Changing Gears: From Full-Service To Fast Casual Service
QUESTION FROM: James in CN
“I'm down 3 cooks, all 8 bartenders and most of my service staff. I’m now considering bringing in a friend to help me who has always wanted to open on a restaurant because I can’t keep up like this. We're trying to figure out the best way to allocate our front of house.
We're contemplating doing a pseudo-full service model, e.g. doing orders and paying at the counter (pre-serve) but still serving and bussing for the customer.
What do you find your front of house spending the most time doing? e.g. taking orders, sitting guests, serving orders, fetching checks, picking up checks?
In your opinion would it be a huge cost saver to cut out taking table orders and bringing checks?
We live in CN where minimum wage for tipped employees is on the rise and I'm afraid if customers have to serve themselves anyway since they might not tip 15-20%, which would force us to pay the dreaded $15 min wage.
Have you experienced this before or made the transition from full service to partial full service?
Thanks”
HH ANSWER:
If you’re not fully staffed, the best first option, IMHO, is to limit the flow at the door as well as take-out orders (turn it off when in-house picks up)…but if limiting the flow doesn’t alleviate the pressure - consider changing the style of service. Keeping service style the same when you aren’t staffed appropriately to deliver that style of service usually results in a bad experience for the guest and a bad experience for your staff. Think about your “WHY”. If you can do that…thinking about “WHY” you’re in this business, usually makes it easier to adjust your “HOW”.
The most time consuming task for FOH is taking & ringing in orders and, if there isn’t a food runner or busser, running food and clearing plates/turning tables.
Running food at lunch (via expo and/or a food runner) for guests ordering at the register (with menu signage and menus strategically placed along the queue and online) , host stand or temporary counter set up with a POS - and then giving each guest an order number to place on their table is not only a great way to significantly reduce front of house labor, It’s also a great way to ensure faster QSR-style lunch service & expand your lunch market radius.
It’s been a very common practice, for years, for full-service restaurants to adopt this type of service at lunch and, in effect, function as a fast casual restaurant at lunch but still offer a full service experience at dinner… which, depending upon the concept and location, may or may not be appropriate.
Either way, I’d be sure to keep bussers on during all dayparts and either bring on an experienced partner or hire a GM - and not not just another warm body.
Although it’s tempting (and, at times, it may seem like there’s no other alternative) when you hire just anyone with a pulse or partner with anyone who is merely able to write a check out of desperation (AKA: “Panic Hire” or “Panic Partnering”) you open the door to a slew of additional problems that will make you miss the days when you only had the ones you have now.
Minimum wage is a big f’n pill every one of us is eventually going to have to swallow so… if you’re temporarily restructuring, build it into your cost now so that it’s not a hurdle later.
Good Luck & Keep in touch!
Would appreciate knowing how it goes,
Josh Sapienza | Managing Partner
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