INSIDE FIVE UNIQUE RESTAURANTS
If you’re in the restaurant
business and want to thrive, or you’re thinking of starting a restaurant, read
the stories below, and then visit if you can. We wrote in a previous article
titled “Selling Products and Services: Where the Money is” about the need to
establish new businesses where the most likely customers are located. We also
mentioned the need to be unique. When you walk into successful restaurants, the
look is comfortable and connotes a home-away-from-home feeling. You just know
that it’s going to be good. Five examples selected for their quality of food
and service, fair pricing and uniqueness follow.
CALIFORNIA CUISINE
Alice Waters, executive
chef-owner of Chez Panisse, is generally credited with inventing California Cuisine
in the 1970’s. This style, also advanced by Wolfgang Puck, features simply
prepared, local origin, vegetable-and-fruit heavy organic food with a beautiful
presentation. So on one night of our San Francisco trip we traversed the
Oakland Bay Bridge, toured the attractive University of California, Berkeley
campus and headed downtown to Chez Panisse.
The restaurant is located in an arts-and–crafts building,
and the warm-wooded interior is cozy and radiated specialness. You walk past
the long, open kitchen and sense from glimpsing the chefs and their food
preparation that everything is immaculate and quality-first.
The meal is the payoff, and every expectation was fulfilled
as we gobbled a succulent lamb dish and a seafood and vegetable stew. The
courses were perfectly timed, and the waiter was California relaxed and
efficient. It was a unique evening that anyone interested in fine, but
unpretentious, dining should experience.
Note: We were saddened to learn that shortly after our
visit Chez Panisse had a bad fire. But now it has been rebuilt in much the same
style. Viva Alice Waters!
FOUND IS A FIND
A recently opened restaurant
in Evanston, Illinois, the home of Northwestern University is a smashing
success. The hands-on owner, Amy Morton, an experienced restauranteur in her
own right, is the daughter of Arnie Morton, founder of Morton’s Steakhouses.
Several other of Morton’s children are entrepreneurs.
Found’s front room evokes a relaxed living or family room
with an assortment of table types and sizes, some wraparound chairs for two and
an overall design that pulls you in and makes you want to sit down and get into
it the drinking and eating. We’d never before seen a restaurant with that kind
of relaxed, soothing charm.
We found (that pleasant word again) that the best place to
sit is at the cushioned benches lining the circular open kitchen. The chefs are
friendly and some like to chat about the dishes they are preparing. I think
it’s a fair generalization that fine restaurants have several specialty dishes
you can rely on for appearance and taste. Found has two we eagerly look forward
to devouring like pilgrims ending a fast.
The first is lamb meatballs bathed in a warm, succulent
yogurt and chimichurri sauce and served in a metal pot right out of the open,
wood-burning oven. If you like meatballs, and are ever in Evanston, don’t miss
this delightful melody of flavors.
Another
favorite is the creamy polenta dished up with the yolk of a poached egg riding
on top waiting to be forked open allowing the polenta to be drizzled and bathed
in golden goodness. Like the décor, this is homelike food that guarantees
pleasant dreams. The menu promises more treats for the taste buds, and we
always leave Found feeling happy and contented.
BRILLIANT DINING IN THE BIG EASY
Smart practices in any
business are no mystery. Just do all you can to make the experience delightful.
During a business trip to New Orleans, and on a friend’s recommendation, we
visited the now-closed Le Ruth’s five-star restaurant in Gretna. The beautiful,
decorated with artwork, room embraced us. All of the food was delectable and
two signature dishes, shrimp remoulade and crabmeat St. Francis, were
memorable. The prompt and courteous service plus amenities, like footstools for
female guests, contributed to the uniqueness.
On the
way out, we asked to speak to the chef-owner who had taken took over from his
father the legendary Warren Leruth. Amidst a churning Saturday evening crowd,
Larry Leruth talked to us for about 10 minutes, gave us a stunning poster as a
remembrance, told some fascinating New Orleans restaurant anecdotes and asked
us to be sure to come back. We never had the chance, but did steer many friends
and business associates in Le Ruth’s direction. How does the service quality, in
your own business life, measure up to Le Ruth’s?
CELEBRITY FARE
When in town, Bar Americain is the first New York City restaurant we go back to. You walk in, and
everything fits and the design is just the right side of hip. (I think it was
Steve Allen who said, “People who call hip hep ain’t.” Now “hip” is out, and
“cool” is considered uncool. What do hipsters do when they can’t be cool?)
The
bar is backlit like a drunkard’s dream. Good wine list. The table lighting is
subtle and soothing. And the food—let me tell you about the food. The shellfish
cocktail tasting: Wow! Then came the grilled pizza with double-smoked bacon,
caramelized onions and toasted garlic followed by deviled eggs with pickled
shrimp remoulade. By this time all table talk was halted, and only groans of
pleasure were heard.
I forget what we ordered after that. It was all, including
coffee and dessert, inventive and toothsome, came out on time and was served
expertly. If you go, ask for celebrity-chef-owner Bobby Flay.
