Pushing the Envelope

Sad But True Department: Some 1,000 pubs have closed around the country over the last three years. Some closures surprised no one – such pubs were closures waiting to happen – anachronisms, if you ask me. They should never have been in the first place.
For these pubs, high footfall days were rarer than a steak sandwich on the Rainbow Warrior.
But in a slimmer, more efficiency-conscious pub-world, rural pubs continue to decline as does the rural ‘community life’ that they once supported – no ‘Hold-The-Front-Page’ news there either, I suppose…
But I was recently asked to what extent do the remaining rural pubs help rekindle ‘community life’ in Ireland and in doing so, rekindle their footfall?
It’s an interesting question to mull over in the night’s darkness and I discovered that successful pubs take a widely different approach by way of an answer.
All have one thing in common. They’re pushing the envelope in terms of broadening their appeal.
You see it in the signs as you walk into such pubs.
They make their offering clear via signs to those passing by: ‘We’re open from breakfast though brunch, lunch and afternoon tea to dinner’.
Some actually – gasp! – welcome children and with the provision of a family atmosphere in mind, proudly announce that Sunday lunch will be served throughout the afternoon. Well, who’d have thought it? Lunch in a pub…….

 

I can’t believe what some restaurants are charging

I recently travelled between Ireland and the US from Shannon Airport. I had an early morning flight and once I arrived at the airport, checked in my bags and headed to the café for a quick bite to eat before going through security. Now, I have had bad experiences in this café in the past. Some of you may remember, that on a previous occasion for lunch there, I wasn’t allowed to choose my vegetables for my lunch from the selection available because THEY decided for you! This time round, I thought I’d play it safe and had a super-health breakfast: One mini innocent smoothie, one Actimel and a small bowl of fruit.

My breakfast at Shannon Airport

The cost of this? €5?, €6? Or even €7?. Not even close. The total for this tiny breakfast was €12.50!

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW TO CONSIDER THIS!!! Ireland is going through it’s biggest economic downturn in decades due to over-inflated prices, greed and a lost knowledge of the difference between cost and value and here we are in Shannon Airport, the first stop for thousands of tourists coming in to Ireland for the first time and this is the robbery they are subjected to. Tourist numbers in 2008 experienced their first decline in years with many claiming Ireland was overpriced. Is it any wonder?

Shannon Airport and whoever it is runs the café there needs to get serious. They need to wake up and realise that having the monopoly over food service in an airport is not a license to rob people. With most customers passing through the airport only once in a while, no doubt the café thinks they can get away without the repeat business. Well I say that they can’t. Sharp practices like this need to be stamped out once and for all.

If Ireland and the rest of the world is going to climb its way out of this recession, they need to start being competitive and pricing in a manner that stimulates spending and growth, not stifles it. Increasing your prices is NOT the way out of a recession.

 

Bad Bar Food Signs

I recently made the drive from Cork to Dublin and decided I would see whether, in light of the current economic downturn, any bars or restaurants were being more creative to entice potential customers through the doors. The results may surprise you:

Part 1

Part 2

 

Video: How to manage your food cost and develop a profitable kitchen

I have added a few videos we developed for our American sister website http://manageyourbar.com which I think you may find of interest!

Part 1

Part 2

 

Irish pub food – stand up & take a bow

Ruminating over the Christmas period about sunnier times in 2008, I experienced a certain warm glow when remembering my summer hols which were somewhat soggy as I topped them off with a week on the Shannon, often cruising through the Irish version of Cyclone Gustav. At the time though, my thoughts were not on the weather but rather on the fortnight we’d spent immediatly before the Shannon trip – in France. Now I like my grub as much as the next trencherman but it makes me very happy to be able to relate that these days, French cuisine couldn’t hold a candle to our own. No matter where we went in France – and we traversed the country quite thoroughly by car – the food was practically an identikit version or variation of Steak Frites, Crepe Frites, Spaghetti and other pasta dishes etc, all cooked with a nonchalant air which showed up in the lacklustre flavours and couldn’t-care-less attitude to tourists. This was finally brought home to me by the really really good food and service we experienced in pubs and restaurants along the shores of the Shannon.

