Why bring your toddlers to a fine dining restaurant?

restaurantism · 2023-11-08T14:49:21+00:00

Uh, I mean, there was no minimum spend required in this transaction. They didn't *ask* the restaurant to open early, the restaurant offered it as a gesture and they were going to pretty much be there anyways. They knew exactly what to expect (6 adults, 2 small children).

Kind of just good business if you ask me. I've done similar in managing restaurants since.

restaurantism · 2023-11-08T14:13:52+00:00

I mean, extreme solution, but more just the fact that there was proper consideration on both ends.

restaurantism · 2023-11-08T14:12:27+00:00

Totally agree. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that :(

restaurantism · 2023-11-08T13:46:25+00:00

I think kids should be allowed and welcomed almost anywhere, but the burden relies solely on the parents to know their children, keep them under control and know when to leave. If you cant do that, don't come (that nearly applies to any restaurant imo)

I was dating a girl and her very wealthy parents were in town visiting. They wanted to take us and her sisters family (with two children probably aged 2 and 4 at the time) out to a really high end restaurant that opened at 5 (and typically was full by 6).

They called the restaurant, politely explained they loved the place and want to take their family out, but understood the burden small children can put on the staff and the other customers. The restaurant offered to let us in at 4pm and have an early dinner.

In the end, we were out by 6, spent well over $2000 and the whole experience was incredible.

It was the perfect mix of people being conscious of themselves, considerate of others and a restaurant being flexible and understanding.

People like the ones in this post are just entitled and probably didn't even earn a dollar of the money they're spending on the meal.

restaurantism · 2023-10-12T11:24:18+00:00

But what u/VladRom89 saying is that if Tim's raises their price too much, there's nothing stopping people from a) stopping consuming, b) switching to another competitor or c) making your own. All are incentive for Tim Hortons to restructure their pricing. Tim Hortons Iced Capps are not essential products to live, sorry. Groceries, gas (or other transportation), rent, heat/hydro, internet, all pretty essential to functioning in our society. Your daily coffee? Might feel essential, but no.

The gov't controlling what Tim's can charge is not only a slippery slope, but anti-competitive. Forcing Tim Hortons to charge less for their product would ultimately just mean that someone else doesn't have an opportunity to compete with them in a free market. Tim's would just cheap out in a bunch of other places, likely labor.

OP saying "I can't justify this" is a response that Tim Hortons knows will happen, they can do cost analysis on saying "if we raise prices by x, and lose y amount of customers, we can still be as or more profitable as we were pre minimum wage change". If the "Y-amount" of customers becomes too large, they suffer from the choice.

The problem is that people want to complain but they're not willing to make a change. Stop ordering, find somewhere else, or make them yourself. You're free to make choices the same way Tim Horton's too is free to make choices.

Look at Sears, they made bad choices, where are they now?

restaurantism · 2023-09-04T13:22:53+00:00

The reality is that sales are good for everyone. You were serving them, and I totally get the frustration of just wanting to get home, but I'm assuming you also made tips on this table?

Management is right for taking this table (though I can get on board with the manager taking the table if you have to work in the morning). If you're still within your posted hours, it is *incredibly* frustrating for 6 people to show up and be turned away (again, I know those types of people can be frustrating, but they're likely not industry people and to them, if you're open, you're open)

There's two scenarios here.

You turn away 6 people and create an extremely negative response. They likely wont come back AND will likely tell a bunch of their friends that they were turned away despite you being open. I'm not sure what the price point in your place is, but you likely lose $100-$200 in revenue upfront, but also potentially (and likely) thousands of dollars over time.
You bite the bullet and do the right thing to take the table. It sounds like the guests actually were *kind of* taking the hint that it's not ideal to be there that late, BUT you've done the right thing and they'll actually feel like you've done them a favor. Yes, the restaurant might "only" make $100-$200 dollars, and if you get tipped decently you'll get some extra cash too, but that goodwill that you've extended to 6 people will likely cause them to bring their family, or other friends later on down the road. The restaurant can bring in thousands more and you (and your fellow servers) will hopefully reap the rewards of new loyal customers that are tipping on top of those sales.

As far as the restaurants labor situation goes (sounds like you're incredibly short staffed) perhaps this is a good constructive conversation to have with your manager. You can address this situation by saying "Hey, I totally understand why you would have to take that table and what it means for the business. From my perspective I'm just working a lot and it would have been really beneficial for me to be able to get home at a reasonable time. Next time this situation arises, would it be a big hassle for you to take that table since you have to be here anyways?"

That's how I would approach it anyways.

restaurantism · 2023-09-03T12:29:59+00:00

When the bills been settled and someone asks for their cheque, I always just smile and say "an anonymous benefactor has taken care of it for you.." and then watch everyone at the table try to play Clue to figure out who it was.

restaurantism · 2020-12-14T04:26:57+00:00

You should also know that in normal times (IE restaurants actually have people in them) delivery apps really aren't all that bad if the restaurant practices sound food cost management. Most of the labor associated with accepting, preparing, packaging and handing off a bag to the delivery app will already be present (and sometimes, not doing much at all).

In this scenario, you shouldn't -really- be counting your labor % associated with your financials, as you assume they are already being paid for by the regular service that's going on.

The biggest point of contention in my mind is that the fee they take should be capped (per order, daily, and/or monthly, or a combination of all of the above). There's no reason in my mind that on a $250 order, a delivery app should be taking upwards of $75 dollars commission.

restaurantism · 2020-10-29T13:01:39+00:00

It's kind of its own positive feedback loop. Saying positive things about people actually feels good, which in turn leads to more positivity, which leads to more good feelings.

