The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - June 22, 2001

I am back on the road again tomorrow, this time to the Cleveland area to help a couple of restaurants figure out how to re-invent themselves.

THE TRUTH CAN SET YOU FREE
It is always interesting to see the reaction when one of my more philosophical editions goes out. Most of the responses were very positive . . . and three people asked to be removed from the list. No problem there. As Una Short once said, "The truth can set you free, but first, it will really p - - - you off!"

IMPLEMENT CHANGE WITH CAUTION
One of my favorite local restaurants just got a new chef. This is usually a good thing. The new chef wanted to totally re-invent the menu and the owner let him do it. This is usually a bad thing.

Please understand that I have nothing against artistic expression. In fact, I think if we want to attract and retain quality culinary staff, we have to give them latitude to express themselves within the parameters of the concept. However, what I notice in this case is that my old favorite menu items are no longer tugging at me to come back to the restaurant. (They used to have an ahi preparation that was the best I had ever found. There were times when I just HAD to have it . . . but no longer.) The new menu is interesting --I was invited over there for a preview dinner -- but I have no personal connection with the new offerings yet. I am finding it hard to recommend the place right now, even though I know they will do a great job, because I really don't have a feel for what they are any more.

In my opinion, a safer track would have been to stay with the old menu for awhile and test out the chef's new creations as specials. Those that score well with the public can be phased into the menu as items from the old menu are phased out. (As an aside, I always like to run a discontinued item as a special from time to time for a few months. When someone asks, "What happened to the lamb shanks?" the server can say, "We are running them as a special on Thursdays now" and mollify the guest.) In this way, the menu evolves, guests still have their old favorites to draw them in and are given plenty of time to adjust to the new offerings and find new favorites.

My connection with the owner is strong enough that eventually I know I will come around. It remains the best restaurant in town. Still, I notice that my dining frequency has dropped off following the change. The lesson in here, if there is one, is that while we may want to change items on the menu just because we may be bored with them, we are not selling food to ourselves. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Implement change with caution. Slow and steady change is evolution and that can be exciting. Abrupt, rapid change is revolution and those can be pretty bloody.

ANOTHER SLICE OF LIFE
Finally, this. I didn't exactly know how to advise the reader who posed this question to me

Here is a stumper for you and us: What do you do when you are a very busy buffet restaurant and someone loses a retainer because the child wrapped the retainer in Kleenex and now it's in one of our many garbage cans? We have tried to look for them and then it gets too busy.

Any great ideas?

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