5 Reasons You Should Ask for Help
If you own a restaurant, now is not the time to “just survive” and hope things get better. Rising costs of ingredients, product shortages, added transportation charges, smaller labor ...
The Great Restaurant Labor Shortage…Will Be Over Shortly
The service to customer-expectation cycle has been spiraling down for decades. When service goes down, customer expectations go down with itthen service-offered achieves a new low and is met ...
Elevating Your Cocktail Program Above a Sea of Competition
In dark basements, bright garden restaurants, hotel lobbies, food courts, and all spaces in between; great cocktail programs are popping up everywhere. Everyone is getting into ...
It’s Our Company Culture That Makes Us the Right Choice
There are a lot of restaurant consulting companies out there and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are good, some are not so good. Some solve your ...
Mother’s Day: The One Day Restaurateurs Cannot Afford to Mess Up
“The restaurant kept running out of food.” “The manager gave us free mimosas for seating us 45 minutes after our reservation, but they never made it to our table.” ...
Restaurant Lighting – 13 Philosophies
When creating a restaurant concept, the stage I look most forward to is design. We’re not designers but instead we get to work with different designers across the country ...
Avoiding Patio Nightmares
A few weeks ago, the temperature spiked from the regular 40 degrees at noon to a beautiful sunny 72, and it was SUNDAY. Without hesitation my brain screamed find ...
6 Pillars of Restaurant Ambience Management
When you think of ambience in a restaurant, or anywhere for that matter, you often consider things like music, lighting, temperature, smells, materials, and acoustics. Those are certainly components ...
Getting Guest Comfort Right
“Check Your LAMA!” was something a colleague drilled into my head many years ago. He had worked for Maggiano’s, and it was/is a reference to the four pillars of ...
Where to Invest Your Money in Restaurants – Post-COVID
The tea leaves have settled and it’s time to read them: The Pandemic has provided a Petri dish in which to test third party delivery services like Grubhub, DoorDash, ...
Optimism is Worth the Effort
So far, 2022 feels like quicksand. Stocks are frowning, my crypto wallets are shrinking into a pile of worthless electronic blips, mask mandates are back, restaurants are asking for ...
Why Restaurants Should Outsource Management
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The two sides of our consulting business: launching new concepts and fixing/improving existing concepts. These have given us a ...
Happy New Year: 2022 Restaurant Trends
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Everyone knew that the pandemic would change people; the way they shop, eat, and live their lives, but we didn’t know ...
Opening a Restaurant – Getting Started
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Another new year is almost upon us. You’ve made it through the tough parts of the pandemic and you’re ...
Opening a Restaurant – How Much Should You Pay for Your Rock-n-Roll Lifestyle?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting So, you think you want to quit your job and open a restaurant…or become a rock star. Those are ...
5 Recommendations for Restaurant Music Management
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I was dining at a popular Italian restaurant in a popular outdoor lifestyle shopping plaza at a popular time ...
Half Year Resolutions
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting It’s that time of year! Julyhalfway through the year the beginning of Q3. Somewhere in December most restaurateurs compile ...
The REAL Reason for The Great Restaurant Labor Shortage
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting There has been a lot of chatter lately about the first few dozen states cutting short the pandemic unemployment ...
Mergers and Acquisitions are for Independent Restaurants Too
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting M&A activity in large public chain concepts is well documented and thriving. In fact, Atlanta-based Roark Capital / Inspire ...
What Restaurant Should You Build in 2021?
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Everyone has said for a year now that restaurants will not be the same when we come out of The Pandemic; ...
Evolving Technology’s Impact on Menu Development & the Surprising Benefits
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Technology has made many changes in the restaurant industry. One of these changes involves how we create and ...
Restaurant Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide to Attract the Investors You Need
Mike Krebs – Project Manager, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting In plain and simple terms, a restaurant business plan is a written document that outlines your restaurant’s goals and ...
Open A Restaurant With Killer Concept Development
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Did you know that 33% of restaurants don’t make it past the first year in business? Opening a restaurant ...
