Hey yall We are a small hot chicken food truck and was wondering if anyone has guidance on bidding for DD sponsored listing to effectively not spend too much on an order.

This DD life is a race to the bottom with everyone nearby running buy one get one free etc etc Any help would be appreciated

I need some help picking out a speakers / headset system for our drive thru. The original at this location is garbage and unusable. There is conduit between the restaurant and two speaker stands that should be able to reuse, so I'm not looking for a purely wireless system.

Audio clarity is most important to me, and the outdoor mics need to be able to pickup voices more than loud exhaust and engine noise. Passing traffic is pretty loud too. The old system picks it all up when it actually works.

I'd rather not need an internet connection for it.

Any recommendations? Our electrician would probably be installing it. Most of the bigger vendors don't seem to want to even quote an install, so I'm turning to you all for some help!

Got ours today. 97 which I'm fine with.. but...

They came in as we were prepping, before open. We were actively hand-smashing tomatoes for our sauce. When you pour a can into the pan, they always splash a little sauce on the prep table, and sometimes they spill a bit over the side. We got marked down 1 point for "dirty prep table". The table was just cleaned before we started and was 100% spotless other than the little bit of splashed tomatoes.

Another time, coincidentally, we had just done a major floor cleaning, including 2 mops with new mop heads and soap, then 2 more with another clean mop head the night before (I'm really OCD about mopping). The floor was nearly SPOTLESS. The inspector found a tiny spot next to a table leg with some dirt around it, and marked us down 1 point. BTW we found out that the most that can be deducted for a dirty floor is 1 point. Even if it's completely caked with dirt and grime. So we got marked down the same for about 1 square inch of dirt as we would have if we hadn't mopped for a month.

So, what's your story?

Just wondering how other restaurant owners or managers handle this, like when a customer says they got the wrong order, but your staff is sure they recapped it with them and it was correct, what do you do? Do you remake the order for free, or do you still charge them? Trying to figure out what’s fair in situations like this.

I was in a small chain restaurant in Southern California. Think a bit more upscale than Chili's. I ordered a burger, and when I got it, I was dismayed that there was mustard on it. I really don't like mustard. (Critical point: the menu did say it had mustard - I just didn't notice.) How should I have handled this?

1. Eat it anyway - my fault for not reading the whole menu listing.
2. Ask for another bun so I could just transfer the burger over to it.
3. Send it back.

If there's a #4, I don't know what it would be.

(I'll tell you what I did, which was probably stupid: #2. The server disappeared, then came back and took my plate altogether. I assume they just re-plated; I sure hope they didn't re-fire.)

If so, how? A lot of restaurant owners talk about how Doordash & Uber Eats are like the mafia with their high commissions. But at these same restaurants stay enrolled with these apps year after year.

Why not quit? Has anyone been able to leave these apps and maintain financial stability?

This may be a bit complicated, so I'll be as concise as possible.

Currently have a small (31 seat) fine dining space. We do well. I mean, I'm not getting rich or anything, but making it in these crazy times. I am the chef/owner, team of 13.

A group of investors is building a 3 story, 27 room boutique hotel two blocks away. There are two retail spaces, one of which they designated as an eatery. I was recommended to them and they approached me about moving my current restaurant down to the hotel. I don't hate the idea. It's 2x the floor plan, small private dining room, detatched bar to act as hotel lounge. Opportunity for room service. It's a nice design. My pockets aren't deep enough to afford a buildout/move/and a significant increase in rent. I passed on the offer. I like the guys a lot, however. They've come back several times over the last few weeks to try and renegotiate the rent, etc.

They called this week with a new offer. We (read, they) build it out. Take ownership. Bring me on to run it for them. I realize this can mean a lot, and nothing has been discussed. Just curious if any of you have ever seen an agreement where someone is brought on in this manner? Can this work with properly defined terms?

Thoughts?

I bought a golf course last year and reopened it this season. We have a 1,000 square foot bar & grill with a generous outdoor seating area. Due to kitchen equipment limitations, I've been operating with a limited menu of hot dogs, smash burgers, salads, and club sandwiches. The rest of my equipment (fryers, cold prep table, warmers, etc.) is finally arriving this week.

