Our first crazy bank holiday weekend! What lessons were learned?

Our first crazy bank holiday weekend!?

What lessons were learned?

A Restaurant Leader’s Guide to Continued Success

By Alex Munford

After working my way from the very bottom of the Food & Beverage industry to leading my own teams and sites, I have learned more knowledge and skills than I know what to do with! I have therefore decided to share all of these key experiences with others on the ascension, to offer insight from experience and hopefully guide some of you through the many different opportunities & challenges that come with running any successful restaurant.

So, the first bank holiday weekend in our new restaurant was a big one.

Scratch that - it was a huge one!!?

But… we survived!

Not only did we survive - we actually thrived.?

The team has only been together for about 6 weeks and they absolutely crushed it!

50% over forecast (perhaps a topic for another day), super NPS and hundreds of happy diners. Not bad at all.?

Certainly above and beyond what we all had expected?and we already felt optimistic!

Now, I’m not going to say teamwork makes the dream work because that makes me feel physically sick, but it’s been a dream of a team effort.?

The only downside to an otherwise pristine weekend is the stock took a hammering. But there are certainly worse problems to have than being a little light on lager.

Oh, and a lack of functioning glass washer for most of it meant a lot of handwashing taking place. Sweaty work…

But… after an evening of pretending to be the easter bunny, there comes time to reflect on all things good, bad and horrific.?

I wanted to share one of the thoughts I’ve been reflecting on over the weekend.

As a manager or leader in the business, I believe that we need to be generalists. By that I mean, we should have a solid understanding of all areas of the business but not necessarily a specialist subject.?

If we are required to jump on the service bar and whip up some cocktails we should be able to. Equally, if the kitchen is getting in the weeds we should be able to run the pass, or oversee the floor and organise the team.?

We should know the processes and operations inside and out but do we need to know every detail of every job role?

In my experience, learning every aspect can certainly help. But it’s not essential. It’s exactly why we hire chefs and bartenders, sales & res and servers. These guys need to know every detail of their role because they are specialists. It’s literally what they are brought in to do.

Your customers rely on them to know all menus inside out, every detail about every drink or dish should be logged securely in their brains on the off-chance that a customer asks a particular question.

They might not be cross trained to cover different job roles but they know their own responsibilities like the back of their hand.?

(Still think that’s a weird expression as I doubt I could identify my own hand in a lineup of jazz hands but that’s irrelevant…)

The point I’m making is that we hire people to specialise in these areas to free up our time to focus on overseeing and managing the business from a different vantage point. Your team and your customers rely on you for guidance, to oversee and make decisions, to take responsibility for all situations, big and small.?

Sometimes, a new manager might come through the ranks on the bar or the floor, which is obviously great, but in my opinion, unessential.

The main benefit from being a specialist and also a manager or leader is it’s a great way to gain respect from your team. Being able to help them out in any given situation will always build both trust and respect.

We’ve just got to decide whether the time is worth investing??

My 2 cents - always.

Ciao, x