From Food Truck to Restaurant: Establishing Your Brick-and-Mortar Business

From Food Truck to Restaurant: Establishing Your Brick-and-Mortar Business

by | Jul 29, 2016 | Management

Your ultimate dream was to open a restaurant, but you didn’t have a lot of money. So instead you opened a food truck – and it’s been a soaring success. Your customers love your food, and you feel confident in moving forward to bigger things. So what’s the next logical step? Opening that brick-and-mortar store, of course! And, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Review your original goals

Why did you want to open a food truck in the first place? Was it because you wanted to be a chef while being your own boss? Maybe it was a step forward in your strategy to grow your business. Whatever the reasons, successful food truck owners should consider how they want to grow professionally before pursuing brick-and-mortar options. If it doesn’t fit in with your plans, perhaps you should stick to the truck. But for those looking to expand, moving on to a restaurant could be a great idea.

You might discover that a particular location is too crime-heavy for your tastes, or it may prove better than you expected.

Consider various locations

Take advantage of the mobile nature of the food truck. Use it to scope out the neighborhoods where you’re considering opening an established restaurant. You might discover that a particular location is too crime-heavy for your tastes, or it may prove better than you expected. It’s also a way to test whether your customers will follow you to purchase your food. If so, then chances are they’ll go out of their way to check out your new restaurant.

Run the numbers

It’s no surprise that brick-and-mortar restaurants require many more additional expenses than the food truck. Besides renting the building, you would need to purchase decor and insurance as well as hiring additional staff. And that doesn’t include the need for more food. Consider the cost versus the profit, and look over past accounting records for your food truck. You’ll need to know what sells and what doesn’t as you consider your options.

Consider the cost versus the profit, and look over past accounting records for your food truck.

Plan your strategy

Reevaluate your menu and figure out if you need to add any items. Consider sticking to a simple menu to minimize potential food waste. You will also need to allocate your resources. Keep in mind the amount of time management required for scheduling future employees and food prep. If you decide to add new items, figure out the best places to purchase the food while keeping to your budget.

What about the truck?

If you open a brick-and-mortar restaurant that will be open year-round, you may need to re-examine what purpose your food truck serves towards the success of your business. Depending on your circumstances and location, perhaps the truck will continue its normal route as it has in the past.

Another option is to offer catering for special events, such as birthday parties or local concerts. Regardless of the truck’s new role, it will double as a mobile advertisement for your new location. Without needing to invest any additional funds, your food truck will become an indispensable marketing tool.

Regardless of the truck’s new role, it will double as a mobile advertisement for your new location.

You may also decide to run the truck only during the warmer months and keep your business strictly to your anchored establishment throughout the winter. If your area experiences regular cold and harsh winters, this move can be a boon to your business when previously you only had the truck. The brick-and-mortar establishment will provide a safe haven to your customers who may want to purchase your food but would rather not face the elements.

Don’t forget the legal issues

Leasing a property can be complicated. Remember to take care when negotiating lease terms and consider hiring an attorney to make sure everything is as it should be.

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Sirvo and The Colorado Restaurant Association Join Forces

Sirvo and The Colorado Restaurant Association Join Forces

by | Jul 21, 2016 | Sirvo Stories

The Colorado Restaurant Association becomes Sirvo affiliate to offer members a streamlined hiring process tailored to the foodservice industry.

DENVER, COLORADO – July 21, 2016 – Sirvo, the premier web app for hospitality and restaurant recruitment, today announced an alliance with the Colorado Restaurant Association, the leading trade organization for the Colorado foodservice industry. As affiliates, Sirvo and the CRA will join forces to meet the hiring needs of the foodservice industry.

Through the affiliation, Sirvo will be the official provider of the CRA job board granting members a streamlined approach to hiring in the foodservice industry. CRA members will not only be offered discounted member pricing on Sirvo’s platform but their job listings will also be posted on the CRA careers site as well as Sirvo and its partner networks for increased visibility and greater candidate reach.

“By unifying Sirvo’s technology with the CRA network, we have blended our strengths to offer food and beverage establishments across the state an easy and efficient process to hire great talent.” – Stephanie Maxwell, Sirvo CEO

For more information about Sirvo’s partnership with the CRA, click here.

About Sirvo

Sirvo, named Best New Startup 2015 is a modern web app for hospitality recruitment. Sirvo helps better connect employers and job seekers by providing easy access to business and talent profiles, powerful search, as well as collaborative hiring tools for a smooth, streamlined hiring process. For more information about Sirvo, visit Sirvo.com.

About Colorado Restaurant Association

Founded in 1933, the Colorado Restaurant Association (CRA) is the leading trade organization for the state’s dynamic foodservice industry. The CRA represents, educates and promotes an industry comprised of more than 10,800 eating and drinking establishments in Colorado.

