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…

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…

By now you know that frozen foods are one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your restaurant’s menu and profitability. Whether you’re building standout dishes around heat ‘n serve entrees or creating delicious sides from frozen fruits and vegetables, ready-to-cook products offer a convenient, cost-effective alternative to cooking from scratch. What’s more, advancements in packaging help prevent wasted food, allowing you to serve great dishes to more diners at less cost to you – something every restaurant operator can appreciate.

Once you’ve decided to incorporate frozen foods into your restaurant’s operations, it’s time to find a provider. But with so many options, how do you choose the right frozen foods manufacturer for your restaurant?

Here are a few helpful hints:

1) Talk to your distributor. Take advantage of your sales representative’s regular visits and familiarity with your restaurant. He or she knows your account and can arrange a cutting among several manufacturers and brands to find the best fit for you.…

Keeping your restaurant running smoothly can be challenging in today’s market. You want to cut costs and save time in the kitchen without sacrificing great-tasting, nutritious food. Luckily, you can improve your menu and your bottom line while reducing preparation time and labor expenses, simply by incorporating heat ‘n serve frozen foods into your kitchen.

Here are five ways frozen foods can help your restaurant:

1) Quick and Easy Customization — Frozen foods help make creating signature dishes quicker and easier. They serve as an excellent base for your custom creations. Just add sauce, seasonings or sides, and you’ve got delicious dishes in less time — and at less cost — than traditional cooking from scratch.

2) Great Nutritional Value — A common misconception holds that frozen fruits and vegetables lack the nutritional value of their fresh counterparts. Not true! The modern process of flash-freezing fruits and vegetables takes place within 24 hours of harvest, capturing them at their…

In this sluggish economy, it’s no secret that quick-service restaurants are doing all they can to attract cost-conscious diners. (For proof, look no further than the double-cheeseburger pricing limbo between McDonald’s, Burger King and Carl’s Jr. To the victor go the double-beef-and-cheese spoils!)

But what can restaurants do to target those diners looking for great-tasting food and a sit-down dining experience at quick-service prices? Fast-casual restaurants are helping to bridge the divide between the two.

QSR magazine points out that these “hybrids of quick-service and casual dining … provide counter service and offer more customized and freshly prepared dishes than traditional quick-serves, all in a upscaled, inviting atmosphere.” Popular chains like SmashBurger, Mission Burrito and Pei Wei Asian Diner all feature the front-counter service, open kitchens and tailor-made cuisine that define the fast-casual restaurant.  What’s more, with average check orders hovering around $10 per diner, a fast-casual dining experience doesn’t cost much more than a fast-food order…