COST AND INVENTORY CONTROL:

Maintaining tight cost control in food and beverage sales is essential to an establishment’s ongoing viability.

Through careful accounting and operational efficiency, costs can be maintained and streamlined to maximize profitability.

Food and Beverage Costs

• Are you aware of the exact number of your food and liquor costs? • Is your inventory system accurate and precise? • Are your food and beverage costs where they should—or need to—be? • Are your dishes and drinks priced correctly? •

By evaluating and analyzing of inventory, purchasing, and control of goods, Downeast can determine where costs can be cut and profit gained.

Operational Analysis

• Are your purchasing and accounting systems effective? • Are your kitchen and bar operating in a cost-effective and profitable manner? •

• Is your labor cost in line with your sales? • Are your dishes priced profitably? • Are you purchasing product in the most cost-effective and logical amounts? • Are you spending more money each month than you need to be? • Are there areas of waste that can be eliminated? •

With extensive knowledge in labor cost, cost of goods and sales analysis, and Profit and Loss statements, Downeast can help identify areas in need of adjustment, then help you make the changes needed to maintain and increase profitability.

MENU DEVELOPMENT:

Food:

Having a menu that “works” is another key to success.  But there’s more to it than rolling out what you think is good food.

• Does your menu match your vision of the restaurant? • Is it in line with the theme of the establishment? • Is it consistent with your location, area demographics, and ultimately your customers’ expectations? • Is the menu focused? • Does it communicate effectively to your guests?

• And, not to be overlooked:  Is it something that your kitchen can execute to perfection? •

Downeast can evaluate menus based on sales data, food quality, cost effectiveness, thematic consistency, and overall strategy.   We can guide needed menu revision, reimagining, or complete rebranding.  If you’re just starting out, we can help you create the menu that will allow your establishment to stand out and give customers a reason to return.

Beverage:   

Beverage sales are another critical component to success, and an area ripe for profit.  Are you getting the most out of your offerings in this area?

• Do you have wine, cocktail, and beer menus? • Is your wine list strategically designed to fit your restaurant? • Are your wine sales commensurate with dinners served? • Are you carrying the products your customer demographic desires? • Do you have a cocktail menu, specialty drinks, or a focused beer list that targets your customer base? • Do you need your spirit offerings to feature the classic cocktail revival or is your customer base more draft beer and bourbon oriented? • Does your back bar contain the products needed to maximize profits and boost sales for your type of establishment? •

Downeast can create or revamp wine lists, cocktail menus, and beer lists that will serve your existing customer base, bring in new guests, add to the bottom line, and create excitement.  We can also impart knowledge that may be lacking in your service staff.  We can educate your staff on how to think about, appreciate, and sell wine effectively.  We can inform and educate in areas of beverage sales, service, and product knowledge (martinis, infusions, single malt scotches, small batch bourbons, boutique spirits, etc..,.).

STAFF TRAINING:

A focused, well-trained, and knowledgeable staff is integral to success.

Through observation (yours or ours), staff testing, informal interviews, or with our mystery shopper service, we can gather feedback and evaluate your staff’s performance in this area.   We can then offer and institute specific solutions.

Front of House: 

Customer service is one of the keys to success in the restaurant and bar industry.  Yes, that seems obvious. However, it is also one of the most overlooked areas of development within individual operations.

• Is your staff truly guest oriented? • Is the customer experience always a positive? • Do your servers and bartenders know their menus?

• Do they follow a clearly defined, effective “steps of service?” • Are they educated on your wine, beer, or specialty drink lists? • Are they salesmen or order takers? • Is their service attentive and precise or lackadaisical and uninspired? •

Downeast can train or reorient your front-of-the-house staff to be customer service focused, knowledgeable in the items you sell–and that can make you money–and in the importance of thinking guest-first.  As experienced managers and trainers, we can infuse your staff with what they need to know to be effective servers, bartenders, and sellers.  We can educate on food, wine, spirits, and how your staff can turn a guest’s ordinary night out into an event.

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Back of the House:

Having a kitchen staff that knows food, proper cooking technique, sanitation, seasoning, and preparation is essential in their execution of your menu.  Downeast can work with and train your kitchen staff in areas that will enable them to be successful, allowing them to deliver the culinary excellence that you envision for your guests.