What Makes A Great Line Cook

What Makes A Great Line Cook

by | Jul 6, 2016 | Career

Few line cooks want to be cooking on the line for the rest of their culinary careers. Most dream of becoming head chef or even opening their own restaurants somewhere down the road. That is why most line cooks do it, to learn the ropes of the restaurant industry, get valuable hands-on experience in a kitchen and rise up the ranks. So what can you do to make yourself a better line cook and stand out in a crowded field? Let’s find out!

Show up on time

The importance of punctuality in the restaurant industry cannot be understated. Why? Because the meal service will start on time regardless of whether or not you are ready.

If you show up late or miss a prep, then somebody else have to cover your work and their own, delaying the entire kitchen’s flow. This will also send a negative message to the higher-ups. All in all, no one will be happy with you.

The importance of punctuality in the restaurant industry cannot be understated.

This is not the kind of attention you want to draw. The very first step in being a great line cook is simply showing up on time for the shifts you are scheduled. Not too hard right?

Prep your mis en place

Preparation goes a long way in making your life easier when the restaurant gets busy and you have numerous tickets to fill. When the tickets start coming in, you want to be able to focus on the food without worrying about chopping up your mis en place or making stock.

When you’re not fully prepared with your mis en place, you’ll end up distracting yourself from the incoming orders to chop more vegetables or make more stock and usually the overall quality of the dish suffers when you can’t give it your complete focus.

If you want to prove to head chefs that you have what it takes to move up in the industry, prepare your mis en place and be on top of your tickets.

Ready your station before service begins

Sure, you might not be busy right at five o’clock when service starts, but that does not mean your station should not be ready for a full on dinner rush.

Once again preparation is key to being a great line cook.

Once again preparation is key to being a great line cook. Those who prepare stand out to head chefs and other industry professionals, so make sure that you have enough clean dishes at your station, all your pots, pans, tongs, and other utensils are clean and ready to go, and of course make sure your mis en place is already prepared.

The last thing you want to be doing is scrambling around to get clean dishes in the middle of a dinner rush because that is your time to shine and do your best cooking.

Give every dish your all

Some nights will be harder than others to find the motivation and inspiration to give your best performance, but that is no excuse not to give everything you have every night.

It’s key to remember that for the customers, this is their night out or their special dinner. They came out and are spending good money for the food you are making.

Don’t let them down because they may never come back to your restaurant if they had a bad time, and that is very bad for business.

Clean, clean, clean

When your shift is over, clean your station and the kitchen thoroughly. If you see other stations that haven’t been cleaned properly, take it upon yourself to make sure it’s done right. After all, there is nothing worse than working in a dirty kitchen.

After all, there is nothing worse than working in a dirty kitchen.

In addition to cleaning, be sure to organize your area. This will not only help you when starting your next shift, but show your superiors that you know what it takes to lead, and someday run, a restaurant kitchen.

Working hard and going above and beyond to make sure the job is done right is a great way to stick out to a head chef. If you want to be a great line cook and move up the ladder of the restaurant industry, you have to be willing to do more than is required and always have a positive attitude.

Find Cook jobs on Sirvo now →

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Hacks to Make your Novice Serving Life Easier

Hacks to Make your Novice Serving Life Easier

by | Jun 29, 2016 | Career

When entering the food and beverage service industry, you probably have some ideas on what the experience will be like. You know you’ll have to memorize the menu and plaster a smile on your face. You expect good days and bad days. However to ensure the highest amount of good days, you’re going to need some seasoned hacks. Here are some excellent ways to make your job easier!

Realize Serving is a Team Effort

Not every server practices reciprocity, but you should. Anyone can tell you that guests come first, so helping out your neighbor server is the right thing to do. If someone’s food needs to be run, run it. If they’re obviously in the weeds and being crushed under tasks, see if you can help in some way.

It takes a village to serve the front of house, so help each other out.

It’s not only for the guest, it benefits you too. Team players will be more likely to help you, if you help them or if they see you helping others. It takes a village to serve the front of house, so help each other out.

Adopt a Method to Remember Who is Who

When serving food to a table, the best way for quick distribution is to remember which person ordered what. Quicker distribution means you can get to another task faster, and your life is easier for it. It also makes you seem more professional, and can score you a higher tip! It’s a win, win situation!

Try taking orders left to right around the table and arrange your food that way when picking it up at the window. Usually, your meals will come up in the order it was taken, so it’s easy to put your food in the succession which you took the order.

The key is to find something that works for you.

Alternately, you could remember something about each person that correlates with what they ordered. The key is to find something that works for you. Any method is better than none!

Invest in Good Shoes

Most restaurants will give you the option to buy serving shoes through a hospitality catalog. Do it! Or at least, visit your local shoe store to find some comfortable, supportive shoes with good traction.

