Have you ever gone to a restaurant and notice something scurrying across the floor? Maybe it was a cockroach or a mouse. Similar to any other customer’s reaction, you may have lost your appetite. Any type of rodent or insect is a sign of trouble.Insect problems can occur in even the cleanest and most sanitary working conditions. Keeping your establishment at a high level of cleanliness is ultimately the best way to help prevent such a problem. For the most part, restaurant owners need to know what they can do now and what they can do when insects become a problem.

An occurrence of pests can lead to a negative impact to your restaurant.

• Bad word out mouth which more than likely will lead to a drop in new and repeat customers.
• Turning away immediate customers as appetites are lost.
• Damage to equipment and furnishings, electrical, phone and data cables from gnawing rodents that can chew through almost anything.
• Fecal contamination which can lead to sickness and health risks to your employees.
• Possible closure of the restaurant from the Health Department.

What is the Root Problem?

You may have tried using an insecticide at one point and it may have worked. Sure you may be thinking if it worked last time why should I change? Insecticide products and brands such as Raid are good in the short term. What may seem like a quick inexpensive way of getting rid of insects may in fact be very costly. A small problem may lead to a larger one causing more damage to the restaurant in terms of lost customers, equipment damage and health risk factors to your staff. In the long term, doing it yourself may not be the wisest choice or best solution for a restaurant. Insecticide products such as those purchased in a department store only mask a problem but shortly after the problem will reoccur.

A prime example how a self bought insecticide could backfire is applying it on the pharaoh ant, a common pest in many establishments. When a pharaoh ant is stressed, it quickly builds new colonies as a form of defense. What may have started out to be one colony may lead to an invasion of your entire restaurant. In order to prevent or eliminate the problem, you need to know the root cause of it.

Insect and Rodent Hot-spots

Understanding the root cause of a pest problem is to know where insects and rodents live and feed on. The first step is to inspect your entire restaurant and search for potential entry points or problems that can be repaired. Hot-spots for insect infestation include doors and windows near trash receptacles, food storage areas, frequently damp areas or anywhere that food is temporarily stored.

Steps for Prevention

Any type of insect or bug is an inconvenience that can cause damage to your restaurant. Training your staff is critical so that every person is aware of the root cause of insect/rodent infestation and the steps to prevent it. Here is a list of simple procedures you should follow to prevent the most common types of pests:

Fruit Flies

• Kill fruit flies as they emerge.
• Fruits and vegetables should remain in a cooler.
• Discard old shipping boxes as soon as possible.
• Implement a daily cleaning schedule which includes cleaning all equipment, furnishing and floors.
• Ensure you have tight-fitting lids on all garbage cans.
• Any mops or washcloths used should be placed in an area to dry. Mops should be upside down and while washcloths should be hanged.

Ants

• Discard any food debris and clean up spills immediately.
• Never store firewood, unused equipment and other unnecessary things next to your building. Ants like to place nesting sites in these areas.
• If your restaurant is stand alone, ensure all shrubs and trees are not within contact of your restaurant.
• Eliminate any food trails.

Rodents / Occasional Pests

• Repair and seal cracks in walls or any openings in which feed pipes, cables and wires through.
• Ensure you have tight-fitting lids on all garbage cans and disposals. Try and keep it far enough from your restaurant.
• If your restaurant is a stand alone, keep the exterior clean and free from trash.
• Install weather stripping on all doors leading to the outside.
• Ensure tight screening on weep holes and vents.

Action Plan

Don’t be fooled if you don’t see any pests around your restaurant. There will always be bugs around and more than likely they are behind the scenes where you can’t see them. Leave it to the professionals to inspect your establishment. You must be proactive in order to control any occurrence of pests. Hiring a Pest Control Management (PMP) company is only a couple hundred dollars a month depending on the size of your restaurant. This may sound a lot, but it will be nothing compared to the lost when damage has been done. PMPs are there to help you design and implement a program. So put away those store bought insecticides and eliminate the Do-it-Yourself approach. A professional is there for you.

My personal Advice

When choosing a Pest Control Management company, know what kind of programs can be offered to you. A responsible PMP will ensure the safety of your employees, their employees and your customers. Ensure appropriate times are set for any chemical spraying required. The fumes of the chemicals can be overpowering and cause sickness and even drive customers away. If possible, set a time a couple hours prior to opening or after the restaurant has closed. This will enable your PMP to spend more time in problem areas and focus on eliminating them.

