How To Conduct Employee Reviews

For many, restaurants are a transitional path for people on the way to “real” jobs or careers. Yet, this truth is a poor excuse for the industry’s notoriously high turnover. In reality, lack of employer support and diminished growth opportunities -- not the prospects of a “real job” -- are some of the biggest contributing factors to why most people leave the restaurant industry.

What To Say To Your Hospitality Team In Pre-Shift Meetings

The truth is, many restaurants don't have pre-shift meetings, and some that do still don't have a solid system or strategy around how they do it. Many restaurant managers think of pre-shift meetings as a necessary evil. They make it boring and glum by merely talking about new specials, 86’d items, and pointing out the negatives, like wrong uniform or schedule issues.

4 Signs Your Hospitality Staff Are Ready For A Promotion

Traditionally, experience or seniority would dictate who was “next in line” for a promotion. Those lines no longer exist today, at least not in the most progressive, innovative organizations or successful restaurants. In today's world, experience alone is no longer enough, and seniority is a word used only by the most entitled of employees.

How to Become a Restaurant Manager Your Team Will Love

Between wearing many hats, the pressure to wear them all well, and juggling what can seem like a thousand daily tasks, restaurant management is survival of the fittest. It’s a job where shifts notoriously last 10-14 hours (sometimes longer), which can be taxing on the body and overwhelming on the mind.

What's Wrong With "Can I Help You?"

When the hostess finally looked at us, she asked the worst question any service professional can ask. "Can I help you?” She followed it up with a raised eyebrow. My cynical side wanted to come out say, “Well, I don’t know, can you?”

How Good Service Kills Your Restaurant

If you think service is why people return to your restaurant, It's a safe bet that you won't stay in business. "What?!” Let me help you out. You don't think people come to your restaurant thinking: I hope the staff is rude to me, my food tastes lousy, I wait for my drinks for an eternity, can't find my server when I need them, and hopefully they say "duces" on my way out, do you?

Is Your Restaurant Job “Real”?

I asked for my first gig way before I knew what the heck I was doing. I had done a half of a Bartending Course at Riddlers Lounge in The Bronx NY with an entire 15-minute internship under my belt. I got hired on the spot, but "easy" ended there.

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