So, You Think You Know How to Run a Restaurant?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Although the din of Auld Lang Syne has faded, we can still hear ZuZu saying, “Teacher says, every time ...
Why You Should Invest In A Restaurant
Opening a restaurant should be a passion, not just a business venture you hope will make you money. The best kind of business to invest in is one ...
An Emerging Hybrid Restaurant Solution For Challenging Times
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many industries, especially restaurants. As lockdown rules keep changing, many restaurants ...
Upgrade Your Bar into A Handcrafted Holiday Pop-Up Bar
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Pop-up themed events are a popular concept around holidays that tap into people’s love of celebrating and enjoying drinks ...
A Restaurant Consulting Firm Can Help Both Landlords and Their Tenants
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Despite the troubles the global food industry is facing, restaurant tenants still have to pay rent. An NYC Hospitality ...
Ghost Kitchens: How Are They Driving Growth in the Restaurant Industry
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting It would be an understatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has made things challenging for restaurants. Many ...
How Hotel Restaurants Struggle to Compete with Free-Standing Restaurants
Mike Krebs – Project Manager, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Restaurants are more than a little ubiquitous in our world, and if you’re a hotel owner, you likely already know ...
How Landlords Can Protect Restaurant Rent Revenue
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Commercial landlords renting a restaurant space should know that every restaurant lease is unique. There is a balance to ...
The Key To Developing A Thriving Food Hall Concept
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Imagine this: It’s a vibrant Friday night, and some friends have decided to go out and unwind. Half the ...
How to Successfully Hire and Retain Staff
Mike Krebs – Project Manager, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting As more hospitality businesses continue to reopen and grow during the COVID life environment, we are all trying to figure ...
Connecting with Guests in a Mask Wearing Society
It is possible that we have all underestimated the importance of a smile in connecting with others. We spent months craving the experience of dining in restaurants and once ...
Opening A New Restaurant…NOW?!?
It’s the end of the 2020 Summer and COVID-19 is still running wild. Elections are on the horizon and, regardless of your political bent, moving left or right carries ...
Can You Afford Consulting?
By January 2020 the restaurant business was getting crowded and hyper-competitive. Since about 2009, on the heels of the worst recession in most people’s memory, restaurants around the country ...
How to Configure Your Restaurant for Curbside Pickup
Unless you’ve been boycotting the steady stream of dreary news coming at us from all sides, you’ve probably heard how meal delivery services like Grubhub, Uber Eats, Door Dash, ...
Memorial Day Recipes
We've put together an all-American Memorial Day dinner for the whole family. Follow these directions and you'll be surrounded by happy faces and full bellies! ...
How to Reopen Your Restaurant – Safely and Profitably
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting As states begin to allow businesses to reopen, most in 3 phases of lessening restrictions, all restaurant owners are scrambling to ...
What You Should Not Be Delivering: 5 Common Delivery Mistakes to Avoid
Whether you have been doing delivery since you opened, or you have recently launched a delivery program due to a global pandemic, there are five incredibly common mistakes we ...
Staying Sane While You Wait
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting In my last blog, I outlined a step by step process for preparing to reopen your restaurants. Getting a handle on ...
What Do We Do Now? Creating a PLAN to Reopen
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting In the last few weeks, I have had some very difficult conversations with a lot of restaurant owners that I consider ...
Coronavirus / COVID-19 – Advice for Restaurant Owners
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting “Official” direction regarding how restaurants should – or are allowed – to handle COVID-19, changes by the hour. Takeout ...
Restaurant Resolutions in 2020
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The holiday hubbub is settling down as Part-Time workers head back to school and holiday parties are in the ...
7 Restaurateur “Must Do’s” for September
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting You may feel all alone in an empty dining room but take comfort in the fact that almost every restaurant suffers ...
Restaurant Surcharges – Health Insurance vs. Tips
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting A few weeks ago, my wife and I ate San Francisco. A recurring line item on our checks was ...
