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Buying a Bar n Grill

Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
130
As someone who frequents Applebees I'd like to offer some customer service advice.

If you offer 3$ Bahama mamas there should be a 3 strike warning system about taking your pants off before being kicked out.

Also I know that a taser is technically a non lethal force technique but I believe it is unnecessary in the parking lot when I'm out of your establishment.

I hope this helps.
 

FayuGes!

Poster
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
33
No advice, but an example of the sort of thing you are going to have to keep an eye out for. A friend of my father's did something like you, bought a restaurant - happened to drive by one Sunday morning and saw a big trash can out behind the restaurant, as if for trash pickup - except he knew there was no trash pickup on Sundays. He opened it and it was full of ice and several hundred dollars worth of steaks - someone from the staff was going to come by to pick them up later.

I think it's a cool thing you guys are doing, but you're going to have to be really careful about who you hire and trust.
 

Belezabro

Elite
Joined
Jan 13, 2021
Messages
989
Admire you OP for taking a chance like this. However, I can't imagine trying to run a restaurant with 5 people involved, especially extended family. I'm certainly not a business expert but I have 20+ years experience in the bar/restaurant biz at various levels. I'd make sure now that everyone has clear responsibilities assigned (e.g. staff training and supervision) and knows how money will be distributed.
 

BoiseGator

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Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
101
Mixing money and family is not a good formula for success.

1. Hopefully you did an accurate valuation on the business.
2. Hopefully you drafted a very detailed business agreement that outlines how decisions are made, like compensation, inventory audits, structure, capital investments, if a spouse dies, if a partner dies...I can go on and on.
3. Cleanliness and compliance standards need to be priority one.
4. Inventory audits weekly on food and bev is key to maximizing your profits.
5. Nobody eats or drinks for free including family and partners. Have a discount, but always account for your inventory. Number 1 way to lose gross profit is being nice.
6. Don’t hire or tolerate mean people in your establishment or working in your establishment. Keep the environment friendly, fun and upbeat.
7. Consistency on process around food prep and drink pours will drive your gross margin up.
8. Leverage all vendors for discounts and don’t be afraid to meet with multiple vendors on key supplies to drive your costs down.
9. If hiring a family member or friend it’s should be a 2/3 majority silent vote amongst the owners. Everyone wants to give their kids and friends a job.
10. Travel around to other bars and grills that get really good Yelp ratings in other cities and states and take good notes. Steal shamelessly, someone else has good ideas driving customer traffic. Take them!!!

There’s a start...Food and Bev is tough.

Stated above have unique drinks and food dishes.

Also stated above you are going to be ripped off internally and externally have a risk assessment done so you know where your exposures are.
 

CBradSmith

Elite
Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
438
Mixing money and family is not a good formula for success.

1. Hopefully you did an accurate valuation on the business.
2. Hopefully you drafted a very detailed business agreement that outlines how decisions are made, like compensation, inventory audits, structure, capital investments, if a spouse dies, if a partner dies...I can go on and on.
3. Cleanliness and compliance standards need to be priority one.
4. Inventory audits weekly on food and bev is key to maximizing your profits.
5. Nobody eats or drinks for free including family and partners. Have a discount, but always account for your inventory. Number 1 way to lose gross profit is being nice.
6. Don’t hire or tolerate mean people in your establishment or working in your establishment. Keep the environment friendly, fun and upbeat.
7. Consistency on process around food prep and drink pours will drive your gross margin up.
8. Leverage all vendors for discounts and don’t be afraid to meet with multiple vendors on key supplies to drive your costs down.
9. If hiring a family member or friend it’s should be a 2/3 majority silent vote amongst the owners. Everyone wants to give their kids and friends a job.
10. Travel around to other bars and grills that get really good Yelp ratings in other cities and states and take good notes. Steal shamelessly, someone else has good ideas driving customer traffic. Take them!!!

There’s a start...Food and Bev is tough.

Stated above have unique drinks and food dishes.

Also stated above you are going to be ripped off internally and externally have a risk assessment done so you know where your exposures are.
What's your take on recruiting staff from other restaurants that impress you?
 

BoiseGator

Poster
Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
101
What's your take on recruiting staff from other restaurants that impress you?
Never stop recruiting or upgrading your leadership.

