The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - March 17, 2000

SPRING CLEANING
I get a lot of requests for information. I handle what I can and refer the rest to folks I know who can help. In an effort to lighten up the pending message file, here are a couple of inquiries where perhaps you can offer some advice. In all cases, if you have any ideas, please reply directly to the person (with a copy to me if you like.)

Vincent Lloyd <latravel@aol.com> writes: Do you know where I can find articles relating to current trends allowing smoking in restaurants, particularly non-smoking restaurants? My waterfront restaurant [in Florida] is an open air Tiki hut seating over 150 people. The restaurant has a bar at each end and is entirely a smoking restaurant. I have had some recent complaints and am considering making a non-smoking section, but it is difficult in the open air atmosphere. I have been told that my restaurant is exempt from current regulations requiring a non-smoking section for restaurants with a certain number of seats. However, to keep customers returning, I would like to institute some changes. I would appreciate any information you could offer.

Ken Routh <krouth@agt.net> is looking for a good program for food inventory.

TWO FOR YOU, ONE FOR ME
I can't ask you to do ALL the work this week, so I thought you might be interested in this exchange. Perhaps you can find an idea or two that you can apply

The question:
My wife and I purchased a cafe in northeastern Colorado about a year and a half ago. We have been pleased with what we have done here, but trying to train the customers how to eat has been a battle. The cafe has been in town since 1935 and has always been tagged as the eatery for seniors. They have money, but trying to get them to eat full meals instead of side dishes or off the senior meal menu is a challenge. That is not the only factor. Because of our age we have attracted many younger customers also, but we have a smoking section and I was curious to know if this also adds to the lack of higher priced ticket items? Of late I have started running a special on Friday evenings a 20-ounce ribeye steak for 13.99 basically paying for the steak alone just to increase cash flow. I am not sure I want to continue this practice for long so I would like some ideas that may help. The example, I have to give is that on most weekends on Saturday we seat around 600 people and sales for the day are around 2400.00 to 2600.00 and this is from a town of 12500 people who live in this farm town. I would enjoy any insight you may have.

The Doc replies:
The good news is that you are doing business. The bad news is that you are probably just wearing out the place and not making enough money to justify the effort. It sounds to me like you are a victim of tradition -- people have it in their minds what your place is and are not much inclined to change their thinking. (In truth, you haven't done much to cause that to happen anyway.) If you tried an across-the-board price hike, you would run the risk of blowing everyone out. If you can hold out financially, the safest way to climb out of this hole is gradually.

First of all, be sure you have accurately costed recipes for all your products. If you don't know what something costs you, you can't calculate what you need to sell it for. You need to change not only the prices but people's perception of the place. (McDonald's today is not the same place that sold 15-cent hamburgers . . . but when did they change?) Start with taking an item off the menu for awhile. Run it as a special with a different plate presentation at a slightly higher price point and see what happens. If people accept the new presentation, put it back on the menu at the higher price. Continue this process with a couple of items at a time. You will reprint a lot of menus (a good case for doing them yourself on the computer) but you will gradually inch the prices up to where they need to be.

There is a lot of information out there on menu engineering that might be helpful. Take a look at "50 Proven Ways to Build More Profitable Menus" under Books and Materials on my website, www.restaurantdoctor.com.

Give people the chance to spend more money. The big steak is a good idea, but it should be run at a HIGH price rather than a low one. Selling at cost just reinforces the idea that yours is a place for cheap eats. I have known people to successfully sell a $30 steak even when the rest of their entrees were priced at half that amount. Because you have been giving it away, you probably can't ask big bucks for the 20-oz ribeye, but look for another big steak that you can try this with.

Start to put some WOW in what you do. Start working on plate presentations, clean up the inside, make cosmetic changes -- in short, start to re-package the place in people's minds. You can get there if you are patient.

That's about the best I can do for you without actually seeing the place. One more word of adviceif you are not making a profit, you have to speed up the process. Do whatever it takes to get profitable . . . and do it while you still have a little financial "wiggle room." If you can't make it profitable, you are dead anyway. Better to die now while you still have a little sanity (and a little money) than to keep it going until you are totally out of cash. I tell you this from gut-wrenching personal experience! Good luck.

PARTING SHOT
I am off in the morning to New York for the NY State Restaurant Show and to Las Vegas for Pizza Expo. After that, I get to stay home for two weeks. I can't tell you how delicious that looks after a month of constant travel! I promise updated photos on the house, but not before I work on my sleep deficit! Happy springtime.

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