6 Out of the Box Qualities that Make Great Restaurant Employees
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting If you go to the internet looking for what makes a good employee, every site will tell you basically the same thing. ...
Sandwich Trends of the Future
I’m sure that you will agree that sandwiches are the greatest human invention of all time. Simply by putting some food in between two pieces of bread you ...
8 Reasons Why Small “Cockpit” Kitchens Make You Money
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Anyone who has opened a restaurant or is looking at doing so is faced with the high cost of ...
Restaurant Marketing – Tout Your Value Not Your Brand
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting For restaurants, online brand presence is everything…and so is the food and the service and the cleanliness and the ...
5 Things To Consider When Offering Outside Dining
Marcus Mitchell – Project Manager, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Who doesn’t love to be outside in beautiful weather with an ice-cold drink in one hand, and a fork full ...
Delivery: Is It Right For Your Restaurant?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The obvious motivation for a restaurant to take on delivery service is to build sales. Third party delivery platforms ...
Healthy Menus Are Here To Stay
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting A couple of decades ago, to open a healthy-option restaurant was suicide. Menus were often free of fat and ...
Choose Ingredients Wisely to Reduce Food Waste
The USDA estimates that more than 30% of all food is wasted in the US. Much of that happens in the production and distribution phases but still, the last ...
The Seven Golden Rules of Restaurant Management
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Rules for being a successful restaurant manager, now there’s a big topic. Most people would probably list things like, control your ...
What Hiring Companies and Job Candidates Told Us in 2018
Chris Kauffman – Director of Talent & Recruiting, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting What Companies Told Us in 2018 With a unique involvement in the hiring process, we are in a ...
Built To Last: What You Can Learn From America’s Oldest Restaurants
Many restaurants stay on a strict schedule of remodeling every 7 years to stay current and fresh. Some restaurant companies even plan to completely shut down and re-concept ...
9 Food Trends For 2019
There are times where it seems everyone in the industry is talking about the same things. We’ve been keeping our ears to the ground and looking into the ...
Restaurants Who Want to Start Delivery
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting It’s obvious that the reason any restaurant might want to offer delivery is to build sales. Third party delivery ...
How Successful Restaurants Can Grow to Multiple Locations
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting There are two philosophies about growing a restaurant beyond the first unit: To create something special, get good at ...
What Restaurants Can Learn From Fan-Friendly Stadium Concessions
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Living in Atlanta, we all heard the buzz coming a year out from the 2017 opening of the new ...
5 Tools Everyone in the Restaurant Industry Should Be Using
Operating a restaurant is not for the faint of heart. There are always 1000 things to do at the same time, and you can never take your eye ...
How Yelp and Other Review Sites Can Make or Break Your Restaurant Business
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting First let’s face the facts. We all search the internet to check out the restaurant scene anytime we visit a new city, ...
How to Properly Staff Your Restaurant for the Holidays
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Let me begin by saying that staffing for the holidays is a year-round process. Granting requested days off throughout the year ...
How to Incorporate Food and Beverage into Co-Working Spaces
Co-working space is huge in the modern economy, with an estimated 3.8 million users worldwide by 2020. These spaces provide shared office space to small businesses, freelancers, and large ...
5 Key Ways to Grow Your Restaurant Business
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We live in a world addicted to quick fixes with little emphasis on long range planning. Restaurateurs easily fall victim to people ...
Why a Restaurant is Your Next Successful Business
My son is a senior in high school and is trying to decide what to major in. He has chosen Business, but he wants to narrow it down ...
How to Run a Family Owned Restaurant and Stay Sane
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Let’s face it – the restaurant business is an emotional business. Everyday you put your creation out there for everyone to ...
The Pros and Cons of Using an Online Reservation System
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Traditionally the rule has been, upscale and fine dining restaurants take reservations and chains and casual dining do not. Due ...
14 Common Misconceptions About Opening a Restaurant
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Restaurants are fun, sexy, thrilling and everybody wants one. So much so that opinions about how ...