If you can create a core that is loyal and proud to work for you and your restaurant then invest time in effort on your leadership. Keep your costs down on the core of your staff, but incentivize and continue to upskill your leadership.

Every shift should have a leader that is cohesive with their peers and aligns on your vision for your business.

2-4 good leaders can make the biggest pieces of shit turn out to be the best employees ever.

Recruit and steal leadership talent.

A bonus when you do that is usually the good core employees follow a good leader. 75% of your time should be focused 1 level down and 25% of your time being the face and executive leader to your core employees.

Lastly a good leader doesn’t have to fire someone the poor performers realize they can’t meet expectations and quit. This saves you on unemployment expenses and internal theft and also spreads word of mouth that your business is a great place to work.

When I’m looking for a good leader I have them take this personality test (below). I target people with responsibility, maximizer, achiever, woo and strategic. Being in the public requires a special kind of leadership.
 

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catfishpunter

Elite
Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
403
Mixing money and family is not a good formula for success.

1. Hopefully you did an accurate valuation on the business.
2. Hopefully you drafted a very detailed business agreement that outlines how decisions are made, like compensation, inventory audits, structure, capital investments, if a spouse dies, if a partner dies...I can go on and on.
3. Cleanliness and compliance standards need to be priority one.
4. Inventory audits weekly on food and bev is key to maximizing your profits.
5. Nobody eats or drinks for free including family and partners. Have a discount, but always account for your inventory. Number 1 way to lose gross profit is being nice.
6. Don’t hire or tolerate mean people in your establishment or working in your establishment. Keep the environment friendly, fun and upbeat.
7. Consistency on process around food prep and drink pours will drive your gross margin up.
8. Leverage all vendors for discounts and don’t be afraid to meet with multiple vendors on key supplies to drive your costs down.
9. If hiring a family member or friend it’s should be a 2/3 majority silent vote amongst the owners. Everyone wants to give their kids and friends a job.
10. Travel around to other bars and grills that get really good Yelp ratings in other cities and states and take good notes. Steal shamelessly, someone else has good ideas driving customer traffic. Take them!!!

There’s a start...Food and Bev is tough.

Stated above have unique drinks and food dishes.

Also stated above you are going to be ripped off internally and externally have a risk assessment done so you know where your exposures are.

I own three restaurants. All of this is spot-on.

Additionally, get a solid understanding of the economics of 3rd party delivery. The GH, UberEats, DD, and PostMates of the world are vultures. When you work with them, fight for every penny in your terms, which are all negotiable.
 

catfishpunter

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Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
403
Another thought - be CAREFUL with what you sign, particularly from laundry services like Cintas. Have a clear policy for all of your staff about who is allowed to sign on behalf of the company, and which owner they should call if they are asked to sign something.

The laundry guys operate with some of the worst contract terms ever for a restaurant. You need to be in full control of the conversation and not agree to a multi-year contract unless you are CERTAIN that you have every term you want. Understand the fine print. Many of their boilerplate contracts state that they can raise the price as needed, and that you have to file a complaint in writing to dispute price increases. When you see per piece or per month prices written in their contract, remember that those are only starting prices, and that you need to understand their mechanism of price increases.

They will claim that you can be flexible with what you order from them, but that's not entirely true, either. Once you add a new laundry service to their contract, even mid-contract, the contract prevents you from later removing that service and going with another vendor. Make sure you understand that, and have a clear, written distinction between "trying something out for a few months" and adding it to your contract.

Also, keep a very close eye on any floor mats or other goods you get from a place like Cintas. If you're paying for these, make sure they actually switch them out according to their contracted schedule. The drivers will often "forget" to do this, and yet you'll still be charged monthly for a mat service that you're not getting.

I had to beat the heck out of my local Cintas guys because of repeated stuff like this. I sat down with their area GM one day and told him, "Tim, I've worked with vendors for 20 years, and I've had one other meeting like this. You guys make me sick." We got them back in line, and for the past year, they have been excellent.
 

BoiseGator

Poster
Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
101
Another thought - be CAREFUL with what you sign, particularly from laundry services like Cintas. Have a clear policy for all of your staff about who is allowed to sign on behalf of the company, and which owner they should call if they are asked to sign something.

