Hospitality Consulting - Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting

4 Quick Ways Restaurant Owners in Beach Towns Can Capitalize on Summer Vacationers

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

We’ve all heard the term “tourist trap.” When applied to restaurants, it’s generally a negative term that refers to places with high prices serving low quality versions of foods that made the area famous. Often these restaurants thrive because their customers are lured in by flashy signage, proximity to the main attraction or campy foods […]

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Restaurants are Saving Retail: How to Ensure Success of Food-Driven Real Estate Developments in 3 Simple Ways

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

Restaurants are saving retail developments. We hear this all the time, but what does it really mean? Let’s look at it like this. Consider some common retail tenants – maybe a mattress store, or a clothing store. People buy a new mattress every 10 years or so and they buy new clothes with the change

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20 Myths About Restaurant Consultants Debunked

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

The term “consultant” – restaurant or otherwise – conjures images of slickster snake oil salesman preying on businesses in distress, bent on draining precious cash reserves before an inevitable failure. Indeed, there are some out there that make a living by cooking up problems that don’t exist, scaring their targets to death while holding up

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75 Food Halls in America: The Growing Mixed-Use Real Estate Development Trend

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

While the US food hall trend may have started in New York, it’s now sweeping across America. With major food-focused real estate developments such as Eataly and chef Todd English’s Plaza Food Hall opening in New York in 2010, food halls area launching in other US cities from Atlanta to Seattle. This gourmet, casual dining

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The 5 Biggest Mistakes You’re Making in Running Your Bar

Consulting, Hospitality Consulting, Service / By Ray Camillo

A successful bar does not happen by putting big personalities who like to talk about spirits in a dark room full of people. It requires careful crafting in it’s infancy and constantly focused maintenance every day of its life. Employee turnover, shifts in the economy, changes in neighborhoods and ever evolving trends present constant challenges.

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Why Love is the Magic Ingredient for Restaurants

Hospitality Consulting, Leadership, Service / By Ray Camillo

What’s love got to do with it? Asking the question “is there any place for love in business?” is like asking “is there any place for people who care?” We all believe relationships that have longevity are rooted in love and mutual respect. Since most businesses, including restaurants are built on groups of relationships it

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2017 Food Trends

Hospitality Consulting, Kitchen Ops, Menu / By Ray Camillo

2017 is already promising to be a very exciting and interesting year. We’ve noticed some trends in the industry that we hope choose to flourish and maybe we will even have a chance to help some of our clients with some of these amusing trends. Expanding to Fast Casual Instead of growing a restaurant group

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You Should be Able to Answer These 3 Questions About Your Restaurant’s Online Presence

General, Hospitality Consulting, Random Stuff / By Ray Camillo

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 be considered a “food snob”. The truth is I enjoy eating at all types of restaurants from casual fast food to fine dining. I’ll give almost any

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magnifying glass over text that reads frequently asked questions

Questions You Should Always Ask Your Kitchen Hires

Consulting, Hospitality Consulting, Kitchen Ops / By Ray Camillo

Back of the house hiring can be an exhausting process that doesn’t always yield the results you were hoping for. As a restaurant manager, you might often find yourself interviewing people on the spot with little to no preparation or research done on the candidate. You are looking for a body to fill a position

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How to Open a Restaurant

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

If you Google “how to open a restaurant”, you’ll find a ton of information… much/most of it relevant and correct while STILL falling short of telling you what you need to know. I’m going to come at it from the angle of a restaurant consultant who sees concepts at all stages of their life cycle.

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