r/restaurantowners

Hey everyone! I'm u/CompletelyMoronic, a founding moderator of r/yelpsucks.
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Fresh pasta and sauces will be vacuum sealed. Will the recipe flavors change drastically from in-house adding emulsifiers/additives? Any tips, success/failure stories?

Not sure if this is even allowed? Mods: please delete if it's breaking the rules.

So I'm a 50 year old who has 25 years of serving and bartending experience. It's a career for me. Found out,last night, that I'm losing my job due to the restaurant shutting down. Not due to lack of business but because the longtime owners couldn't find a buyer for the business because the 100 year old building isn't structurally sound. We're closing in two weeks.

It's the first time in 15+ years I actually have to drop off resumes and apply for jobs. I have a few questions...

Regarding resumes, what are you looking for these days? Are we still doing bullet points under each restaurant, explaining duties performed or is the name of the restaurant and the dates i worked there enough? What makes a resume jump out to you?

Also, I know most places have online applications/resume uploads these days. Is it now frowned upon to show up unannounced to talk to a hiring manager/owner? Obviously, I know not to come in during the busy periods. I'm used to pounding the pavement to get hired so the idea of doing it from a laptop at a coffee shop makes me feel like I could be missing out on opportunities. At the same time, I want to follow the current protocol.

Any other advice you can think of, feel free to drop it. Thanks!

Upscale breakfast/burger spot with full bar in a coastal Florida city here. Revamping the bar a bit, ditching all my well liquors and elevating the wine list. Debating on a glass polisher, but I've had no experience at all with one. Anyone use/have one and loves it? Or should I focus my money elsewhere?

Hi, I’m currently in the planning stages of a new concept and I’m not sure how to budget for charcoal/wood? How do I know how much charcoal/wood I’m going to use a day? Any input would be appreciated!

Do you think that regular customers (we're near a big university campus) mentally compare the list price or the +tip price?

Our nearby competitor cafés don't "force" a tip, but their checkout screen offers tip options at [ 15% - 18% - 20% ].

It ain't waste either.

I'm always way late to raise prices.

For example I made it through 2021 just eating the inflation so as to not impact my customers. I made 50% less that year than 2019 and nobody batted an eye when I finally raised prices. I also did not gain wild customer loyalty by maintaining my prices as long as I did. So I swore to not fall behind again.

Well maybe I already have fallen behind again? Has anyone else had to raise prices this summer?

I know that everyone is struggling more than ever, but 1.7% is a quarter of my total margin.

I'm planning on shutting down my small restaurant soon, we have a griddle, a deep fryer, coolers, etc. and have someone who may be interested in buying our equipment and furniture, but I want to make sure I'm getting a fair price.

Should I ask someone to come and assess the value of our FFE? In Google, I found a company called TagEx Brands, should I reach out to them and ask them to come in for an assessment? Has anyone worked with TagEx? Or should I just haggle with the person who's interested in buying?

Edit: The gist I'm getting is, I'm lucky if someone's even willing to buy it. Thanks guys!

Hi guys, I’ve been approached by a company to implement QR code ordering and I’m on the fence about it. They are relatively cheap and the ui looks nice from what I have seen and they are nice people.

It also has metrics on sales and makes keeping track of stuff a lot cleaner from what I saw on the demo with clear insights into stuff that isn’t performing well etc.

It also has native translation built in rather than machine translation so alleviates a lot of the issue with my staff dealing with tourists. My restaurant is in a very touristy area so this is quite a common issue I run into with my staff not being able to communicate/translate allergens and menu items overall.

I know how much certain customers despise qr codes but I’m not sure if it’s just an outspoken minority, they also have an nfc thing inbuilt but I assume it’s more the viewing experience itself which I personally don’t have too much of an issue with.

Do you guys think it’s worth taking the potential downside moreso of restaurant image as I have heard a lot of harsh opinions of people saying they walk out of restaurants when they see them etc. I plan to have both menus available but push tourists to use the qr one moreso as it helps both sides.
Please let me know what you guys think and if you have any suggestions on what I should do!

EDIT: For context I’m based in Japan so I get a lot of tourists who are mainly Chinese/korean and some English. The main issue is that they cannot read our menu at all and maybe 10% of them can semi understand our English menu. The addition of photos and allergens/dietary stuff on the digital menu along with the native translations seem really useful but I’m not sure if the backlash from having a qr code menu would hurt my restaurant more. Qr menus are a lot more common here in Japan so they don’t hold the same stigma.

Hey folks. I own a small market with a takeout lunch counter. We use Cintas for:

FOH floor cleaner

BOH floor cleaner

mop heads

Sink detergent

Sink sanitizer

Rags

Every time I do the math to consider replacing this, the cost is so close that adding the trouble of getting them myself and the loss of convenience of having the cleaning chemicals dispense right where they are needed makes me not pull the trigger.

Have you gotten rid of services like this? What worked and what didn't?

We all know food and labor costs are squeezing margins right now. I’ve started picking up a few specific prep/cleaning/FOH items at Dollar Tree that end up being way cheaper than Sysco/Webstaurant Store for the exact same quality. Curious if anyone else has found great hacks or hidden gems at the dollar store that save real money without sacrificing guest experience

I'm interested in hearing this specifically from operators.

