In November, Easy will print a new version of it's menu, mostly with price changes and a couple of modfifications. The reason we do this is simple, the cost of business is going up. I know when we raised prices last year, we had some negative feedback from a few customers. On the surface, its seems like a cash grab anytime a restaurant raises its prices. I mean, I'm the type of guy who never really notices things like that, unless I eat at that place everyday, and even then, because I run my own business, understand that the owner's can only take a hit for so long before it starts to affect their income.
Unlike retail, restaurants and other food service operations have slim margins and the smallest of things can upset that apple cart. Once when one of my staff thought the water in the kitchen could be hotter, turned up the hot water heater 20 degrees. This ended up costing me $2000 on my next gas bill. There goes some profit right down the drain! Now you know why your dad was always monitoring the heat in the house! There have to be controls in place to maintain that margin and the prices have to change if the cost of food goes up (sorry folks, it never goes down).
Now some of you might say, hey, Stavros up the road and other greasy spoons only charge $4.99 for a breakfast, how come the Easy Rider costs $8.95? Well, not only does Stavros have cheap ingredients (wonder bread, fatty bacon, normal eggs and folger's coffee), they have low overhead (staff, rent, facility costs, office costs). Easy is busy and requires a much bigger staff to make it happen 7 days a week. The other difference is in the quality of ingredients. Its easy to downgrade to cheap bread, but I insist on artisan breads and they cost a pretty penny and boy do they taste good! Seems like a bunch of jargon, but in the early days I worked in the kitchen and waited on tables until it all caught up with me and I got behind on my taxes, GST and debt payments. Since then, I've reworked the formulas, and staffing schedule so I could get the bills paid, keep up with the demand (we get busier every year) and have time for my family. Oh and by the way, have you seen my rusty old Dodge Caravan? That'll tell you how much money we're making. The price of a Huevos barely runs that van and isn't saving much for new one anytime soon.
So when you see the lineups, think of all the steps it takes to cook your breakfast and serve it hot and tasty to your table: Ordering; Receiving; Costing; Preparation; Food Handling and Storing; Cooking; Plating; Serving; Billing; Clearing; Washing; and getting ready to do again and again and again...oh, then paying bills;taxes;payroll;more taxes; filing; fixing; hiring; firing; scheduling; re-ordering; counting; phoning...
Thanks, and please come again!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Can You Make My Breakfast For Me?
Now that the Fall is here, Easy is busy on the weekends like never before. Since we've added proper seating on the King Street side of the building, we're able to squeeze 26 more people in during the peak hours for brunch. Considering that since we've done that, we're still clipping the pace in terms of patrons in and out and at both doors if you know what I mean.
In 2005, we expanded the kitchen in anticipation of such a move and we've gone to lengths to improve service, billing, food quality, speed and have changed the staff pretty much completely in that time. However, this sometimes is never enough for some customers. In order to speed up service times, we've recently tried to limit changes to the menu and have pared down items that take too long. But despite all of that, someone last weekend had the nerve to show up at 1pm on Sunday, our busiest time of the week, and ask us to make French Toast using their own bread. And they didn't even ask us before they ordered, no, they waited until the waitress had already punched in their order. Our waitresss had refused the substitution and to her shagrin, was asked to ask the kitchen if it could be done, to which they replied, "no!". The table (of 4) got up and walked out in a huff. I mean, who does that? And where did they go after leaving? to another restaurant to try the same thing? Regardless to say, it pretty much ruined the waitress' day and created a bad vibe in the room for the others enjoying their breakfast and coffees.
There are days when we have to "put up" with this kind of behaviour from customers. I'm told about it after the fact and it usually happens when we are busy and stacked with orders and customers. You know we should take a picture of these idiots and put them on a wall of shame (maybe on this blog!). Granted, mistakes do happen to the nicest people, and we profusely apologize and even mail out gift certfificates, but is it just breakfast restaurants where this happens or is just Easy? Anywho, we try and let it roll off our backs and start the next day fresh because 99% of the time, its fun and worth it.
So next time you want to go to a restaurant and have them make the food like you'd have it at home, why not just stay at home and make it yourself. Save us the hassle and grief.
In 2005, we expanded the kitchen in anticipation of such a move and we've gone to lengths to improve service, billing, food quality, speed and have changed the staff pretty much completely in that time. However, this sometimes is never enough for some customers. In order to speed up service times, we've recently tried to limit changes to the menu and have pared down items that take too long. But despite all of that, someone last weekend had the nerve to show up at 1pm on Sunday, our busiest time of the week, and ask us to make French Toast using their own bread. And they didn't even ask us before they ordered, no, they waited until the waitress had already punched in their order. Our waitresss had refused the substitution and to her shagrin, was asked to ask the kitchen if it could be done, to which they replied, "no!". The table (of 4) got up and walked out in a huff. I mean, who does that? And where did they go after leaving? to another restaurant to try the same thing? Regardless to say, it pretty much ruined the waitress' day and created a bad vibe in the room for the others enjoying their breakfast and coffees.
