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What starts as a passion for quality, craftsmanship, and unique flavors often turns into a logistical challenge when demand grows beyond the capacity of a single storefront or kitchen. Looking back, I was optimistic—perhaps a bit naïve—about what scaling would require. Scaling an artisan food business is no easy feat.
Summer brings sunshine, longer days, and—if you’re not prepared—hot kitchens that slow down service, impact food quality, and push your staff to the edge. For restaurant and bar owners, getting your kitchen ready for rising temperatures isn’t just about comfort; it’s about performance, food safety, and protecting your bottom line.
– Salad House CEO Joey Cioffi In 2025, restaurant chains will increase their usage of connected equipment to be more responsive, resilient, and ready to meet evolving customer expectations in a data-first, efficiency-focused world. At the same time, technology is poised to play an even bigger role in the coming year.
This helps the business manage its bottom line – especially given the higher cost of cooking oil in recent years – and the quality of the food coming out of its kitchens. The process was ripe with safety risks for employees and liabilities for the franchisee. Cody Neal, vice president of operations for 1788 Chicken.
Proper staff training keeps your team knowledgeable, confident, and able to provide the kind of customer service that keeps guests coming back. Front-of-house (FOH) staff, like servers and hosts, will need customer service training, upselling techniques, and communication skills.
Understanding How AI Works in Restaurants Lets get one thing out of the way: AI for restaurants doesnt mean robots taking over your kitchen or replacing your staff with machines. Some restaurants use computer vision for things like tracking foot traffic and monitoring food safety. More than you think.
For example: If you want to improve efficiency look for software that integrates with your POS and kitchen systems. Order Management : Reduce human error and speed up service with tableside ordering, kitchen display system (KDS) integration, and self-service kiosks. Identify your biggest pain points. Consider your budget.
Regular staff training ensures your employees are equipped to handle a fast-paced restaurant environment and the challenges that come with it, deliver exceptional service, and adapt to evolving industry trends to stay competitive. Training in this area might include: Food safety : Food safety is non-negotiable.
While the pandemic forced consumers to leverage contactless payment, such as tap-to-pay, out of pure health and safety concerns, it’s quickly become the normal course of business for restaurants aiming to streamline operations and maximize convenience. Technology continues to transform restaurant operations.
Joe Nicholson was a manager and tech consultant at one of the busiest restaurants in Sacramento, CA—Tower Cafe. Now, as a copywriter at SpotOn, he helps restaurant owners and managers learn how to run a more profitable operation. Restaurant P&L statements can be downright confusing. Prime costs. Contribution margins.
At the 2025 Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC), Qu unveiled a groundbreaking Smart Kitchen platform that promises to redefine how enterprise restaurants manage their back-of-house operations. Equipment downtime alone is costing the industry an estimated $46 billion annually.
A well-structured management training program equips new leaders with essential skills while promoting ongoing development. For instance, set up a mock kitchen line and have managers work together to prepare and plate a multi-course meal within a tight timeframe, encouraging communication and quick thinking.
While working hard to bring customers back into the restaurant is very important for success, it has become more important to figure out the third-party equation in terms of pricing, commissions and fees, and value – which is ultimately the difference between success and failure. This trend has held on in the last five years.
Many restaurant owners had believed they would be covered in the event of something like the pandemic, and found themselves without a safety net. Overall, the pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities, margin issues, and lack of safety net to restaurants in a way the industry is still recovering from. – Pooja S.
Hiring a great kitchen manager can transform your BOH operations with outstanding culinary and leadership skills. Asking the appropriate kitchen manager interview questions can reveal whether a candidate has the experience, skills, and abilities that your restaurant needs. How do you handle conflicts between kitchen staff?
This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features Yelp's Top Places to Eat in the U.S., decline in veganism, shift away from seed oils, Starbucks Monday, and spirts holding steady. Independent operators feel the squeeze the most. Consumer spending at small business restaurants declined (-2.4
Adopting in-house technologies became necessary for restaurants to stay open throughout the pandemic, restart operations after temporary closures, and pivot services to maintain revenue while still following enhanced health and safety protocols. Too Much Tech Is Not a Solution. Want to be Tech-Savvy? Start with Your Staff.
Leveraging a physical-digital-physical framework ensures that restaurant management is maximizing their digital assets, human labor, and capital equipment investments. Many restaurant managers have already moved to digital food safety programs that give them visibility into the state of their assets across multiple locations.
The best restaurants are those that keep back-of-house processes running smoothly to ensure a great front-of-house experience for guests. Keeping equipment functioning as intended also reduces the risk of damage that results in expensive repairs. In an increasingly digital world, one mistake can be costly.
Food safety has never been more prevalent. When dining out, they rightfully expect that the food they order is cooked properly to a safe temperature and that the kitchen foods are prepared in is clean. For operators interested in ramping up their efforts, updating equipment can be a big help in fostering safety.
Anyone who’s worked (or even stepped foot) in a restaurant knows how important effective kitchen management is. Yes, the back of house (BOH) is where food is prepped, cooked, and plated, but it’s also where chaos can quickly ensue if roles, responsibilities, and tasks aren’t communicated well.
Ghost kitchens, you’ve got spirit, but not much soul. Dark kitchens or virtual kitchens––real places staffed with non-ectoplasmic people—bring efficiencies to running a restaurant by providing off-site commissary services for delivery orders. Not up for opening your own off-site kitchen?
