The contest...
Don left menus on the table and opened with a contest.
Members where asked to name the top selling entrees on the
menu. There was no winner but some where close.
A little history on himself...
Do you remember what grammar school he went to?
Its good for 10 meals! Guess nobody paid attention.
Don was born in 1942 Queens-Long Island, New York. His
dad was in the service which took them to Syracuse.
He went to grammar and high school in Connecticut. In
19966 he went into the Marine Corp.
In 1971 he opened his first restaurant. Candy worked
for him. They married in 1973. Lauren was born
in 1975 and Darren in 1977. They have 4 grandchildren.
The menu...
A lot of things go into how we plan the menu, what is
added. The most important thing is the setup and
equipment you have. You must be able to produce mass
quantities in a timely manner. We also highlighting a
new menu items.
Technology changes. We now use infrared equipment.
And everything is computerized. We used to write
everything out by hand. You got good at tallying
numbers in your head. Now the computer does it for
you. But whenever I get near it, it does something
strange. With a press of a few buttons we immediately
see what sells the best. We can see the movers. That's
how we do inventory and prep. We get deliveries daily
and move it pretty good. We don't waste that much.
It would be easier to go ala cart on the salads and we could
make more money but the salad bar is what we are known for.
How do you price it? There are all kinds of theories.
We look at what other people are doing. We are all
running scared. Food costs up. We need to raise
prices to cover it but then people don't come in because
their money is tight too. When we raise the menu we
try not to do it across the board...Just a few items at a
time.
Employees...
How do you trust employees when you are not there?
It's a problem. You don't know how big a problem it
is. You're dealing with people. It gets busy.
Gates don't get locked, etc. Its all computerized so
you can check on things that way. But we don't do it
as consistently as we should. E-Verify has been
another frustration. We are losing good workers.
Our cooks will take months off at a time. Kids
graduate school and leave. We lost good strong servers
in just the last few weeks.
Advertising...
We are in a lousy part of town so we need to bring
people in. What is hurting us is the building of malls
further out. We'll do the newspaper on the East side.
We used to be the only restaurant of our kind in the area
but competition has increased. Gas prices are going
up, people are on fixed incomes, they don't want to drive?
I am tired of direct mail discounting but you are darned if
you do, darned if you don't. We have 14000 names on
our mailing list. The average age is 55+. We
have four that are 100 years-old. They don't eat much.
They go to the salad bar and get a pea or something.
Our tablecloths shock the younger crowd.
Red hat ladies...
Their sole purpose is to have lunch and enjoy life. I
have to watch out. We get 30 or 40 of them at a whack!
But once you feed them they're OK.
The future...
We've talked about selling. My son would like to
stay but he sees the same problems I do. Change is
expensive. We'll probably end up selling at some
point. But then what would I do? I had an offer
just 3 weeks ago and I turned it down. They had money,
but not enough.
