OT - Anyone here own a restaurant?

Waste and "little dishonesties" can kill you.... And you have to
(according to him) know all the tricks.. the stories he can tell
about how some people would steal just leave me shaking my head...
unfreakin believeable! And how he managed to catch them.. !

I'd like to hear those stories!

We've got a list of some pretty amazing "guest stories", after just 3 years
in the lodging biz.

People being people, you get all kinds. I've seen some pretty remarkable
displays of stupidity, arrogance, ignorance, and fraud. (None of this from
pilots, mind you.) I can't imagine what a guy must have seen after 37 years
in the restaurant business!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

How about...

A cashier giving her friends free meals..

She would hit the "no sale button" or hold the cash drawer almost
closed with her body from the previous sale, accept a large bill and
pass back the same amount in change in smaller bills. (!)

"Doggie bags" containing full meals.....

Sigh..

Dave


On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 04:23:05 GMT, Jose
wrote:

Waste and "little dishonesties" can kill you.... And you have to
(according to him) know all the tricks.. the stories he can tell
about how some people would steal just leave me shaking my head...
unfreakin believeable! And how he managed to catch them.. !

I'd like to hear those stories!

Jose

Dave wrote:

I have a very successful friend in the business, (37 years)- he
monitors the costs of his portions to two decimal places, and never
violates his margins.

Does he weight each portion to a hundredth of a pound as well? If he
doesn't, then computing costs to the penny is simply delusional.

Matt

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
Dave wrote:

I have a very successful friend in the business, (37 years)- he
monitors the costs of his portions to two decimal places, and never
violates his margins.

Does he weight each portion to a hundredth of a pound as well? If he
doesn't, then computing costs to the penny is simply delusional.

Matt

I have always heard that food costs are the least important cost in the
restaurant business which is why many serve up huge portions. Labor,
facility, overhead and other costs are the important ones. Could be why
buffets are so popular.

Course not!

Portions of ingredients DO go on the pizzas to the gram.....

......my friend DOES portion stuff to the oz however..

The two decimal places are in the mathmatical resultant of the gross
profit of the meal, including the paper napkins (NEVER leave them out
on the counter in a container, they take handfulls...) and straws
(never leave the box on the counter for the same reason)

Had a fast food joint here that did, ( not a client) ... He would
"allow" his staff to stuff the napkin containers so full that
customer could not get one or two, the thing was stuffed so tight that
they had to "pry out" a bunch at a time. Some would take what they got
(wipies for drooling rug rats) or the stack they left on the counter
would be grabbed by the next customer cause it was easier than diging
in the dispenser.

They FINALLY but everything behind the counter, and the counter staff
NOW places on the tray one straw /drink, TWO napkins per meal,
requested extras cheerfully added...

Napkin & straw costs dropped by 40%

Then there is the credit card scams, tip scams, bulk supplies, potato
peeling, waste control... it goes on & on...

Dave


On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 13:58:38 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote:

Dave wrote:

I have a very successful friend in the business, (37 years)- he
monitors the costs of his portions to two decimal places, and never
violates his margins.

Does he weight each portion to a hundredth of a pound as well? If he
doesn't, then computing costs to the penny is simply delusional.

Matt

Did you get a chance to eat at 94th Aerosquadron while you were out
here in DC Metro? Sort of a Alexis Inn version of restaurants.

The Monk

Jay Honeck wrote:
So the land adjacent to the inn is for sale, and we want to put an
aviation themed restaurant on the site. It'll be the perfect fly-in
restaurant, with breakfast all day, decent prices, ugly waitresses, and
a 2nd-floor patio over-looking the airport. We want to call it "the
Tower", and it'll have a great view of the runways!

Trouble of it is, we don't know *anything* about running a restaurant.
Now, this never stopped us before -- we didn't know anything about
hotels, either -- but, hey, this sounds WAY more complicated, from my
uneducated standpoint.

Anyone here own/operate/manage a restaurant? Got any words of advice?
Any advice on finding someone who DOES know something about
restaurants?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

From what I've seen the "airport" restaurants don't do well, the local
restaurants that happen to be at the airport do very well. My advice
would be to hire the best managers/chefs/etc. you can and don't plan on
making money for a while.

Margy

From what I've seen the "airport" restaurants don't do well, the local
restaurants that happen to be at the airport do very well. My advice
would be to hire the best managers/chefs/etc. you can and don't plan on
making money for a while.

Well, we're pretty good at that last part!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"