7 Shifts

OCTOBER 22, 2024

Another way to get local backlinks is from local news articles, food bloggers, or restaurant directories to boost your visibility in search results. Photos of your menu items, ambiance, and even happy customers will give potential guests a glimpse of the dining experience you offer. It's an active marketing tool.

Book 195

Book Marketing Email Marketing Social Media 195

ChowNow

MARCH 7, 2025

In this article, you will learn: How to optimize your Google Business Profile to boost visibility and credibility. Also, make sure your GBP includes: A link to your website A menu link Service options: dine-in, takeout, delivery, curbside pickup, reservations, etc. Local Keyword Optimization Keywords are the foundation of local SEO.

SEO 195

SEO Online Ordering Mobile Ordering Website Management 195

Culinary Cues

OCTOBER 27, 2024

If you are working in a burger operation, the goal must be to view everything about that menu item as a vehicle toward excellence. Once you adopt a philosophy of excellence, it will become your signature. Be excellent!

Training 417

Training Coaching Uniforms Café 417

Culinary Cues

APRIL 14, 2025

The same is true of chefs and cooks who countless times prepare a menu, a dish; arrange components on a plate, sauce the work, apply an appropriate garnish, wipe the rim and quietly celebrate the story behind it. As examples, any restaurant can, and so many do, offer Caesar Salad as a menu staple. Food for thought.

Fine Dining 339

Fine Dining Seasonal Menu Travel Presentation 339

Culinary Cues

OCTOBER 3, 2024

Nearly nine years ago, during the first twelve months of Harvest America Cues blog, one of my articles went viral attracting almost 40,000 views in one day. The article struck a nerve with its focus on A Cook’s Kitchen Laws. Since then, more than 100,000 people have read and shared that article.

Coaching 447

Coaching Restaurant Law Article Training 447

Culinary Cues

AUGUST 7, 2021

This is defined in articles from local newspapers to the New York Times, from industry magazines and websites to social media, and from industry blogs to podcasts by the dozens – everyone states the problem, points a finger, and portrays the issue as someone else’s doing. www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG. Why is this the case?

Social Media 474

Social Media Cash Management Blog Equipment 474

Culinary Cues

APRIL 23, 2023

Have you experienced the flavors and presentations of the items that may grace your menu? Can you plan a menu focused on total utilization of meat and carcass? Is this the extent of your knowledge of menu planning? Is there breadth to your understanding of cooking, cooking techniques, and ingredients?

Seasonal Menu 520

Seasonal Menu Leadership Training Fine Dining 520

Modern Restaurant Management

JUNE 4, 2021

phone number, website URL, type of payments accepted, menu items, and photos of the establishment. Restaurants can also their GMB page to engage with customers, highlighting special offers and discounts, publicizing events and promoting new menu offerings. Reviews are a significant reason why diners choose a certain restaurant.

SEO 577

SEO Website Management Online Ordering Mobile Ordering 577

Culinary Cues

MARCH 16, 2025

Are you developing menu concepts that shy away from typically high-cost ingredients and ones that are sensitive to market fluctuation? What is your menu strategy for crisis situations? People no longer view dining out as a necessity to support their lifestyle. The cost of goods will rarely go down.

Food Supply 232

Food Supply Customer Service Delivery Recruiting 232

Culinary Cues

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Why not list your employees on the menu or on your website and their role in the organization. Why not highlight them on your social media pages or in your restaurant blog. Assign cooks the responsibility to design menu features and then celebrate their work. Invest in their excellence and they just might invest more in yours.

Seminar 443

Seminar Front of House Back of House Workshop 443

ChowNow

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Customers expect a smooth experience when theyre placing an orderif they have to pinch and zoom to read your menu or struggle to find the checkout button, theyll probably give up and order from someone else. Next, take a look at your menu. The first step is making sure your website is mobile-friendly. Next, focus on your website.

Online Ordering 195

Online Ordering Ordering Email Marketing Mobile Ordering 195

Culinary Cues

MARCH 21, 2025

Each idea finds itself in a file folder until the right location is discovered -then he jumps into action by bringing the story to life through menu, dcor, team building, training, and marketing. Some of those ideas never find a home but continue to exist as incentive to drive the dreaming process.

Hotels 267

Hotels Back of House Customer Service Entertainment 267

Culinary Cues

OCTOBER 27, 2023

One of the dilemmas restaurateurs’ face is the approach taken with the management and delivery of a restaurant concept and menu. The menu is oftentimes a statement by the chef; a statement of his or her beliefs, likes and dislikes, and experiences. This menu is who I am.”