Here lies a good example of Irish pubs that are firmly not part of a major conurbation making a go of it in ‘the wilds’. The food and the beverages were excellent as was the atmosphere. After all, that’s what we’d come for and I’d reckon we must have been representative of millions of other ‘tourists’ all looking for the same thing from our hostelries, unmindful of the Irish weather. I was particularly impressed by the food and service in the excellent Larkins in Garrykennedy and decided to firmly moor ourselves to one of their tables in this scrupulously clean establishment on a number of occasions during our week afloat. We weren’t disappointed. The fare was fabulous. I don’t even like Fish Chowder but was encouraged to try a spoonful by my better half. I ordered it for myself the next time we were in. Atlantic mussels, roast duckling and as much steak as you could comfortably spancel in a weekend – all immaculately cooked and presented before the pub settled into a traditional music session for the evening. Maura and Cormac Boyle took over the place two years ago and a great fist they’ve made of it too. The coup de grace came when – uncharacteristically – someone forgot the order of French Fries which, on being reminded, arrived at the end of the meal. Still nobody minded; we’d eaten our fill and the Guinness was good. When the bill arrived, Maura insisted that there would be no charge for an order that didn’t arrive on time. So free chips and a fulsome feeling as we waddled back to the boat that night, having enjoyed Irish hospitality at its finest. If our experience is replicated by other tourists visiting this country there could be no finer place to eat than in Irish pubs such as Larkins. We should be proud. Footnote: Alas our enjoyable evening in Larkins wasn’t to last the night. We returned to our craft and had to let out one sick dog from the boat’s cabin which Hurricane O’Gustav had rocked and rolled mercilessly for the evening while we were in the pub, leaving us with doggie vomit and other attractive traits of the family pet in a number of unsuspecting places……

Source: Drinks Industry Ireland Magazine

 

5 aspects of a successful staff incentive programme

Once an aspect of chain restaurants and bars only, a well thought out, strategic incentive plan for your managers and staff can improve the bottom line, improve job satisfaction among staff and allow for “buy in” from your managers/staff into the overall success of your independent business.

There are many types of incentive plans you can introduce, however most will have the same basic principles. We have described these here to help you create an effective programme:

1. Make the incentive programme simple and easy to understand. Don’t overcomplicate the programme by having it tied into so many areas of the business that its both hard to measure and equally hard to achieve. Determine the key areas you want results on and work these into your plan. For example, increase average customer spend by 10% or Eur 5.00.
2. The incentive program should be designed in a way that allows your staff to work smarter and not necessarily harder. After all, if you implement a programme that requires staff to work longer hours to achieve it, you may end up paying for the extra hours labour as well as any reward earned by the staff so encourage and train staff to work smarter. Increasing the average spend per customer requires smarter thinking so would work well in the programme. Serving more customers in the day wouldn’t as staff might stay later to serve them.

Members, read the rest of the article here:
http://www.barkeeper.ie/3page.asp?menu=143&page=734&Subpage=594

 

‘Dublin is not Ireland’ – thank God!

Something has been happening in Dublin over the last few years. And it’s not nice. Dublin’s service industry has become gruff in nature and most importantly, that’s being voiced abroad. Our capital city would want to take the squashed laurels from under its posterior for it has been resting on them for too long in the area of customer-friendly service.
Rural pundits have often claimed quite rightly that ‘Dublin is not Ireland’ and  I’ve the chance to take this to heart as I absconded from the office to take a week’s holiday on the waters of the Shannon.
And the contrast between my experiences of late in Dublin and those outside the capital could not be more stark.  It’s something that the service industries in Dublin both retail and restaurant are going to have to look into.
One horror story in particular is brought to my attention by the organisers of an international conference in Dublin this summer.

 

10 Kitchen Secrets your Chef is Hiding from You

THE kitchen is unchartered territory for many bar and restaurant owners who are afraid to question the chef on matters that they are not too familiar with. Well. It’s time to get familiar, because your kitchen could be hemorrhaging money and if its your business, you’ll want to know how and why. Read three reasons here:

When stock is ordered, it is normally stored by a cook or cleaner with no interest in the First In First Out system of storage and so piles everything on top of older stock, increasing spoilage and expensive unnecessary wastage.

