Operations & service
The Kitchen Brigade System: How Escoffier's Hierarchy Evolved
Escoffier's brigade gave every cook one job and one boss. Here is where it came from, what each role does, and how modern kitchens have bent it to fit.
Posts about operations
26 posts.
Starting a restaurant
The Restaurant Pre-Opening Checklist: 90 Days, Week by Week
Your opening date is set by the slowest approval, not by the length of your to-do list. Here is a 90-day, week-by-week checklist built backwards from the tasks that cannot be rushed.
Hotels & lodging
Designing the Hotel Guest Journey: From Booking to Farewell
Guest journey maps usually list stages. A better one lists promises: what you said, who keeps it, and how you would know it broke. Here is the framework.
Hotels & lodging
Should Your Hotel Run Its Own Restaurant?
Hotel restaurants are usually judged on their own profit, and misjudged. Decide by the job the restaurant does for the rooms, then pick the model that fits.
New formats
The Café-Bar Hybrid: One Space, Three Day-Parts
A café bar concept sells coffee in the morning and drinks at night from one lease. The money is made or lost in the changeover, not in the menu.
Operations & service
Restaurant Operations Manual: What to Document and How to Keep It Alive
Most operations manuals are written once and ignored. Sort yours by how fast each page goes out of date, give every page an owner, and it becomes a tool people actually open.
Operations & service
Commercial Kitchen Layout: Principles for Flow, Safety and Speed
A kitchen plan works best as a map of paths rather than a drawing of equipment. Trace four of them, count where they cross, and find your layout problems before you build.
Operations & service
Hotel Standard Operating Procedures: A Simple System That Scales
Hotel SOP libraries tend to grow until nobody reads them. Sort every procedure into three tiers by what a failure costs, and keep the system small enough to be used on a busy morning.
Operations & service
Table Turn Time: Seat More Guests Without Rushing Anyone
Faster tables do not need faster guests. Split every visit into guest time and house time, then shorten only the house time: the waits for menus, food, the bill and the reset.
Operations & service
The Pass: How Great Kitchens Communicate Under Pressure
Kitchens say 'heard' and think the loop is closed. It is only half closed. Here is how the pass works, and what to borrow from hospitals to fix it.
Operations & service
Service Recovery: A 5-Step Framework for Turning Complaints into Loyalty
A well-handled complaint is the most dependable route to a guest who returns. A five-step routine for restaurants and hotels, with a candid look at what the research does and does not prove.
Operations & service
How to Run a Pre-Shift Meeting Staff Actually Remember
Pre-shift meetings often turn into announcements that evaporate by the first table. A shorter, changes-only format with a quick check for understanding sticks better.
Operations & service
Sustainable Restaurant Operations: Energy, Water and Waste
Start with the bin, then the tap, then the meter. A practical order of work for a sustainable restaurant, with the published evidence on what pays back.
Menu, food & drink
Bar Profit: Pour Costs, Par Levels and a Beverage Program That Pays
A bar's profit margin is set by three numbers: pour cost, par levels and variance. Here are the formulas, a worked example and a weekly routine that finds the leaks.
Menu, food & drink
Seasonal Menus: A Calm System for Changing Dishes Without Chaos
Seasonal menus fail when everything changes at once. A slot-based system lets ingredients rotate while stations, prep and costs stay steady.
People & careers
Building a Hospitality Culture Without Burning Out Your Team
A strong hospitality culture is the set of habits your team keeps when the dining room is full. Here is how to build one that does not run on exhaustion.
Technology & AI
AI in Hospitality: 15 Practical Uses for Restaurants and Hotels
Fifteen practical uses of AI for restaurants and hotels, sorted by who sees the output and whether a person checks it, plus a way to run a first pilot.
Technology & AI
How to Choose a Restaurant POS System: A Buyer's Checklist
Buyers tend to compare features. A better test is your worst Friday night and your exit plan. A practical checklist for choosing a restaurant POS system with fewer regrets.
Technology & AI
PMS, CRS and Channel Manager: How Hotel Software Connects
A hotel property management system, a CRS and a channel manager each hold part of the truth. How they connect, where they disagree, and how to avoid a double booking.
Technology & AI
Restaurant Inventory Software: What to Automate and What to Count by Hand
Software can do the sums, reorder lists and invoice entry. Only a hand count tells you what is really on the shelf. How to split the work and what to count weekly.
Technology & AI
QR Menus, Kiosks and Robots: Where Technology Helps and Where It Hurts
Restaurant technology works when it takes over a transaction and fails when it replaces being noticed. A simple test for QR menus, kiosks and service robots.
Technology & AI
7 Numbers a Restaurant Owner Should Know Every Week
Seven restaurant KPIs to check each week, from prime cost to RevPASH, with what each one tells you and the trap that comes with it.
Technology & AI
Cybersecurity for Small Hospitality Businesses: A Plain-Language Guide
Small venues are exposed through inboxes, shared logins and unpatched till software. Six habits and a one-page plan make the common routes in harder to use.
Technology & AI
The Tech Stack of a Modern Independent Hotel
Build a hotel tech stack around who owns each piece of data, not around feature lists. Start with a core of four systems and add layers only when the core is stable.
Property, design & sourcing
Buying Direct: Working With Farms, Fishers and Producers
Direct sourcing for a restaurant fails on logistics more than on price. Here is how to build a buying routine that suits both the kitchen and the producer.
Property, design & sourcing
Hospitality Consultants: When to Hire One and How to Choose
A consultant is worth hiring when you have a specific decision to make and no one inside the business who can make it well. Here is how to tell, and how to choose.