The laundry guys operate with some of the worst contract terms ever for a restaurant. You need to be in full control of the conversation and not agree to a multi-year contract unless you are CERTAIN that you have every term you want. Understand the fine print. Many of their boilerplate contracts state that they can raise the price as needed, and that you have to file a complaint in writing to dispute price increases. When you see per piece or per month prices written in their contract, remember that those are only starting prices, and that you need to understand their mechanism of price increases.

They will claim that you can be flexible with what you order from them, but that's not entirely true, either. Once you add a new laundry service to their contract, even mid-contract, the contract prevents you from later removing that service and going with another vendor. Make sure you understand that, and have a clear, written distinction between "trying something out for a few months" and adding it to your contract.

Also, keep a very close eye on any floor mats or other goods you get from a place like Cintas. If you're paying for these, make sure they actually switch them out according to their contracted schedule. The drivers will often "forget" to do this, and yet you'll still be charged monthly for a mat service that you're not getting.

I had to beat the heck out of my local Cintas guys because of repeated stuff like this. I sat down with their area GM one day and told him, "Tim, I've worked with vendors for 20 years, and I've had one other meeting like this. You guys make me sick." We got them back in line, and for the past year, they have been excellent.
I love a good kick a vendor’s ass story!! Good for you!

You can be their best friend or worst enemy, they get to choose the relationship you give them. 🤙🏻
 

catfishpunter

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Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
403
I love a good kick a vendor’s ass story!! Good for you!

Man, it kills me to do it, because I generally only work with vendors that I love. And man, I am loyal. I'll stick with a guy through thick and thin. Like I said, I've had to jump down vendors' throats twice in my career, once with these guys and 15 years ago when I worked in IT. That's actually a better story.

We had about 400 users on thin clients, which are these stripped-down computers that have limited functionality. They were cheap, rugged and fast. Unfortunately, my guys started reporting back that we had thin clients that were dying. They weren't just going out at a normal clip; we were losing a couple a week, and these were new machines, most of them less than a year old.

They couldn't figure out what was going on, and my boss was starting to get some grief from above, so I popped one open and just started looking. I didn't really know what I was looking for, because I'm not an engineer. The first one I opened, though, I noticed a blown capacitor on a board. I opened a second one, same blown capacitor. Third, fourth, fifth... twentieth, all of them had the same blown capacitor.

I looked at the writing on the capacitor and was able to get the manufacturer's name and all the associated specs. I started digging online and found a documented recall on those particular capacitors going back a couple years. Our thin client manufacturer somehow missed that in their supply chain quality control, and that meant that every one of our thin clients was doomed to die in a matter of months.

We had a tense meeting with the vendor a few days later. My boss was enjoying himself, because we had pulled together all the data. It was pretty open and shut. They left the room agreeing to replace all of the motherboards in our thin clients and gave us a $250,000 credit as well.

That was fun.
 

Zgdaf

Elite
Founder
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
1,261
Admire you OP for taking a chance like this. However, I can't imagine trying to run a restaurant with 5 people involved, especially extended family. I'm certainly not a business expert but I have 20+ years experience in the bar/restaurant biz at various levels. I'd make sure now that everyone has clear responsibilities assigned (e.g. staff training and supervision) and knows how money will be distributed.
This is a good point. All need to agree on the key objectives.. and also the alpha/smart one of the group needs to have final/dictator/captain authority. This way not all 5 of you going in different directions.
Ex, I’m sure the place has an identity. You probably don’t want to mess with it, but maybe enhance it. All could come up,with ideas like more microbrews on tap. Well you can all vote but ultimately it’s the alpha cousin that says yay or ney.. like he wants to do it, but there’s other priorities.
all should set key results around any objective, like increase beer sales and meet monthly to review.
Basic sh*t like this to make sure the communication is occurring.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
1,612
Another thought - be CAREFUL with what you sign, particularly from laundry services like Cintas. Have a clear policy for all of your staff about who is allowed to sign on behalf of the company, and which owner they should call if they are asked to sign something.

The laundry guys operate with some of the worst contract terms ever for a restaurant. You need to be in full control of the conversation and not agree to a multi-year contract unless you are CERTAIN that you have every term you want. Understand the fine print. Many of their boilerplate contracts state that they can raise the price as needed, and that you have to file a complaint in writing to dispute price increases. When you see per piece or per month prices written in their contract, remember that those are only starting prices, and that you need to understand their mechanism of price increases.

