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| ABOUT RESTAURANT STARTUP & GROWTH AND RSGMAG.COM |
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Welcome to
RESTAURANT STARTUP & GROWTH Magazine Case Studies Online!
Both this FREE case studies portal and our MEMBERSHIP PORTAL RestaurantOwner.com with its full range of articles, templates, forms, videos, webinars, peer-to-peer networking and more, offer VALUABLE INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES for startup and other restaurateurs who want SOLID, BACK-TO-BASICS, HOW-TO content to turn their GOOD RESTAURANTS INTO GREAT BUSINESSES!
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 Case Study: The Chef's Role in Developing Server Salesmanship:
Inspiring Your Waitstaff in Wilmington and Wichita
That requires inspiring your servers to become sales-minded professionals. That can be a tall order if you're not running a well-respected and expensive restaurant in a big city, say like Union Square Cafe‚ in New York, where staffing your restaurant with quality, career servers is a relatively easy task. Servers who are motivated by a progressive healthy and vibrant workplace and, oh yeah, a very healthy wallet bulge, are naturally attracted to such environments. They're even willing to compete to work there. But how does a chef in Wichita or Wilmington inspire his staff? . . . keep reading
 Case Study: How to Make News With Creative and Profitable Daily Specials
Specials are important as a way to keep menus interesting. Ensuring return visits from customers requires a solid mix of standard and signature dishes along with fresh and intriguing options. Equally important, specials give the kitchen manager or chef a chance to stretch the imagination. They also keep the cooks motivated and interested in their jobs. Let's face it: No one likes rote responsibilities. . . . keep reading
 Case Study: Eating With Conscience:
A Sustainable Seafood Primer
"Sustainable seafood" is a broad term to describe fisheries that are well-managed to protect the population and survival of commercially viable species. This can include species not endangered by overfishing. It can also include fishing methods that do not damage other species. For example, for many years shrimp trawlers in the United States would harm the population of sea turtles that were caught, killed and discarded as bycatch. (Today, all shrimp fishers that fish in U.S. waters or import into the U.S. wild-caught shrimp harvested anywhere in the world are required to use "Turtle Exclusion Devices" to minimize the incidental catch of these animals. . . . keep reading
 Case Study: Do It Yourself? A Candid Look at Pre-made versus Scratch in the Startup Kitchen
In the middle of a very busy Saturday night service, my sauté cook realized he was running short on Béarnaise sauce, not the kind of sauce that one can really jump off the line and whip up in a jiffy. He jokingly called out to the prep cook on duty for just such emergencies, "Warren, I need you to run to the 7-11 and pick me up some more Béarnaise sauce!" . . . keep reading
 Case Study: Doing More with Less: Back-of-the-House Strategies for Tighter Times
This economy has taken a sizable bite from your business. The dollar is getting eaten up around the world, the housing market is in the soup, the credit crunch continues to tighten, the war in Iraq drags on without end, and adding to that is the ridicules cost of fuel, making most everything we purchased more expensive. Every operator, from white table cloth to quick service carry-out has been forced to trim costs everywhere. Staff layoffs top the list. As cover counts shrink, so do jobs. Employee benefits have come under the knife too. It seems that weathering the storm has become the "now" mantra for the restaurant industry. . . . keep reading
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Startup Profile:
Joe Giannetti, Saladworks
Joe Giannetti's first job in the restaurant industry was as a dishwasher at the age of 16. A degree in business management and experience in a variety of restaurant concepts followed. And now, as vice president, franchise services for Saladworks, he wears many hats and is responsible for franchise training, design and construction of new locations, R&D and distribution. Currently Saladworks (www.saladworks.com) has 72 locations and a simple concept: fresh salads made-to-order in large portions. . . . keep reading
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Startup Profile:
Steve Silverstein, Not Your Average Joe's
"The name Not Your Average Joe's came out of my determination to create something other than the same old run-of-the-mill place. I wanted to create a concept that wouldn't get lost in the 'chain blur,'" says Steve Silverstein. The first day Steve worked in a restaurant was the day his own first restaurant opened 11 years ago. Silverstein's concept was to bring urban food to the chain-dominated suburbs at a casual dining price point. He named the restaurant Not Your Average Joe's. Today there are 10 locations for Not Your Average Joe's, all in Massachusetts. . . . keep reading
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The Negro League Cafe:
Chicago South-Side Eatery Steps Up to the Plate
Linda Lee Walden