Hiring 449

Hiring Training Pricing Presentation 449

Culinary Cues

MAY 3, 2023

Where we fall short is in the details of that menu, the complements, the “tag along” ingredients. I remember reading an article about a studio drummer by the name of Bernard Purdy who has played on more records than you can count. You don’t always get what you pay for, but you do with bread. Bread is the same way.

Food Truck 474

Food Truck Customer Experience Take-out Food Supply 474

Culinary Cues

MAY 12, 2022

How do the rest of us explain the menu with $25 appetizers, $60 entrees, and $20 desserts? From my perspective the answer lies in menu planning, training, and labor efficiency. This may be the perfect time to align menu planning, effective buying, solid training, and efficiency. www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG.

Pricing 442

Pricing Consumer Goods Training Small Business 442

Culinary Cues

APRIL 24, 2020

Yesterday, I read an emotional, well-written, soul-crushing article by Gabrielle Hamilton – chef/owner of Prune Restaurant in New York City. It was an emotional experience reading this article and knowing that thousands of other chefs and restaurateurs across the country could have written a similar one. PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER.

Article 409

Article Point of Sale Take-out Dine-in 409

Modern Restaurant Management

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

Not too long ago, the restaurant storefront and menu helped to attract customers, but now an online presence is more important than ever. Every page and blog article on your website should have an SEO title and a meta description. The battle for visibility is no longer in your street presence but in web search results.

SEO 537

SEO Website Management Online Ordering Information 537

Culinary Cues

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Here are some thoughts: PRODUCT: Take a hard look at your menu. Assign the task to your chef to create a menu that is exciting, innovative, delicious, accessible, and financially tolerable. Reverse engineer your menu from this perspective. Start by looking at the economics of producing and selling what you THINK must be there.

Pricing 415

Pricing Marketing Insurance Seasonal Menu 415

Culinary Cues

APRIL 15, 2023

So, here’s point number one: there is no cache of extra money, and the average restaurant makes just a few pennies profit on the dollar if they do everything right – so those discounts will likely mean that menu items will be sold at a loss just to play along with the promotion and support town efforts. We would love that.

Café 518

Café Seasonal Menu Point of Sale Social Media 518

Culinary Cues

MARCH 3, 2021

Down the street – a cadre of small independent restaurants with smaller staff requirements and tasty rustic menus would have been profitable except rents on their space had gone through the roof ever since this high end, 8-course menu, mecca restaurant opened its doors. www.harvestamericacues.com – BLOG.

Dine-in 450

Dine-in Small Business Seasonal Menu Café 450

Culinary Cues

JULY 23, 2023

As if that weren’t enough, the menu and each morsel of food presented represents the chef’s life of experiences, his or her family history, the cuisine of their forefathers, every chef who contributed to their training, and everything that they believe in – as it pertains to food. It is a juxtaposition that is nearly impossible to manage.

Guest Recovery 419

Guest Recovery Seasonal Menu Presentation Customer Experience 419

Culinary Cues

JUNE 29, 2024

The chef invests time in building a signature menu, testing recipes, establishing plate presentations, and making sure the best ingredients are within the teams reach. MAKE the time to walk the dining room on occasion, stop at tables, offer advice on menu items and drinks, smile and thank them for choosing your restaurant.

Customer Experience 345

Customer Experience Dine-in Back of House Customer Service 345

Culinary Cues

JANUARY 20, 2024

There has always been a commonsense way to build a menu knowing that in the end it is the beverage, and the bookends (appetizers and desserts) that hold the greatest opportunity for profit. A menu should thus be designed and priced to make those items seem essential.

Fine Dining 449

Fine Dining Back of House Food Truck Pricing 449

Modern Restaurant Management

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

The UpFlip team interviewed the Vet Chef crew to find out, and for those questions that weren’t answered in the interview, you can find them on the UpFlip blog. We’ll share his answers with you in this article, along with our top reasons why a food truck makes the perfect gateway to opening a restaurant.