They will claim that you can be flexible with what you order from them, but that's not entirely true, either. Once you add a new laundry service to their contract, even mid-contract, the contract prevents you from later removing that service and going with another vendor. Make sure you understand that, and have a clear, written distinction between "trying something out for a few months" and adding it to your contract.

Also, keep a very close eye on any floor mats or other goods you get from a place like Cintas. If you're paying for these, make sure they actually switch them out according to their contracted schedule. The drivers will often "forget" to do this, and yet you'll still be charged monthly for a mat service that you're not getting.

I had to beat the heck out of my local Cintas guys because of repeated stuff like this. I sat down with their area GM one day and told him, "Tim, I've worked with vendors for 20 years, and I've had one other meeting like this. You guys make me sick." We got them back in line, and for the past year, they have been excellent.

Cintas is the worst. I was so thankful when we got a reliable local vendor. Saved me about 40% and didn’t have to deal with Cintas bullshit
 

BoiseGator

Poster
Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
101
Man, it kills me to do it, because I generally only work with vendors that I love. And man, I am loyal. I'll stick with a guy through thick and thin. Like I said, I've had to jump down vendors' throats twice in my career, once with these guys and 15 years ago when I worked in IT. That's actually a better story.

We had about 400 users on thin clients, which are these stripped-down computers that have limited functionality. They were cheap, rugged and fast. Unfortunately, my guys started reporting back that we had thin clients that were dying. They weren't just going out at a normal clip; we were losing a couple a week, and these were new machines, most of them less than a year old.

They couldn't figure out what was going on, and my boss was starting to get some grief from above, so I popped one open and just started looking. I didn't really know what I was looking for, because I'm not an engineer. The first one I opened, though, I noticed a blown capacitor on a board. I opened a second one, same blown capacitor. Third, fourth, fifth... twentieth, all of them had the same blown capacitor.

I looked at the writing on the capacitor and was able to get the manufacturer's name and all the associated specs. I started digging online and found a documented recall on those particular capacitors going back a couple years. Our thin client manufacturer somehow missed that in their supply chain quality control, and that meant that every one of our thin clients was doomed to die in a matter of months.

We had a tense meeting with the vendor a few days later. My boss was enjoying himself, because we had pulled together all the data. It was pretty open and shut. They left the room agreeing to replace all of the motherboards in our thin clients and gave us a $250,000 credit as well.

That was fun.
Nice!!

I was working with a National Dairy company on fluid milk for years and I was confident they were loyal to me until one day I walked into the competitor and noticed that they were carrying fluid milk by the same vendor at .23 cents a gallon cheaper. I immediately called them and scheduled a meeting that day and told them to please come to my office. I proceeded to express my frustration over what I saw in a competitor and they continued to tell me that they needed to expand and grow their business and also let me know that there would be some adjustments on my routes. I proceeded to tell them that we do 4-5 times the volume as the competitor and that they will continue to service me first and second they were going to reduce my cost by .25 a gallon to beat the competitors offering. After some back and forth for a few days they finally flew in the their VP to meet with me. Mind you these guys were the highest volume fluid milk producers in the country and they thought they could do whatever they wanted. He proceeded to tell me everything I didn’t want to hear and I kept stressing to him that he really needed to think about how he was prioritizing his customers. He stood up shook my hand and said he was sorry he couldn’t help me and that they needed to expand their business.

Once he left the room I called the head of the dairy commission (a friend) and said I need a new fluid milk provider can they refer me to a good producer. Within 48 hours I had the head of our merchandising on the phone with a large dairy co-op out of Idaho and within 6 months had them signed to service the entire Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain Region.

Now remember Mr. bad ass that came to see me he called begging to keep the contract said he would do anything. I told him he learned a very valuable lesson in business to always take care of your most loyal and highest volume customer. I wished him good luck with our competitor and proceeded to kick his ass with a new vendor on fluid milk. I made it a personal mission to crush the competitor on fluid milk pricing because I had a new vendor partner I needed to help take market share and Mr. bad ass needed to continue learning a lesson.

The original dairy company filed for bankruptcy just last year citing a decline in fluid milk consumption. Meanwhile that little dairy co-op that took excellent care of me is thriving....

I’m the most loyal guy on the planet until you decide to kick me in the balls for someone else. I can relate to everything you said.

Take care!
 

catfishpunter

Elite
Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
403
Nice!!