The menu says it all: "Enjoy the food, digest the history." Negro League baseball history, to be exact. Donald R. Curry recently opened his Negro League Cafe on Chicago's South Side. In addition to providing customers with a good meal, the cafe honors the greatest players from the Negro League. Long before blacks were allowed to share the dugout with the likes of Honus Wagner and Babe Ruth, players like "Cannonball" Dick Redding and John Henry "Pop" Lloyd made their mark hitting and throwing pitches in the Negro League. The best of those Negro League players would show off at an all-star game played at the old Comiskey Park, not far from Curry's restaurant and in the heart of a community originally settled by black migrant workers. . . . keep reading
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Startup Profile: Jerry & Cathy Morelli, Augustino's Rock and Roll Deli
"I have four daughters in real life so this new restaurant is like my new son, and he isn't sleeping through the night yet," says Cathy Morelli. When she talks about her family's recently opened second restaurant, Augustino's Rock and Roll Deli, she uses the metaphor of a baby to make the point of some of the startup problems she and her family members face each day. Cathy's in-laws, Aug and Phyllis Morelli, founded the first Augustino's Rock and Roll Deli in Carol Stream, Illinois, 25 years ago. The new location is only 12 minutes away, and Cathy says, "Even though it's close by, it's a completely different clientele." "It's been a wild ride," says Cathy. . . . keep reading
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Startup Profile: Ben Ford, Ford's Filling Station
"Ford's Filling Station is an American gastropub. In other words, we serve high-quality food in an unpretentious setting," says Ben Ford, who credits his mother, Mary Ford, with his interest in food and his father, Harrison Ford, for his artistic nature. But it was his mother who instilled in Ben a love of cooking and taught Ben how. "By the time I was 12, I was cooking family meals. We had one of those houses where the neighborhood kids didn't want to leave because the food was so good," he says. . . . keep reading
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Grease is the Word -
Putting Out Grease and Oil Fires in the Kitchen
Chef Dan Butler
I was the chef of a busy Italian restaurant in Tampa when one of my most serious brushes with a kitchen fire took place. My pasta cook, Ricardo, was making a two-and-a-half gallon batch of cream sauce in a three-gallon saucepot. As physics would dictate, the sauce expanded as it heated while Ricardo's busied himself with cleaning some calamari. The cream boiled over into the heavy duty open flame burner and into the grease catch pan. The high fat content, especially with the addition of butter and parmesan (nobody said this was spa cooking) caused flames to shoot up several feet before Ricardo ever turned around. . . . keep reading
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Menu Case Study: Making a Case for Mental Anchors
Victoria House; Victoria, Minnesota
Mark Laux
Mental anchoring is a stretch of the imagination, and the longer you're in the restaurant business, the more trouble you, too, will have getting your mind around it. So perhaps, if you are new to the business, I'll convince you of its benefits, and help make you a whole lot more money from the get-go. If you've been at this business for a long time, I hope you'll give me one more chance to make my case. . . . keep reading
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Shelter in the Storm
Barry K. Shuster
As we ride out this tempest, we might well ask, "Where is our Coast Guard? Who is looking out for the interests of the independent restaurateur?" If you've followed this column and this magazine for the last few years, you probably sense that I'm about to climb on my soapbox regarding the importance of the state restaurant associations. You're right. . . . keep reading
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| CASE STUDIES ON STARTING & GROWING RESTAURANTS |
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| RESTAURANT STARTUP & GROWTH magazine is dedicated to presenting the BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES in all aspects of running an independent restaurant business. Much of our content is based on "case studies" of independent restaurateurs and their approaches and strategies to seizing market opportunities and rising above operational challenges.
While RS&G case studies are not presented in the classic business and management case study formats, such as the Harvard and Wharton methods, with which many students of business are familiar, they are instructive and detailed, and often presented in the first person by experienced and successful operators, chefs, and other professionals who directly serve the industry. Our editorial staff strives to edit them to be readable, focused, practical, supported by appropriate charts and graphs, and with sufficient depth for our readers to apply these practices in their restaurants TODAY.
This unique editorial approach fills an important niche between the academic journals, which are often too rigorous and theoretical to be practical for the average independent business person, and trade media that only skim the surface of important management concepts. Our goal - and our passion - is to provide solid managerial education to independent restaurateurs to improve their competitiveness, profitability, and chances for sustainable success.
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