Blog on Restaurants

Sustainable Seafood

Robert Fitzgerald — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:08:29 +0000

Mid-Atlantic based seafood wholesaler Profish Seafood has launched a cutting edge eco-friendly sustainable seafood program dubbed “Carbon Fishprint.” In the midst of the strongest financial headwinds we restaurant operators have ever seen, this wholesaler has allowed us to make better environmental decisions about what comes in our back door. Profish has created the Carbon Fishprint which provides restaurateurs and chefs the environmental impact facts on the seafood they choose. At their site, Profish.com, they provide a list of the seafood they sell, which certainly includes the most commonly purchased seafood in restaurants, and rate the carbon imprint from the seafood item on a scale from eight to forty. Factors like distance from sea to shore, dock to distributor or number of boats used to catch the harvest contribute to the rating of each species. According to a trade magazine, report 90 percent of the carbon impact has to do with harvesting methodology.
This is a great option for restaurant operators to begin making an eco-friendly impact without the upfront capital investment “greener” equipment requires. Here is a link to the Carbon Fishprint data.

In an effort at full disclosure, Greg Casten and his family started me in the restaurant business in 1984. I was 14 and a dishwasher at “The Dancing Crab.” He was just out of college and the manager of this restaurant his uncle owned. Since then Greg has tirelessly built a seafood empire with retail, restaurant and wholesale operations. He is a pioneer in seafood safety, has won Outback Steakhouse, Inc.’s ”Vendor of the Year” as well as many other awards and remains a great influence in my business life.

I have not been blogging lately because I am finishing a book on management titled “Smile or You’re Fired…Seven Lessons for Managers of Service.” The book’s main character is a “Mr. Moss” who is a combination of all the great people I have worked for in my life, starting with Greg, and shares the seven most important lessons I’ve learned in management.

Regis and Kelly Live

Robert Fitzgerald — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:56:05 +0000

Sorry to use this medium for a plug and not to educate which is why I started it, but we are a finalist on Regis & Kelly Live in their Summer Grill Off contest. They showed a clip of us today and viewers can go to http://regisandkelly.go.com/recipes.html to vote for us. We are competing against five others for seafood. We submitted our Grilled Citrus Soy Glazed Salmon.

Thank you!

Online Marketing for Restaurants

Robert Fitzgerald — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:13:53 +0000

The word “restaurant” is typed into Google six million times per month. So the question asked by the Search Marketing Council is, “Will the searcher find your restaurant or your competition?”

Beyond Google, Yahoo and MSN there are dozens of avenues to market a restaurant online for little to no cost. Yelp, Chowbaby, Metromix and many local sites provide restaurant directories by city and most have reviews from customers. Savvy restaurant operators know that this world is one where the operator must make their own presence known. Carrie Valdez and I have written a complete White Paper which can be downloaded on “How to Market Your Restaurant Online for Little to no Cost.” Some of the things restaurant operators will learn are how to submit your restaurant to directories, how to handle negative online blog reviews, how to use Twitter, Facebook and Myspace to gain new customers and retain current customers. These vehicles for marketing are not flashes in the pan and will be here for a long time. I believe the will only be replaced by newer online methods. The younger generation generally will go online before buying anything. As this demographic ages to being a paying full service restaurant customer, restaurants will have to be online just to survive.

Restaurant Suppliers

Robert Fitzgerald — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:24:13 +0000

I am living proof of the transformation of a restaurant operator who has gone from “all vendors stink” to “vendors are a vital partner.” However I do not see the vendor community embracing their customers (us) the way the restaurant community is embracing it’s customers. In the last six months I have had two telling incidents. We went to one of the national distributors and engaged in a conversation to become the exclusive supplier to our five restaurants, located in four states, for groceries, poultry and most meats. The process was painful. Weeks to get a call back, miss-communications, too many “sales managers” involved-it was a joke. What I loved about the process too was the constant offer to buy me lunch or get tickets to something as some sort of incentive. Here is the deal: If my purchasing program is fair to me and my customers, I can buy my own lunch and tickets to the Suns. Anyway, we did not proceed. More recently we went to switch local vendors in one of our higher volume units. We called up and said to a vendor we were not buying from, “Hi, would you like a $700,000 a year account with two deliveries per week and 21 day terms? By the way we are busier than last year in the face of local favorites shutting their doors.”

“Sure.” They said and came right out to get our product list, our usage and…offer us baseball tickets.

Two weeks later we had not heard a thing, nada, bubkus.

So I call and ask what the deal is and they send a proposal over with a list of times, convienent to them, to meet. I have to wonder if I had not called when or if they would have gotten back to us. We are talking about 700K here. Must be nice. We kiss our customers tail over $10 sandwiches and they “forgot to let us know what was going on” over seven hundred thousand dollars.

