…when a restaurant owner is a hands on, hard worker, who creates a top down predisposition for FUN!!!
We work in the hospitality industry. We WORK WHEN EVERYBODY ELSE HAS FUN…. and all those hungry people want to spend their discretioary TIME … in a really fun restaurant. I can’t give you a specific formula… but I know it when I see it. … and it’s happenning NOW at Ciao Bella Ristorante/Winebar (219-322-6800)… in Schererville, Indiana.
Bob & Irene Vesolowski graced Ciao Bella Ristorante with their presence on February 4, 2010 in a celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary.
Police see people when they’re in trouble… Doctors see people when they’re sick… but waiters and waitresses enjoy people when they are at their BEST!!!
A good way to minimize the “us” versus “them” mentality in any business is to bond - off the clock!
My latest restaurant “gig” has me faced with a bewildering scenario.
My 40 years in the restaurant business have taught me that every business has at least one “prima donna”. My current employ is no exception.
The following is a letter that I’d like to send to one such character:
Dear Sasha,
At the end of service last night, you asked me “for a man-to-man talk”. You were a no show.
I would have told you this:
1) You have successfully demanded the very best waiter station in the house (permanently!)… the one with the best tables that get seated more often and therefore the largest pay at the end of each evening. You take home even more by cheating the bartenders and busboys out of their designated share of the tips. You disguise this by failing to enter your waiter’s financial worksheets in the proper folder.
2) You have commandeered 3 of the 6 waiter storage drawers (in the dining room!) for your personal effects ranging from shoe polish to hair gels, combs, brushes and God knows what else.
3) You have mistreated the host staff to the point that they overseat your section just so they don’t have to hear you complain.
4) You don’t use the computer to talk to the kitchen staff in the manner you were trained. This results in your need to interupt kitchen staff to give directions for every single table, every single night! Imagine if all the waitstaff did this. No, let me imagine it for you… it’s an UNWORKABLE BUSINESS MODEL!!!
5) You fail to wear the proper uniform. Do you own a waiter’s apron?
6) You keep 2 (TWO!) cell phones on the front desk and when you were told to move them, it’s nuclear war.
7) I have never seen you fold napkins for the dining room.
You write “request Sasha” next to customers known to purchase expensive wines–further augmenting your income.
9) You have successfully argued to be the only one on the schedule to have the same 2 days off each week.
10) You won’t work lunches.
11) You don’t park your car in the employee designated area.
12) You keep your smelly shoes in the office. You change your clothes in the office. Waiters are not supposed to even be in the office.
13) You supplement that income by drinking free wine each evening (during service).
14) Nah … I think that’s enough. If this were a “man to man talk”, I’d have punched you by now!
Sasha, you’re an interesting character: and you add an extra dimension to the balance of chemistry in this 2 month old business. BUT, speaking man to man here, if I were you, I’d start seeking other opportunities…
mTw
… and it was wonderful to reconnect with fine dining guests who have become favorites of mine over the years…
…will never know the America that I grew up in. America will never grow & change as it has so successfully for better than 200 years now. I hope that I am wrong. I pray that I am wrong.
This is certainly, in part, due to sweeping changes in the nature of print journalism in these changing times. Just look at the spectacularized, commercially motivated nature and wild success of Rupert Murdoch’s publications.
…but the objective, unbiased reporting of days long gone, seems to have vanished, especially in localized publications.
A decade ago I made the mistake to allow a local reporter to come into my home for coffee and an interview. The story I read the next day made me wonder if that reporter had even been in the same room as me… or maybe the story had been written in advance of the interview? It bore no relation to what had been asked and answered the previous day. That same reporter has called dozens & dozens of times for interviews, to which I never respond. It’s amusing how my messages from her often include sections that say if I don’t call back, she’ll write whatever she wants to write.
Because commercialism has been requried for mere survival, the nature of the beast has certainly changed. Thomas Payne would be startled. Those who have sacrifed so much would be saddenned.