There are days when we have to "put up" with this kind of behaviour from customers. I'm told about it after the fact and it usually happens when we are busy and stacked with orders and customers. You know we should take a picture of these idiots and put them on a wall of shame (maybe on this blog!). Granted, mistakes do happen to the nicest people, and we profusely apologize and even mail out gift certfificates, but is it just breakfast restaurants where this happens or is just Easy? Anywho, we try and let it roll off our backs and start the next day fresh because 99% of the time, its fun and worth it.
So next time you want to go to a restaurant and have them make the food like you'd have it at home, why not just stay at home and make it yourself. Save us the hassle and grief.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Everything You Wanted to know
This is the beginning of some behind the scenes blogs about my restaurant in Parkdale, Toronto. The reason I'm going to blog about Easy is to tell some of the crazy stories about our customers and staff and to explain our practices to the general public, or those who might be considering coming to Easy because they heard good things and want to go for "brunch" at that busy place in Parkdale.
Now you see, in the 9 years we've been open, many incredible things have happened at Easy. The topics are almost endless. There's the customers, the staff, the building, the equipment, the landlord, me, my family and you. So with a blog, there's no need to try and market any of this stuff, this is so you can understand what happens behind the scenes.
Here's one story that has happened a lot, see if you can relate...
MISSING GRANOLA
A few weeks ago, I was told about how confusing it can be when we're stacked full of customers and there's a line up outside and inside, the kitchen is pumping out food and the front of house staff are scurrying around taking care of all you nice "brunchers". A granola comes up for pick-up in the kitchen and its taken (by mistake) to a different table by a waitress (lets call it table #14). After a couple of minutes go by, the other waitress comes back to the kitchen and asks for the granola for table #7. The guys in the kitchen shrug and tell her it went to #14. She then goes to table #14 to take the granola to table #7, and when she gets there (#14), its been eaten. So, she looks at the guy at the table and then goes back to the kitchen and asks for another granola, to which they freak a little and make another one in a hurry, she takes it to table #7 where that customer is probably thinking, "what took so g.d. long" and then digs into the granola, armmgh,arhhmmgh,yum,yum,yum...
Now I ask you, when you go to a restaurant and order food, don't you have a pretty good idea, if not for sure idea, of what you think is coming to your table? Why did the dude just eat the granola at table #14? I mean, its happened before, not just with a simple thing like what I just described. Waitresses take an entire order to the wrong table, and the customers just start eating the mistakenly delivered items and then when their correct food arrives minutes later, look all confused. I mean is it the nature of breakfast customers to be a little foggy in the head, and to have difficulty remembering what they ordered? Lets see, hmmm: ordered a eggs benny and got a mushroom omelette...
I know that when I order the steak and some fish arrives, I go to my wife, "where's my steak?, I think they gave us the wrong food..."
I'll leave you with this question. Considering how busy it gets, and with 10 staff busting their butts to try and nail every order (which they do often), who pays for this missing granola? One more take on this: If you were delivered a glass of wine at a restaurant which you didn't order, and you drank it without any thought, what would you say when the drink appears on your bill? I mean, you drank it right? Shouldn't you pay for it?
Now you see, in the 9 years we've been open, many incredible things have happened at Easy. The topics are almost endless. There's the customers, the staff, the building, the equipment, the landlord, me, my family and you. So with a blog, there's no need to try and market any of this stuff, this is so you can understand what happens behind the scenes.
Here's one story that has happened a lot, see if you can relate...
MISSING GRANOLA
A few weeks ago, I was told about how confusing it can be when we're stacked full of customers and there's a line up outside and inside, the kitchen is pumping out food and the front of house staff are scurrying around taking care of all you nice "brunchers". A granola comes up for pick-up in the kitchen and its taken (by mistake) to a different table by a waitress (lets call it table #14). After a couple of minutes go by, the other waitress comes back to the kitchen and asks for the granola for table #7. The guys in the kitchen shrug and tell her it went to #14. She then goes to table #14 to take the granola to table #7, and when she gets there (#14), its been eaten. So, she looks at the guy at the table and then goes back to the kitchen and asks for another granola, to which they freak a little and make another one in a hurry, she takes it to table #7 where that customer is probably thinking, "what took so g.d. long" and then digs into the granola, armmgh,arhhmmgh,yum,yum,yum...
Now I ask you, when you go to a restaurant and order food, don't you have a pretty good idea, if not for sure idea, of what you think is coming to your table? Why did the dude just eat the granola at table #14? I mean, its happened before, not just with a simple thing like what I just described. Waitresses take an entire order to the wrong table, and the customers just start eating the mistakenly delivered items and then when their correct food arrives minutes later, look all confused. I mean is it the nature of breakfast customers to be a little foggy in the head, and to have difficulty remembering what they ordered? Lets see, hmmm: ordered a eggs benny and got a mushroom omelette...
I know that when I order the steak and some fish arrives, I go to my wife, "where's my steak?, I think they gave us the wrong food..."
I'll leave you with this question. Considering how busy it gets, and with 10 staff busting their butts to try and nail every order (which they do often), who pays for this missing granola? One more take on this: If you were delivered a glass of wine at a restaurant which you didn't order, and you drank it without any thought, what would you say when the drink appears on your bill? I mean, you drank it right? Shouldn't you pay for it?
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