Cleaning is one of those necessary frustrations about working in a commercial kitchen. After all, chefs and cooks love to focus on making the food, so it’s tempting to shirk certain cleaning duties and only handle the creative side of preparing delicious dishes. But keeping a clean kitchen is no joke. Besides needing to maintain
A Round of Gratitude: 3 Ways Restaurants Can Say Thanks
The end of the year can be a hectic time for any business, but especially for restaurants. Between implementing holiday specials, scheduling your staff around their time off with family, and handling holiday reservations, it can get busy. However, the holiday season can also be a good time to reflect on the last 12 months
Holy Shift! 6 Tips for a Successful Restaurant Shift Change
For the most successful restaurants, shift changes run like clockwork. But for many establishments, they can be a nightmare. It’s during shift changes that prep work gets completed, the majority of cleaning takes place, and the scheduling and cash register counts get handled. If all goes smoothly, your next shift’s staff will have everything they
Boom, Boom, Boom: Soundproofing Your Restaurant
Your restaurant is bustling. The dining room is full of people laughing and talking. Servers are moving through your space, taking and delivering orders. By all appearances, business is booming. There’s a palpable energy customers can feel the second they walk through the door. So why isn’t everyone smiling? It’s noise. Your restaurant is just
Hire My Chef: How Catering Can Boost Your Restaurant Brand
The season of food festivals and farmer’s markets is rapidly disappearing — but that doesn’t mean the opportunities for bringing your food directly to the people are vanishing with it! In fact, the holiday season offers a unique chance to reach more customers than ever, right in their own homes. The secret? Encouraging your chef
Commence Catering: All the Components (and Cash) You Need
Whether in the form of a sandwich tray from the local deli or a full banquet from an upscale steakhouse, more and more consumers are looking for catering options from their favorite restaurants. But it’s not just a matter of giving customers more ways to eat your food. Offering catering can seriously benefit your bottom
Customer Service: It’s a Team Effort
A few weeks ago, I went to a restaurant with a group of friends. It was a busy Saturday night, and there were lots of servers — all dressed in the same black uniform — running around. After a while, we were ready to order drinks and, to save time, just asked the first server whose
5 Tips to Help You Strive for Sustainability
In the restaurant industry, trends come and go nearly as quick as customers during a dinner rush. But there is one buzzword floating around that you should definitely pay attention to: sustainability. At the recent National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, a panel of experts — including Kathleen Seeley, managing partner of Ricca Design Studios;
How Foodservice Trends Affect Your Back of House
As a restaurateur, you spend a lot of time trying to anticipate the next big consumer trend and how your business can capitalize on it. Most often, these changing tastes deal with new flavors, original preparations, and innovative presentations. Each change in what the customer sees and tastes, however, can have major effects on your
Restaurant Inventory Management: Keep Your Business Healthy
Managing a restaurant offers numerous challenges and something is always going to pop up to demand your attention, so it is important to have as many policies and procedures in place as possible. With your slim margins, controlling cost is a key to success. As food and labor are typically your largest expense, it is