There’s nothing worse than trudging through a double-shift with an aching body.

At first, wearing regular tennis shoes may seem fine, but eventually, your feet, lower back, knees and hips will begin to ache all the time. There’s nothing worse than trudging through a double-shift with an aching body.

Tighten your Core

Many new servers instinctively tighten their legs and arms to keep from spilling over-full drinks. In reality, this is more likely to create jerking motions that will cause you to splash some of the beverage on yourself or on the floor.

Instead, tighten your abs and glutes.

It also makes you look like a robot. Instead, tighten your abs and glutes. This reduces motion transference from your legs to your arms and the glass.

Circle the Extras

When you’re running around like a crazy person, the last thing you want to do is make an extra trip to the kitchen, if it can be avoided. When you’re taking an order always ask about condiments and circle anything they want that wouldn’t ordinarily come with their order.

It’s easy to overlook details on your serving pad, especially if you’re busy.

It’s easy to overlook details on your serving pad, especially if you’re busy. By circling the extras, your attention will be drawn to those notations, and you’ll be less likely to forget those small details.

Don’t let a Nasty Customer get you Down

This cannot be said enough: don’t let a sour-puss customer rain on your sunshine. Remind yourself that you don’t know anything about them or what they are going through.

Do not let that negative energy transfer to you.

Also, if they’re just a rude person, that has nothing to do with you. Do not let that negative energy transfer to you. If you let it get you down, you’ll be distracted, your productivity will be lower and your tips will reflect that. Not to mention, the rest of your shift will suck.

Along the way, you’ll discover other ways to make your life easier, but these tips along with our other Server Hacks will get you started on the right foot!

Find Server jobs on Sirvo now! →

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Host Hacks: Landing a Job Promotion

Host Hacks: Landing a Job Promotion

by | Jun 22, 2016 | Career

As a host or hostess, you’re the first person to greet customers when they walk through the door of the restaurant, and you’re good at it! While you love your job and the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life, you’re also hoping to move onto something bigger and better. Doing your job to the best of your ability will help catch the attention of managers, owners, and other staff members, but there are several things you can do to make yourself look even better.

Where Are You Going?

First thing’s first; ask yourself what goals do you have for advancement? Your future job will help determine the actions that you need to take in order to move up. Some hosts have their eyes on a job as a server. After all, the tips are better!

Your employment goal will help shape your behavior as you work your way up to the top.

More ambitious hosts, however, are eager to take it even further than that: they have their eye on a restaurant manager job, possibly even with an eye to eventually moving up to regional manager. Your employment goal will help shape your behavior as you work your way up to the top.

Make Yourself Useful

What do you do during a slow period at the restaurant, when no one is coming through the doors? If all of your work is taken care of, do you find ways to pitch in and help others?

Well, you should because this simple action can help showcase your willingness to work with the restaurant like nothing else. Don’t just seat customers and take them their silverware. Within the restrictions offered by the rules that go along with your restaurant, you can:

  • Bus tables
  • Help with cleaning tasks
  • Grab drink refills for a table whose server is busy
  • Bring out food when you can
  • Take drink orders

While you should always take care of your own tasks first, the more helpful you are, the more obvious it to your employers that you’re the ideal choice for future management or server positions. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll get the promotion you’re hoping for, but it’s certainly a great way to start pushing your foot in the door.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

If you’re hoping for a promotion, you need to show it! No, every day at work isn’t going to be your best and brightest. You’re going to have rough days: days when you were in a bad mood coming into work or when your entire shift seems to be going wrong.

How you handle those days, however, will dictate your employers’ willingness to move you into a better position. If you can handle your bad days while still being friendly and helpful to customers and going out of your way to help your co-workers, your managers are going to see it.

Every day at work is a fresh opportunity to dive in and show your stuff.

Every day at work is a fresh opportunity to dive in and show your stuff. Seat each server equally and as fairly as possible. Smile and help all of your coworkers, even the ones that you don’t necessarily like. Be kind and compassionate to customers who have problems, even when you’re struggling to understand their problem or you’re frustrated because of the way they’re treating you.

Speak up

Your managers are not mind readers. They can’t know that you’re hoping for a promotion until you let them know. You don’t want to be a nag or bring it up so frequently that you annoy them, but you do want to let them know that you’re very interested in taking your employment with the company to the next level.

Your managers are not mind readers. They can’t know that you’re hoping for a promotion until you let them know.

Not only will this make the higher-ups aware of your aspirations but it can also lead to them giving you advice on how to make it happen, which is by far your best chance of getting that promotion!

Working as a host in a restaurant is a great starting place for a future career. With time, you can work your way up through the ranks, enhance your skills, and ultimately have that restaurant manager position you’re dreaming of. It all starts, however, with the energy and effort that you put into your job every day.

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