Article: “Turning your table into the chef’s table” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“Table-side flourishes — think bananas Foster set aflame by a tuxedoed waiter — are en vogue again, but minus the fussiness. While some Chicago restaurants are breathing new life into classic dishes, others are applying the old-school European concept to a range of cuisines.

At the trendiest Mexican restaurants, and even some non-Mexican ones, guacamole mashed table-side has become something to boast about…”

source: “Turning your table into the chef’s table” by Janet Rausa Fuller (Chicago Sun-Times, Jul.31,2006)

Article: “Key to great service is avoiding the 12 fatal flaws” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“When plotting service strategy and delivery, too many operators, managers and trainers focus on what they should “do” for their guests. I think it’s just as instructive and illuminating to define first what not to do. In other words, do you know what you don’t know that you don’t know?

So let’s take a closer look at what not to do to the guest and examine the fatal flaws of service-giving as seen through the customer’s lens. Eliminate these service blunders, and you may no longer have the need to “teach” service at all, because your customers will have a consistent experience characterized by the absence of complaints…”

source: “Key to great service is avoiding the 12 fatal flaws” by Jim Sullivan (Nation’s Restaurant News, Jul.31,2006) [free registration req.]

Article: “Key to great service is avoiding the 12 fatal flaws” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“When plotting service strategy and delivery, too many operators, managers and trainers focus on what they should “do” for their guests. I think it’s just as instructive and illuminating to define first what not to do. In other words, do you know what you don’t know that you don’t know?

So let’s take a closer look at what not to do to the guest and examine the fatal flaws of service-giving as seen through the customer’s lens. Eliminate these service blunders, and you may no longer have the need to “teach” service at all, because your customers will have a consistent experience characterized by the absence of complaints…”

source: “Key to great service is avoiding the 12 fatal flaws” by Jim Sullivan (Nation’s Restaurant News, Jul.31,2006) [free registration req.]

Article: “In good businesses, it’s all about the service” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“…At a Ruby Tuesday restaurant, the wait after being seated was interminable.

Finally, after about 10 minutes, a waiter from another part of the restaurant walked by, noticed the lack of menus, drinks and silverware, and asked if we’d been helped.

He brought us our drinks and told our waiter that we were, in fact, there and waiting for service.

By the time the young waiter for our area showed up, he knew we weren’t happy. Perhaps it was the grim look on our faces, as if we were undergoing surgery, or the terse speech…”

source: “In good businesses, it’s all about the service” by Garrison Wells (The Sun News, Jul.28,2006)

Article: “Businessman blogs boldly toward BBQ restaurant success” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“On June 7, Reams started posting to the Mothership blog — and soon began counting down to opening. Then, on Friday, June 9, Reams announced on the blog the restaurant would be open the next morning. To his surprise, 50 customers came in for pulled pork barbecue and ribs – and their positive posts on his blog followed.

In simple terms, Reams managed to get Mothership off the ground and exceeding sales projections almost immediately without spending a penny on conventional advertising; only his blog, maintained by the free, Google-owned Blogger service, served as a sentinel for Mothership’s opening. He says he is Nashville’s only restaurateur using blogging as a method of publicity…”

source: “Businessman blogs boldly toward BBQ restaurant success” by Will York (The City Paper, Jul.24,2006)

Related links:
Free Blog Software / Hosting (About.com)

Article: “10 Tactics for Driving F&B Sales”

excerpt:
“Delivering measurable increases in food and beverage revenues can be achieved with simple restaurant promotional techniques available to big budgets and shoestring marketers alike. There are thousands of possible tactics you can employ to drive revenues without any reliance on mass media advertising.

Here are 10 of the best restaurant promotion ideas to get your own creative marketing wheels turning:

Restaurant Promotions Tactic 1. Publicity stunts – Stunt is a word with negative connotations for restaurant owners, but I wanted to use a word that conjured up images that are different than traditional press relations efforts…”

source: “10 Tactics for Driving F&B Sales” (Quantified Marketing Group)

Quantified Marketing Group has an archive of restaurant marketing articles, here are some sample topics:

Restaurant Marketing Plan
Best Practices in Email Marketing
Restaurant Positioning

link: Quantified Marketing Group’s Restaurant Marketing Articles

QMG also offers a free newsletter which offers advice about restaurant marketing.
Click here for the July 06 newsletter.

Article: “The $1 ’straight up’ charge has drinkers all stirred up” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“But $1 extra because you don’t want ice in your martini? Frank Sinatra is rolling over in his grave.

This unexpected charge recently was noted by William Dowd, associate editor of the Times-Union in Albany, N.Y. Though rare, it has been spotted at bars and restaurants across the country.

Dowd got dinged on a recent evening at the Water’s Edge Lighthouse in Glenville, N.Y., after ordering martinis at the start and end of the evening. “When I got the itemized bill, it said ‘Two Grey Goose martinis: $18’ and then later on ‘Two Grey Goose martinis: $20.’ ”

The waitress happily explained that she had simply forgotten to add the ‘up charge’ to the first set of drinks. He had ordered the drinks “up” and not on the rocks.”

source: “The $1 ‘straight up’ charge has drinkers all stirred up” by Elizabeth Weise (USA Today, 7/28/06)

Article: “Look through restaurant haze for health menu” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“Don’t think that the plan to make Chicago restaurants smoke-free by 2008 will automatically turn restaurants into temples of health.

We know about cigarette smoke’s link to cancer. Yet the most recent statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States–more than all cancers combined–and diet often is to blame.

You might even think you’re eating right when you’re eating out, but very likely not. Ald. Edward Burke recognized that, though his proposal to ban artery-clogging trans fats in Chicago restaurants was greeted with a chorus of groans.

So what can you do?”

source: “Look through restaurant haze for health menu” by Susan Kutchin Pallant (Chicago Tribune, Jul.23,2006)

Resource: Customers list their restaurant pet peeves and annoyances

Are you wondering what customers find annoying when they are dining in a restaurant?

Here are links to help answer the question:

Waiter, There’s a Bee in My Bonnet [Restaurant.org]

Are you being served? [San Francisco Chronicle]

Some Diners’ Pet Peeves About Restaurants [NYTimes]

A menu of ‘don’ts’ for restaurant servers [North County Times]

Pet Peeves: At Your Service? [Food & Wine]

What’s your biggest pet peeve when dining out? [Gapers Block]

Restaurant Pet Peeves [Cooking With Amy]

Surly won’t cut it – Reviewer shares her pet peeves [Stacee Sledge]

Surviving Restaurants [BBC]

Newsletter: Tech Trends from Nation’s Restaurant News

“Tech Trends – focuses on the fast-changing world of Foodservice Technology. The electronic newsletter features an online-only tech editorial and CIO profile, and is information-filled with updates, news, fascinating features, revenue-generating ideas and technology tips.”

To view an example of the Tech Trends Newsletter, click here.
To subscribe to this newsletter, click here.