Development of a New Restaurant – From Start to Finish

Two architects came to us that wanted to do an Asian styled restaurant. They had never been in the business but wanted to pursue their dream. Here are the steps we did with them in order for them to fulfill this dream:

1. Business Planning-we worked with them to develop a business plan with investment costs as well as sales & expense-profit projections.
2. Real Estate procurement-through our real estate division we found an appropriate site, negotiated the deal, developed a lease package and finalized the lease details.
3. Design/Construction-we selected a restaurant architect and an experienced restaurant contractor. We guided the design, engineered the budget, and helped manage the build out.
4. Menu Development-They did the the food development, but we did all of the detail work with the actual menu, portioning, plate presentation, costing, pricing, recipe guides, training docs, etc.  
   1. They had a relative who became their kitchen manager and we worked with all of them to set up kitchen and facilitate the training. 
5. Staffing-we interviewed, hired and trained the staff. We developed training documents and sop’s/protocols set into place with the staff and the owners.
6. Marketing-we were involved in the web site development, media outreach, social media, mock services, and grand opening.
7. Bookkeeping-we set them up with a restaurant bookkeeping service to publish monthly operating statements.
8. POS-we set them up with a system and helped them in the programming and worked with them on appropriate management reports. 
9. Follow Up-we were engaged with them for 6 months to ensure everything worked appropriately and made some small course corrections. 
10. The restaurant is successful and they opened a 2^nd restaurant of the same type. 

Increase in Liquor Sales-we increased liquor sales year over year well into double digits (20%+).

• We took our most popular specialty cocktails and reduced them in price by 25% from $16 to $12
• We developed a colorful fresh sheet highlighting these $12 cocktails
• We met with the team on a daily basis before each shift to discuss the sale of our delicious, eye-catching cocktails 
• We measure results daily
• We reward our staff
• While the liquor cost has escalated because all of the drinks are either vodka or rum the escalation is minimal. 
• With these increases we have not had any increase in labor hours or dollars.

Increase Sales Counts at Weekday Lunch–we increased our sales dollars 60% by implementing a value-priced fresh sheet with popular items. 

• We reviewed the product mix to see which items were the most popular (top 10) and moved some of them to our “value priced” fresh sheet. 
• We developed a striking-looking fresh sheet with graphics different then the main menu so as to guide our existing guests to this menu with the objective of while they spend less they will return more often.
• They did return more often and brought other people with them. 
• This also enhanced the happy hour sales because the lunch menu lasts until 4 pm.