What’s Trending in Food & Beverage: Appetizers, Tapas & Small Plates
Small plates are the chef’s creative playground. Most restaurants diners expect to see steaks, roast chicken, and grilled salmon entrées. These basics will quickly fill up the entrées ...
Becoming a Food Entrepreneur & Restaurateur: What You Should Know Before Taking the Leap
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I’m 52 and have spent my entire career (save for a stint in the US Army for training to ...
What is a Food Hall, And Why Do People Love Them So Much?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The first time I heard the term “food hall” I replied “umexplain” What I got was something similar to ...
12 Quick Tips for Opening a Restaurant
Emily Tanner – Director of Marketing & Communications, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We’ve asked our top restaurant consultants what they recommend when opening a new restaurant. They provided such ...
5 Ways to Promote Your Restaurant for Labor Day Weekend
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Labor Day. Not exactly the revenue-slayer holiday of the year, but that’s the point of this blog: what the ...
Food Trucks: The Current State of Mobile Food and Beverage
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Originally, food trucks seemed to emerge on the scene as a way for chefs without heavy financial backing to ...
A Panel of Experts: Actionable Tips for Hiring Restaurant Employees
Emily Tanner – Director of Marketing & Communications, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We’ve asked our top restaurant consultants what they recommend when recruiting and hiring for various restaurant staff ...
Tip Credit Applied to Minimum Wage – Not as Evil as it Sounds
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Many people view tip credit as “just another way for the greedy restaurant owner to line their pockets with cash.” Servers ...
How Fast Casual Dining Spaces Can Use Cutting-Edge Technology
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Every industry is taking advantage of cutting-edge technology in some form or fashion, and the fast casual dining space ...
Top 20 Blogs For Restaurant Owners to Follow
In any industry, one of the most important things a business owner can do is to stay in the know and up to date on industry trends. It’s ...
Our Restaurant Consultants on July 4th: Food & Beverage Family Memories
Emily Tanner – Director of Marketing & Communications, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting At Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, we like to share personal memories that revolve around food, drinks and ...
An Inspired Fried Chicken Recipe to Add to Your Menu this Independence Day
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting As a kid growing up in rural Maryland (Ijamsville to be exact), our Fourth of July celebrations meant packing ...
2 Seasonal Cocktail Recipes to Celebrate Independence Day in Your Restaurant
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Next to Christmas, the annual 4th of July celebration in my family is one of the happiest memories from my childhood. Every ...
4 Quick Ways Restaurant Owners in Beach Towns Can Capitalize on Summer Vacationers
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We’ve all heard the term “tourist trap.” When applied to restaurants, it’s generally a negative term that refers to ...
Restaurants are Saving Retail: How to Ensure Success of Food-Driven Real Estate Developments in 3 Simple Ways
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Restaurants are saving retail developments. We hear this all the time, but what does it really mean? Let’s look at it ...
20 Myths About Restaurant Consultants Debunked
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The term “consultant” – restaurant or otherwise – conjures images of slickster snake oil salesman preying on businesses in ...
Freshen Up Your Menu with this Healthy, Summer Salad Recipe
With summer quickly approaching and the heat rising outside, we often recommend adding cool and colorful salads to restaurant menus to brighten things up for the season. Here’s ...
75 Food Halls in America: The Growing Mixed-Use Real Estate Development Trend
Emily Tanner – Director of Marketing & Communications, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting While the US food hall trend may have started in New York, it’s now sweeping across ...
The Worst Advice We’ve Ever Heard for Restaurant Owners
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting As restaurant consultants, we are often in a position to offer adviceand to hear some zingers of both good ...
How Restaurant Owners and General Managers Can Write a Great Employee Developmental Plan in 5 Easy Steps
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting For restaurant owners and general managers, the process of creating a restaurant employee developmental plan is very similar to writing ...
6 Secrets to Hiring the Best Restaurant General Manager
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The general manager of a restaurant is the most crucial position in the entire business. The chef usually gets the ...