• Does your kitchen staff use proper cooking techniques to deliver a consistent product? • Does your kitchen staff have the culinary knowledge they need to execute your menu? • Are recipes and procedures standardized and easy to follow?  Are those procedures and recipes also  being followed? • Are proper sanitation standards being met? • Is your kitchen organized efficiently?  Is your support staff preparing in correct amounts to deliver a fresh product? • Is your main food line set up logically and efficiently, allowing your staff to work as a team as opposed to a series of individuals? •

• Is your product inventory being utilized effectively and with cost efficiency in mind? • Are there potential areas of cross utilization of product? •

Downeast can educate your staff on needed cooking techniques, knife skills, and overall areas for improvement.  We can identify areas that could be better organized and provide the tools to structure kitchen procedures in a more cost effective and efficient manner, resulting in better food for your guests and tighter cost control for you.

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Management:

• Are your managers effective?  Are there areas where they can be more proficient? •Do they have the tools they need to successfully run your business? • Are they good with people but bad with numbers?  Or is it the other way around? • Are they keyed in to your customers’ needs? •

• Have they developed proper relationships with guests and staff? •

With years of successful management experience, we can help guide and direct kitchen, restaurant, and bar managers to be more effective and analytical, whether looking at “the numbers” or dealing with staff issues.  We can provide a blueprint for their success.

SALES ANALYSIS:

Is your restaurant or bar underperforming?

Analysis and evaluation by Downeast leads to Problem Solving, Solutions, and Profit.

Through observation and by composing and examining sales and cost data, Downeast can identify areas where you can gain in the areas of efficiency and income—which lead directly to increased profits.   We can then provide a plan for future success, and the tools with which to execute it.

• Are you carrying the right offerings for your demographic target and theme? • Are your menus planned, costed out, and priced appropriately?

• Are your beverages priced and costed out appropriately?• Are your marketing  efforts, in-house and out, well designed and effective?

•Are you missing or overlooking areas and items that could drive sales and profits? • Is your staff performing at a peak level? • Do you have a well designed guest loyalty program? • Are you doing all you can to insure your success? • 

MYSTERY SHOPPER ANALYSIS: 

Have you truly seen your restaurant or bar through a customer’s eyes?

With Downeast’s mystery shopping service, we’ll send in food industry operatives to experience your establishment as guests.  We will provide you with detailed reports of their experiences.  We’ll analyze the results, noting successes as well as problems.  Downeast will recommend and develop solutions to identified issues.

Some key areas of observation:

• Are your hosts friendly and accommodating? • Are your servers attentive or hiding in a wait station texting on their cell phones?

• Do they know your menu? • How long does it take for appetizers to appear at the table? • Do your servers offer specials and can they recommend the correct wine to go with a specific entrée? • Does that entrée arrive at the table in an acceptable time?  Is it cooked to the proper temperature? • Is it prepared correctly? • Do the anticipated flavors come through? • Are your bartenders warm and your beer cold? • Does your bar staff make a tasty cosmopolitan? • Can they explain the difference between a porter and a stout? • Are drinks being wrung up?  Is the register addressed after every transaction? • Are tables bussed properly or do they remain littered with empty glassware, napkins, and crumbs throughout a service? • Does your restaurant appear clean? • Are the bathrooms toxic zones? • Is dessert offered? • Is the coffee fresh and hot? • Are guests thanked as they leave the premises? • 

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS: 

 How your restaurant and bar communicates with your customers and potential customers is yet another component critical to success.  We can develop strategies and create materials that communicate “who you are,” as well as what you serve.  This exchange of information must be clear and engaging, and should take place from within and outside of the establishment.  Consider the following:

• Do you have a standard method of communication with your customers?  Is it creative and fresh or in need of an update? • Do you have an in-house marketing program and are your collateral materials effective? • Is your outside  advertising communicating your message? Is it bringing people through the door? • Are your marketing materials professionally written and do they appear professionally produced? • Are you using social media effectively?

• Are your marketing efforts demographically on target? •  

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Let Downeast help get your message to your customers!  We’ll put everything “on the table” to suit your needs—with both  traditional and contemporary methods at our disposal!

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