Details of the Restaurant Business Make All the Difference

Our business is restaurant real estate. We help growing restaurant companies meet their expansion plans with trade area and site selection. After the sites are chosen, we usually negotiate real estate contracts on behalf of our clients. In many cases, we provide development services for the same projects.

Of course, everyone in our office believes real estate has a significant bearing on a restaurant’s performance. In fact, we believe a restaurant’s chances for a prosperous future are determined about the same time the real estate deal is signed.

But, we also have the highest regard for operations and how a restaurant performs – both financially, and in terms of customer experience. We work very closely with our clients. We are fortunate to see firsthand the practices and obsessions of the best operations mavens in the business.

I read an article in the New York Times recently. The author, a restaurateur, set forth a list of mandatory dos and don’ts, which his staff is required to honor. He lists one hundred in all, and none are trivial.

Each time I read the list, I’m impressed not just by its thoroughness, but by what it implies about restaurant operations – and, for that matter, restaurant real estate. Competence is expected. Its basis is thoughtfulness towards the patron. Real professionalism is characterized by faithful execution of the job’s smallest details. Execution of those tiny details makes a huge difference, for it constitutes a job well done.

Read these articles. Pass them along to your friends in the trade. They contain valuable lessons for all of us.

Part 1: 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part One)

Part 2: 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part Two)