Why You Should Create a Pop-Up Restaurant or Bar Concept
A pop-up is simply a temporary bar or restaurant, usually focused on a particular chef or style of cuisine. Sometimes pop-ups will share space or even take over ...
10 Exciting Food Trend Predictions for 2018
We are in and out of restaurants all of the time, talking with our clients about what works and what doesn’t, what their guests are asking for, and ...
How to Maximize Restaurant Seating
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Did you know that an empty seat can cost you between $.45 – $1.50 for every minute it remains ...
4 Things I Learned During My Year with John C. Portman Jr.
I met John Portman in 2014 on the day of his 90th birthday. He had begun the process of repurposing the 230 Peachtree Tower into office space ...
The 5 Biggest Mistakes You’re Making in Running Your Bar
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting A successful bar does not happen by putting big personalities who like to talk about spirits in a dark room full ...
Recipe Edition: Michael’s Famous Mulled Wine Tart
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Crust Ingredients 1 1/2 Cup Flour 1 Tablespoon Sugar 1/8 Teaspoon Salt 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter 3-4 Tablespoons Cold Water Crust Preparation ...
5 Brilliant Best Practices to Maximize Your Restaurant’s Sales During the Holidays
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting The holidays are coming and holidays generally spur people to spend money in ways that they wouldn’t do otherwise. Folks are ...
6 Steps to Create a Fun and Profitable New Year’s Eve Menu
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Eve these are the days that really test a restaurant’s staff. Is your mise actually, really, and truly en place? Being ready ...
5 Ways to Sell More Gift Cards This Holiday Season
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Often, I run across restaurant managers who find that selling gift cards is more trouble than it’s worth. People want to ...
5 Great Holiday Gifts for Your Managers that Aren’t Cash
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting In almost every scenario that requires motivation, we see more and more that cash gifts simply don’t work. Cash gifts don’t ...
6 Things Your Host is doing to Turn Away Customers
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We all know the importance of the first impression and how we’re impacted by someone’s appearance, demeanor and general interaction with ...
How to Ace Your Health Inspection Every Time
“Mango” was the code word at one of my first kitchen jobs. It signaled that the health inspector had arrived and we had to stop what we were ...
Why Love is the Magic Ingredient for Restaurants
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting What’s love got to do with it? Asking the question “is there any place for love in business?” is like asking ...
4 Undeniable Reasons Why You Should Switch Your Kitchen to the Metric System
Put down that 2/3 cup and walk away. When I was in fifth grade (sometime in the 80s), my class learned that the United States would soon ...
Restaurant Opening: The Essential Kitchen Training Documents
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting When opening a restaurant, it seems only right to document and put in place a structured training agenda that ...
Seasonal Menus
Ray Camillo – Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Seasonal menu changes are fairly common and, for some, an easy task taken on by the Executive Chef in house. For ...
How to Cook At Home Like A Chef
The first question out of a person’s mouth every single time when they find out that I am a chef is, “Do you cook at home?” The answer ...
Sipping Your Dessert: How to Create the Ultimate Sweet Winter Drink
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We seem to be going back and forth lately on what to serve for dessert. Some restaurants are completely ignoring the ...
To Happy Hour or Not to Happy Hour
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I embrace the Urban Dictionary’s definition of happy hour: “Where the worst selling and nastiest tasting alcoholic beverages are sold for ...
2017 Food Trends
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting 2017 is already promising to be a very exciting and interesting year. We’ve noticed some trends in the industry that we ...
4 Lessons Every Chef Will Learn by Working in an Open Kitchen
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Kitchens are opening up everywhere. Restaurants are trading in the swinging doors for clean, crisp counters that aren’t just displaying the ...
How to Make Positive Changes Towards Food Sustainability (And What Not to Do)
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting In 2015, there was a string of news articles detailing the ethical changes that some of the largest chain restaurants are ...
Oldies, but Goodies
Ray Camillo– Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting How many times did we hear “eat your vegetables” or more specifically, “eat your Brussels sprouts” and immediately respond with ...