I was working with a National Dairy company on fluid milk for years and I was confident they were loyal to me until one day I walked into the competitor and noticed that they were carrying fluid milk by the same vendor at .23 cents a gallon cheaper. I immediately called them and scheduled a meeting that day and told them to please come to my office. I proceeded to express my frustration over what I saw in a competitor and they continued to tell me that they needed to expand and grow their business and also let me know that there would be some adjustments on my routes. I proceeded to tell them that we do 4-5 times the volume as the competitor and that they will continue to service me first and second they were going to reduce my cost by .25 a gallon to beat the competitors offering. After some back and forth for a few days they finally flew in the their VP to meet with me. Mind you these guys were the highest volume fluid milk producers in the country and they thought they could do whatever they wanted. He proceeded to tell me everything I didn’t want to hear and I kept stressing to him that he really needed to think about how he was prioritizing his customers. He stood up shook my hand and said he was sorry he couldn’t help me and that they needed to expand their business.

Once he left the room I called the head of the dairy commission (a friend) and said I need a new fluid milk provider can they refer me to a good producer. Within 48 hours I had the head of our merchandising on the phone with a large dairy co-op out of Idaho and within 6 months had them signed to service the entire Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain Region.

Now remember Mr. bad ass that came to see me he called begging to keep the contract said he would do anything. I told him he learned a very valuable lesson in business to always take care of your most loyal and highest volume customer. I wished him good luck with our competitor and proceeded to kick his ass with a new vendor on fluid milk. I made it a personal mission to crush the competitor on fluid milk pricing because I had a new vendor partner I needed to help take market share and Mr. bad ass needed to continue learning a lesson.

The original dairy company filed for bankruptcy just last year citing a decline in fluid milk consumption. Meanwhile that little dairy co-op that took excellent care of me is thriving....

I’m the most loyal guy on the planet until you decide to kick me in the balls for someone else. I can relate to everything you said.

Take care!

Good on you, man. That's a gutsy move for anyone in dairy to pull something like that. I mean, 23 cents is material. That'll get your low-income and fixed income shoppers to go across the street. I've got a few friends in the dairy business here in Oregon, and I can't imagine any of them playing one major competitor against another in such a public way, and I especially can't see them throwing their number one customer aside like that.

You still in the grocery business here in the West?
 

BoiseGator

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Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
101
Good on you, man. That's a gutsy move for anyone in dairy to pull something like that. I mean, 23 cents is material. That'll get your low-income and fixed income shoppers to go across the street. I've got a few friends in the dairy business here in Oregon, and I can't imagine any of them playing one major competitor against another in such a public way, and I especially can't see them throwing their number one customer aside like that.

You still in the grocery business here in the West?
Yup, but not for long and then off to another adventure and chase a few dreams. Almost 30 years in the business and it’s been one hell of a run. 😂😂😂
 

Cyberty

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Founder
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
629
I have a lot of experience in restaurants. Mainly on the equipment side.

You need to steam clean all of the cooking equipment under the hood. You need to remove the equipment first and put it in the back parking lot. I would recommend that you hire a local service agent. All commercial cooking equipment have a website that will show you the local service agent. They can properly remove the equipment and steam clean it. It is a fucking nasty experience. The shit you see under the equipment, and the shit in the equipment is a nightmare. Clean that shit. Upgrade the gas hoses to Dormont. Dormont.com. The service agent can supply these or buy them from Katom.com.

If you can add casters to the cooking equipment, do It.

Also have the steam cleaners clean the removable baffle filters from the vent hood.

If you can identify the vent hood manufacturer, call them and get their local service agent to check out the system.

You can’t change the equipment location under the hood. Or the type of equipment. This affects the ventilation and the fire system design.
 

NuclearPower

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Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
67
This business is a place our Grandpa used to take us and is a family hangout. It just needs some new energy to take it into another generation. It is a Pizza Parlor that has a full liquor license but they just sell beer and have a loyal local following.
we would like to add booze and atmosphere to make it a little more modern. We think we could upgrade the pizza and atmosphere and make it a place for ball teams and families. Currently the TV situation is worse than my own man cave and there is no music.
 

ncin29

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Founder
Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
108
This business is a place our Grandpa used to take us and is a family hangout. It just needs some new energy to take it into another generation. It is a Pizza Parlor that has a full liquor license but they just sell beer and have a loyal local following.
we would like to add booze and atmosphere to make it a little more modern. We think we could upgrade the pizza and atmosphere and make it a place for ball teams and families. Currently the TV situation is worse than my own man cave and there is no music.