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Popular television show, Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, reveals the reality and struggles of running a restaurant. With Ramsey’s reputation on the line and tempers flaring, lazy chefs, incompetent managers and wait staff are ripped apart. Once a sinking ship, the restaurants are given new energy and are turned around.

Today, there are a countless number of restaurants that struggle to make ends meet. I wonder how many more are just hanging on a thread, waiting to close.

The Sunset Grill

The Sunset Grill is the city’s latest breakfast spot. Unlike the typical greasy spoon 24 hour diner the Sunset Grill offers a modern atmosphere and only operates from 7:00AM to 4:00PM seven days a week.

Founded in 1985, the restaurant has 18 locations both corporate and franchised owned. A morning that was thought to be relaxing with a complete breakfast, turned out to be one of my worst dining experiences that I will never forget.

11:30AM….

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a young cheerful woman who instructed us we could choose any table we like. The restaurant wasn’t full and there were plenty of seating. We ordered coffee while we scanned the menu options. The menu was a simple selection of your traditional breakfast items in addition to a couple of other lunch menu items which included burgers and sandwiches. I ordered the steak & eggs, medium rare and over easy while my wife had the sausage & eggs. Both orders came with potatoes and toast.

As we enjoyed our coffee, we couldn’t stop to notice a table that paid and left leaving behind almost an untouched meal. We didn’t want to speculate too much and concluded the customer may have ordered too much. Ten minutes later, we noticed the tables that were filled were staring at the open kitchen. Eyes were rolling in frustration, fingers tapping the table as a sign of losing patience and hands waving trying to grab the attention of a waiter. There was a clear problem. Not one table had their food. A sound of trouble was evident. Five more minutes passed and finally the first table of four was served, but unfortunately there was something wrong with their order that I couldn’t pick out. Seconds later, another table of four was served. You could see it in the waiter’s eyes, pressure and embarrassment was building. Two of the orders served were wrong, but in frustration, the customers accepted it.

12:00PM………no food yet!

The time was ticking and it was 12 noon and we never received our food. There were only two waiters and not one of them refilled our coffee let alone the other tables. We had a clear view of the kitchen and there no question about it that the cooks were trainees. A younger look man in his early 30’s was guiding each order. It was painstaking to see the food being cooked. You felt sympathetic to the guy up to point when he suddenly left the restaurant. For what reason, I do not know. The restaurant was officially in a melt down.

12:05PM, the food had arrived and to no surprise the steak was well over cook. I did not even cut into it yet, but from the look of the outside it was deeply browned. I finally cut into it only confirming what I knew already; dry, tough and tasteless. A waiter came over to check on the food and I told her the truth. I said I wouldn’t send it back because I knew it would take too long. She assured me my meal would be taken off the bill.

If you thought that was bad, you only had to see the potatoes. No competent chef would ever send out completely charred potatoes. If only Ramsey was in the kitchen, he would be slamming the pans and calling the cooks every name in the book. I was imagining it in my head what he would say in his strong British voice: “For God’s sake, C’mon you Fat Donkey, You can’t even cook some potatoes!!!

The eggs were barely edible and the best but sad part of the whole experience the toast was truly the only enjoyable item.

1 ½ Hours Later….

This was the longest breakfast I have ever had considering it was only steak and eggs. We went to settle the bill and sure enough my meal was comped. The total bill came to $5.30 including tax. However, I left a $5.00 tip to the waiter and told the waiter:

“In any other instance like this, I would not leave a tip, however I have left a generous $5.00 tip because the rate of how the restaurant is operating, you will need this!”

The waiter repeatedly apologized and informed us that there were two new trainees left alone unsupervised and that normally the service was better. I told her thank you, but we would not return.

I thought the service was so poorly run, I sent a letter by email to the Sunset Grill’s head office. I informed them of the situation and that service had to be improved. There was no excuse for not having anyone come to our table to inform us of a delay in the food. At the least, our coffee should have been refilled. Most importantly, I had informed them of the manager/owner walking out during service leaving not one qualified person in the kitchen and a number of orders yet to be completed. Any manager or owner who truly cares for the restaurant would not attempt to do this.

