Attracting new bar revenue

Superstars you’ve never heard of are playing a professional sport you never knew existed… and video game geeks everywhere are staying home because you decided to show the ball game instead.
Some restaurateurs are finally starting to catch on, like Mad Dog in the Fog in San Francisco, and those that do have tapped a nice extra revenue stream for their business.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, a little background:
The History
Starcraft I was released in 1998 by the same software company that brought us World of Warcraft.  The video game allows players to build and command vast armies of space creatures against other players in real time.
Starcraft I became immensely popular in South Korea, and over the last decade an entire network of competitions, leagues, and fans has sprung up around the game.  Korea even has two TV channels dedicated to broadcasting Starcraft competitions.  Top players even have the same status as professional athletes.
In the U.S., Major League Gaming (MLG) started holding live competitions for a variety of head-to-head video games like Halo, Call of Duty, and of course Starcraft.  These events have attracted a growing following, especially among the under 25 set.
Until recently fans of MLG competitions could only see the action by either attending a live event or streaming to a home computer.  That’s where barcraft comes in.
The Rise Of Barcraft
Barcraft refers to broadcasting a Starcraft or similar video game competition in a bar.  The establishments that have tried it see scores of young and enthusiastic patrons filling seats even on normally slow nights like Sunday.
The best part about broadcasting a live video game competition is the costs are a fraction of the costs of common professional sports packages like NFL Sunday Ticket.  Any restaurateur wanting to host a barcraft event will need a fast internet connection and a little technical know-how to get the ball rolling however.
It’s worth the effort, however.  The finals of a Los Angeles tournament logged 85,000 viewers across the country.  Chances are at least 50 of them live near your establishment – and getting them up off the couch and into a barstool shouldn’t be too hard.
That’s because gamers are excited about being able to share their passion for these tournaments with other gamers for the first time.  Experiencing a thrilling moment with a bar full of like-minded people has long been the reason why thousands of restaurants started drawing football fans every Sunday or baseball fans every October.
Now gamers are getting their moment.
For more information on streaming MLG events visit their website: http://blog.etundra.com/restaurant-management-and-operations/barcraft/www.majorleaguegaming.com

One of my favorite articles....

I would have to rate a computer as a must have for a Chef, second only to a good set of quality knives. While utilizing a POS (Point of Sale) System and knowing how to use it can be enormously useful to a chef, I think spreadsheets are the cat’s meow.
Before I migrated to MS Excel I was a MAChead and used a program called Clarisworks which had a similar spreadsheet program. I couldn’t have done without and been as organized as I was without the heavy use of spreadsheets.
I strongly recommend if, as a cook or chef, if you don’t know how to use spreadsheets, take a course in it, even over learning to use Word.
These are many things that spreadsheets can be used for to make your life easier. (While some POS systems can spit out reports in CSV (comma separated value) format, so you can integrate them with information you are using at home, you can’t take the POS system home with you.) As a former chef, much of my computer time was spent at home working on things for the restaurant on my own time (something that happens a lot, especially if you are on salary)
Here is a listing of some of the things you can use spreadsheets for:

• Staff scheduling
• Order sheets for vendors
• Vendor lists with contact information
• Daily prep lists
• Inventory control lists and tracking
• Variable food cost lists (if you learn to program formulas this makes life much easier.) The cost of fish for the special you run every Friday varies dramatically week to week. Plug in the cost and if your calculations are in correctly, it will give the cost of what you should sell the entrée for in order to maintain your food cost properly.
• Recipes (again if you learn to program formulas) changing a recipe with ingredients for 10 servings to 150 becomes a snap.
• Long term recording and forecasting (track inventory levels and compare them month to month, track vendor usage, track food pricing, track covers (people dining), track your scheduling of staff-who needs a vacation?)
• Waste and food loss usage: If bread baskets are coming back from the dining room with an average of 2 rolls left in them, track waste and reduce accordingly. Having to note and track raw food (vegetables, meat, fish and poultry) being prepared also cuts down on waste, cooks who have sloppy knife skills will show up wasting more food over time then ones with better. If a cook, in an average time period, cleans a case of tenderloins, make him weigh the trimmings. Trimmings should be just silverskin. If the average unusable trim is high, it’s something you need to keep an eye one.
• Menu items and trends (if you track an average of two weeks worth of sales of a new entrée and compared to a similarly priced entrée or one that it is replacing, sales are down, it may not be worth keeping it on.)
• Schedule your specials and date when you ran them; this makes finding out whether certain ones sold better easier and also whether some sold better if ran on certain days then others. I always found it interesting that a high end grilled vegetable pannini special sold better when run midweek then on the weekends for example.

In the long run, use of spreadsheets will save you time, make you better organized, save your food costs and down the road save quite a few headaches.
Heather Turner, Chief Log-roller at Forfeng Designs, a company who specializes in the hospitality industry, blogs about the foodservice and lodging industries.




