We are 2.5 years into a bespoke pizzeria. We are in small town with low overhead on pace for another 15% increase in sales for year three. About 700k annually and roughly 20% profit.
This is a creative outlet for my brother and I as well as a business and our source of income.
We have an opportunity to open another concept at the end of next year in the spot next door to us. We rather do that simply out of the desire for another creative outlet however; we are likely not maximizing the pizzeria concept. We are open 5 days a week, dinner only. Open about 22 hrs a week.
It sort of feels like a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” situation. But I am wondering if instead of opening another concept, should we add lunch? Build up a catering service and do weddings and events(onsite pizza cooking)?
What are your thoughts?

I’m super curious how everyone is using AI in their business.

What tools have you created.

Which AI models do you prefer.

Just curious to start a conversation to learn how other restaurant operators are finding it useful.

Scheduling?
Email responding?
Food cost analysis?
Event coordination?
Marketing?

ADDING ON:

I’m a hands on operator that is always looking for ways to maximize my sales, my profit and my time.

I use data generated by my POS to find trends and optimize my menu, I used it to create a more professional on-boarding system from a bunch of fragmented paper hand outs. I’ve used it to create training material. I used it to improve the SEO of my website by having it analyze.

These are all things as an owner I do myself anyways and now I’ve made them better and saved time doing it. This isn’t taking jobs away from anyone, it’s making me better at mine!

This is the restaurateur reddit thread. If you’re not here to be helpful to restaurant owners, please kindly carry on.

We’re looking at replacing a group of two-tops where the surface is still usable but the edges have started chipping and separating. Moisture gets into the damaged spots, crumbs collect there and the tables start looking rough long before the bases need to be replaced.

I’m comparing solid wood, resin and commercial laminate tops. Solid wood is repairable, but it also means accepting more maintenance and variation. Resin seems practical for some spaces, although the finish choices can be limiting. Laminate is familiar, but I don’t want to repeat the same edge-band failure.

For anyone who has replaced dining-room tables recently, what held up under constant wiping, hot plates and chairs hitting the edges? Did a seamless or wrapped edge make a noticeable difference after a year or two?

I’d also like to know whether you used the same top inside and on a covered patio. I’m not assuming an indoor product can handle moisture and UV just because it is called commercial, so I’m checking the intended use on the exact model.

This is a rant leaning more towards a vent. I wanted to know if I should just stop bing sensitive and say, “it is what is” and let it go or say something to the person.

Have any other chefs had this experience:

This year I started a Farm to Table concept in my town, small city population of maybe 200,000. First 95% + locally sourced food service in town, and up until July of this year very few restaurants were sourcing from local farmers. I did my research and worked hard to establish a network and also give credit to the farmers and vendors on my social media pages. I even would work part time as a farm hand on one of the farms that I sourced from as a barter deal. I’m proud of the products coming out of my region and think that food service should source locally as much as possible instead of giving money to Sysco, or US foods. I hosted 100% farmer sourced 6 course wine dinners at the end of every month, did meet and greets for the farmers so they could be introduced and get to know people in a non transactional way.

Around July one of the established restaurant owners added me on socials. It’s one of three considered fine dining and has been open for 12+ years. I didn’t think much of it. (His shop is 5 blocks down the road from me. So it’s not like it’s a big city and happened to be a coincidence) Then a couple weeks later they were featuring all of the exact same farmers that I was using. Went through their social page(s) and this is new to this year. Occasionally they’d have a farmer feature but not building menus around local products. They were taking farm tours and posting as if they’re a farm to table restaurant, I asked the farmer I worked for if they purchased often and he said he didn’t hear from them much before this summer and hadn’t heard after the tour. Now they’re doing a 5 course farm to table dinner at the end of this month, for the same price and again using the exact same vendors including an obscure fishery that took some time to track down. I live in an agriculture dominated area so there are plenty of options, so to use the exact same list seems lazy

I’ve been a chef for 10+ years and I understand and even expect ideas to be lifted and I appreciate the free exchange of ideas and concepts. I think that’s the best way to innovate and create something new and better than before. This is a cut throat industry.
However pulling straight off someone’s concept without a shout out, a private message or head nod seems unprofessional, lame and just damn lazy. Part of my concept is to bring these farmers to the forefront and start a conversation about sustainable food systems, but I feel that the other chefs should do their own homework instead of ripping off someone’s paper.

