by: Jeffrey Stern
There is an old saying of “how do you eat an elephant?” in business when referring to a large project or goal. The answer is in small bites or slowly and carefully. A food and beverage operation in a medium-to-large casino can be an elephant. These operations have many moving parts, many employees and many different venues. Casino operators want restaurants that attract guests, keep them longer (time on device) and create an exciting atmosphere similar to the entertainment district of a city. The dining venues – restaurants, bars and clubs – should be diverse with distinct and separate personalities from one another.
The executives of the food and beverage department (director, VP, executive chef) must work with the casino leadership team to determine what types of venues will work in the casino’s market and what their gaming guests want. A Philly Cheese Steaks restaurant may not play well in Sheboygan, WI.
Senior F&B leadership can create these unique venues by building the right team to operate them semi autonomously while staying within the constructs of the F&B department’s vision, mission and values. The senior F&B leadership should act as the owners or landlords of the “entertainment district” to insure the levels of service and profitability are met so that the individual outlets can pay the theoretical rent (service, quality, fiscal responsibility) of a well-run operation.
Create a Restaurant Manager/Chef Team and Create Ownership
Step one is finding members of the front and back of the house who work well together. Make sure that these individuals are self‑motivated, want to succeed, and are good benevolent leaders. Once this team is established, allow them to choose their teams: supervisors, sous chefs, cooks, and servers. Once you have built a dynamic team of motivated individuals that have a sense of ownership, they will drive that F&B outlet to achieve great things.
Step two is giving authority to the restaurant manager/chef “owners” to infuse their unique personalities into their venues. The guests want dining options that look, feel, smell and taste different from one another. Allowing the manager/chef’s personality to come through will provide the overall dining experience that will feel different from one venue to the next.
Understand the Venue Product
Whether it is an existing buffet, coffee shop, themed restaurant or a group of quick serve restaurants already operating in the casino, or a new development, the director/VP/exec chef leadership should work with the selected manager/chef team. The manager/chef team understands what is working and not working because the leadership of the restaurant has “boots on the ground” and understands the unique challenges of the operation. Many times menus are created outside the manager/chef team’s knowledge or participation and they find themselves struggling to figure it out. The same is true for the style of service. It is of utmost importance that each restaurant manager/chef team has input when designing the F&B menu and service product.
Finance Department Involvement
Make sure the finance department can separate the financials for each venue. Each F&B venue must have a separate profit and loss statement. Revenue would come from the point of sale system assigned to that outlet. Purchasing and receiving software can code the cost of goods to the outlet. Employees should be coded to that individual outlet for labor costs. The finance department should create separate mini P&Ls for the individual outlets. P&L meetings should be conducted with the outlet leadership team at the end of the month once finance distributes the reports. The outlet teams will learn fiscal responsibility and understand how to run a business. Provide the outlet team with P&L worksheets that they fill out in advance of the meetings. Financial meetings should be held separately with each outlet so that the outlet managers can focus on their P&Ls only. The meeting should include senior leadership and the “owners” of the outlet.
Create Business Units
Each outlet is now a “business unit” and the leadership of the business unit is operating somewhat autonomously within the casino. Business units include buffets, full service restaurants, quick serve outlets, bars, clubs, and banquet and catering. Business unit meetings can be held monthly so that the outlet team meets with senior leadership of F&B to discuss the status of new initiatives, areas in which the casino can help the outlet, team member concerns, and what is working and what is not working. Senior leadership’s role in this is to help the “owners” of the outlet get the support that is needed from other departments.
Micromanagement may be necessary when initiating this process but once established, release the strings so that trust and innovation can build within the “owners.”
What Gets Measured Gets Managed
You can’t manage what you don’t measure is an old management adage that still applies today. Measuring a restaurant’s performance is most commonly done via guest feedback, mystery shoppers, and fiscal responsibility. This process can also be referred to as key performance indicators.
One of the more consistent ways to measure the food, beverage, and service product is the deployment of mystery shoppers. Typically, the casino writes the detailed steps for the mystery shopping service for what the casino wants to see from the guest experience on a consistent basis, for example, how the guest was greeted, timing, sequence of service, upselling, and the more objective “hospitality feel.” Each venue should have its own “mystery shopping” rules that are created by the “owners” of the outlet. Similar restaurants can have very similar rules for the mystery shoppers, but the rules would be very different from the buffet to the sports bar.
Another key performance indicator is the fiscal health of the individual outlets. Numbers do not lie and it is very important that the “owners” meet or exceed the budget or can demonstrate that they are accountable when the budget is not met.
Competition is Good
Once concepts have been established, teams of owners have been formed, finance has separated the P&Ls, business units have been formed, and the outlets are being measured, the fun begins. Share with the individual business units what the other outlets are doing, i.e., who is getting the best mystery shopper reports, who devised a fun and sustainable training program for the service staff, who meets or exceeds budget, who has the best guest check average and who has the best cost of goods. The list can grow accordingly. The “owners” will reach out to whoever is winning a category and ask what “best practice” they are deploying and the winning outlet will most likely share from a sense of pride. The owners will lift each other up in a dynamic competitive working environment.
Most casino F&B operations run with individual business units, but surprisingly many do not. No one person can be successful running all of the outlets in a medium to large casino operation. Dividing the operation into smaller more manageable units and putting the right people in charge and allowing their individual experiences and personalities will help create a properly managed, exciting work environment with a diverse selection of restaurants in the casino. That is how you eat an elephant.