Considering the stereotypes surrounding military food, it’s no wonder that most people rank it just above “jailhouse fare”. Luckily, things have changed since the days of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and Spam.

Today’s base commissaries are stocked with the same products that fill commercial grocery store aisles, as well as ready-to-cook frozen foods and prepared dishes. Most bases also feature a wide variety of restaurants, from quick service chains to fast casual concepts. With so many options available, it’s easy to forget how much time servicemen and women spend dining in traditional mess halls. Simply put, military foodservice workers provide a lot of food to a lot of people, every day. But how do they keep their operations organized?

For some military bases, outside food manufacturers are the answer. Many bases choose to outsource contracts to government-funded foodservice vendors with experience in the nontraditional sector. For instance, when the U.S. Marine Corps bid out its first…

For years fusion dishes were heralded as one of the trendiest fads in the foodservice industry. These days, they’ve become mainstays on many restaurant menus, and industry forecasts indicate they’re not going anywhere. Diners love the innovative blends of bold flavors and unexpected ingredients that fusion dishes offer, and restaurateurs love the profits that they bring in.

But now that it seems like every corner bistro has added a token Eurasian entree to its menu, how can restaurants like yours stand out — and spend less — with new spins on fusion-inspired cuisine?

It’s a matter of thinking smaller. Street food, for instance, is typically finger food you can buy from a streetside vendor, or from a food stand or portable truck. These traditionally ethnic fast foods are now as popular as ever, and many restaurants have started adapting the recipes for use on their own menus. You don’t need a roadside stand to incorporate street foods into your restaurant’s existing fusion…

Ask anyone who runs a family-friendly restaurant and (s)he’ll tell you: Keeping the littlest customers happy can be one of the biggest challenges – and bring the biggest rewards . Your best bet is providing enough kid-friendly entertainment to keep children happy and occupied the entire dining experience. Try a few of the time-tested tips below at your own restaurant to keep guests of all ages coming back for more:

Create a kids-only play area. Kids aren’t the only ones who get fussy while waiting for tables, but they can certainly be the noisiest. Create a dedicated play area for your younger customers to enjoy before they are seated. Don’t worry about building a McDonalds-style playpen; even a few slides or jungle gyms and a sand pit give kids a great outlet for all that energy and keep them entertained until it’s time to eat.

Table games and coloring books still work. Nothing kills the atmosphere in…

Our society is always on the go. Between work, school, family and friends—not to mention a little sleep here and there—it can be hard to find time to grab a bite at all, let alone sit down for a full restaurant meal. As a foodservice operator, you’ve probably seen the effects of our collective time crunch firsthand. Whether your restaurant features a curbside take-away lane or a take-out delivery service, you know that today’s customers appreciate the speed and convenience of grab-and-go dining.

One proponent of grab-and-go dishes, Sodexho Corporate Services’ Bill Mitchell, attributes the genre’s growing popularity to its speed and convenience, something every restaurant operator appreciates. So take advantage of the on-the-go trend and expand your restaurant’s grab-and-go menu selections using the helpful tips here:

It’s all about portability. Lunchtime favorites like salads (Sodexho’s 5-ounce “Salad Shots”) and sandwiches (the “pocket” sandwiches sold in Wolfgang Puck’s To Go kiosks) are easily converted to portable menu…

Part 2 of 2

So you’ve calculated your restaurant’s profits using the throughput formula. Now comes the second step to maximizing your foodservice sales: using these figures to improve your operation’s efficiency, boost your customer count and increase your total sales. The key is incorporating the throughput concept into all aspects of your operational processes.

From the Front Door to the Dining Room
Increase your restaurant’s throughput from the moment guests walk in the door by making the seating process as efficient as possible. On top of maintaining a well-trained staff of hosts and servers, it helps to add a second host at the front door to keep customer traffic running smoothly. Try an “on-deck system in which waiting parties are called just before their tables are ready. Letting your guests know their tables are being prepared keeps your waiting list in order and reduces the time you wait between calling and seating your customers.

Still, wait times are often unavoidable.…

Part 1 of 2

As a restaurant operator, you know it’s difficult to run a business in this market. But while the economy’s certainly gotten tougher over the last couple of years, the challenges facing restaurant owners are hardly unprecedented. Long before our friends on Wall Street started dusting off their resumes and updating their LinkedIn profiles, foodservice operators were working hard to keep their restaurants from joining the failed start-up club. At first glance, the odds seem to be stacked against you.

According to a recent study of Dallas-based start-ups, 23% of new restaurants shut down within the first year of business, 14% closed in the second and 7% failed in the third. As hospitality expert Richard Williams points out in a 2008 article, “Why Restaurants Fail”, these figures translate to a 61% failure rate for independent restaurants by the third year in business. (Franchise restaurants don’t fare much better, with a 57% failure rate by year…