IoT is enabling restaurant employees to focus on what matters most, the customer experience, by automating manual back-of-house tasks to free up their time. Instead, IoT technology works alongside employees to reduce mundane tasks and give them valuable time back to focus on more pressing priorities. percent in late 2022.
For FOH: Assure front of house staff that you are complying with or exceeding all regulatory local, state and federal rules and regulations. Over and above these suggestions, if you have the size to spread out your kitchen you should do so. Kitchens must be sanitized, per recommended guidelines. They are for your own safety too.
Make sure the important areas of your kitchen are easily visible on surveillance such as the cooler and cabinets, register and all entrances and exits. Restaurant theft is expensive. One study found that internal employee theft is responsible for 75 percent of inventory shortages and about 4 percent of restaurant sales. Why is this helpful?
When staff are unable to answer basic questions about your gluten-free menu, or ask inappropriate questions of guests who inquire about gluten-free options, consumers may have doubts about your ability to ensure their safety or prepare a dish that meets their dietary needs. The first step is to clearly identify any gluten-free dishes.
In addition to more wide-ranging compliance requirements like general health & safety guidelines and local labor laws, there are food and beverage-specific safety regulations , requirements for specialty licenses (such as those to serve alcohol), and unique stipulations on labor compliance, many related to the employment of minors.
The Small Business Administration (SBA), in consultation with the Department of the Treasury , released the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness Application and detailed instructions for the application. Step-by-step instructions on how to perform the calculations required by the CARES Act to confirm eligibility for loan forgiveness.
Ofer Zinger, co-founder of Kitchen Robotics, thinks so. It also self-cleans, helping ensure food safety. That’s where companies like Kitchen Robotics come in – the company stands out as one of the few companies to have successfully commercialized a product. Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) learned more from Zinger.
Technology will be vital in the months – and years – ahead as the pandemic continues to change the conversation about food safety. Restaurants now must prioritize the overall safety of the restaurant environment, in addition to addressing food safety itself. Traceability + Transparency for Back-of-House Operations.
This digitization of the edge will not only enhance the experience, but also create a natural method of collecting data about your guest – who they are, their preferences, how often they visit, how they pay and how you can bring them back to your restaurant more often. And this will take some time.
Lastly, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are becoming increasingly popular, with sensors and smart devices for everything from tracking inventory levels to monitoring kitchenequipment performance. For example, IoT devices can notify when stock is low, or equipment is not functioning optimally.
Promoting Safety. Restaurants lucky enough to have access to outdoor dining space had to balance the needs of the business with the safety of customers and employees. For workers, many restaurants provided masks, face shields and other personal protective equipment (PPE). The past year ushered in some big, unprecedented changes.
Kitchen operations. Food safety and restaurant cleanliness. Kitchen Operations. Last year, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants went through some unwanted but necessary changes. As a precaution, dining areas were closed and at one point, even eating al fresco was prohibited in certain areas. Staff Management.
A coalition of restaurant industry leaders released the first national safety standards for dining in an attempt to simplify and streamline city, state and federal guidelines and ensure a safe working and dining environment for employees and customers.
In multiple industries, employee safety can be a chief concern that requires careful consideration by employers. This can especially be the case in food service industries where employees are often in loud, busy environments while moving in and out of kitchen areas with any number of hazards.
Signs and graphics have been and will continue to be integral to restaurant owners’ success as they navigate the ever-changing process of getting back to business. Safety and policy signs about mask requirements, temperature readings or social distancing ensure patrons that you are doing everything in your power to keep them safe.
With the COVID-19 pandemic surging across the country, it’s more important now than ever before to focus on employee safety. The major focus of these guidelines is keeping customers safe, but it’s equally important to consider the safety of employees. For restaurant owners, the answer lies in the technology. 86 Paper Chits.
Arkansas Enacts Food Freedom Act : On April 30, 2021, Arkansas enacted the Food Freedom Act that exempts certain producers of homemade foods or drinks products from any state food safety licensure, certification, or inspection. The law allows home cooks to prepare meals from their homes and sell to consumers without being a licensed kitchen.
For your restaurant, communications are limited to the closed circuit of your business, from the front-of-house to the kitchen. When you think of artificial intelligence, you might think of examples from science fiction like Terminator or The Matrix. Communications. Let’s take a look at a few that can directly benefit you today.
When paired with other products like Square Marketing and Square Loyalty, sellers can strengthen customer relationships, create open lines of communication, and incentivize patrons to keep coming back. On-Demand Delivery for Square Online Store. The buyer receives text updates with links to live maps to track delivery progress. Visa SMB Help.
Our restaurant of the future is designed to benefit guests, employees and franchisees, with a new external design and a reimagined kitchen that will make it easier for us to serve hot, delicious food quickly for frictionless guest experiences, and we expect to see a lot more of that next year. Clinton Anderson, CEO, Fourth Enterprises.
Good design practices should be the industry standard but better systems and equipment must be considered. Airflow within restaurants should flow from cleaner sources to dirtier sources – from dining areas to kitchens, restrooms to pick up / delivery spaces and more. All help with reducing the spread of viruses.
Both now and for the future, technology can answer many of the question’s managers have surrounding maintaining the health of employees, ensuring the safety of their guests and protecting their bottom line. However, it’s equally important to also take a long-term strategic approach to the Coronavirus. Plan Wisely.
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