Especially in the restaurant business. There is the image of the restaurant and there are health standards. And there’s research to support it. I can attest that people are the Number One most important part of a restaurant. So it pays to hire people who look good and carry off the establishment’s image, the appeal of the food, and the assurance of a satisfying and safe dining experience. Continue reading

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Today’s Tortas are a “sandwich” product, and can be designed to fit into your unique menu’s design, although the crusty buns alone are actually called bollilos. With a firm exterior, these rolls appear oval in shape, like two hamburger buns merged together in the oven, with a thinness of about half the height. They tend to have a chewy texture similar to the Indian Nan bread. Strong as Italian loaves, they hold up stuffed to overflowing capacity. Continue reading

See the thing is, American’s do not like to look stupid, so they won’t order what they cannot pronounce, and they don’t like to say things that make their otherwise perfect American English sound funny and risk being the butt of an inside joke among the servers. So what you call your little fried ricey thingy will have to be as easy to say and read as it is descriptive. Continue reading

HotOperator put together a list of fruity, fun drinks that will attract a crowd and increase check totals for any bar or restaurant. Continue reading

Your menu is the single most important piece of literature you will ever create for your restaurant. It’s the primary point of contact with your guests. If it has been more than 6 months since your last menu update, you really owe it to yourself and the health of your restaurant to take the time to update your menu. And it’s also a good idea to have a makeover every once in a while, too. Continue reading

People are looking for your highlights. It’s true, your customers want to know what you think is good to eat in your restaurant. So what are you gong to tell them? What most menus ‘say’ is: Everything is the same it’s all pretty good, have whatever you’d like. Continue reading

A restaurant menu is a little like a water balloon. The capacity in the restaurant can offer a set amount of money per available seat hour. And if you squeeze the balloon, the water doesn’t leave the balloon, it just forces its way around inside the balloon, creating bulges. A door crasher can do essentially the same thing. It can draw a crowd, but it can also suck with it the check averages in your restaurant. So the real trick is to make sure the door crasher isn’t going to take away from the high volume, high profit items you are already selling. Continue reading

Try to avoid the “Specials” trap. So many independent restaurant operators use Facebook and Twitter as a specials board, and it will grow a group for a while, but then you’ll notice that fewer and fewer people will stick around, and you’ll notice your new likes will slide off, too. Saying things like: “Hey, we’ve got really good meatloaf today with whipped potatoes for only 6.95” over and over again, is a sure way to loose momentum in social media. Continue reading

A well-engineered menu can have a huge impact on the overall profitability of your restaurant. This is done with managing the throughput in the operation. And the longer your guests have been patronizing your restaurant, the more radically you will need to change your menu in order to have an impact on your guests. Continue reading

I'd make the sandwiches bigger if it were me. I'd make them 13" long and then make the case that as penance, and to make up for our egregious error, we're going to great lengths to lengthen our sandwiches to 13", so over time you will recoup your lost inch, and the more sandwiches you eat, the quicker you will make up the difference. Continue reading

The best reason to promote your restaurant is to increase the number of restaurant customer visits. The best reason to engineer your menu is to make more money per customer visit. Continue reading

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I don't care what your politics are at all. I really don't. And whatever you think of the current state of the American political stage, one thing is clear, as divided as we are as a nation, everyone is a potential customer for your restaurants. And while many people won't agree with the petition to boycott Applebee's, I can't think that the millions and millions of people who do sign it will be very loyal, nor are they likely to be able to put those feeling aside and buy there anyway. Continue reading

Menu design will have an impact not only on how the guest sees you and your restaurant, but it will also have an impact on how well they like your food, how your food tastes, how willing they are to come back, how much money they spend and how often they will recommend you to their friends. Continue reading

Mark K. Laux Profit Pioneer - Design Engineer 1-800-316-3198 X332 1-920-231-4313 Fax 1-920-420-2076 Cell mlaux@laux.com Continue reading

Our first thoughts are WOW! You've dynamically captured the spirit of the Matterhorn with a vintage, yet contemporary look & feel. Very professional & very well done. Continue reading

I pull the raw photos into PhotoShop and add a filter if it needs it and adjust the exposure. I shoot a bracket, and tend to like the darker exposures to start with and then adjust the exposure myself. In the egg photo, I added a yellow filter, outlined the sour cream and filtered blue so it wouldn't look like salad dressing. Then I cropped the photo, changed the image size to 480 pixels wide and saved the document as a png. Continue reading

I'm traveling to Northern California this week for The Original Mels to help them with their photography. It is essential to have a lot of photos for Facebook - people love food, and they eat with their eyes. In the... Continue reading

A word of advice for opening a new restaurant: Change is good. When you first open up your restaurant, you will need to make changes, so embrace it. Continue reading

In a small town the size of a few thousand people up to about 100,000, which will be freckled with chain restaurants discounting the food business into oblivion, this is particularly sensitive. And while you want some pushback on price, you also want to make sure that your guests are leaving with the thought: “It wasn’t the cheapest place in town, but it was worth the money and I’ll go again.” Continue reading

Building off of the Japanese sushi bar, robata grill, lumpia spring rolls and crab Rangoon style of foods, we used poetry, color, design and texture to express the Asian influence in the menu. Then Patricia and Marlo took the experience up a level for customers eager to try something new and exotic by adding Filipino items with foreign names. By providing a relatable description, we have the ability make the customer feel like they are daring and adventurous by trying dishes such as chicken kara-age, wakame salad and yakitori skewers. Continue reading

So while you’re looking for a lower price menu, you must also consider how much less you want to make in your business. Because each time you take money out of the menu making system you also take more out of your money making system. The two are tied together and inseparable. Continue reading

Your “one bad server” is like that for your business. One visit to your restaurant is great and the next you get the evil server from hell. It’s like having a slow leak in your boat that you never noticed at first and suddenly you’re up to your neck in water and wonder what the hell happened. So here are 5 things you can do to keep your servers well trained and engaged. Continue reading

In order to asses how much you should spend on a menu makeover or even how much you think you want to spend, it's important to understand the different costs associated with the process. Continue reading