting their asses to the tables asap, or is it the Back of House people draggin ass getting stuff for them? If it is the servers, you might have to have a server meeting, and LET THEM KNOW that service is #1. The better service they give, the more money that lines their pockets. Its all about the Benjis.
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A short server(front of house) meeting at the beginning of the shift is a great way to get everyone on one page, as well, make sure your staff knows the menus, the specials, drink specials..etc. another great way to boost sales (and morale) is to have a server contest, offer up free dinner or a gift card or something to the server that sells the MOST of a certain item each week or even each shift, sales will rise (I know mine did whenever there were contests) A good item is usually an appetizer- having your servers upsell to just a small appetizer really makes a difference in the end bill, and remind them, the bigger the bill, the bigger their tips!

If it is Back of House (kitchen, prep, or service bar(which is considered front of house, but really serves the same purpose as the kitchen does, they are there solely to make drinks for the SERVERS!) ) then you need to figure out where the problem is, are the cooks being lazy, are there not ENOUGH cooks, is there enough food prepped ahead of time so final preparation time is quicker? Just a few things to look at.

Sorry for the long post, but again, HTH.
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Pink_lily

Well-known member
i've worked as a host, a server, and a bartender in a both corporate restaurant chains and locally-owned places, so i figured it wouldn't hurt to get more input!

you mentioned that one of the big complaints at your restaurant is the service. if it's taking awhile for the servers to bring out drinks and food, look into what's going on. if, for example, the restaurant is busy and there's only one bartender who has to make all of the drinks and a lot of servers, that's going to slow things down. i don't know how exactly the drink thing works at your restaurant - i've worked in places where the servers had to go to the bar for everything except iced tea and coffee, and i've worked in other places where the servers got everything but the alcoholic drinks themselves.

also, another reason that greeting, delivering drink orders, getting apps ordered, etc. could be taking awhile might be that the hosts aren't seating properly. are there hosts at your restaurant? i've worked as a host for a number of different restaurants, but it's pretty standard to seat in a rotating order, unless there is a request for a certain server.

it's also best to wait to seat a server again until AFTER they've delivered the drinks to their first table. that way, they can get the apps/entrees ordered, then turn around to the next table to greet them and take their drink orders. some servers can handle being double-seated, but i do recommend avoiding triple-seating.

if a table has to be seated in a server's section right away, ask them before you seat them. servers really do prefer it when you're at least kind enough to ask if it's okay to double or triple seat them. some servers can get really irritated, fall behind, etc. when they're seated too quickly. of course, then there are those servers who will actually ASK that the host double and triple seat them when the restaurant gets busy. also when double-seating, if the host can, have them help the server, such as taking drink orders, delivering food to a table, etc.

one final thing - if the restaurant starts to get a rush, like on a weekend dinner time, have the hosts continue seating in a normal rotating manner. seating every party right away will overwhelm the servers, and in turn overwhelm the kitchen, which will cause food orders to take longer and push up the wait time for a table.
 

Pei

Well-known member
Some marketing tips:

If u don't mind paying a lil bit more, collaborate with the local tourism board and get them to tie up some promotions/activities (in accordance to ur biz) to their itinery.

Promotion: Coupons etc...redeem food might be a better option as compared to price cut.

Activity:Say, anything local/traditional dishes which the tourists can make on their own?
Invite them to DIY or something like that.

I dont't really understand the culture there...hmmm...and HTH
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