Read reviews of other pizza places taken over where the new owners started making changes to the pizza. Little things like upgrading means cost of pizza going up, changes how people remember the taste for years, and potentially changes to other food items.

My parents owned a restaurant growing up. We did the same thing, made small changes and food prices went up. People in the area started saying things taste different and it's not as good (prices went up about $2). Yes, some new menu items were added and enjoyed but just think about little things like that.
 

vicdaddy

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Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
125
I have 4 cousins and we all the same age and grew up together. We put in an offer to buy an established Bar N Grill that’s been around since 1965. Owners want to retire.

Any restaurant owners in here with advice?

Micheal Symon said “wanna know how to make a million dollars in the restaurant business? Start with two million dollars.
 

DuckDitchtiger

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Jan 8, 2021
Messages
276
I have 4 cousins and we all the same age and grew up together. We put in an offer to buy an established Bar N Grill that’s been around since 1965. Owners want to retire.

Any restaurant owners in here with advice?

Count everything. Your employees will rob you blind.
 

spf84

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Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
280
Another thought - be CAREFUL with what you sign, particularly from laundry services like Cintas. Have a clear policy for all of your staff about who is allowed to sign on behalf of the company, and which owner they should call if they are asked to sign something.

The laundry guys operate with some of the worst contract terms ever for a restaurant. You need to be in full control of the conversation and not agree to a multi-year contract unless you are CERTAIN that you have every term you want. Understand the fine print. Many of their boilerplate contracts state that they can raise the price as needed, and that you have to file a complaint in writing to dispute price increases. When you see per piece or per month prices written in their contract, remember that those are only starting prices, and that you need to understand their mechanism of price increases.

They will claim that you can be flexible with what you order from them, but that's not entirely true, either. Once you add a new laundry service to their contract, even mid-contract, the contract prevents you from later removing that service and going with another vendor. Make sure you understand that, and have a clear, written distinction between "trying something out for a few months" and adding it to your contract.

Also, keep a very close eye on any floor mats or other goods you get from a place like Cintas. If you're paying for these, make sure they actually switch them out according to their contracted schedule. The drivers will often "forget" to do this, and yet you'll still be charged monthly for a mat service that you're not getting.

I had to beat the heck out of my local Cintas guys because of repeated stuff like this. I sat down with their area GM one day and told him, "Tim, I've worked with vendors for 20 years, and I've had one other meeting like this. You guys make me sick." We got them back in line, and for the past year, they have been excellent.
I worked in that industry for years, unless you’re a huge company with a bunch of locations just don’t go with Cintas or Unifirst and find a smaller local company. Those are both publicly traded companies that thrive off of giving huge national companies great deals and screwing over small businesses. As of a couple years ago when I was still in the industry they see doing 6 or 7 year contracts with huge yearly price increases with an auto renew that Dan only be stopped if you gave them written notice like 8 months in advance.
 

catfishpunter

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Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
403
I worked in that industry for years, unless you’re a huge company with a bunch of locations just don’t go with Cintas or Unifirst and find a smaller local company. Those are both publicly traded companies that thrive off of giving huge national companies great deals and screwing over small businesses. As of a couple years ago when I was still in the industry they see doing 6 or 7 year contracts with huge yearly price increases with an auto renew that Dan only be stopped if you gave them written notice like 8 months in advance.

Indeed. I inherited a contract and relationship with those guys. It's the only vendor I should have tossed to the curb day one.
 

denn

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Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
3,063
Don't hire people you are friends with or who know too many of the regular customers. Sure way for more drama than you will need and it also a sure fire way to see your profits lessen. (if you are lucky enough to turn a profit in this very restaurant unfriendly environment) When your servers are friendly with the customers, that often times leads to lighter checks and heavy pours.
 

Fever757

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Jan 10, 2021
Messages
198
I have 4 cousins and we all the same age and grew up together. We put in an offer to buy an established Bar N Grill that’s been around since 1965. Owners want to retire.

Any restaurant owners in here with advice?

Can't think of a worse time to open a "Bar n Grill" ever. Wait until COVID is gone.

Also you are going to make about 2% on your bottom line if you are packed every night and things go well. Ask your self if it's worth it.
 
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