Anyway, the reality is I see this everywhere. We recently had a blow up with a liqour vendor when a senior person there told one of my managers they were “full of s#!*.” They also cut our credit because we missed a $300 invoice. We spend well over $300,000 per year with them and we cannot get a Friday delivery over three hundred bucks. And the sales rep is refusing to come by and pick it up in cash. Another joke.

My final issue is this: delivery fees, fuel charges, service charges, etc.

I never accepted fuel service charges in the first place. We sent a letter to all vendors one year ago refusing to pay. Fuel is a cost of doing business when you are a food wholesaler no less than music cost is for a restaurant. Imagine if we restaurant operators began putting a $2 music charge on each bill or even a fuel charge for the cost of bringing food into the restaurant. If you do, here is my advice; duck because the customer will swing at you. Here are vendors, subsidizing this cost on to us and now that fuel is down are the charges gone? FedEx started this years ago. First it was a fuel charge of $5 then on top of the fuel charge was a “pick up fee.” I thought “pick up” was what they did, but I do only have a culinary degree. I must admit we never could refuse FedEx but we were successful with most of our vendors in not paying these fees.

I ask all of you to join me in calling your vendors and getting the highest person in the company on the phone. Then say, “Hi. I am your customer and I would appreciate it if you treated me the way I treat my customers. Then and only then can we be partners.”

If they agree, invite them in, buy them lunch and tell your new partner what to do with their service charges.

Starting a Restaurant? The Dangers of Playing Restaurateur

Robert Fitzgerald — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:59:27 +0000

We just handed back the keys of Henderson to our landlord after a two year effort that cost us too much money to say. I thought this would be a good time to write about what I call “Playing Restaurant” and how it hurts us professionals. Since we just shuttered a location I feel commenting on this now will not be viewed as arrogant-success but harsh reality. First, let me define “playing restaurant.” This is when someone who has spent a career in another field, or who just inherited some money, or who is “following a life-long dream” or someone who always hears what a great cook they are decides to open a restaurant. This innocent slice of freedom has serious ripple effects in this day in age. The industry is not what it use to be with the competition for prime space and employees and the greatly increased number of people with the know-how to run great restaurants. The secret potion that a few people had in the 70’s and 80’s was let out of the bottle in the 90’s and now everyone thinks financial success through restaurants is within their reach. This to me is the cause of the high failure rate. If anybody could be an architect, lawyer or doctor then there would be more failed attempts in these fields as well. The high failure rate is due to the low barrier to entry. Honestly, I am always more surprised when new restaurants work than when they don’t. Think about how many restaurants have failed when individuals like me, my partners and countless others who have decades of experience and degrees in the field are involved. (Between the three of us we have contributed to 100 restaurant openings with less than five failures) The athletes and new-money folks who jump into the game have far worse odds then we do. But they’ve opened-a-plenty in the last few years and the ripple effect of these locations closing is big to us who are in it for the long haul. Here are five:

1. Higher lending costs. All those burned loans get made up for by higher rates to the next operator. Planning on opening a restaurant in 2011 with a loan? Great ready to pay for the closures of 2009.

2. Higher lease rates. The less experienced sign poor leases and increase landlord expectations.

3. Higher Unemployment Costs. Shuttered restaurants send dozens of people to the unemployment line and drive the cost of other operator’s state unemployment tax rate up. States charge new businesses by industry so even if an operator has many locations once they go to a new state they are charged the state’s rate for the industry. In other words, us shutting the doors will likely cost the next new operator in Nevada more money for state unemployment taxes.

4. Higher Insurance Costs. Time is an insurer’s friend and new operators have more first year injuries which drive up costs. Closing then prevents the insurer from making up the loss through higher rates in the following years. Result? Higher rates to existing and future businesses in like industries.

5. Increased costs of goods and services. Again, the inexperienced view contractors and vendors as partners whose advice they need rather than vendors who are profiting from the operators investment. New operators do not negotiate as well and leaving vendors with unpaid balances makes vendors raise prices to the rest of us. They have budgets to meet too.

I understand this is America and a person has the right to their entrepreneurial desires. The point is our industry has matured. Abe Lincoln was a lawyer with no formal education. He just declared himself one. Being a restaurateur today only requires the same declaration. When I was 17 I decided I wanted to own a restaurant after having worked in one for four years. I went to cooking school and spent six years in the corporate restaurant world before starting my own. My wife use to ask me why I was working so hard for someone else and I would tell her I was no different than a med student or law student who was paying their dues and learning so I could eventually have my own gig. I just hope all this vacant restaurant space is not filled with amateurs “playing restaurant” and creating a domino effect that the current economy has already started. Having the current vacancies fill, then empty again in 2-3 years will create a ripple effect of millions of dollars to us who are thinking about what are restaurants, and their costs, will be like in 2015. If you are asked by someone who lost their job if they should open a restaurant, or take over a vacant space, ask them how much experience they have running one. Encourage them to get a job with a good company, maybe one of the few that are growing, and get some experience running and opening restaurants before taking on a venture whose failure ultimately affects us all.