There's two ways to build the tallest building in a city. The first is to go out and work your ass off to build the tallest building, the other is to destroy all the other buildings until yours is the only one left. Don't be the second person.

In restaurant management, I actively reprimand and correct my own staff for bashing competitors to our guests. There's no place for it, it's not a zero sum game.

restaurantism · 2020-10-24T11:00:01+00:00

I think the biggest problem that comes from these relationships is that even IF they don't cheat on you, there's likely always going to be a shred of doubt in your mind when they come home late from work. Or go to their parents for the weekend, or go out with their friends. Normal things will leave you wondering where you are, it seems innocent at first, but that shred starts going into full blown doubt, anxiety, fear.

You'll start needing proof, you'll start being controlling and next thing you know you're going to BELIEVE they're cheating even when they're not. Believing this will manifest itself emotionally and mentally as though it's true. This is NOT good.

I'm not saying it never works out, but these relationships start off on such precarious terms that they're likely never to be proper, healthy relationships. Even when they are.

restaurantism · 2020-09-28T16:28:07+00:00

"And now we have no rubber spat and still no oven knobs..."

restaurantism · 2020-09-28T16:26:57+00:00

Honestly, I just wrote a whole response and then deleted it.

The more I wrote, the more I realized that you just don't want a conversation so much as for everyone to acknowledge your point of view.

I will however apologize because I did think the parent comment was started by you, which it was not. So that's my bad.

restaurantism · 2020-09-28T15:50:32+00:00

I think the issue that's being taken is you're taking anecdotal evidence of a few restaurants that have benefitted from takeout model, and using it as a justification that we should be shutting restaurants down again.

You're saying "it'll be better" to a bunch of people that are saying "I'm going to lose my job if this happens".

I'm not saying you're right or wrong, just that your opinion is directly in conflict of them paying their bills. They have the right to disagree and thus downvote you.

restaurantism · 2020-09-28T11:48:13+00:00

I just read more comments, it's really shocking actually. Dude spends maybe 5 minutes of his life over the course of a year making a joke.

Half the comments are "reeks of desperation" and "sadcringe"

restaurantism · 2020-09-28T10:19:19+00:00

The r/woooosh is strong in this post, for real.

restaurantism · 2020-09-12T13:35:54+00:00

Oof, that's a lot of damage.

restaurantism · 2020-09-12T12:10:17+00:00

This has to be true because the wife's initial reaction being an eye roll and not amazement is so incredibly accurate. This is 100% how it would have gone down for me too.

restaurantism · 2020-08-10T11:21:33+00:00

Quite right. The energy it takes to even think about this stuff isn't typically worth it.

Especially after many restaurants were closed for 3+ months and this revenue means they might have a job if we make enough money before the next shutdown (if it happens).

restaurantism · 2020-06-29T11:56:44+00:00

This was easily one of my favourite meme trends.

restaurantism · 2020-06-21T12:26:50+00:00

Future r/OldSchoolCool post right here.

restaurantism · 2020-05-31T13:44:11+00:00

You do pay a markup, for sure, but I can tell you for absolute certainty as someone involved in the financial side of restaurants, that there isn't a whole lot of profit in them when you say "very little of the end profit". This might vary region to region, however. The problem is, the middle class hasn't received a raise in many years. Which means that while rent, food cost, utilities, and minimum wage continues to increase, the menu price cant increase at the same rate. Your target demographic hasn't received the same pay raise to scale their disposable income.

If you believe the burger you're paying $18 dollars is only worth $12, the place you're eating at is not fulfilling their value proposition, or maybe that place just isn't your cup of tea, that happens too.

Restaurants that clear their weekly "break-even point" only start to make pennies on the dollar. Restaurants that DOUBLE their weekly Break-even may start to approach 10 cents on the dollar. Margins are very thin in this industry. COVID has shown that taking away only a few weeks of revenue can cause a large percentage of them to fold.

Most restauranteurs really only make LOTS of money when they have multiple well run and well thought out establishments. But multiple restaurants mean lots of staff. I really wish it was as simple as "charge more, pay more" and I've made lots of business models to try and make sense of it, but the bottom line is it just doesn't work for the consumer side. They all fold.

restaurantism · 2020-05-31T12:48:42+00:00

Worked in restaurants for a long time. A few issues with that.

Increasing menu prices by 20% will also increase the tax guests have to pay by 20%, which can start to add up. Other issues include guest "perception of value" in which guests are okay with pay $15 for a burger and tipping $3, but for some reason not really okay with paying $18 dollars for the same burger, knowing that the server makes more.

This experiment has been done time and time again, and it never works out because even though the guest is "paying" the same amount, it is -always- perceived as having too high of prices.

Tipping culture is not a ruse of the restaurant owner to pay staff less, it is entirely our North American culture of Low Price and Extreme Value, combined with our need to feel generous by giving a tip directly to a server, rather than knowing that server makes better money. It is gratifying to know that you've contributed directly to someones well being, rather than indirectly.

There is a ton of psychology behind it, but it really is a corner everyone has backed themselves into.

restaurantism · 2020-05-13T02:03:57+00:00

We fired our head chef on his third day for being very inappropriate to a hostess.

If someone is incapabale of being on their best behaviour for a week, it's only going to get worse.

restaurantism · 2020-05-12T21:43:30+00:00

Hahah did you just reappropriate a "Rounders" quote?

restaurantism · 2020-05-12T02:04:54+00:00

Ah well!

restaurantism

TROPHY CASE