Funky Fresh

I live in a small mountain town in Colorado and I love sushi. These two things do not always come together in the best of ways. Now, before coastal readers say that eating raw fish while inland is equivalent to gastral Hari-Kari, let me just say that I’ve had good sushi in Colorado.  

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I’ve also had amazing sushi in Japan – so I feel that I have a valid point of reference. There have been times, however, that mountain sushi has been not so good.
There was one local sushi restaurant in particular that I frequented quite often, mostly due to the close proximity to my home. The sushi had always seemed fresh and delicious – never great – but, generally tasty. As a few months of patronage at the restaurant went by I noticed that there appeared to be fewer and fewer diners coming in. The owners seemed to maintain the freshness and flavor of their product, but empty restaurants can be scary for not only owners, but diners as well. In fact, eating at an empty sushi restaurant is a lot like playing cards in an scarcely populated casino. You begin to wonder if it’s worth the gamble. The only difference is, when you lose at a casino you and your money are soon parted – when you lose at a sushi restaurant you could be recently departed. Such was my dilemma and it nearly cost me dearly.
I ordered a sushi platter to take home from the restaurant on my way home from work one night. After picking it up and arriving at home, I opened the container from the restaurant and noticed something different about the Nori. All my fish had been peppered. I had never seen ground black pepper on sushi before. I suspiciously lifted a piece of raw, peppered tuna to my nose. It smelled a bit like hot garbage wrapped in a used diaper. I threw out the sushi and never went back. Two weeks later, the restaurant had closed.
The takeaway here is that even when times get tough in your restaurant – which is unfortunately altogether possible in the current economy – you cannot compromise the quality or freshness of your product. Your regulars will notice and they will be disappointed! Yep – one surefire way to drive away even your most loyal customers is to make cuts where they will be noticed by them.
Sometimes in this business you have to take a short-term loss in order to produce long-time gains. As owners, chefs, and managers, individuals must be constantly vigilant in ensuring that corners are not cut in order to save a buck or two.
My dad always said, “watch the pennies and the dollars will follow.” That is very true, but it’s got to be done right. There are many ways to cut expenses that don’t leave your guests upset and your coffers dry. For more information on how to ensure quality during good times and bad, or to analyze your expenses to look for opportunities, please reach me at petegentzler@yahoo.com! Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Until next time…mangi bene e sia bene! Grazie!

Timing Is Everything

People say that in comedy, timing is everything.  It’s the same in the restaurant business, although we are trying to elicit oohs and aahs rather than laughs most of the time.  The most difficult part of finding proper timing in a restaurant is in reading the desires of the guest.  Sure, there are usually some givens.  For example, if you run a counter service restaurant, you can assume that your guests want to get in, eat, and get out.  If you run a fine dining restaurant, you can assume that people want to spend a longer amount of time enjoying every delicious minute to the fullest.  But, if your staff is not properly gauging the timeline that the guest would like to be on, they will soon be putting the “ass” in assumption.

As far as front of the house service is concerned, one of the most concise ways to ascertain the pace of individual guests it to encourage servers to simply ask them.  Of course, you don’t want servers to ask guests, “are you in a hurry, or what?”  There are more subtle ways to address the issue, such as:  “How are you two doing this evening?  Enjoying a nice evening out?”  At this cue, guests have an opportunity to tell servers whether they are at the restaurant for a leisurely dinner, or if they are trying to catch a movie in half an hour.  Be creative.  There are ways to ask the guest this question without seeming invasive or pushy.

Once the server is able to better anticipate the needs of the guests they can more properly pace the evening.  Timing is crucial to ensuring the satisfaction of our guests.  Just think of all the things that have gone wrong when you’ve been out to a restaurant.

The hostess misquotes your wait time.  You’ve been seated for ten minutes and have not been acknowledged by staff.  Your cocktail comes out after your appetizer.  Your salad is warm and your entrée is cold.  You’ve finished eating, but you haven’t received your check for fifteen minutes.  From the moment a guest walks in through the door until the minute they leave, all of these factors involving timing can make or break a diner’s experience, and ultimately, your business.

