Monday, September 25, 2006

New Concept


The last three months have been; challenging, exciting and informative. Changing a concept (like....opening a new restaurant) is quite different then a few years ago. I had the opportunity to be part of opening a new casino in Vegas years ago (No! I'm not telling you how many) and the difference is amazing. However moving forward let us examine something I found very unique with this concept change. The priority on service. Many times we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a beautiful dining establishment and then pinch pennies on service training. Or we rush through a training program that dosen't take in account the strenghts and weaknesses of the staff. And we wouldn't think of asking the staff their input when we are setting up the training program. I call this cookie cutter training. A truly long term succesful new concept needs the input of all the team. From the design phase to execution of the food, beverage and service. So! In a nutshell what am I learning from this exciting concept change adventure. TEAMWORK + PROPER TRAINING = STEPS TOWARD A SUCCESSFUL NEW RESTAURANT.