Having manager’s perform SMART Pre-Shift Inspections every meal period refocuses them on what is important to running a successful operation. The benefit of focus is something that I had to rediscover recently, but it makes so much sense. We don’t do enough as an industry to focus and ground our manager’s every single shift …
Daily Inspections
New York to raise wages for tipped workers
This story from Nation’s Restaurant News is all over the place. The New York state commissioner approved a 50% rate hike in the minimum hourly wage for tipped employees up to $7.50/hr. With New York City going up to $8.50. This seems to be the trend lately. Local and federal governments are calling for minimum …
Restaurant Tech Restocked For Tomorrow And Beyond
Here’s a great article from TechCrunch on technology in the restaurant industry. A major focus of this article is on POS systems. Mobile POS systems are moving in on long time dominant systems such as Aloha and MICROS. It seems that mobile POS is the future. Either having guests swipe their own cards at the …
With Good News Comes Some Challenges
We’ve been talking a lot about the recent good news from the National Restaurant Association for the upcoming year. With this good news comes some challenges for the restaurant industry. Commodity costs have been increasing pretty drastically over the last 5 years, which “they” are saying should slow down, but with the implementation of the …
Time To End Tips?
Read an article from the local CBS affiliate in San Fran/Bay Area suggesting that it’s time to change server compensation away from tips. The article mentions that this is an archaic way of compensation. I remember when I was waiting tables and tending bar the pay was much better than any other job that I …
How Americans Are Spending Their ‘Reverse Tax’
I read an interesting article today from a financial newsletter that I subscribe to, Money and Markets. In the article, Jon Markman, looks at what Americans are doing with the extra money that we are saving at the pump. Saving it or spending it? In typical American fashion we are spending it, but where? Of …
FICA Tip Credit Important for Restaurants
Tax season is upon us and we found this tidbit of information in our Missouri Restaurant Association weekly newsletter. Thought it might be useful so we figured we would share. Of course it’s best to consult with your accountant and/or a tax professional before moving forward with any new filings, but this one seems like it can …
Restaurant workers express optimism about the industry
I came across a great article on fastcasual.com talking about optimism from restaurant employees about the current and future state of the industry. This is of course related to the 2015 industry forecast by the National Restaurant Association that we posted about a few weeks ago. The article cites an infographic from the National Restaurant Association …
What to do when a health inspector visits
I know, enough with the health inspector posts, we get it. I promise this is the last one for a while, but I happened to stumble upon these 3 articles on restaurant.org and thought it was great info so figured I would share. This last one discusses what to do while the inspector is at …
7 tips for working with health inspectors
As a follow up to yesterday’s post “9 tips to prepare for a health inspection” we have another article from restaurant.org on working with health inspectors. Restaurant operators and health inspectors aren’t adversaries. Think of a food inspector as a partner as you work together to achieve shared goals of preventing foodborne illness and protecting …