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Greetings!
Welcome to the first monthly issue of the Wheelwright Consultants monthly food service update. Each month (or more often if we have important news to share), we'll send out this newsletter with information and news updates important to your business. We hope you find this helpful and informative.
Please let us know what you think of our e-newsletter. Send us your questions and comments to info@wheelwrightconsultants.com!
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Saturday Night Special?
A Cautionary Tale
 Saturday Night Special, (n) - a pejorative noun
describing a small, inexpensive, poorly made handgun of small caliber and low
reliability, the use of which can result in self-inflicted damage.
On the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, we went to an
early (7:50 PM) movie. Since the
movie ended before 10:00 PM and we had an out of town visitor who can't get
good seafood where she lives we walked over to a wine bar/seafood restaurant,
one of four restaurants, in the same plaza as the theater.
The blackboard special featured: sole with cherrystones,
potatoes, and ramps. While we weren't really up for dinner, the creativity was
encouraging and a couple of appetizers such as some oysters would have hit the
spot!
The hostess told we could sit anywhere we liked and left us
to seat ourselves. Two different
waiters came to our table, addressed us as "guys" and offered us water. One brought menus and the other brought
the water. Despite the fact that
this was a wine bar he brought only one wine menu, which my wife opened.
Our guest ordered one of the restaurant's specialty drinks
and my wife asked if the restaurant made a good "Long Island Iced Tea" and our
waiter replied, "I don't know." I
had to ask him to go ask the bartender if she/he made a good Long Island Iced
Tea. When he came back to say that
the bartender said he made a good Long Island Iced tea he brought our guest's
drink.  My wife ordered a Long
Island Iced Tea and since she had not had a chance to get a good look at the
food menu she wondered out loud if the restaurant served oysters. The waiter overheard her and said, "We
don't serve 'em." I suggested that
my wife might want the mussels and the waiter said, "We're out of 'em." We asked what shellfish the restaurant
had and the waiter said that we could get the sole with cherrystones entree,
but that they were out of the sole so we could get the cherrystones and
vegetables.
When the waiter delivered the Long Island Iced Tea, I
ordered a glass of Shiraz and the calamari with peppers. Our waiter put the calamari on the
table and mumbled under his breath, "It doesn't look like they put any peppers
on this." My wife and our friend
did not hear what he said, but I did. While the peppers were missing, the calamari was crisp and tender. It was also inconsistently salty: some
pieces had no salt on them, others were so salty as to almost inedible. When this was brought to the waiter's
attention, he said that the cooks sprinkle fried items with salt and pepper
after cooking and maybe they were inconsistent.
And the Long Island Iced Tea? It was overly strong and lacking in flavor - the way that a
young bartender thinking that "the more liquor in the drink, the better it will
be" might make it. If one had
looked the drink, they would have seen that it was very pale in color,
indicating too much liquor and not enough mixer.
So where do I begin: with the lack of training of the staff,
the lack of supervision by the hostess, the lack of salesmanship on the part of
the waiter, the poor forecasting that allowed a restaurant to run out of a
regular menu item on the Saturday night of a long holiday weekend, the failure
to change the blackboard special when that item ran out, the heavy hand with
the salt, the heavy hand with the liquor, or the invisibility of management?
With a little modification, our experience fits with the
definition of a "Saturday Night Special" - a poorly made experience with low
reliability, served by a staff of limited caliber that created self-inflicted damage.
The restaurant business is about attention to detail and
consistency. Both were lacking in
this restaurant. I would guess
that this restaurant lacks an effective orientation and training program,
because this is where attention to detail and consistency start. Staff has to be trained to prepare
foods and beverages to the restaurant's standard and to provide the level of
service that the business desires. The staff has to be trained to work together.
It is human nature to forget things: to change the
blackboard, to explain to guest what you're out of before they read the menu,
to order enough of popular items, how to handle questions, etc., etc.,
etc. That is why there should be a
manager on duty to remind the staff, to supervise them, to coach them - to
prevent situations such as the one we experienced. It is doubtful that we will go back to that restaurant and
who knows how many other guests will feel the same way.
Please use our experience as a cautionary tale to prevent
your business from being damaged by a Saturday Night Special. And don't forget, July 4th is a long weekend too!
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 June's Full Moon is the
"Strawberry Moon"
Did you know that the full moon on June 26 is knows as the "Strawberry Moon"? What a perfect theme to plan a promotion around! What are you doing to promote Strawberries in your business this weekend?
Need more great promotion ideas? We've got thousands! Give us a call and we can discuss planning a promotional calendar for your business!
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Thank you for reading our
newsletter. We hope you found it interesting and informative. Our next
newsletter will have more news and
information. Look for it in your inbox in July.
Sincerely,
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Eric Nusbaum, CHA, Ph.D.
Wheelwright Consultants |
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