How to Prepare Your Restaurant for an Owner’s Vacation
Essential steps and considerations. Taking a vacation as a restaurant owner can seem like an impossible feat, especially if you’re planning to be away for more than two weeks. However, with a well-prepared team and thorough planning, you can ensure your business runs smoothly in your absence. Here are the most important steps a restaurant owner should take before embarking on a vacation for a week or two, as well as considerations for those who feel they cannot step away from their restaurant. Essential Preparations Before Leaving for Vacation…
- Delegate Responsibilities
- Designate a Point Person: Ensure that your manager or another senior staff member is clearly identified as the point of contact for any issues that arise. This person should have the authority to make decisions in your absence.
- Clarify Roles and Responsibilities: Make sure every staff member knows their duties and who to report to. This minimizes confusion and maintains operational flow.
- Thorough Training
- Manager Training: Invest time in training your manager on handling potential problems, from customer complaints to inventory shortages. This includes financial responsibilities, such as overseeing payroll and managing budgets.
- Staff Training: Ensure all staff are well-versed in their roles and responsibilities. Cross-train employees where possible to handle multiple tasks.
- Detailed Documentation
- Operational Manuals: Provide detailed manuals covering all aspects of restaurant operations, including opening, and closing procedures, equipment operation, and emergency protocols.
- Emergency Contacts: Compile a list of emergency contacts, including your own, as well as suppliers, maintenance services, and local authorities.
NJ Breweries Continue to Close
Here’s why it will keep happening, brewers say. Sixteen breweries have closed in New Jersey since 2023, but that doesn’t tell the complete picture of what is happening to the industry in the Garden State.
“It’s actually a higher number because of breweries that have quietly or publicly … changed hands,” said Scott Wells, president of Brewers Guild of New Jersey and co-owner of Bolero Snort Brewery in Carlstadt. “… We’re looking at around 25 in the last 18 months.” In January, New Jersey craft brewers expressed relief at Gov. Phil Murphy’s signing of a bill easing some restrictions on their businesses they say was long overdue. But they said there is more work to be done before the state’s brewery industry is on equal footing with its competitors in neighboring states. The liquor license reform bill, signed by Murphy on Jan. 16, just before the legislative session’s deadline, combined parts of a bill that previously passed both chambers with some of the concerns from Murphy’s November conditional veto. The legislation allows license holders for New Jersey breweries, cideries, meaderies and craft distilleries to hold 25 off-premises special events and an unlimited number of special events and private parties onsite. It also allows the hiring of servers and wait staff and the sale of some food items, such as chips and packaged snacks, and non-alcoholic beverages. The new law increased the number of barrels a brewery can manufacture from 10,000 to 300,000 per year and gets rid of a requirement for a tour before a customer can try a beverage. While breweries can work with outside vendors like food trucks, they still cannot sell food or make online sales like out-of-state breweries can. “The law changes did not achieve parity with our neighboring states,” Wells said. “All the changes did nullify the special ruling that was levied by the [Alcoholic Beverage Control] in 2019, which was already pretty absurd. Now in the few months since the law went through, the ABC is doing anything they can … to make it difficult for us to operate.” Wells expects several more breweries to close this year, he said.
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The End of Restaurants
As we know them? Since the start of 2024, numerous well-known restaurant chains have announced sizable closures and incrementally more drastic restructuring efforts. TGI Fridays has closed numerous locations across the US and sold eight corporate-owned locations to strengthen their franchise model and close underperforming stores. Denny’s shut down 57 restaurants in 2023 and announced additional closures for 2024 due to inflationary pressures. Boston Market drastically reduced its number of restaurants from around 300 to just 27 by March 2024, driven by landlord evictions, unpaid bills, and state shutdowns due to unpaid sales taxes. Mod Pizza abruptly closed 27 locations across the US, including five in California, just before the new minimum wage law took effect. Also suddenly, Coco’s Bakery and Carrows chains closed 75 locations, leading to a federal lawsuit by former employees due to the lack of notice provided for the layoffs. PDQ, a regional restaurant chain, closed eight restaurants across North and South Carolina in February 2024 due to market conditions. Outback Steakhouse’s parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, announced the shuttering of 41 locations of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Bonefish Grill in February 2024 as part of a major financial restructuring. Subway has been undergoing a massive drawdown, closing over 400 underperforming locations since last year alone. And Applebee’s has been selectively closing locations since the start of 2024, focusing on optimizing its restaurant portfolio by shutting down low-revenue stores. In 2024, Buffalo Wild Wing will eliminate sixty locations in the United States. IHOP (International House of Pancakes) will wind down 100 locations. Other firms eliminating locations include Pizza Hut, Red Lobster, Hooters, and Chili’s. A handful of others may close down entirely. COVID lockdowns significantly weakened chain restaurants by drastically reducing their customer base and revenue streams. This disruption made it difficult for many restaurants to sustain operations, some of which took on more debt in the face of depleted financial reserves. The total and annual percentage changes in the index prices of six key ingredients of restaurant and diner menu items, from 2010 to 2020 and then from 2021 to the present, are shown below; in most cases, over the last three years prices have risen at multiples of their annual increases over the prior decade.