Read more: http://blog.etundra.com/restaurant-management-and-operations/restaurant-management-spreadsheets/#ixzz1V6cTf12X

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Resume

Jeffrey R. Pickron

236 Bullfrog Rd. Ripley, WV

. 25271 ● (304) 838-6651  ●  Email: racingchevy@hotmail.com

Summary

Fourteen years of success in responsible restaurant management.  Proven ability to learn quickly, assess problems and initiate corrective action to resolve. Comfortable in fast-paced high-volume, high stress situations requiring attention to detail and follow through. Able to motivate personnel; hold to high uncompromising standards of excellence.  Demonstrated success in organizing tasks, increasing efficiency, and obtaining maximum results from limited material and manpower resources.  Adapt at building lasting client relationships for repeated success. Effective in maintaining employee moral and employee retention.

Experience

Applebee’s Neighborhood Hospitality, WV.                                                     2005-June 2011

Kitchen Manager

I was promoted from Associate Manager after two years.  In charge of administration, budgets, payroll,

P&L statements,projections, training, billing, and ordering of food and supplies.  Installing and implementing new safety programs.

•           Training Manager for all new associates

•           Training manager for all new manager for 23 stores

•           Received awards for lowest Food Comps and increased bars sales 26%.

•           Increased cost efficiency by 9%.

•           Annual sales of 3.5 million and a staffing of 75

•           Presenting and training of new menus to staff

•           Effective staff motivations through creative contest and rewards

Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort, Intra-West Corp. Snowshoe WV.                              2002-2005

System Coordinator for Food and Beverage Department

•           I was promoted from General Manager to Systems Coordinator after one year.

•           Monitored food and labor costs for all 15 restaurants at the resort

•           Implemented discount bulk ordering for all establishments saving 7% annually.

•           Created new inventory control systems for onsite warehouse and restaurants reducing

spoilage,waste and out of dates by 23%.

•           Responsible for total food and beverage of 13.8 million dollars

•           Training for managers on resort systems

Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort, Intra-West Corp. Snowshoe WV.                              2002-2003

General Manager

•           GM of two locations Rosa’s Cantina Mexican Cuisine Restaurant and Bar, then

Cheat Mountain Pizza and Spaghetti.

•           15% increase in profit at Rosa’s and 9% increase in sales at Cheat Mtn.

•           Planning Menus and developed marketing campaigns to take resort food off the resort to local year round customers.

•           Administration, Payroll, P&L’s, Manager and Employee Training, Billing and Ordering were just a few responsibilities.

•           Trained, Hired, and Supervised, Scheduled and motivated a staff of 65 employees.

Jeffrey R. Pickron

236 Bullfrog Rd. Ripley, WV

. 25271 ● (304) 838-6651  ●  Email: racingchevy@hotmail.com

Schwan’s Enterprises, Lakeland FL.                                                                             2000-2002

Facility Manager

Promoted from Assistant Product Manager, to Product Manager, and then to Facility Manager was

Relocated from Lakeland FL. to Savannah GA. and again to Lexington VA.

•           Attained ‘Gold Club Level’ in all three depots

•           Truck maintenance, warehouse maintenance schedules, budget estimates and

safety procedures

•           Forecasting sales and inventory for yearly promotions

•           Shrinkage and damage product reduction by 120,000 dollars

•           Training, Hiring, and Supervising, Scheduling and Motivated a staff of 35 employees.

Crabby Bill’s Restaurant St. Petersburg, FL.                                                                 1999-2000

Kitchen Manager

•           Overseeing preparation of food, purchasing, food costs and ordering of all inventory

•           Trained, Hired, and Supervised, Scheduled and motivated a kitchen staff of 55

employees.

•           Improved productivity and morale by initiating systems for accountability and by

Instituting effective training and award programs

Parkway Food Service Clearwater FL                                                              1994-1998

Dry Goods Assistant Manager

•           Forklift Operator and received my OHSA certification.

•           Shipping and receiving delivery semi’s, checking and pulling pallets, inventory

•           Improved safety regulations and cut accidents in half

Strengths

Proven leadership and managerial abilities (able to motivate, develop, cross train hire employees to reach

desired objectives through creative contests and rewards); excellent communication/interpersonal skills

(excellent with creating positive employee and guest relations); highly skilled with identification/problem

solving resolutions.

Additional Skills and Education

•           MS Word, Office, Excel and Outlook, Quick Books, Micros, Kronos. JDE,

Apple Manager, Rosnet, Power Point and Photo Shop

•           Food Serve Safe Certified

•           OSHA Forklift Certified from 1994

•           Intrawest Management Training Implementation (MTI) Certified

•           Graduated High School in 1992 from Osceola High in Seminole FL.

•           Pinellas Technical Education College in Clearwater FL 1993-1994

•           Majored in Architecture and Civil Engineering Design

•           Bluefield State College in Lewisburg WV. 2005-2006

Assoc. Degree in Restaurant Management and General Business Management

and Marketing. I did not graduate due to growing family.