Starting, Owning and Marketing A Restaurant Blog|Starting and Owning a Restaurant - Construction, Planning, Marketing, Opening and Managing a New Restaurant

Nothing has challenged the restaurant industry like the past 18 months. Rising prices, lower discretionary spending by consumers and chains offering junk food at or near cost. The battlefront starts with getting return visits from guests who want value. Rich or poor, everyone is looking for the value in every dollar they spend.

One conerstone of the total value experience is what’s on the plate. Is the coverage good and is it exceptional for the dollars spent? In the breakfast and lunch business we have had to make sure the diner perceives every menu item as a good way to spend a few dollars as compared to the competition. Creative garnishes and fillers keep meeting the guests expectations in terms of quantity.

To find that creative inspiration look to your inventory list. What are the items have a low cost and high margin, but offer good plate coverage? Here are a few we use:

• Eggs - last year this time we were paying double what we pay now for eggs. An egg costs under ten cents each. Gives good color and coverage in a variety of ways.
• Grits - low cost and easy to hold, prepare and cook. They also can be used in a number of ways from polenta to baked cheese grits. The same applies to oats, barley and other grains.
• Flour - wheat has almost doubled in price, but the overall value of this ingredient is limitless. Used for flatbreads, easy cakes, pastries and dough can produce some inexpensive plate fillers that can offer something extra that enhances the customers experience. Pancakes, of course, lead the way in the breakfast business. Adding a couple of savory silver dollar pancakes or Johnnie cakes to a lunch item will get the guest’s attention.
• Vegetables - prices across the board are much higher for fruits and vegetables. However, there are still some relative bargains like potatoes, various other roots like yucca and carrots. One of the biggest fruit bargains continues to be bananas which can be made into various components like filler for cakes, sauteed like bananas foster and filler for pancakes and crepes.

Start your creative thinking with an inventory list and a few Google searches. Ideas may be a click away.

On Friday, January 23, 2009, we established a high sales number for a weekday. Sales reached over $1500 as weather improved in Florida, we got to seat outside. Customers enjoy our patio seating.

On Saturday, one of the busiest days of the week in the breakfast business, sales reached almost $2500. This business level tested our kitchen, the wait staff and all of the procedures we hoped we had in place. Several customers mentioned an ad we started on Friday and will continue in a weekly newspaper for 30 days. That is one of the steps in our marketing plan.

Today will be busy again, but all of us need to focus on improving small details that take time and reduce the time in front of the customer and focusing on faster, more efficient service. Servers will be briefed on our objectives to eliminate bottlenecks. Some of those include;

• Improving knowledge of the menu, so there are less questions.
• Consistency in entering orders in the POS system so the kitchen clearly understands what the guest wants and there are no mistakes.
• Location of kitchen ingredients, take out supplies and things that cause crossover paths on the line.

The switchover from breakfast to lunch was a little disorganized at a very busy time of the day. Take out orders are problematic, but should be fewer on a Sunday.

The weekends look very good for the future. Next week we begin building our weekday sales through marketing plans we are ready to implement.

Our first $10,000 week is on the horizon. Today we should easily achieve that milestone for a new restaurant in the breakfast and lunch business.