Avoiding the Lost Revenue From No-Shows – Some Reservations on Reservations.

It probably goes without saying that most restaurants choose to offer reservations. Although there are certain downsides to offering pre-arranged times and tables, in the long run, many restaurateurs feel that the gains outweigh the disadvantages. A well managed reservation schedule, especially on busier nights, helps move customers from peak to off-peak periods so as to better match the flow of customers with that restaurant’s staff and capacity. This means that your team has enough time and space to offer the best service to every patron: only one of reservations’ multiple benefits. 

Sadly, many diners take advantage of this practice to guarantee tables at several different restaurants, ultimately abandoning all but one depending on their mood, while some just plain abuse the system by failing to show for no reason at all. No-show rates can be as high as 10 to 20 percent for typical evenings. Two commonly applied solutions for no-shows in the past have been to overbook and/or to call each diner to confirm. Unfortunately, both of these still offer negative consequences. Overbooking risks a foyer full of annoyed guests waiting for their tables while confirmations require manpower yet can carry similar fail rates.

As I’ve written previously, I really believe that the restaurant industry should take more cues from the other hospitality fields. Hotels, airlines, doctors…all of these have penalties for the no-show. Assuming that the charge is not astronomical, most diners find it very acceptable for a smaller scale business to charge a no-show fee. Although, don’t make your charge too negligible as restaurants in San Francisco found that patrons ignored everything until they raised the fee to 100$. Several years ago, as the direct result of negotiations with the hospitality industry, American Express began to accept dining credit charges without signatures, precisely to support this type of fee. A year after the strategy was implemented; restaurants actually reported a significant decrease in no-call no-shows! To this day, AmEx cardholders are subject to this policy.

Obviously, as a concerned proprietor, you’ll still want to be sensitive to extreme circumstances, most likely waiving the fee if a guest calls to inform you of their absence and especially if you end up filling the table. Check out the National Restaurant Association’s great series on how to handle the situation once you’re actually faced with a no-show.

Of course, you could also choose to completely chuck the old ways, and invent something new! Like Grant Achtaz’s stadium-style ticket seating or Bram Cohen’s variation on dutch auctions.

The Where and Why of Purchasing Ethical Meat - Conscientious Omnivorism as the New Black.

In view of the current Gulf Coast situation (which, by the way, still seems to have no solid solution) it seems like a good time to discuss some sources of protein other than fish.

Once upon a time, not eating meat was the easiest and most obvious way to make a moral food choice: Factory farms are among the most pollutant and inhumane of animal producers. However, as professionals, we can’t possibly eliminate such a profitable, and delicious, item from the menu. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make ethical choices. Thanks to some conscientious and purposeful purveyors*, green sources for pork, beef, eggs and veal have become increasingly available. Proponents of these farmers argue convincingly that the methods employed do not have the same environmental interactions as industrial production. In addition, not only are these animals being raised humanely with a minimum of methane production, but they are also being raised in a more traditional manner (i.e. grazing on a free-range grassy pasture), resulting in a more complex and exceptionally tasty meat.

Admittedly, these steaks can take a cut out of your budget, but customers are also willing to pay more for moral menu items. San Francisco-based Context Marketing released a study a few months ago demonstrating that nearly 70 percent of U.S. food shoppers are willing to pay more for food that is produced to higher ethical standards. The study also asked respondents to identify which qualities and claims about moral foods were most likely to encourage their being purchased. Over half agreed that humanely raised meat with no supplemental hormones and no antibiotics were very important. In the past, abstaining may have been only way to be sure of making an appropriate dining choice but now even staunch vegetarians are choosing to eat meat in order to help promote ecologically sustainable and humanely-raised choices.

As some of the world’s largest consumers of meat and meat by-products, we food professionals have a strong hand in guiding available options. Support ranchers and farmers who are making wholesome decisions and we can make eating meat the easiest and most obvious way to make a moral choice. Long live the conscientious omnivore!

* Azaluna Brands, currently producing heirloom eggs and mother’s-milk-fed veal, originated as a project for students at Tuft’s University School of Veterinary Science and thanks to Dr. George Saperstein, professor and department chair, has blossomed into a fantastic resource for ethical animal husbandry. Here’s a great interview with the Doctor where he shares his thoughts on meat and morals.

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EDITED TO ADD:  Still no signs of improvement on the Gulf Coast. 

What The Gulf Oil Spill Means for the Foodservice Industry – Mushroom Clouds and Fish Soup.

A few weeks ago there was an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico that made the Exxon Valdez oil spill look like a few dark drops in a very large bucket. The BP deep-water oil rig explosion on April 20^th is being called America’s Chernobyl, not just because the extent of the consequent ecological damage is being estimated as the worst in human history, but also because the disaster has thoroughly exposed the corruption and rot at the core of the United States economy. On a smaller scale, the restaurant and food service industries are in for one heck of a bumpy ride

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Unfortunately, the worst part is that there is really no telling what the long-term effects of the spill will be. The seafood industry is already reeling, with a ten-day offshore fishing closure by federal officials, starting on May 2^nd. This covers Louisiana waters at the mouth of the Mississippi river to waters off Florida's Pensacola Bay. Chef John Besh, of Restaurant August and long-time Louisiana produce proponent, wrote in an article for The Atlantic, that he expects his supply of Gulf shrimp to be cut in half, that is, only if he’s lucky. Considering that, in 2009, Louisiana exported nearly 4.6 billion dollars worth of shrimp and oysters to Canada, there will probably be plenty of less lucky people.

Although Besh’s numbers may be a little on the pessimistic side, you should expect all seafood prices to skyrocket, no matter where they’re coming from.  Not necessarily because of a genuine lack of supply, but a perceived lack of supply will have prices jumping (P.E.I. oysters are already set to rise charges). Also, as Louisiana is a huge port, you can expect any produce that usually docks there to have to compensate for the added cost of docking elsewhere.

Additionally, be prepared to field questions regarding the safety of the shrimp, crab and oysters currently on your menu and in your house.  Remember, seafood that hit the market before the closure is perfectly safe to eat. Besides which, the waters west of the Mississippi River are still open and represent more than three-quarters of Louisiana seafood production. A great concern is the media misrepresenting the situation and convincing people to boycott seafood in general. Make sure you do your part to allay fears and maybe we can keep the nuclear fall-out from this Chernobyl under control.