Nice! One of the first to comment. Just wanted to say thank you for what you do and great job with providing info. My family owns 4 mom and pop restaurants. We call one a steakhouse, another a tavern, the original is just our main name which I'm not going to say, and the 4th is our original restaurant's name combined with my uncle's original restaurant name because that one we did together with my uncle. I'm almost 37, and I've been working in one of the restaurants my entire life. Heh, I remember washing dishes when I was just 9 years old! Because of my experience, a lot of what you say I already know, but at the same time, the way you word things combined with your perspective often expands my knowledge of what I already knew. I don't have to tell you what a difficult and trying experience it is to run a restaurant... So any help I can get is very much appreciated. So again, thank you and keep up the awesome work!
Great question. Food cost is your food purchases divided by your food sales so portioning doesn't really play a part in this PER SE. If you're over portioning, you'll be buying more food so your food cost will go up (or down if you're under portioning). It obviously also has a huge impact on your plate costs as well. -Dawn, Team TRB
Make coleslaw with whole milk yogurt. It is stable in a Fridge for several days. Massively cuts labor cost. Use a machine, shred up carrots, onions, cabbage. Then cut your menu to no more than ten things.......and make them amazing. Reduces spoilage. Most restaurants make a bunch of things, and none are very good. They have to stock tons of food for this variety and they pay big refrigeration and spoilage costs. Make it simple, and cheap, and figure out premade things that are better after a couple days in the fridge, like a good coleslaw