Over the years we’ve helped many restaurants and landlords work with each other and have seen ugliness on both sides. We’re often baffled at the lack of empathy each side can have for one another. For instance, Landlords have a mortgage to pay. When tenants seek rent abatement because they’re not profitable or they are starting …
5 Things Real Estate Developers Should Know About Leasing to Restaurants Read More »
One of the biggest problems we find when we’re trying to help struggling restaurants is that they can’t really “see” their business. Their managers work hard, often 70 to 80 hours per week. They enact policies to cut staff when its slow or they endlessly pursue cheaper ingredients and/or portion control, but efficiency often proves …
Every day, local and national news agencies report on the state of the labor market. Governments anchor their discussion on unemployment rate, citing moving average trends or comparing today to a year ago. Business owners lament generational work ethic variances. Progressives blame a lack of career advancement opportunities while Conservatives blame liberal child rearing strategies …
Restaurant Gig Labor – A Solution to the Great Resignation Read More »
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 pools, less qualified candidates, and higher wages are all working against you. Holding out for things to course correct on their own may be a long …
The service to customer-expectation cycle has been spiraling down for decades. When service goes down, customer expectations go down with it…then service-offered achieves a new low and is met again with a new lower bar to clear. Each generation blames the next for their sloth, self-loathing, and stunted ambition. I was born in the mid-sixties …
The Great Restaurant Labor Shortage…Will Be Over Shortly Read More »
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 problems; some leave you with more problems. In the search for the consulting company that is right for you, look first at the company culture to …
It’s Our Company Culture That Makes Us the Right Choice Read More »
“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.” “It took 25 minutes for a server to greet our table.” “Apparently water and iced tea refills are forbidden on Mother’s Day.” These are all lines …
Mother’s Day: The One Day Restaurateurs Cannot Afford to Mess Up Read More »
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 – usually chosen by the client. Each designer has their own collection of superpowers, non-negotiables, and pet peeves. During design phases (kitchen, architecture, and design) our …
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 a patio!!! I should have known better. Few restaurants are prepared for that first warm Sunday. The tables were dirty, the plants were dead, the food …
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 of great ambience (which, by the way, I learned can be spelled ambience or ambiance). But in our series discussing a restaurants “LAMA” (lights, atmosphere, music, …