I consume food. I drink beverages.
Therefore, I am certified to manage a Food and Drink operation.
In evaluating the operations of lots of clubs/resorts each month, I discover that one of the most poorly run, inconsistent locations of club/resort operations is Food and Beverage. Especially in member owned environments, which are often overseen by a club board, people seem to think that since they eat in restaurants, they in some way have some level of proficiency that allows them to make service choices about this important aspect of the club. The truth is that this is one of the most intricate departments in a club to handle, control, and produce a constant 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, 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 the past, a nice balance of old favorites and new selections, or edgy? Is your menu created 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 2 and end up being a club dinosaur? What are your item specs and portion sizes? Is every product on your menu costed? What is your goal for a la carte food expense? Do you know the contribution margin on every item on your menu?
What about your special occasions. Are they really unique? Do they develop a buzz in the Club? Are they eagerly prepared for 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 event? Is your staff challenged every quarter to attempt new occasions? New rate points?
Got Worth?
What about value included programs? It's happening every day in the hospitality market. Chili's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Flemings, Cody's Roadhouse, McDonalds, Quiznos, Train, and many other national franchises are actively setting to keep people being available in. Any question the success rate of franchises is over 90% while the success rate of individually owned dining establishments has to do with 10%?
What are you carrying out 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 few covers? Or, are you attempting brand-new concepts that may provide "meal replacement" dining instead of just "unique occasion" dining?
Something as easy as Pleased Hour can produce additional usage. Comfort food such as meatloaf, chicken pot pie, lasagna, or similar for" at $8 or $9 throughout the week are popular. Taco bars, pasta bars, hamburger night, half rate on bottles of house red wine, Fresh Fish Fridays or a Friday Fish Fry, a Chef's choice at an unique cost on slower nights, sushi nights, appetisers at a special cost, entertainment, and lots of other ideas and events drive usage, offer incremental revenue, and keep the personnel working. Are you explore new occasions in your club/resort? Offer it a try. You'll be shocked at the buzz it produces.
The Experience
How is your dining-room provided? With white tablecloths? No tablecloths? Placemats? Are you charging appropriately for the experience you are offering?
How are your buffets provided? Elegantly with skirting, floral display screens, and glossy silver chafing meals? Or fundamental 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 wearing a tidy and pushed designated uniform? Is there a particular manner to present menus, serve, food, mixed drinks, and white wine? Are members called by name? Are specific steps of service in place?
Does the service staff know the structure of every item, sauce, and portion size from the menu? Is training offered at least month-to-month? Is your personnel offering suggestively?
The Technical Aspects
How often do you take a physical inventory? Exists "self-reliance" in the stock process to make sure that the counts are precise? Is stock rates adjusted regularly to reflect the most recent cost the club is paying for all inventoried items or is the expense the club paid in 2015 still being used to determine inventory value?
Do you follow this mantra when receiving and inventorying items?
If you purchase it by the pound, weigh it. If you purchase it by the piece, count it. If you buy it by ounce or length, measure it? Under no circumstances, accept it blindly.
I am surprised at how typically shipments are bee honey accepted and signed for without even physically remaining in the same space as the products that were provided let alone inspecting the packing slip or invoice against the products received. Delivery individuals end up being smart extremely quickly to those who hold them responsible and those who don't. A few pounds of missing out on steak here or a few bottles of missing liquor there costs a lot of cash over a prolonged time period.
How much unusable food is stashed away in the freezer, frequently a chef's buddy, and continues to be counted monthly throughout inventory 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 particular financial result, train the personnel, and preserve standards? Or are they paid simply for showing up?
How is your service staff 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? Legally?
In addition to costing every item on every menu, have you done the very same for alcohol, beer, and wine? Do you have specified pour sizes? Are they being complied with? Do you have pourers which permit just for the pour size for which you are charging? How much of your club's resort's money is bound in white wine inventory? Have you established par stocks?
Do you have a Food and Drink minimum? Does it make good sense for your club? Do you have a minimum monthly service charge? Should you?
Do you supply an employee meal? How is it represented? Is it represented at all? Do you enable employees to get rid of food/beverage from the club? (A bad idea!). Do you permit your workers to consume alcoholic beverages at the end of a shift? (An even worse concept!!).
Private Occasions
What about your Private Occasions? Is your catering menu priced right? What does priced right mean? Have you evaluated 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 on the varying needs of each event?
Do your private event policies make sense? When is the "guarantee' due? When is payment in full required? Do you require a signed agreement? Do you even have a contract that you require be signed?
An Option
Lots of questions! Get a management business that will work collaboratively with you to address all of these and any others and create a tailored food and drink experience that shows your special situation and supplies what your members/guests desire and are willing to pay for.