You Should be Able to Answer These 3 Questions About Your Restaurant’s Online Presence
So what is really expected of you on the web? Being a hospitality consultant would suggest that I have high expectations for most dining establishments and might even ...
Food Trends that Won’t Make it in 2016
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting We’ve talked about cronuts and the farm-to-table movement before. We loved and embraced them, but along with a few ...
Food Documentaries: Which Ones to Watch and Why
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I suppose binge watching is a bit healthier than binge eating. Food documentaries have had somewhat of an uprising the past ...
Questions You Should Always Ask Your Kitchen Hires
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Back of the house hiring can be an exhausting process that doesn’t always yield the results you were hoping ...
Bowl Control: Balancing Portions in a New Way
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting From sit-down dining to “create your own” fast food concepts, bowls are popping up everywhere. Chipotle has been featuring ...
Carbs are Making a Comeback
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Menus in general are moving towards accommodating diet demands without having the “healthy” section stick out like a sore ...
From Line Cook to Restaurant Consultant
Ariel Worbler – Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting A good restaurant consultant has been in your shoes and the shoes of every person in your restaurant. We didn’t wake up ...
“Housemade” – Five Items You Should be Making In-House
Ariel Worbler – Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Is it possible to make everything in your kitchen from scratch? Yes, of course it’s possible, but does it make sense for ...
Who should you write a Restaurant Business Plan for?
When it comes time to sit down and draft all of the budding ideas you have for your upcoming restaurant, you have to stop and think – who am ...
Top 10 Restaurant Killers
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting For some reason many in our midst seem to have uncanny insight into the legendary failure rates for restaurants, ...
The Best Approach to Fast Casual Booze
Ray Camillo – CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting “I’ll have another round” is not something you typically hear at Moe’s or Mi Piada. That’s because there is typically no ...
The Employee Handbook (it’s more than a coaster)
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Up until now, I’ve shied away from an important topic that each restaurant owner (I don’t care how big ...
Top Ten Mistakes Made By Restaurants
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting There are plenty of things that cause restaurants to struggle including poor location, the wrong food for the wrong ...
Shoestring Restaurants – Is Planning Overrated?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Almost everyone we talk to that wants to open a restaurant comes to us with a shoestring budget. We ...
How to Open a Restaurant
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting If you Google “how to open a restaurant”, you’ll find a ton of information much/most of it relevant and ...
New Life from Old Spirits
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Hand crafted mixed drinks have been the driving force behind the evolution of most metropolitan area bars for the ...
Restaurant Accounting
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting This is the kind of stuff that puts most people to sleep but can save a restaurant from certain ...
How to Best Manage Restaurant Tip Share
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting As far as a restaurant’s profitability goes, the lowest of the low hanging fruit is often found in a ...
What’s the Best Table Service Model? [Hint: Give Power to the Servers]
Ray Camillo – CEO & Founder, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Truly the best service involves giving your servers what they want: power. I believe folks are motivated by a ...
Restaurant Training
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Folks often ask us to help them with “training”..but what does that mean?. Teaching someone how to do something ...
Why Hand Food (for Dinner) is Here to Stay
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting Whether working in a garage, on Wall St. or in an operating room, we all need fuel when we’re ...
What is the Best Chef’s Knife?
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting People often ask me, “What’s your favorite knife for a professional kitchen?” It always makes me pause because there ...
Why Kitchen Software Has Its Place
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting It’s nothing new to say that the restaurant business is hard work. The Chef’s job is particularly difficult as ...
Dine and Whine
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I pulled this morsel from chef Graham Duncan’s blog “From the Kitchen: Graham Duncan” and couldn’t resist throwing in my two ...
A Strong Team Is One That Trusts Its Leader
Michael Maxwell – Partner, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a planning meeting at a major corporation. They were rolling out a ...
Pastrami “Overhead” Sandwich
Ray Camillo – Founder & CEO, Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting There isn’t much better than a big fat pastrami sandwich. I’m talking about the 16 ouncersyou knowthe 7th Avenue ...
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