Tips, resources and fresh ideas for running a successful restaurant
Jessica Goin didn’t just jump into the catering business, she dove head first. The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles asked Lucques — the successful restaurant founded by her sister Suzanne Goin, and where Jessica was the General Manager — to cater a gala dinner for 500, and the rest is history.
Jessica tells us: “Suzanne said — somewhat famously in my world — you can do that, but if every bite is not as good as Lucques at its best, I’m going to shut you down.”
In the third installment of her How to Open a Restaurant series, hospitality consultant Alison Arth shares her top 10 tips for hiring the best staff to represent your business. Read on!
If you don’t hire the right people, you won’t be successful. It really is that simple. Your people are your biggest asset, and in our industry they’re often the scarcest resource, so you need to have a strategy in place for identifying them before you begin the hiring process.
Developing and executing a hiring strategy requires a significant investment of time and energy, but skipping it will cost you big time in the long run through frequent turnover, negative guest experiences, and brand inconsistency. This article outlines 10 keys to bringing on the best opening team for your new restaurant.
At Chez Panisse, the iconic Berkeley restaurant helmed by Chef Alice Waters, family meal is more than just a quick bite before service. It’s a way for the staff — including around 30 cooks, office employees, and Edible Schoolyard foundation team members — to sit down, share a meal, and show appreciation for one another. This time has become fundamental to the culture of the restaurant.
“It’s really important for us to take a moment and sit and eat together,” says Chez Panisse Cafe Chef Beth Wells. “It’s a way of showing appreciation and taking care of the staff.”
A great restaurant can be a launching pad for creating a new product and partnering with a retail brand on a large scale. Doing so will bring your own name and brand to a fresh audience and open up new opportunities for revenue. Lena Kwak worked as a Research & Development Chef at The French Laundry before founding Cup4Cup, a premium gluten-free product line that’s sold at Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods, and Amazon Fresh, among many other retail outlets. We asked Lena all about her transition to the retail business and her advice for other chefs interested in creating product. Read on for tips!
Josh Harris is one half of the Bon Vivants, the cocktail, hospitality, and marketing firm behind the San Francisco bar Trick Dog. Along with his business partner Scott Baird, Josh has consulted on cocktail menus for Bay Area restaurants such as Comal and Kin Khao — so he knows what makes a bar program successful. Rule number one: “It needs to be more about the bar program, but not as much about the bar program. You need to pay just as much attention to the music and lighting as you do to the drinks — in the long term, they contribute to your total package.” Read on for more!