Yelp Allows Restaurants to Respond

Robert Fitzgerald — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:30:09 +0000

See this article in the New York Times on Yelp allowing businesses to respond to customers.

Restaurant Twittering

Robert Fitzgerald — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:16:40 +0000

The word “restaurant” is used on twitter every 15 seconds.

Skype Interview Tips Saves Money and Time

Robert Fitzgerald — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:59:13 +0000

One of the many reasons the restaurant industry is hard is because we need a high number of employees who often work in different cities. Recruiting for this business can be very costly. We recently were down to three potential candidates for one management position. The candidates were all at Cornell University where we recruit. Being in Phoenix, traveling to Cornell is quite a commitment. One of these three candidates needed to be selected to fly to our Naperville location for a full day interview. We decided to conduct a Skype interview with the three candidates and choose from there. UNLV then did an informal poll of students on the idea of a Skype interview, there was overwhelming approval. I have since spoken to Johnson & Wales University who is embracing the idea at their Denver campus. I have included a link to a White Paper on Skype interviewing here: “How to Conduct an Interview Using Skype.” Having now conducted several of these interviews, I believe this paper will help operators who recruit nationwide to save time and money.

Responding to Email Complaints

Robert Fitzgerald — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:52:39 +0000

All emails to our comments email address go to my Blackberry. I work to respond within the hour. I credit this for 50% of the success in saving customers whom we’ve failed.

Restaurant Blogging 3-16-09

Robert Fitzgerald — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:15:12 +0000

For my first post on BlogOnRestaurants.com I will write about restaurant blogging. Seems fitting. As mentioned in the about page here, this blog is not to write about which restaurants are “good” and which are “bad.” That is a massive slice of the web 2.0 pie led by the likes of yelp, chowbaby, metromix and citysearch and the topic of this post. First let me say this: Any person who spends money in a restaurant has the right to free speech to speak to the experience and their perceptions. Whether the person is from the general public or a paid critic is irrelevant. Buying the meal is the price of admission to be able to say whatever you want with whatever means you have about the meal. With the Internet, the “means” to reach many is now available to everyone and not just paid critics. Operators who have a problem with this need to get over it and, preferably, get on board. I have always said, “A critic is just a customer with a means to tell everyone about their experience.” So when I talk to my fellow operators and they whine about the negative online postings their place has I always ask them to stop whining and focus on the complaint. Pretend it is a customer who is in the building and just called you over to share their comments with you. How would you react? To me there are two different types of blog-reviews. The first is the concept review and the second is the experience review. Sometimes a customer who has paid for a meal writes about design, lighting, music, menu layout, etc. This is a concept review. Others write about the experience as in service, food quality, bathroom cleanliness, etc. This is an experience review. The reality is unless an operator does not believe in the concept, it is hard to respond to a concept review. What does a operator write to the blogger?

“Dear Blogger, you are right, the concept I just spent $X,XXX,XXX building sucks. Please don’t tell my investors.”

However, get enough reviews that do not like the concept and it would be wise to re-evaluate with objectivity. The experience reviews are to be treated like the customer is in the building and just said, “My food is cold.” Contact the blogger and respond the way you would if they were in the restaurant.

However there is a disconnect to online blog-reviews which is pointed out in the book “Click” by Bill Tancer on pages 134-136 . If a 22 year old hipster (the average age of a yelp reviewer) goes into a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona designed for 40-55 year olds they probably will not like it. The 22 year old may be an avid yelp “critic” and goes home to write about this horrible place. Fair enough, right? Maybe not, because what if the next week a 40 year old “affluent suburbian” business traveler is heading to Scottsdale and decides to go online and find a place to eat while in town, comes across the review bashing the place and says no-way to this restaurant. Still fair?

I guess we operators have to live with the same fact I tell my six year old, “Honey-Bee, life isn’t fair.”

In addition to customers we can lose potential great employees and even locations. We lost a site in Summerlin, NV because the landlord did not like our online reviews. Of course now I want to send yelp a thank you card for that one since the Vegas market is destroyed.

The Internet is here to stay and online reviews and postings are only growing. I urge all operators to go to www.google.com/alerts enter the name of your restaurant and your email and Google will send you a daily update of what is being said on line about you. Then be prepared for the good, the bad and the really bad and commit to treating these online bloggers like customers in the restaurant. I have responded to a person’s negative blog comment from a meal the prior evening before the blogger even wakes up the next day. This has saved a customer more than once and even resulted in a few negative blog posts taken down. Waking up to a great blog post in my email is a great way to start the day and recognize the team on location for their great work. It happened this morning actually. Great job again Park Meadows!

Click on this New York Times Hillary Chura article from 2007 on this topic. It has been an issue for some time, it is just a matter of whether we restaurant operators are dealing with it or not.