The best way to assure things are going well in your establishment is to be a presence on the floor as much as possible. You cannot expect your employees to do your bidding during service hours if you are hiding in the office, looking at numbers. In fact, there will be no numbers to look…
Restaurant Ethics
I have worked for many restaurant owners, chefs, manager, etc., who seemed to have been raised on a different planet than myself. It looked that way, anyway. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I think that if your menu says that you have Carlton Farms Pork, you should probably be serving Carlton Farms…
Thank the Kitchen
I don’t know how my wife and I did this, but one of the favorite things I love about my kids, now teenagers, is that whenever we eat out, they always stop by the kitchen and thank them for their meal. A practice I would like to see the rest of the world start. Those…
Labor Turnover
Most restauranteurs, and business owners in general, understand that cost of labor is most often the biggest expense in running any business. That is true in the restaurant more than any other business. In fact, it cost sixteen times more in labor dollars to run a restaurant as compared to say running a grocery store. …
10 Reasons Why Restaurants Fail
There is a general idea out there that restaurants fail more than other businesses. This is actually not true. Statistics show that restaurants fail at about the same rate as do small retail shops. However, there is still a very high percentage of restaurant failures. According to the National Restaurant Association, 59-61% of restaurants close…
Unhappy Hour
If you are like me, you appreciate a good happy hour. The availability of good food and drink at reasonable prices and smaller portions can be a great way to spend time with friends or a loved one. A late afternoon, early evening, or a late evening snack or libation can be just what the…
Local Heroes
I had the pleasure of presenting the ‘Local Hero’ best restaurant award a few weeks ago at an event in the Ecotrust building, put on by Edible Portland. What a cool award. I love living in a world, (although I admit Portland is a rather small bubble, not an entire world), that looks beyond the bottom…
Portland Restaurant Service
My wife has a fantasy: That somehow, I can change the restaurant service culture in Portland. I am happy that I am still a part of my wife’s fantasies, but this particular windmill may be just too big to fight. We all know what she is talking about. That Portland server reputation of, “Yeah, I…
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