When you're paying for recurring pest control, what matters most beyond simply not seeing pests?

Faster response when something happens? Better communication with management? More detailed reports? Staff education? Identifying sanitation or maintenance conditions before they become problems?

I work on the pest management side and restaurant accounts are some of the most interesting because pest control overlaps so heavily with sanitation, drains, deliveries, maintenance and building conditions. Curious what restaurant owners actually value most from their provider.

As an owner or manager, where/how have you had the most success in hiring employees?
Traditionally, I’ve hired from acquaintances of people already working with me. However, there doesn’t seem to be anybody available with that method right now. I’ve tried Craigslist but I only found really unreliable people.
Is online the way to go? Which websites?
Advertise on social media?
Thank you everyone for helping

Hey everyone,

Between supplier price swings and constant invoice tweaks, keeping an eye on actual unit costs across our weekly deliveries is starting to feel like a full-time job on its own.

Just curious how you all are managing invoice processing and COGS tracking day-to-day without sinking hours into it?

Are you guys still manually plugging line items into spreadsheets, using built-in POS inventory, or running dedicated invoice/OCR tools? Also, how often are you actually catching supplier price hikes before they eat into your margins—weekly audits, or just when your monthly prime cost percentage looks off?

Would love to hear what workflow or setup has actually worked for your team to keep track of ingredient price fluctuations without adding endless admin time every week. Appreciate any insights!

Hi, unfortunately we use Gastronovi in our restaurant. It’s pretty common here in Germany, but honestly quite expensive for what it offers.

I’m currently looking at installing a few TVs around the restaurant to show our lunch menu, specials, etc. Ideally, I’d also like a screen for the kitchen so staff can quickly see what needs to be prepared.
The main thing I’m looking for is a system where I can manage several displays centrally through a website. If possible, I’d also love to connect it to Gastronovi via API so menu items, prices or availability could be updated automatically.

Does anyone here have experience with the Gastronovi API or integrating it with digital signage?
So far I’ve found AbleSign and SpaceSign. AbleSign looks a little dated to me, while SpaceSign seems to target restaurants more directly, but I haven’t been able to find many real world experiences with either.
How are you guys handling digital menu boards / signage in your restaurants? Any recommendations or setups that work well?

I was recently released from a psych ward and this is my first week back at work. I started a new antidepressant there that I'm supposed to take at bedtime, in the psych ward our medication time was at 9 PM every night and ever since leaving I've continued taking it at the same time every night. Problem is I have a job that rarely schedules me for closing shifts, like one or two every week now since I'm not in high school like most of the employees and I can work openings. They schedule me for about 5 openings a week since school started and only one closing since. I want to update my availability to exclusively open from now on because I believe staying on a consistent afternoon schedule is better for me. I'm just worried they'll cut my hours again or take me off the schedule entirely if I do.

Hello!

Lately I've noticed my pre-shift notes have been a little on the "stop doing this" "don't do that" side of things.

What's a fun/uplifting thing I can incorporate into pre-shift to get people in a better mood for their shift?

As the title suggests how has your restaurant’s business been? My area slowed down a little bit I think most people take the first two weeks of August for vacation. We also had a fire in our town a couple months back and they are still doing repairs and closed a decent amount of parking spots. I am in a small town not a tourist location.

I’m chef-owner of a small, profitable fast-casual spot (5 years open, profitable last 3, 100% mine). I was on the line for the first 3 years but stepped back due to arthritis and to focus on growth. Tiny kitchen team: 2 AM cooks, 2 PM cooks, 1 dishwasher.
Six months ago I let go of my previous sous chef for harassment/toxic behavior after multiple write-ups. Hired a new sous chef who’s genuinely talented — strong on the line, great with catering, sharp on food/labor cost, took the initiative to overhaul our ordering and build SOPs on his own.

A few wrinkles:
~He has carpal tunnel from a previous job, which makes heavy line time hard on him. I’ve adjusted scheduling to help, and he’s been a trooper about it, but it weighs on me.

~He asked to move to salary (with performance-based raises and bonus structure). We worked out a salary and he initially agreed, then backed out right before the switch because overtime pays better right now.

~I’m exploring a shared kitchen space to grow catering, which is his strength. When I raised the possibility of him running that, he got excited — then came back asking for a plan where vesting would start in three years, and said he’s “holding out” to see if catering grows, or he’ll leave. I still think that’s too soon — he’s been with me under a year. I told him it’s premature to be discussing equity structure at all right now. He said he’d take on more responsibility if he had that partnership path — I feel like it should go the other way: prove it over time, then we talk bigger structure.

I’m willing to offer a competitive salary, growth incentives, and profit-sharing as the business scales. I’m just not looking to give away equity to someone under a year in, no matter how good they are.

Even with a 3-year vesting runway, does starting that clock this early feel premature to you? Is this a normal growing-pain moment with a talented but leverage-seeking employee, or a bigger red flag about how he’ll operate long-term if he doesn’t get what he wants?