Often dishes can be simplified by removing a component, saving money in product and labor. Remember to keep the concept and the restaurant's commitment to quality in mind when reviewing how menu items are built and rebuilt.

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.Because restaurant crews continue to contract, getting the most out of staff still scheduled has never been more important. The ability to stay afloat during recession starts and finishes with your employees. Maximizing labor in the kitchen, as well as the rest of the restaurant, can only be realized by rethinking the preconceived job descriptions generally associated with food service. Now is the time for everyone to pitch in to do whatever is necessary to open, run and close the operation daily, helping protect the restaurant from failure, thus protecting their job. Motivating your staff into a team that embraces a redefined definition of job duties may seem unconventional, but given the reality of the economy, need be straight forward. Open the box and get everyone to think outside the wrapping paper.

In a down economy, workers want nothing more than to keep their job. Layoffs are happening all around them. Friends, family members and neighbors are all victims of company cutbacks. The remaining staff holds the key to the restaurant's survival and growth. (Now, if your restaurant is a union shop, stop reading this article and pour yourself a strong drink. Getting a union crew to take on additional responsibilities without hearing, "that's not my job," is rare, at best. Please share any success stories with the editor of this magazine!) In the meantime, guests have the same dining expectations, great food, and attentive service all at a good value. As much as you'd like to raise menu prices, you haven't, thus making margins thinner. The kitchen staff is smaller, as is the service staff, but that's not your guest's problem. They have come to eat with a fair outlook on what they'll receive. Can you deliver? Make Sure You're Covered

As positions are eliminated and hours reduced, start making a list of the duties that'll need coverage afterward. For example, Paul, the swing dishwasher swept and mopped the kitchen between services, plus polished the glass entrance doors. The morning busboy, Miguel, takes out the trash from the service stands and bar, and hauled the dirty linen bag to the bin behind the restaurant. Trudy, the mid-day hostess would confirm the evening's reservations, wipe down the wine lists and menus, and replace the table lamps with new votive candles.

These tasks are easily overlooked, but are important none-the-less, and someone else has to pick up the slack, likely without a pay increase. Once decisions for labor cost reductions have been finalized, and the list of duties-to-be-reassigned is written, the team rally follows. The key to successfully redistributing additional jobs to the staff has to start with timely communication.

Quickly schedule an all-staff meeting. Try to time this meeting as close to layoffs as possible. Once the employees discover people are being laid off and hours cut, rumbling and rumors will take root. Sharing the company's plan without hast to the entire crew will keep the rumor mill still.

Team members already understand that business is down. Waiters see it in plain view. Empty tables now exist where a full dining room used to be. Cooks know too, when they see less prep work in the morning and notice that the kitchen printer isn't as active during lunch or dinner. The party calendar has an unusual number of open dates on it.

At the staff meeting, praise the crew for their continued hard work and commitment. Be concise when speaking about the restaurant's plan for staying ahead during these tough times, sharing scheduled events and marketing plans. Be as positive as possible. Everyone must understand that their job descriptions will be expanding.

Leading by Example

Getting the most from every employee, both hourly and salary starts at the top. Owners, managers and supervisors must lead by example. As management, your job description must change too. Remember the things you did as a young assistant manager? It's come full circle. Welcome to the recession.

The best example for you to provide your team members isn't spending more time in your office, but rather performing tasks that are visible and with which staff can identify. You need to be seen watering plants, organizing the coat room, wiping down menus or polishing silverware. If everyone is going to have to accept more work, so should you. Choose a task that won't harpoon your day, but makes a statement to the staff that you are leading by example. True, you too may be wearing more hats following the release of a supervisor or an assistant manager. Regardless, the upside to working along side rank and file shows team members that "everyone" is pitching in.

Have both front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house managers fine tune their list of jobs that need reassignment because of staff cuts. They should break them down into priority, and difficulty. In the kitchen for example, many tasks fit into the "busy work" category, and can be accomplished during down times in service. Other tasks, like butchering or baking will need to be rescheduled with more thought. The objective is to accomplish as much from the task reassignment list with the labor force available as possible. Be careful to share these additional jobs with team members on a case-by-case basis. It should go without saying that some of the crew can handle more responsibility than others, regardless, in this time of need, employees who recognize that "stepping up," is the right thing to do will respond to the call for action. Odds are, you already know who "they" are. Meeting with each employee individually when adding responsibilities to their daily work load ensures he or she will understand that management is behind them, and if they have questions or need help in any way they aren't alone.

This is also the time to inform your crew that they will be rewarded for their hard work and commitment. The economy won't stay soft for long, and when things swing upward, their efforts will not go forgotten. Keep your word. Broken promises lead to a bad reputation in the restaurant community and will require you to rehire key workers, and we all know how expensive that can be.