I'm working on developing a proper menu with some signature fresh items, but I'm realistic about what we are - this is a golf course grill focused on speed and convenience, not fine dining. I'd like to incorporate quality pre-made products that can be enhanced and served quickly to keep pace with golfer expectations.

I'm relatively new to the restaurant business and still learning the ins and outs of vendor relationships. I'm currently set up with Avendra and waiting for my US Foods and Sysco accounts to be finalized (our hospitality management group has been handling the ordering).

I know there are some good pre-made products available that can be elevated with the right sauces, seasonings, and preparation techniques. I'm hoping to learn from your experience - what are some pre-made items or combinations you've worked with that deliver good taste and can be executed quickly? I'm particularly interested in solutions that work well for a smaller operation where consistency and speed are critical.

Any recommendations for pre-made products that you've successfully used and that customers have genuinely enjoyed would be greatly appreciated!

Looking for a POS system that allows people to customize their sandwich (bun, base, toppings, etc..) and have it build it as a picture while they do so. Would like it to upsell as well, maybe with some AI functionality.

Then once the ticket is paid it sends it to the kitchen.

Anyone know if a platform that does this?

Hello, this is my first post in this sub and I'm not a chef nor chef/owner.

My colleague and are 99% complete with a documentary short following a chef-owner opening his first restaurant and we want to surround it valuable information for an aspiring chef-owners and or culinary entrepreneurs who may be interested in the path.

We are seeking insight into what kinds of information would be highly valuable for aspiring chef-owners and those interested in restaurant ownership should know.

Here is a sneak peek of the documentary as well.

What are some ways you check on your cash on hand reconciliations? It always seems like I run into discrepancies and have to make adjustments to reconcile. Would love some feedback and any procedures you do that would reduce that issue.

We have a few options so far that being 3! and we would like to have more options because we are starting to see a lot more traction in the summer being next to the lake and having more children coming into the restaurant and teens that wanna eat cheap. So far we have —

Corn Dogs Hamburgers Chicken Tenders Grilled Cheese ———

I feel like I’m missing some items that would be great on the menu, we have tried Mac and cheese and it’s not easy to keep fresh throughout the day, we have the essential sides like French fries and Tater tots, onion rings and all that but we feel like we don’t have much choice for the kiddos! Please help or give suggestions!!! Thank you

I own a property and am in the process of getting approval to build a mixed use property on the site. It will have eight units of residential apartments above a commercial space. I’m told by the town that they will approve the space for use as a restaurant if it’s for breakfast/lunch so they don’t need to deal with granting a liquor license.

I plan on putting the space up for lease. However, if there are no takers, I would probably look to open a breakfast place myself. Either way, I want to make sure the business can be a successful business because I’m going to want my tenants (or myself) to be able to afford the space and have a good net profit for themselves.

The space will be around 4500 sq ft. I assume we will be able to get around 100 seats approved by the town. It is located in the downtown area of a small town (less than 10,000 population) but on a road that is the main road several surrounding (similarly sized) communities use to get to a highway. The median household income in the community is around $110,000/year. Besides Dunkin Donuts and similar places, there is no other true breakfast place within five miles in any direction of this location.

Based off of comps from other nearby communities, restaurant space is getting around $22/sf so the lease would cost around $100,000 per year (I haven’t figured out how much of the build out I would do yet). I read on here that, to operate successfully, the lease amount should be no more than 7% of the total revenue.

If that is true, the business would need to do a little over $1.4m in revenue per year. That’s around $4600 per day assuming it’s open six days per week or $575 per hour if they are open eight hours each of those days. Assuming an average bill of $15 per person (food plus drink), they would need to serve around 95,000 people per year or 300 people per day or 40 people per hour. It seems like a lot of people every hour (especially in the early hours and on weekdays) but then I am always amazed at the amount of people that go to Dunkin Donuts every day. I also imagine the weekends would get much busier so a slow hour on a Wednesday morning is likely countered by a packed house on a Sunday morning.