There is good news, however!  There are tried and tested systems that can help to develop impeccable timing with your employees in the back and front of the house.  Methods of proper coordination, communication, and awareness are the cornerstones of mastering this very important part of service.  To learn more, please email me at petegentzler@yahoo.com to discuss consultation and development.  In the meantime… mangi bene e sia bene! Grazie!

Brie & Olive Tapenade Crostini

This is a delicious and healthy vegetarian appetizer recipe that is sure to please even the carnivores at your party! You can use a lot of different components to make this – so, be adventurous and experiment with different herbs, olives, and breads. For my version, I started out with a beautiful, pitted Greek olive mix from the olive bar at my local market. You can use a variety of different olives, but do yourself a favor and buy some that have been pitted.
Here’s what I used:
8 oz. pitted Greek olive mix
½ Large yellow bell pepper
3 medium tomatoes, oven roasted and peeled
¼ Cup EVOO
1 Tbs. crushed fresh garlic
¾ Cup whole fresh basil
½ Cup fresh chives
Softened Brie cheese
1 Loaf of sourdough bread
First off, you need to roast your tomatoes. If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry – it’s simple. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. While the oven is heating, blanch your tomatoes whole in a pot of boiling water. After five minutes or so, remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place them in a bowl of ice water. When the tomatoes have sufficiently cooled, remove them from the water and peel. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place on a baking sheet into the oven. After about an hour, the tomatoes should be fairly dried out. Remove from the oven and crank up the heat to 350 degrees.
While your tomatoes are roasting, you may compose your olive tapenade. In a food processor, add olives, EVOO, yellow bell pepper, and herbs. Pulse blend this mixture to a semi-rough chop. When the desired consistency is achieved, put the tapenade in a sealed container and refrigerate. Puree your roasted tomatoes and stir them into the tapenade. If the mixture is too salty or acidic, add stir in granulated sugar to taste.
Now it’s time to move on to the crostini. In your oven, preheated to 350 degrees, place ¼ “ sourdough slices on a baking sheet. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread is nice and crispy. Allow the bread to cool and prepare to assemble the final product.
Take your softened Brie and smear a good amount onto the crostini. Then, take one to two tablespoons of tapenade and smear that on top of the Brie.
Now, the crostinis are ready to eat! I like to add citrus or grapes to my platters, giving guests something sweet to counteract this briny and savory dish. Enjoy!

Houston, Now We've Really Got a Problem!: Part II

Our server walked up to our table and sat down the entrees.  "Here you go, guys," she said, and walked away.  There are a couple of things wrong with this picture.  For one thing, we needed ketchup for our potatoes, for another, our drinks were empty.  So, without further ado, here come mistakes #s 5 and 6.  Lord have mercy.

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#5:  Never drop plates without asking the guests if there's anything else that they need.
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than receiving their food without being able to eat it immediately.  It's like a mountaineer reaching a false summit - just when you think you've gotten there, you find out that the march goes on.  


#6:  Don't neglect to assess your tables.
Be aware.  Look for the obvious.  Refill drinks and pre-bus plates before being asked.  It's about being procative, not reactive.


Dismayed, but hungry, my friend and I decided to tuck into our dishes even with the absence of fresh drink or condiment.  We had both ordered the same thing; an eggs benedict with the house's "special green chili hollandaise".  At last!  Too bad it was lukewarm and none-too special.  So, let's review mistakes # 8 and 9.


#7:  Don't serve hot food cold and cold food hot...capeche?
Any chef or server should know that plates need to go out blazing.  It's been years since I've had any feelings in my fingers - mainly because the nerve endings have been deadened by zillions of boiling-lava hot plates.   Likewise, nothing is sadder than a warm salad.  Well, maybe there are a few sadder things - orphans, clowns crying on the inside - you get my drift.  Use heatlamps, use coolers, mainly though, utilize timing!  Mistempered food makes customers angry and bunnies cry.


#8:  Use accurate descriptors on your menu.
Ensure that you put your money where your mouth is.  If the menu states that a dish comes topped with "special green chili hollandaise", or anything signature, it better pack a punch.  Trying to find green chili in our sauce was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  Desciptors need to accurately convey the components in all menu items.
At this point, my friend and I were discussing what else could possibly go wrong.  That's a problem.  When guests start actively looking for more issues, they will find them - guaranteed.  I wish I could write that nothing else did go wrong, and that things ended up peachy keen.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.