Everyone loves tee shirts. Cooks live in them when they're not in whites, and waiters wear them on their days off. Do as much as possible with the resources available so the team knows they are valued. Staff members that know they are appreciated will be more amenable to the added work load.

Other Recession Strategies

Now that tasks have been reassigned in the kitchen, discovery that the crew isn't capable of properly handling the extra work load isn't far fetched. It may be time to revaluate the menu. Look for ways to simplify items, and maybe even shrink the number of offerings on the menu.

Often dishes can be simplified by removing a component, saving money in product and labor. Remember to keep the concept and the restaurant's commitment to quality in mind when reviewing how menu items are built and rebuilt.

The time is now for an honest menu evaluation. Look for ways to maintain integrity but cut costs. Often just reducing the size of the menu will help. Making the menu smaller saves labor because less prep time is involved. As purchases shrink, so do invoices, saving money right away. Chefs should sit down with a current menu mix, a key waiter and the general manager. Open the dialog and get the front-of-the-house's views on what could be "86'ed" from the menu without a customer revolt. Smaller, more focused menus will reveal savings immediately.

Use business forecasts with a keen eye on the reservation screen to better prepare for busy times. As reservations spike, so should nightly specials. Creative menu additions allow guests the opportunity to order beyond fixed menu, keeping the new lean menu from reading small.

Busy weekends are a prime time for higher ticket specials. Items like lobster, specialty seafood or prime steaks add cache to the fixed menu. A flexible menu that takes advantage of both busy and soft service makes the best sense, and saves money. On nights that are slower, a lean menu means less labor to execute and a walk-in cooler with shelf space not waste space.

Order carefully so not to have expensive mise en place still in house into next week. Running out of a "special" at 9:30 or 10:00 on Saturday night isn't the worst thing, but carrying those items over into Tuesday's service is. Selling out and throwing out send greatly different numbers to the profit and loss statement's bottom line.

Out in front, the same thought process should apply. Take a hard look at liquor inventory. Odds are there items that the restaurant could easily live without. The best time to get tough is during order/inventory. Be armed with a current menu mix as well. If the bar is down to 10 percent of a certain single malt scotch, and it's not a a top five best seller, don't replace the stock. The bottle not ordered is cash in the bank, not cash displayed on the back bar.

The same belt tightening for booze need apply with wine. I promise there are items on the wine list that the restaurant could live without. Do the math. If an average wine order week is say, three grand, shrinking that order by fifteen percent is four hundred and fifty dollars. Money that stays in the bank and not in the cooler is money that can pay bills. Be very honest when analyzing wine purchases. Lean and mean will keep purchases down and cash at hand. Also be aggressive. Check with the wine purveyors for deals and close-outs.

Remember their business is down too, and like auto dealers, the next year's models are coming out soon, meaning vintages need to move. A middleman with a warehouse full of wine is a middleman ready to deal. Take advantage by finding quality wines to sell by the glass at lower prices. Again, get out the ten-key and do some math. What makes the house more money? Last I checked, you can't put percentages in the bank, only margins. Better bet is moving some product, not counting it at the end of the period.

Work closely with wine purveyors to buy quality wine at reduced prices, and then pass the savings to the guest. More is better, and well, much more is much better. The best reputation is one of value. Rolling back prices is a great way to drive new business.

Lessons learned during a down economy make better operators out of all of us. Belt tightening, cost cutting, and schedule slicing is a start, but tough economic times are about more than just chopping overhead. Challenge the staff, the managers and yourself with ideas to grow business.

Look for ways to drive sales with creative marketing promotions that break the boundaries of the restaurant's everyday operation. Being open minded often leads to ideas that fill seats on slow nights and down days.

For example, even though my restaurant Copperblue in Chicago is an upscale, fine dining operation, we created a movie night called Cinema Gourmet. For $79 all inclusive, we screen a film in the dining room; serve a three-course dinner with wine, serve homemade caramel popcorn with classic movie candy, and have a local college film professor in house that leads a spirited post-film discussion. Thinking out of the box help build a promotion that drives sales on a night we are normally closed. We found a way to present our version of fine dining minus the fuss, but adding a value of fun and difference.

Guests are ever searching these days for ways to stretch their dining out dollar, testing the most experienced operators to capture their cash. Saving money often means making money, and savvy restaurateurs can't be detoured by a down economy. Driving business is as important as trimming costs, maybe more so.

Take the time to view your restaurant with fresh eyes. Be honest, leaving preconceived beliefs in the car. Tough times mean hard work. But a little team work and an organized, creative thought process promises to go a long way in keeping your restaurant moving forward, not back.