Being a new, smaller restaurant having my concept and sources and even featured ingredients get jacked then outpaced by a larger more established business is so god damn frustrating.
Work hard all year to try to build something to just have, for lack of a better term, a colleague pass my research off as his own.

I manage a breakfast joint that is admittedly not doing well. We believe in large part due to the fact that it is counter service and not table service.
We will be transitioning to full service over the next few months.

My question is for now, how do we implement a wait list for when it does get busy? I’ve just personally never seen a waitlist for counter service but we really do need one.

The way it works is that you walk in and have to pass a full dining room to get to the counter. Once you order, you’re given a table number and can sit down anywhere. We bring out the food and drinks once it is ready. It’s so embarrassing when we are busy because there’s just a line out the door that’s completely on top of and next to patrons who are dining. Once in a while, a guest will get their table number just to realize there are no open spots so they just have to wait around and be in the way of an already full dining room. There’s been a couple times food has been ready and they are still standing waiting for a table to open up.

It’s horrible. I don’t know what the owner was thinking with this method but as I said earlier, we are going to try and transition out of this style of service because it’s obviously insane. (Actually I do know what she was thinking- more money at the cost of guest experience)

Anyways is there a possibility at all to implement reservations or a waitlist while still using counter service until we switch over to table service?

Renewal questionnaire landed this week and one question has been bugging me for three days. It wants our liquor sales as a percentage of total receipts, and the real answer has moved a lot since last year.

We're a bar restaurant in the Hudson Valley, one location, about 90 seats plus a patio in summer, 22 staff. When we opened it was maybe 35 percent alcohol. Then we added a late night menu and live music on Fridays and Saturdays, and now the bar is closer to 55 percent of what comes in. Kitchen closes at 11, bar goes to 2.

I've always had liquor liability bundled into our package and never gave it a thought. Now I'm reading about the New York dram shop law and realizing that if someone leaves here, drives, and hurts somebody, the injured person can come after us directly. That got my attention.

My guess is the whole thing gets priced off that percentage, which leaves me choosing between putting 55 down and eating whatever jump comes with it, or fudging it and setting myself up for a denied claim later. I know which one I should do, I'd just like to know how bad it gets. A friend who runs a place in Albany also says once you have a cover charge or a DJ some carriers start treating you like a nightclub, so now I'm wondering if the Friday bands count against us too.

While I was in the policy I found an assault and battery exclusion I'd never noticed. No idea if that's normal for a place like ours or if it's supposed to be its own coverage.

What are people in New York paying for liquor liability on a single location around this size? Did anybody switch carriers over the percentage thing?

I was wondering how 'digitized' some of you work? Like, do you receive you invoices digitally?

In some countries in Europe there is this new PEPPOL directive which demands an electronic exchange of eInvoices, purchase orders other business documents

I know we all don't have a lot of love for the third-party apps - neither do I. But, consumers are addicted to them and their perceived convenience (despite the added costs). Of all of them, ezCater is the only one I actually refuse to work with because they are so intensely and openly hostile to restaurants and drivers. Frankly, in my 10+ years in the industry, they solidly take the crown as the worst vendor I've ever worked with prior to leaving.

