Topics
Employee Management
Cross Train for Rushes
Big Dave Ostrander Crunch Time Remedy Cross training covers all your bases By Big Dave Ostrander Its late afternoon Friday. Within an hour, the phones will be ringing off the wall. Your best crew is checking and double checking stock levels and ...
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Employee Management
Cross Training
The more your crew can do, the better your operation will run. In baseball, triple threats — players who can hit, field and run brilliantly — are rare gems. Entertainers who can sing, dance and act are called triple threats. In our world,...
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Employee Management
Downsizing Pizza Sizes
It was a hot summer night. I was cruising with my friends. We were a carload of young guys, fresh out of high school, approaching a college campus, looking for a good time. The driver pulled into a drive thru burger place. He said “these burger...
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Employee Management
Establish Measurements
Big Dave’s delivered a lot of orders. I’m convinced that one of the biggest reasons we dominated the delivery market in my area was that we measured the amount of time that elapsed from the phone call, in the oven, time out the door and time to t...
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Employee Management
Recession Buster
‘Tis the season to be frugal? Consumers are finding their disposable cash at an all-time low. The reality of a recession has hit home. Consumers now have to be more discreet than ever or change their ways — and change does not come easy. ...
Topics
Operations
Salad Bar Safety Tips
• Start in the back of the house by washing fruits and vegetables, using designated cutting utensils and wearing gloves. • Keep cold foods at 41 F or below; hot foods at 140 F or above. Be sure your equipment can hold these temperatures ove...
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Employee Management
Sample Marketing
With so many new restaurants opening around me and the economy being what it is, I’m getting scared watching sales drop. What can I do to keep my name out there without going broke? It’s time to turn your advertising inside out! Here&rsqu...
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Operations
Server Approach to Children
Your servers may hate it when a table comes in with four kids in tow — but big families mean big money, both for the restaurant and the server. A waiter who knows how to work the kids is a waiter who goes home with a bigger tip from mom and dad...
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Operations
Single Diners
The dollar signs may not exactly dance before your eyes when a single diner walks into your pizzeria. You’d much rather seat the party of four who will order a bottle of wine and an appetizer. That might be your first mistake: not welcoming the...
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Employee Management
The Right Advertising
There are so many ways to advertise! How do I know which advertising opportunities are the best ones for my Pizzeria? It can be mind-boggling and frustrating to figure out which ones will suit you well. First, you need to create an advertising budget...
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Operations
Turning Tables
Have you ever participated in local festivals by setting up a food booth? Is it worth the trouble and expense? Do you actually make a profit, or is it just more to get your name out there in the community? I participate in those as often as I can. Th...
Topics
Employee Management
What to Advertise
There he sat, as expressionless as an iguana as I explained how an ad I would create for him would sink like a dropped anchor, even with a great headline, plenty of benefits and a no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. He would be pouring money aw...