“When you leave New York,
you’re out of town.” –Tony Bennett
THE SEA AROUND US
After several days of
feasting, sightseeing and all-around fun in greater San Francisco (including Chez
Panisse in Berkeley), we decided to make the famed Cliff House our dining
destination before flying out the next day. Despite the glowing reviews from
friends, we were wary that the restaurant might be a bit touristy, but it
wasn’t.
As
their web site reports, the Cliff house is perched on a 100-foot-high cliff
above the mighty Pacific. We’ve been in some spectacular rooms, and Sutro’s the
lower-level restaurant has floor-to-ceiling-windows, an almost-sea-level view
with the breakers right outside your window table and the spray dashing off the
glass.
The service was impeccable, the full-dining room subdued
and the food, rack of lamb and scallops for entrees, was sublime. All that and
the rocks and ruins and sun sinking below the horizon rendered an indelible
experience. If you’re a budding or accomplished restaurateur, you may not be
blessed with the natural beauty of the Cliff House, but a visit will be
valuable if only to observe and learn from a smart, successful restaurant, plus
it will be dining money well spent.
Business
Insights, Future Quality Intent, DiscussionTopics: All
five of these unique restaurants adopted a sustainable quality system. Amy
Morton of Found said that all new employees enter a five-day training program.
She also is known for being on-site most of the time, a sure sign of leadership
and a model of hard work.
Larry LeRuth worked right in the kitchen, and came out for
a chat wearing food stains on his apron. When asked the secret of LeRuth’s
success, Larry told of his father’s penchant for research and development.
Nothing was created on a whim. Every dish had a well-documented history tracing
the pursuit of perfection.
“All
the tedious research becomes worthwhile if you have one inspired moment.”
-Andre Gide
You’ve likely deduced that the five stories above are
metaphors for any kind of business. Filmmaking, video production and
restaurants, for example, are three businesses requiring a robust system.
Within each of these systems is a complex series of processes all of which must
function with speed, accuracy and sustainability. The processes within the
systems are interlocked, timed and difficult to manage. The watchword within
all of the operations is achieving quality that is stable and consistent.
KEEP
THE PLATES SPINNING Consider,
for example, some of the moving parts in a restaurant, including, marketing;
greeting at the door; attractive seating; waiter appearance; drink orders;
menus; bread; water; food ordering; more drinks; more water; food cooked to
order and served just when you are expecting it; plate clearing; fresh
silverware; coffee orders; dessert menus; dessert ordering and arrival;
after-dinner drinks; more coffee; more water. And these are just the obvious
tasks among many more.
Meanwhile, most of the action taking place out on the restaurant
floor must be synchronized with kitchen processes. What’s going on out back?
Probably more pieces of the puzzle than out front. A chef not showing up or
falling ill on the job; insufficient food already ordered and prepared for
cooking, including sauces and garnishes; anticipation that the nightly specials
will not sell as predicted; always ready to be hit with a big night; getting
out the courses on time; keeping peace between the prep chefs and the line
cooks; putting up with badgering waiters; smoke in the kitchen, spillage;
running out of clean dishes; and the variables go on ad infinitum.
I’ve worked in the video production business, and the mass
of elements that require tracking rival in complexity the restaurant system. So
what does a businessperson do, in any organization, to chart it all, train
staff, provide leadership and make it all work in a way that makes consumer and
B2B clients come back for more?
Knowing
that all systems tend to degrade over time, leaders must implement, refresh or
retrofit existing systems to establish stability and consistency. It can’t be
done through cheerleading, fear mongering, frequent staff turnover, posting
slogans, payments under the table, shouting, sacrificing quality for profits,
and making it up as you go along.
“You
manage what you measure.” –Louis Lowenstein, business law professor, Columbia
University
TOOLS
OF THE TRADE Reducing
system and process variation is attainable, if the proper tools are used. After
becoming prime minister in the early days of World War Two, Churchill said,
“Give me the tools and I will finish the job.”
Establishing
or fixing a restaurant system may not be as challenging as winning a war.
Nevertheless, the right tools are needed. A good first step is to write a
statistics-based operational definition of what the business is and how it will
work. Using that tool, everybody involved in restaurant development can move
ahead with commonly understood, measurable goals.
Next, flowchart the entire business with each step
delineated and in sequence—and bring the entire staff into this process and all
others. Inevitably, most staff members will have had prior restaurant
experience and can offer ideas for improvement. This operating method also
contributes to establishing maintainability and a culture of continuous quality
improvement.
Then
flowchart individual processes like salad prep, or executing the customer
greeting and comfortable seating along with blandishments and then equipping
the guests with menus, water and all the other initial accouterments of a
harmonious restaurant experience. Consistent quality of food, beverage and service
will not be achieved without finely drawn roadmaps for every turn.
HOW
HARD DO YOU WANT WORK?
Now you are ready to use control charts to establish upper and lower
levels of acceptable quality of products and services. Control charts will also
assist in reducing variation within individual processes. Too much work? Where
can you find all these charts? How do you use them? They are all online with
descriptions for use. Benefits: An opportunity to be world-class, and that only
comes from a relentless pursuit of quality. Also, focusing on the details helps
you to discover your true north and more accurately establish a value proposition
with its elusive blend of uniqueness, quality and price.
“The
harder I work, the luckier I get.
–Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
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