Five days later, I received an email from the Founder and President of the company:

“I would like to apologize for the bad experience you had at our store. I too would not be impressed and probably would not return. In their defense, I have never had a complaint on their store before. I guess we all have our bad days. I appreciate the time you have taken to inform me of your experience. It helps us get it right. I will definitely be following up on this with the owner of that store.”

Hello 9-1-1. Is this Gordon Ramsey?

The Sunset Grill may be the latest breakfast spot to open, but too bad it will be the latest victim to crash. A word of advice to the corporate headquarters, smarten up or the ship will sink. Success is built upon providing consistent service among each unit whether corporate or franchised owned. This was no Sunset at the Sunset Grill. The only thing setting was disaster. So Gordon, if you are out there, please, help save them!

Photograph by: Ben Scicluna

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What is Fast Casual?

Within the restaurant industry, the fast casual market is the fastest growing sub-segment with sales estimated at $15 billion. The term fast casual is associated with consumers “trading-up” from quick service restaurants (i.e. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Burger King) and “trading down from casual dining restaurants (i.e. Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s). Focus is placed on high quality food, freshness, atmosphere and most importantly speed. It is fresh food prepared in minutes.

Who Dominates the Market?

With both companies generating more than $1 billion each in annual sales, Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill are the two biggest names that are consistently in the front news headlines. Both concepts focus on fresh fast foods set in a modern dining atmosphere.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

One of the most publicized restaurants news came in 1998 when McDonald’s made an equity investment in Chipotle to become its majority shareholder. Using McDonald’s experience and expertise in the fast food industry, Chipotle was rapidly formed into a powerful brand. In 2006, McDonald’s sold their shares leaving Chipotle to grow on its own which it has proven it can. Today, Chipotle operates 704 restaurants in 34 states and employs a total of 18,800 employees. In 2007, the company opened 127 new restaurants while up to 140 units are planned to open by the end of 2008.

Chipotle menu offers tacos, burritos, salads and burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) all which are fully customizable by the customer. Service is fast in which some locations are known to serve more than 300 customers per hour. However, customers still select what they want and how they want it by speaking directly to the staff. Chipotle’s vision is to change the way the world thinks about and eats fast food.

Positive news for Chipotle continues as both revenue and net income has increased each year. From 2003 to 2007, revenue increased by 244%.

Total Revenue
December 31, 2007	December 31, 2006	December 31, 2005	December 31, 2004	December 31, 2003
$1,085,782,000	$822,930,000	$627,695,000	$470,721,000	$315,520,000

Panera Bread

Panera’s menu is broken down into three main components; Fresh Baked Goods, Made-to-Order Sandwiches and Custom Roasted Coffees. Fresh baked goods include a variety of in-house baked breads, bagels, muffins, scones and sweets. Made-to-order sandwiches are made on the bakery’s freshly baked bread while coffees include signature hot or cold espresso and cappuccino drinks.

Panera Bread operates 1,230 bakery cafés in 40 states and employs 7800 full-time workers. In 2007, the company opened 169 bakery cafés, 89 of them which were company owned and 80 which were franchise operated.

Although annual net income was slightly down in 2007, total revenue continued to grow. From 2003 to 2007, the company increased its revenue by 193%

Total Revenue
December 25, 2007	December 26, 2006	December 27, 2005	December 25, 2004	December 27 2003
$1,066,691,000	$828,971,000	$640,275,000	$479,139,000	$363,702,000

Who else is in the Top 10?

The following Top 10 Fast Casual concepts for 2007 include:

1. Chipotle Mexican Grill
2. Panera Bread
3. Qdoba Mexican Grill
4. Buffalo Wild Wings
5. Camille’s Sidewalk Café
6. McAlister’s Deli
7. Salad Works
8. Bruegger’s
9. Moe’s Southwest Grill
10. Pinkberry

I want to be part of Chipotle and Panera. Do they franchise?

Unfortunately, franchise options are available only for Panera but require significant capital. Franchise developers are required to open 15 units over a period of 6 years.

Chipotle and Panera are proven concepts that should remain strong for years to come. These fast casual concepts meet the growing consumers’ need for a quick healthy alternative to traditional fast food.

Photograph by: The Consumerist

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