We all need to teach our children how deceitful reporting (maybe deceitful is not the right word),,,, harms the public’s right to unfetterred, fair reporting and an objective presentation of the facts, so very vital in a FREE nation.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas…
Some forty years ago, while at the university, I had the wisdom to attend a guest lecture by Buckminster Fuller, a man who is said to have been one of the greatest humans to have lived. I thought he would talk about his design for the geodesic dome, or some other very scientifically significant mater, but no! Buckminster Fuller talked about how suicide had once plagued his thoughts. He talked about being unable to feed and clothe his family… about the lure of insurance money. He talked about CHOOSING to live, and about going about it with renewed intensity… “an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity”.
When he passed on in 1983, at the age of 87… it touched me… I had known the man…
Gioseppi,
The telephone # for town hall is 322-2211
To get the third sign installed via zoning appeals::
Juanita Peters… Building Inspector
Perry Ferrini… President of the Town Council
Let’s act rapidly. Even with split second action on our part, the process moves slowly
As I mentioned in our post-service conversation an hour or two ago, we have the momentum going for us… we have the only biz within thirty miles in any direction where a young, professional & ridiculously savvy food and beverage establishment owner sat with support staff afterward & and stated “I really got my ass Kicked for the last 12 hours!!!”
Need I say more?
Well done, mTw
P.S. A young couple was engaged to be married tonight, the fifth night of operation for outstanding restaurant newcomer, Ciao Bella near the intersection of America’s crossroads at route 30 & and route 41. Enjoy this video:
Ciao Bella (219) 322-6800
I’ve just finished another restaurant consulting “gig”. The six week contract turned into eight. The money was good, but more importantly, I feel like I was able to make a difference.
The small community in northwest Indiana where the restaurant is located has been hard hit by this difficult economy. During my short tenure, 3 other restaurants in the town went under. I accepted the “gig”, knowing it would involve long, long hours, but the owner is a friend of my wife, and I really wanted to help.
I made a few of suggestions which the proprietor outright rejected. Firstly, I suggested removing the juke box in the bar. My reasoning was that the volume was completely out of control. Any yo-yo with a quarter could (and did) completely ruin any semblance of ambiance in the dining room. Secondly, I advised ceasing the live music on the weekends. It just wasn’t bringing in enough sufficient additional revenue to pay for itself. Thirdly, I wanted to end the coupon program. Every night of the week, 9 out of 10 diners brought coupons. It’s an unsustainable business model. Like I told the owner, “I don’t even buy dinners for my friends, why would I buy dinners for strangers?”
Now for the good news: Some of my advice was heeded! We revamped the checks and balances involved for the waitstaff to get their drinks from the bar. We streamlined the system and made things more efficient for bar staff and dining room staff, all the while maintaining the obviously necessary controls.
I took the Chef on a tour of a local dairy farm. He loved their products (like I knew he would) and now serves both their ice creams and cheeses in the restaurant. This serves two functions. Now he is using a local, quality product. But just as importantly, he is developing a one on one relationship with a local business. Obviously, they will bring some of their dining dollars to his place!
I brought the young Chef to a local candy factory. He hasn’t figured out how to utilize their products, but the same principles follow.
The Chef and I visited a restaurant in a neighboring community which specializes in “gourmet box lunches.” We checked out their packaging and food products to explore ways to make nice box lunches for pharmaceutical sales reps to bring to physicians’ offices. Offsite food and beverage sales are a nice way to improve the bottom line.
I utilized some of my local and countywide political connections to start a program for area politicians to hold their fundraisers at the restaurant.
The owner and her daughter now spend at least a few minutes with each and every job applicant who walks through the door. This is so, so important because the good ones are going to get snapped up quickly. You can’t let them get away if you want to improve service quality!
The place had a few “all you can eat” specials each week. However, what was happening is that people would have the all you can eat, and then ask for a “to go” box! This is NOT acceptable… it’s supposed to be all you can eat here…. not all you can eat here and all you can fit in a box for tomorrow! Another problem was that a couple would come in and one would have the all you can eat, and the other would order a small salad and then eat off the other’s plate. NOT GOOD!
The owner’s daughter is rather savvy in terms of the internet, but the restaurant had no website, no facebook, no myspace, & no twitter. They are now working on that.
Well, that chapter is complete, and now it’s off for another culinary adventure for “Mike the Waiter!”
Live music, with no cover charge, at The QUEST Restaurant on October 9, 2009.