Revenue through Training

When you are constantly filled to capacity at your restaurant, one of the best ways is to shift demand or when people come to your business. 

• Early Bird Specials (4:00 - 6:00 pm - prior to the dinner rush, but during the slow time after lunch)

• Happy Hour - slowest times of the day

• Late Night Specials - Sansei's (Marriott Waikiki) used to offer a late night special on Friday's and Saturday's for 50% off all items; including sushi. This helped to drive in customers on the weekends, to provide fresh fish daily by moving remaining product for promotions, and to keep costs down by reducing waste. They now have the specials on Sunday's and Monday's from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm.

• Specials - while most times specials are usually specials for a reason, in some cases, restaurants will create specials around particular ingredients to make sure they move products that may not have been selling. 

• Senior Citizen discounts/Kids Eat Free on certain days of the week

• Reservations that limit seating time and when people come to your business

If you cannot sit more people at your restaurant you need to be more creative.

• Take-out. Some businesses will not offer take out due to the temperature danger zones and keeping foods safe to eat or due to the presentation of the food.

• Uber Eats/Grub Hub - offers a bigger exposure to those using the apps and the ability to have your food delivered if you do not personally offer delivery.

• Creating new seats outside your restaurant (outdoor seating). On Sundays, Cinnamons in Kailua uses the courtyard in front of their business to put more tables and chairs since most businesses are closed.

• Catering - Tanioka's and Ige's caters for bigger events.

• Pop-Up's - Pig & The Lady expanded by opening up pop-up's at various farmer's markets

When I worked at Marriott Ko'olina Beach Club there was one individual who was a more experienced waiter and his gross sales were always higher every night. One day it dawned on me that training employees in what to say and how to respond made the biggest difference in check size and overall revenue for the company.

You don’t always need more customers, you need higher check averages

• 100 people x $15 = $1500 in sales

• 75 people x $ 20 = $1500 in sales 

Training employees to better serve customers

• Expert servers know their menu, drinks, and specials

• Servers don’t ask, they offer

  • • Would you like to start with an appetizer? (Incorrect)

    • Could I get you started with an Artichoke Dip? (Better)

    • Could I start you off with something to drink? (Incorrect) 

    • Today we are featuring our bartender inspired – Mai Tai Blast.  It comes with freshly squeezed orange juice and pineapple juice, 3 different rums from the island, and topped with a pineapple wedge. 

• Forced Choice

  • • Could I interest you with an Artichoke Dip or Nachos to start? (Better)

    • Today we are featuring a freshly made Artichoke Dip with a Blend of Mozzarella and Asiago Cheeses with homemade Pita Slices. (Better)

    • Today we are featuring two appetizers.  First we have a freshly made Artichoke Dip with a Blend of Mozzarella and Asiago Cheeses with homemade Pita Slices.  Second we have our Hawaiian inspired Kalua Pork Nachos.  We have tortilla chips covered with roasted Kalua Pig drizzled with our homemade sriracha mayo sauce and topped off with diced tomatoes and onions.  Could I get you started with the Artichoke Dip or Nachos? (Best)

• The difference is how we offer or provide options to guests to make their decisions. 

Sides

• At fine dining restaurants or steakhouses many meals are sold Ala Carte or by itself

• Selling sides, often family size, enable you to make more money on items that are inherently inexpensive.

• This helps to raise the average check price per customer

Table Turn Rate

Refers to either:

• How many total tables are sat throughout the entire night

• Average time of guests to the restaurant

  • • Fast Food – 10-30 minutes

    • Casual Dining – 30-60 minutes

    • Fine dining – 1-3 hours or more

    • The longer the time spent, the higher the check average needs to be make ends meet (profitable and for waiters to make tips)   

While you cannot control how long guests would like to stay, you can control how long it takes for them to be waited on, for food to get to their table, and to bring a check in a timely manner. Attentiveness allows guests to order more beverages, food or settle their bill.

Floor Layout

The layout of floor helps to dictate the flow of the room as well as the amount of tables and chairs that can be placed in the restaurant. For bars, flow is extremely important as the intent is to allow people to mingle or to move about. According to statistics, each chair could be worth $10,000+ in revenue annually

Reservations

• Pacing of the restaurant kitchen

• Anticipate staffing needs and resource (waiters, cooks, food stock)

• Allow host/hostess to fill in last minute reservations or walk in customers

Kitchen

A. Standard Recipes

• • • Improve quality of food

    • Reduce costs for waste and excess stock

    • Ability to cross-train employees

B. Food Prep       

• • • Food prep, based upon average customers or reservations, will save time with regards to wait time

C. Cross-Training Employees

• • • Avoids issues of having only specialized workers

    • Benihana has special chefs who cook but are not easily replaced

D. Food Runners

• • • Know the menu and how dishes are to be finished and served

    • Help to expedite orders

A.  Restaurant Pop ups

• Holding special events for your business

• Typically feature chefs who are up and coming

• Could be very useful to feature them at your restaurant to bring in new customers to your business who may come back another time

B.  Holding a special event at your business

• Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Xmas Dinner

• Fundraiser for charity

• Having one night a week that features a special menu (Aiea Bowl)

  • • Pre Fixe Menu (Price is fixed)

    • Typically 3-5 dish menu that is predetermined

    • Amuse Bouche

    • French for “mouth amuser” - single bite hors d'oeuvres

    • Served gratis and according to the chef's selection

c.         Hors d'oeuvres (Appetizer), Main Course, Dessert

ii.         Table d’hote Price is fixed

a.        Similar to Pre Fixe but allows for some variations in choices to meal (Salad, Hors d'oeuvres, Dessert choice)

C.  Changing menus monthly

• Creating an entire new menu for the month (see Pre Fixe above) 

• Nanzan GiroGiro (yelp.com – nanzan girogiro)

• Morio's - based upon what Morio can find at the fish market and seasons

D.  Changing menus daily

• Daily Specials (Times Supermarket – salmon, steak, laulau)

E.  Specialty item

• Honey Toast (Shokudo)

• Shave Ice (Aoki’s, Matsumoto’s, Island Vintage Shave Ice, Wing Ice Cream and Shave Ice)

• Tony Romas, Prime Rib House, McDonalds

• Flambee

• Tomahawk Steak