Loyalty Innovation Has Evolved
To focus more on the customer. “Top performers are personalizing and using data to segment their customer database,” Kristin Lynch, Senior Director of Restaurant Strategy for Paytronix Systems. “They are differentiating, delivering an emotional connection and recognizing their most valuable customers.” Lynch has more than 20 years’ experience managing large CPG and retail brands in marketing and brand strategy. Kristin was previously Vice President with Round Table Pizza and Director of Marketing for well-known brands such as Thorntons, Pyrex, and Craftsman Tools. “Loyalty innovation is not always true innovation,” Lynch added. “It’s not always a new method, idea, product, etc. Loyalty innovation sometimes simply is…Restaurants see others driving success with an initiative and they jump on the bandwagon, while tweaking it slightly to make it unique for their brand.” For example, Lynch said, many restaurants jumped into “gamification” during 2023 by launching Badges. Each restaurant put their own spin on Badges to make it fit their brand but doing Badges was not a unique innovation by each restaurant brand. “Restaurants have a loyalty program but haven’t put in place many best practices (i.e. welcome reward, birthday reward, segmentation). Therefore, they enhance their program with “innovation” to them but not necessarily industry innovation. The above has been an evolution with loyalty innovation meaning “fast follower” not “new / unique.” But loyalty innovation has also evolved to focus more on the customer. Innovation that’s important to the customer is personalized and serves their individual needs.” As mentioned in the Paytronix Loyalty Trend Report 2024 – Most Brands Use Some Level of Campaign Segmentation. Over 70 percent of brands’ campaigns are segmented vs. sent to their entire loyalty database. Less than 10 percent of campaigns leveraged predictive model scores. This allows communication and rewards to be based on customers individual purchases / past behaviors and drive engagement through personalization.
Rise of the Restaurant Robots
Chains experiment with machine helpers as they face increasing labor costs. Kernel, a New York City startup from Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells, uses a robotic arm to flip plant-based burger patties and a conveyor belt to move dishes along the assembly line. Humans put on the finishing touches and package the meals for customers to pick up. The robot arm on display and the restaurant’s stark, industrial look confused curious diners at first. Ells temporarily closed the location in early July for around 10 days to add clues like seating, pictures, warmer colors, and softer lighting to help signal that it actually serves food. “People opened the door, they came in and they’re, like, ‘What is this?’ Well, it’s a restaurant, but it’s not obvious,” Ells said at the WSJ Global Food Forum last month. The renovated restaurant, with a warmer vibe, reopened this week. Restaurant companies are making multimillion-dollar bets that robots can be taught to cook. Taking a page from industries like auto manufacturing that pair automated systems with human workers to boost productivity, chains such as Chipotle, Sweetgreen and others are testing expensive bespoke machines to mix greens, cook burgers and peel avocados. Restaurants face tough challenges in automating kitchens, and efforts so far have been halting. Unlike most auto parts, food is soft and sometimes slippery, requiring dexterity beyond the abilities of most of today’s commonly used robots. But rising labor costs will spur more automation in restaurants in the next decade, said Sharon Zackfia, a restaurant analyst at William Blair Equity Research. She predicts this will likely follow the curve of online ordering, with early adopters designing their own costlier approaches before outside players invent more mainstream offerings.