After finishing about half of our meals, my friend finally stood up from the table and walked toward the computer terminal where our server was talking to another employee.  "Can we get some more juice?"
"The manager just went to the store to get some more," she replied.  Mistake  #9 seems pretty obvious, but my old days of Cub Scoutery insist I say it:


#9:  Always be prepared.
Ordering a glass of orange juice in a breakfast joint shouldn't be like ordering a rack of bunny at a vegan restaurant.  Sell out of specials if you have to, but don't run out of the basics.


Given the risk of this segment becoming a tirade, however, I will summarize.

Overly critical or not, my experience at the restaurant was far from being all that it could be.  The real takeaway is that all of these mistakes could have been avoided with proper training and hiring.  
If you would like to learn about proven education methods that will help your restaurant circumvent these kinds of pitfalls, contact me at petegentzler@yahoo.com for a free, personalized consultation.  
Thanks again for taking the time to visit! 

 

Houston - We Have a Problem

As restaurant workers, we often find it difficult not to judge our experiences when eating out. Just as a contractor enters a newly built house for the first time and casually inspects the carpentry around her, those of us in the food and beverage biz can't help but analyze the goings on of every eatery they dine at. This is both a blessing and a curse. After all, everyone knows how to define poor service or cold food, but when you've actually been there it makes it easier to both sympathize and condemn.
Today I had an experience at a restaurant (which will remain unnamed), that gave me inspiration for this new post. Some of my criticisms may appear harsh, but there were so many glaring examples of what not to do during this visit that I thought it warranted further information.  Please keep in mind that I am not complaining, I'm merely illustrating how several key mistakes during my dining experience made it - well - suck.
It began shortly after my friend and I walked through the doors.  We came in for a late breakfast, around 10:30 a.m., and saw that the rather small restaurant was empty except for the two of us and another table of four.  There was no hostess on the floor, so we went to a table and seated ourselves.  After a minute or two of looking around, we noticed that not only was there no hostess present - there were no employees to be seen anywhere.  As we waited for some type of acknowledgment, another couple entered the restaurant and seated themselves at a table near us.  After five minutes or more, the manager came out and asked if we'd been helped.  This brings us to our first mistake. 



#1:  Never, ever, leave the dining room completely unattended.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it happens more often than people might think.  The worst part about walking into a restaurant seemingly devoid of staff is that it confuses the guest.  It also sets the tone for a bad experience.  Service needs to be initiated the moment a customer walks in - no exceptions.  Diners want to be guided through their experience from minute one.


When the manager greeted us he did one thing right; he took our drink order.  Given that the restaurant had only three active tables, had he said, "your server will be right with you," it would've been bad.  At least he got the ball rolling.  We ordered a couple of glasses of orange juice and water, and he went behind the bar to prepare them.  As he was pouring our juice, two servers emerged from the kitchen with plates of food for the four-top we noticed when we entered.  They dropped off the plates, and one of the servers came to our table and asked abruptly, "Are you ready to order?  We have some specials written on the wall back there."  Hello
mistakes #s 2, 3, and 4:


#2:   Don't be dumb about running food.
Does it really take two servers to run four plates of food?  I'd hate to see them change a lightbulb.  Don't misunderstand, I am a cheerleader when it comes to teamwork, but you have to utilize staff appropriately.  And then, there are also those things called trays...  Refer to # 1.


#3:  Never let em' see you sweat.
First off, there shouldn't have been any sweat involved, as the restaurant only had three active tables at the time.  Secondly, always remember to greet tables with a smile and a sense of accommodation. 


#4:  Don't forget to sell the specials.
When customers go to restaurants they want to be indulged and educated.  Guests need to be told about the special and how good it is.  When you ask them to read from a chalkboard on the wall you're giving them a job to do and not doing yours.


As my friend and I waited for our entrees, we began rating our experience.  Don't ever think that other customers don't have the same chat.  As we finished our glasses of OJ, about seven or eight minutes after we'd ordered our food, we saw our server emerge from the kitchen with our dishes.  Unfortunately, more errors ensued.  To keep reading about mistakes #s 5 - 10, tune into my next post.


Until then, grazie and ciao!