Food Truck 445

Food Truck Food Food Safety Customer Service 445

Culinary Cues

AUGUST 26, 2024

Each has its place, but don’t confuse them within your menu and your concept. PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER Harvest America Ventures, LLC Restaurant Consulting www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG (Over 900 articles about the business and people of food) CAFÉ Talks Podcast [link] More than 90 interviews with the most influential people in food

Dine-in 443

Dine-in Training Seasonal Menu Sports 443

Culinary Cues

MAY 13, 2023

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER Harvest America Ventures, LLC Restaurant Consulting www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG (Over 800 articles about the business and people of food) CAFÉ Talks Podcast [link] More than 70 interviews with the most influential people in food

Hotels 505

Hotels Point of Sale Cash Management Training 505

Culinary Cues

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

The idea for this article began years ago when I was helping a friend come up with a name for her restaurant. Learn their names and something about their history, address them with their names, put their names on your menu, do everything you can to help them understand those plates of food represent their history and their family.

Uniforms 462

Uniforms Article Café Take-out 462

Culinary Cues

JULY 19, 2024

Randy Burns PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER Harvest America Ventures, LLC Restaurant Consulting www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG (Over 900 articles about the business and people of food) CAFÉ Talks Podcast [link] More than 90 interviews with the most influential people in food Mise en place is a way of life.

Front of House 354

Front of House Food Order Customer Service Customer Experience 354

Culinary Cues

DECEMBER 3, 2022

It will be all consuming, I’ll need to get to menu planning today. The complexity of the menu is such that most of the prep is handled by individual line cooks. Stay tuned for the next article – FULL HOUSE -ALL HANDS-ON DECK. www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG. Over 800 articles about the business and people of food).

Back of House 435

Back of House Hotels Front of House Book 435

Culinary Cues

AUGUST 31, 2024

Make your mission statement “live” everywhere in the business: your website, social media, newsletters, emails, business cards, on the wall of your employee dining area, in your employee manual, on your business checks, prominent on your menu, and in your advertising. Choose wisely.

Customer Service 413

Customer Service Social Media Customer Experience Reference 413

Culinary Cues

JULY 15, 2022

Most of the articles we read point to the pandemic as the culprit as well as the centralization of processing ownership. They impact and will continue to impact menus, the skills of cooks, menu pricing, and an already meager profit margin. Harvest America Ventures, LLC www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG. CAFÉ Talks Podcast.

Food Supply 448

Food Supply Food Truck Consumer Goods 2000 448

Culinary Cues

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

I feel like I’m not doing my job and staying true to myself if I put anything on my menu, or use an ingredient that doesn’t have a story behind it.” Great restaurants, great menus, and great chefs bring memorable stories to their tables. www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG. Know your source. ChefCharlie Trotter – Charlie Trotters.

Small Business 445

Small Business Front of House Customer Service Communication 445

ChowNow

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

If you own or run a restaurant, Grubhub will bypass you and upload your menu and information to their site without asking. In a recent weekend, about 15 Grubhub drivers came to his shop to fulfill orders—some of which included out-of-date and unavailable menu items. Even these couriers suffer, he notes. Continue to speak up.

Pricing 397

Pricing Online Ordering Customer Experience Social Media 397

Culinary Cues

MAY 1, 2023

I have seen pride in the eyes of a line cook who finished plating a beautiful menu item as it was presented in the pass, and the look of appreciation when the team of dishwashers was offered a special employee meal – a meal that said: “We couldn’t do it without you.”

Front of House 474

Front of House Back of House Food Order Small Business 474

Culinary Cues

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Menu items were simple and very much in line with homestyle cooking: roast beef, meatloaf, fried chicken, roast turkey, macaroni and cheese, pasta, and meatballs, etc. A Blue-Plate Special was a hearty meal that always included meat, potatoes, a vegetable, bread and butter, and ample amounts of coffee.

White Paper 411

White Paper Hospitality Fine Dining Reference 411

Culinary Cues

JULY 14, 2023

Make sure the tables are level, windows in that station clean, tablecloths even, silverware and glassware spotless, menus clean and pristine, back-up supplies in perfect order, your uniform impeccable, and know the menu and features inside and out including correct pronunciations and beverages that pair perfectly with food.

Cash Management 400

Cash Management Uniforms Food Supply Café 400

Culinary Cues

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Maybe you picked up quickly on the restaurant menu and what was demanded of your station on the line, or as a second semester student you are feeling underchallenged and certain that you can handle anything. You are enthusiastic, quick to learn, a little cocky, a bit overconfident, and extremely impatient. You want more!

Kitchen Safety 446

Kitchen Safety Food Safety Back of House Front of House 446