MENU DEVELOPMENT
Menu Engineering / Product Mix
Deciding what you sell, when to
sell it, and what price to sell it for are critical to driving a
healthy check average and maximizing a profitable sales mix. You
need to harness your core competencies and tune them to drive
profits higher than you imagined you could.. Hiring a
restaurant consultant is a smart way to do it. Restaurant
consulting isn't about telling you what to do...it's about doing it
then teaching you how. Look for a restaurant consulting firm that
can walk the talk; one that isn't afraid to get their hands dirty
and has a deep and varied understanding of successful operations
with a track record for implementing their systems.
The Right Menu
To create a compelling menu, you
need more than a great culinarian. You need someone who knows
how the menu will affect the facility, the wait staff, the through
put and profit. Your menu must marry well to your brand message and
to the community it serves. Your menu also needs to consider
the latest cooking trends and equipment being used to maximize
production capacity, your staff's abilities, and your community's
needs.
Through-Put
What good is a compelling menu if
the food takes forever getting to the table? Your Restaurant
Advisor should be obsessive about Time and Motion" inventory
Velocity through cross utilization, and work load distribution. Do
you have the equipment, space, and staff to handle your menu
efficiently or did you inadvertently create a bottleneck? Do you
have the right number of seats in your restaurant to match the
volume capabilities of your kitchen and bar? Wil a slow production
design prevent you from ever filling your restaurant? Putting
a bigger bucket under the spigot doesn't make the water come out
faster. What about your service model sequence? Is that
"history of the restaurant" spiel slowing your profits and eating
up your Guest's lunch hour? Will a $200 piece of equipment increase
sales volume by 15 guests per shift? A good restaurant consultant
will not only answer these questions but will save you time because
they can create the right menu structure quickly.
