October 17, 2016
Today's Specials:
READ: 6 WAYS YOU’RE RUINING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE
The guest experience has gotten a lot of attention in the last several months. It appears that even major chain CEO’s are now grasping that a good experience is more valuable than all the coupon programs you can conceive. Today’s post describes six obvious ways you can improve the guest experience and not have to hire any fancy consulting firm. Get these 6 experience ruining behaviors under control and won’t need anyone’s help.
HACK: DIRTY STAINLESS STEEL? NO PROBLEM
And you thought cream of tartar was only good for making your meringues fluffy. Not so! Cream of tartar is actually an acid.When applied to stainless steel, the stainless gleams. Just mix with a bit of water and add a little elbow grease, no harsh chemicals required! Check out the formula here.
DID YOU KNOWs…
How much is this?
This gallery shows some serious food porn…umm, if you’re into that sort thing. The premise is what does $350 buy you at the world’s best restaurant. Its images are of a 12-course meal offered at none other than El Celler de Can Roca, the three star Michelin restaurant in Girona, Italy. You might feel guilty after viewing these but they aren’t NSFW!
Love Potion No. 9 [Song]
Wikileaks released its 9th batch of Clinton emails (as they are coming to be known) mostly from Campaign director, John Podesta. You have to admit it’s fairly amazing how little traditional media coverage this has gotten. You’d think Trump would focus on her vulnerabilities, but alas, he too was busy trying to throw shade on the veracity of the electoral process and rebuking the media. Either way, this whole mess can’t be over soon enough, right?
Are you mocking me?
We just couldn’t resist this bit. Turns out Donald Trump is pissed that NBC did a hit job on him with Alec Baldwin continuing his pitch-perfect impression on this episode of Saturday Night Live. He tweeted his displeasure and thinks SNL is past its prime. Frankly, he appears to be a one-man stimulus package for SNL creativity, so bet on Lorne Michaels voting for Trump. Check out the SNL opener that stirred Trump's pot so well.
NO, REALLY! I’M ON THE LIST
Why it matters to you: There is much we can learn from our ancestors.
The most exclusive restaurant in all of New York City remains Rao’s at the corner of East 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue, in Manhattan…really Harlem. The space is about to celebrate its 120th year as a restaurant or tavern. Its owner has cameoed in Goodfella’s and the Soprano’s. There are no reservations, only table assignments that the lucky guest owns for life. It’s a great story about finding your niche and should tickle any of us that wonder that our business was like in the good old days.
AFTER MIDNIGHT [SONG]
Why it matters to you: Is late night dining also dangerous dining?
A shooting took place in LA this weekend that took the life of 15 year old Trinity Gay, daughter of Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay while she was visiting a restaurant on the campus of the University of Kentucky. After we acknowledge the tragedy and express our condolences, we as restaurant operators must always learn lessons from the news in our industry.
Here, the complete story isn’t clear yet, but we do know it was late night on a weekend. This is primetime for horrible behavior. That’s why the lesson is to consider your hours and do a cost-benefit analysis. You should always be reviewing your revenue period sales to ensure you are maximizing your rent costs. That can also mean shutting down a segment that isn’t profitable. In the case of late night, if you have trouble, do you need security, or how would you respond to a shooting at your place. It can kill a business. So make sure before you hang out an “Open-???” sign you have completely reviewed the ups and downs of late night business.
YOU NEED TRUST ISSUES
Why it matters to you: What are you doing to ensure your food quality is excellent…and safe?
When Dezeray Risner visited Wendy’s with her 4-year-old daughter, she expected the French fries to be hot fresh from the drive thru, what she got was shocking and a little scary. Her daughter’s fries were sprinkled with a marijuana leaf and the remnant of a cigarillo (a blunt for those of you keeping score at home). Now, we can’t be sure, but presumably, several people would have handled that food before it was delivered, how did this happen? The truth is we are all exposed to something like this. You simply can’t be in every inch of your business all the time.
So how do you avoid an incident like this or the supposed chicken head found by the NFL player in his order of wings? Frankly, the only clear path is to hire and train great people that will join you in a dedicated effort to provide the best quality and food safety possible. If you hired a person that then dropped something into food to be presented to a guest, then YOU are responsible as much as the rogue employee. Take a hard look at your team. If you think any of them are capable of this, then either re-train or replace them now and sleep better tonight.