Daddy’s Chicken Shack Bringing First NJ Chain Restaurant to Monmouth County
Key to ensuring loyalty. A new fried chicken chain plans to hatch its first New Jersey restaurant in Monmouth County. Daddy’s Chicken Shack, a restaurant chain with eight locations in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and California and more than 100 others in development, has inked a deal with local restaurant firm, Esperto Hospitality Group, to open 13 locations in New Jersey, with the first in Monmouth County. A spot in Ocean County will follow, with others around the Garden State. Esperto Hospitality, comprised of founder John DiLeo and his brother and vice president Anthony DiLeo, culinary partner Norman Reola, and Chief Operating Officer Anthony Fiorentino, also has operated fine-dining establishments, including Centrada Cocina & Cocktails, and the former Catch 19, both in Red Bank. John DiLeo also has been a franchisee of Perkins Restaurants and Bakery. “We are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to the Esperto Hospitality Group,” said Dave Linger Jr., chief executive officer of Daddy’s Chicken Shack. “They bring an impressive track record in the restaurant industry and have the skillset that we look for in our partnerships.” Owned by private equity firm Area 15 Ventures and run by Dave Linger, the co-founder of real estate company ReMax, Daddy’s Chicken Shack opened its first restaurant in Pasadena, California, in 2018. It offers pressure-cooked fried chicken and grilled chicken sandwiches with Southern-inspired flavors, loaded fries and desserts. “It’s not going to be your usual fast food,” said Kyle Richardson, director of guest services for Esperto Hospitality. “It’s going to be chef-driven chicken sandwiches on the menu throughout.” A location for Esperto Hospitality’s first Daddy’s Chicken Shack restaurant has not yet been announced. “We are going to be looking at opening that very shortly, almost as model,” Richardson said. “We’re going to get a couple more and hopefully people will start to see the brand of Daddy’s Chicken Shack.”
Hotel Restaurants Use Storytelling, Immersive Experiences
To draw repeat guests. Successful concepts center narratives, offer signature experiences and are well-attuned to changing customer tastes, experts say. Agave-forward cocktails and elevated takes on Mexican regional fare are the stars of the show at Ceiba, the signature food and beverage spot at Hilton’s new Conrad Orlando hotel. But Ceiba’s elegant rooftop setting offers the promise of predictable entertainment, too, thanks to what Hilton Senior Vice President and Global Head of Food and Beverage Brands Adam Crocini calls “unparalleled views” of nearby Walt Disney World’s famed fireworks displays. Ceiba, which overlooks the property’s 8-acre, sand-rimmed lagoon, is one of five “bespoke concepts” created for Conrad by Stir Creative Collective by Hilton, Crocini said. Another, the Polynesian-inspired Papaya Club near the lagoon’s shore, tapped mixologist Paul McGee — known for his tropical-inspired cocktails — to develop a drinks menu worthy of a South Pacific beach resort. Guests sip McGee’s creations at tables overlooking the lagoon or farther-flung cabanas and loungers, extending the experience throughout the property. Conrad Orlando’s food and beverage concepts reflect a wider trend within the hospitality industry toward memorable restaurant and lounge experiences rooted in a sense of place, even when they honor flavors first developed thousands of miles away. “For Hilton, a successful hotel restaurant will have a strong narrative interwoven throughout every aspect of the space, experience and service program,” Crocini said. “The narrative, if thoughtfully curated and executed, will leave the guest with an impression of their dining experience.” These narratives are as varied as the properties themselves, drawing a throughline from menu design and sourcing to restaurant decor. And increasingly, they cater not only to hotel guests, but also to locals seeking out-of-the-ordinary culinary experiences in their own backyards.
Did You Know?
Can you fire an employee for their political speech? Foley & Lardner LLP, a national law firm, was recently sued by an incoming associate after the firm rescinded the associate’s job offer the day before she was supposed to start working for the firm. The firm announced that its decision was based on the associate’s public comments on the Hamas October 7th attacks, likely referring to a speech the associate made where she said the Hamas October 7th attack on Israel was the “natural response of 75 years of occupation and violence by Israeli forces.”
Employee Tip
Here’s what restaurant servers notice about you when you’re dining out. When you walk into a restaurant, you probably notice how friendly the host and waitstaff are, what the ambiance feels like, what kind of cuisine is on the menu and who else is dining there. But you’re not the only one taking in your surroundings. Restaurant servers are also likely sizing you up and figuring out what kind of dining guest you’ll be. “[Being a server] teaches you how to read people’s behaviors on a dime,” Kelly Ennis, who was a server for about 15 years, told HuffPost. “You can tell when you walk up to a table if they’re in a bad mood, if they’re in a rush … It’s [all about] understanding body language and developing a rapport quickly.” We asked long-time restaurant servers what they’ve observed about their guests when they’re dining out and why that’s important to their jobs.