The Chef keeps no record of what he has produced each day so has no way of referencing how much preparation he needs to do each day resulting in over production and thrown out food. A record of Production should be implemented that cross references number of orders with items produced with any other details relevant such as local special event that brought in business etc.

The Chef has no “Kitchen Bible” in place that should contain all his recipes, guidelines for production, induction for new cooks etc, meaning that when the Chef is off duty, all recipes are prepared byu the cooks the way they want to prepare them resulting in inconsistencies and potential unhappy customers.

Members of Barkeeper, click here to read the other seven secrets:
http://www.barkeeper.ie/3page.asp?menu=117&page=700&Subpage=593

 

The biggest menu mistakes most restaurants make and what to do about them

Every restaurant has a menu but not every restaurant uses the restaurant as the real selling tool that it is.

A restaurant menu should not be an afterthought or something that should be put together over a coffee the week before opening. It takes time, decision and analysis to make the most of your menu but the results of such effort can be hugely rewarding.

The biggest make made by restaurants? Poor layout and design.

A good menu design can improve sales an average of 2 to 10 percent, according to restaurant consultants interviewed by Restaurants US. That means that for a restaurant turning over 1,000,000 a year, the opportunity to earn an extra 20,000-100,000 a year is either being won or lost based on the menu alone. Worth paying attention to? We think so.

So let’s look at some of the biggest design and layout mistakes:

1. Not keeping the colours in theme with your restaurant. An Italian Restaurant might make use of red, white and green on their menu, but this might not suit a French fine dining restaurant. Don’t overdo it on colours and fonts so that your customers are distracted, however make sure your menu is appealing enough to be read thoroughly.
2. Placing the highest profit margin items in the wrong places. There are different “sweet spots” on a menu where a customer’s eyes are naturally drawn depending on the layout of the menu. On a twofold menu, this spot is on the right hand page a few lines from the top. On a trifold menu, it is in the centre page, a few lines from the top. Putting low margin items here directly affects your margins. The top grossing restaurants know this and carefully plan what items they allow into these prime spots.
3. Not grouping products together. The best menus have distinct sections that help guide a customer from course to course, making it easier for them to choose more and spend more. Clearly identify what the appetizers are, the main courses are and the desserts.
4. Not offering something more than the competitor but charging more. What is your restaurant’s unique selling proposition? Are the chips handcut, are the vegetables grown onsite? Whatever it is, you need to sing about it to justify your prices if they are higher than your competitors. Customers are clever and know the market prices of most items so sell to your strengths.

 

Could your staff be turning away customers?

What would you do if you knew that after spending thousands on marketing, promotions, advertising and enticements to get customers in to your bar or restaurant, you find out that your own staff are preventing them from spending any money?

A recent visit to a carvery style restaurant highlighted this fact to me.

The roast of the day was Roast Pork which I ordered. Next came the decision of choosing what vegetables/potatoes I wanted, but a quick glance didnt whet my apettite for any of the potatoes on offer so I asked for a portion of the rice which was an accompaniment to the stir-fry on the menu.

Instead of happily dishing up a portion of rice, I was told that I wasn’t “allowed” to have rice with pork. Why not? because (according to the oblivious server) the rice is only for the stir fry. No offer of serving it as a side order or any accomodating of my request, simply a no. Surely a carvery style operation allows the customers choose (within reason) their accompaniments?

Not that I was the only one…the next customer who simply asked for a plate of potatoes and french fries was told they would have to pay for two meals. Honestly, if this is how paid staff are representing your restaurant, its time to reconsider your calling as a hospitality business owner.

Standard operating procedures are one thing, but when it gets to the stage of scaring away customers, then its time to rethink them.

Ensure your staff are offering hospitality and not just civility. There’s a big difference. Induction training and on-the-job evaluation will ensure you dont have a repeat of my unfortunate experiences in your business.