volume
I was just rereading CanIGetaWhatWhat's quotes from graduation weekend and it made me ponder fondly about volume. Twenty-eight tenderloins on the board? I am currently selling more steaks than ever, roughly 10% of my sales, and I might sell 28 a week max. Part of me misses that kind of volume and the ordering/staffing/menuing freedoms that come with it, but getting your ass kicked day in and day out takes a toll. I want to hear about your volume and what it means to you; whether it be 4:00 checklists, getting four prime vendor deliveries a week,a third dishwasher or whatever. This was also sparked by hearing that a certainly awesome local place does 1500-2000 covers a night. How do you prep for that? I can't even fathom the planning or what it takes to pull it off, especially at the level at which I'm sure they do. I guess this business is just starting to eat away at my brain faster than this damn olive juice.
5 comments:
volume means different things to me. when i'm working the broiler station, volume is measured in how many times i'm clear enough to go smoke. but the best guess for me is when we get the sales totals for the night. we're a place that 90% of the menu is 8 or 9 bucks, and we routinely do $2000+ on a good friday or saturday. 2500 if it's really good. we also get two deliveries a day from the same vendor, which to me means we turn all of our product over quick. i can't imagine doing 1500+ covers a night, unless the kitchen is monstrous and there's twelve cooks all working very specific stations. we roll with three, or three and an expo on busy nights.
I like that the cover number is +/- 500. They do 1500 for brunch on Saturday and Sunday too. Imagine the amount of Hollaputmeinadaze sauce they have to make. They have 17-18 people on the line, plus six helpers. I can't imagine what that is like. They must have 6 dishwashers. I remember busy nights being 400-450 and hitting the $15000 mark. That basically meant that we were out of food and we would need to prep everything the following day. I think my days of volume are over, quality suffers at some point. A dish will inevitably slip out the doors lacking proper garnish or slightly overcooked.
The reality of it is that any of us can make 1500 covers happen. All it means is a longer list and more yahoos to hire, train, fire, and rehire.
The laws of scale insist that when production is increased the quality will decrease. Does that mean a mere 100 person dinner service will have the absolute best quality plate of food every single time? I wish.
It is about discipline. Our dinner covers range from 30- 200+ depending on the season. If I expo a successful 200 dinner service and all the food goes out looking great does that mean the 30 dinner service will go well if I am not there? No. Line cooks get lazy. It requires constant attention. So if that 200 were actually 1500 would it be more difficult? It would require more personnel, more food, more equipment, and more lists. Once you get used to it, then it shouldn't be more difficult.
What is volume anyway? For me it means switching to Coors Light in the 16 oz cans instead of the 12 oz.
as a chef i always hated volume as well as resort town cooking. now that owning a place has just happened, the greedy asshole in me can understand the appeal. i have no desire to work grill on a 2000 cover night but i sure as shit wouldnt mind counting the money the next day. the issue of decreasing quality is a kick in the balls though. that would be hard to get over but that mcdonalds clown sure seems to be a happy mother fucker...
Interesting Conversation Ya'll...
I agree that higher volume will inevitably sacrifice quality. It has to. More hands means more handling, more handling of product increases the chance of mis-handling. It’s a restaurant… This is not to say anything about making sure a larger crew is all on the same page as the chef.
For a short period of time before opening my own restaurant I worked the meat station at a hotel here in town. My first weekend was Valentines. We did 365 covers. It was stupid. Pre seared meats and fish, cream stabilized Buerre blanc, absolutely no real cooking. I used to call the meat station the re-heat station…
I think the better way to look at the volume conversation is to look at the number of turns ratio. This will tell you more about the efficiency of the operation. 40 covers to a 40 seat restaurant is the same as 100 covers to a 100 seat restaurant; 1 turn. Assume that percentages of controlled operating costs are the same (Food Cost and Labor). The difference is that the 100 seat restaurant pays for the square footage even on the nights they only do 40 covers. They also have greater inventory investments and staffing concerns (after all, you can’t count on being slow, that is a bad mentality. You have to staff to do 100 just in case you do. Otherwise it could get busy and you get caught with your pants down… that always sucks). Plus, when it is getting busy, and you are under staffed, it is painful to say "I hope it doesn't get busier than this"...
In the end I say smaller is better. Not having enough seats is the BEST problem in the restaurant business.
As for the Mc D's clown... some concepts are built on volume... if the quality is consistent at whatever level the food is; I say GET THAT MONEY!
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