That said, I'm a bit intrigued that UE is stepping in. I do use UE and, for all its flaws, we do get some value out of it. Do you foresee improvements coming to ezCater from their takeover? Just being able to flex prices to consumers who couldn't care less what they're spending anyway (since they're on a delivery app to begin with), offer pickup/delivery prices, have "suggested tips" for drivers, a dispute process for fraudulent refunds, and actual menu management tools - you know, all things the rest of the industry has done for years - would bring some balance to the equation. At least ezCater was the only marketplace to spend time building out being able to label our social demographics on our profile though - I mean, real groundbreaking value to our industry right there.

ezCater is unique in how they've built enterprise solutions where some companies actually require their sales reps use them to order because of the built-in expense reporting and etc. Similarly, some major companies use them as a meal benefit for single meals for employees. In either case, that means if we're not on their platform, we don't get any of those orders. With what will hopefully be a less arrogant and more rationally informed approach to restaurant relations coming as UberEats takes over, do you see potential value coming? Or, are you still solidly against the apps all together regardless of if you lose the orders they've gotten exclusivity on?

Like the title says. I’m drowning in time card fixes every week and looking to move to some kind of clock-in clock out app for my cafe. What’s everyone here using and what do you like about it?

Check your bill. I got this junk fee removed (we don't have online ordering) but I noticed they slipped it back in again this month.

Hey all, quick question for anyone running a restaurant or food truck in the Houston area (or any location in general).

How are you finding reliable repair folks for your kitchen equipment? I'm talking fryers, walk-ins, ice machines, ranges, dish machines, that kind of thing. Every time something goes down I end up on Google calling random companies. Half don't pick up, and the other half can't come out for three days or charge a crazy trip fee just to show up.

A few things I'm curious about:

Anyone you've used locally and would actually recommend? Bonus points if they're good about emergency or after-hours calls. Do you go through the manufacturer's authorized service company, or do you have an independent guy you trust? Is a preventive maintenance contract worth it, or just pay as you go? Any red flags you've learned to watch out for?

Not in Houston? General tips are still welcome. I'd love to hear how you've handled this, because right now I feel like I'm just rolling the dice every time something breaks.

Thanks in advance 🙏

Did my taxes for my first year im a s corp owner and I paid over 50k in federal taxes. Seems so high. Any tips to lower this

Hey restauranteurs,

I'm trying to find HR software that actually fits a restaurant and could use some recommendations.

The reason I ask is because I don't think most of the normal HR tools really fit a restaurant. Feels like they assume doubles, earning different roles and spilitting tips at the end of the night. From my pov, the first thing worth having is payroll that sorts tips and different pay rates on its own, since that's the part that eats my whole weekend otherwise. From there it helps to have scheduling that lets people swap shifts from their phone and points me toward staffing up for the busy times instead of guessing.

And because restaurants are always hiring. onboarding that keeps new hire paperwork in one place saves me a lot of digging around later

On top of that I would some compliance alerts that flag missed breaks overtime before they turn into a real problem. And then basic reporting to tie it all together so I can actually see what I'm spending on labour against my sales, that's a lot to want from one tool though. Has anyone found something that actually fits these requirements?

As we’ve grown the spreadsheets I started with are becoming a real headache. Tracking schedules and hours across more staff takes way longer than it should, and things get missed more often than I’d like. I’m trying to find something better for scheduling and payroll instead of sorting everything out by hand every week. One of my friends mentioned Homebase, so that’s on my list to look at. But I wanna hear from other managers. What’s worked well for you?

Hi, like the title says, I found a second-gen space I really like. I don't plan to actually use it as a restaurant (don't kill me for being in the wrong subreddit please). What I want is my own kitchen with 24/7 access, and I'd only use the dining area for tastings. The equipment it already has is new and mostly works for my purposes. I figured I'd buy the few appliances I need or rent as needed, which I already do anyway. No key money, only 1 month's deposit and 5 months of rent in savings required. I know super lucky deal.

I am seeing estimates up to 300g for a 2nd gen build out, but I don't have any build out to do, no staff I need to train in the beginning and for now only part time staff who will come in to prep as needed. Already have a phone-based pos but most people pay me through payment links or my website.

To launch, I am only estimating permitting, utilities (including professional cleaners), pest treatment and a couple tables and chairs. Am I missing something so bad that I should stay in my commmissary until I am a little wiser?