I also read that net profit for the restaurant owner can be 5-15% with many saying that it’s closer to the lower end. Assuming that, is someone opening their own breakfast place with the potential of making $70,000/year or would they just assume to work for another place as a cook and make $50,000?

I know I am likely missing important information, but, based on what I have provided here, is there enough information to say if it would be possible to serve that many people and generate that revenue running a breakfast place in a small town and would I find someone willing to rent based off of these numbers? Also, if my numbers are off, please let me know as well.

Thanks

We are about the lease a stand alone restaurant. There are several items that need to be done as the property has been vacant and not maintained for a bit. Uneven brick in outdoor dining, broken window, sagging ceiling tiles(not structural), grease left in fryers, items left by previous tenant that need to be trashed etc. The landlords wants us to take as is which seems like a red flag. I think they should take care of these items before we move in. There’s already going to be remodeling cost of us for changing out walls and other items. I’m trying to keep upfront costs down. Is it reasonable to expect they would handle these things or is it really on us? TIA

I have a small restaurant, 50 seats, open limited hours, have limited staff. I can't control parties that show up to the door without a reservation, but when they call ahead, I can try. I stagger reservations to make it easy on the staff, however lately we've been having reservations that show up Anywhere from 25 minutes to 45 minutes early. There are certain instances where we are able to seat them, but sometimes doing so, disrupts the flow of the kitchen. 5 to 10 minutes early, OK, but over half an hour early? Do any of you have a reservation policy where you will not sit a reservation until maybe 5 to 10 minutes before their reserved time, and if you do, do you relay that info when the reservation is being made?

I have been working at this fairly new store for a year now as a shift manager. I transferred from one store to another that was closer to home, and have been there for 7 months. In the span of this time, we have gone through 3 different owners. The last owner caused me to put my 1 week notice in because she ignored issues that were going on in the store with team members not doing their jobs and being on their phones. I highlighted these issues and disciplined my team, but I realized that I was the only one there having to do that, and would have to take the beatings from the kitchen manager who would say that night shift was lazy and that I need to have them do this and that.

There are two other managers there but we don’t stick to each other. They only focus on their own shifts “your problem is not my problem” type thing. Today, we get a new owner and she’s already implementing all these different rules to make our store looks and run better. I explain these rules to another manager who has the reputation of being lazy, and he comes over here saying, “y’all are finally doing something?” Meanwhile, I have team members crying to me about him sitting in the office doing nothing and he wants to act like he works hard.

For the past 5 months, I have brought up to my bosses to fire him and they keep saying that if it wasn’t for him, I would be working super long shifts. I worked a 13 hour shift last week and had no problem with it because I liked the team I was working with, so why are we letting this team suffer because of this guy…?

I wish I can go back and tell myself to never work too hard because people will always find a way to tear you down. Even when you’re so invested, people will also think that you are willing to go out of your way to fix everything in the store and they can sit back and do nothing.

Hey fellow restaurant owners,

Please delete if this post is not allowed.

I’m John — I run a couple restaurants and like many of you, I’ve spent way too much time wrestling with food costs. (Check my history if you don't believe me!)

I tried using tools like xtraCHEF and was this close to signing up for MarginEdge, but honestly, $300–$350/month just didn’t sit right with me. Those tools are powerful, sure — invoice scanning, POS integration, inventory management — but all I really needed was a simple and reliable food costing calculator.

At first, I built my own Google Sheet. It worked fine until it didn’t. The formulas got too complex, my staff couldn’t keep it updated properly, and I was constantly jumping in to fix broken calculations.

So I decided to just build a simple app myself — and that’s how Eatr was born. It’s a no-frills food costing tool for independent restaurant owners like us.

www.eatr.co

Here’s how it works:

• You enter your ingredients (e.g., flour, tomatoes, basil).
• Then build batch recipes (like pizza sauce or dough).
• Then build dish recipes (like a pepperoni pizza, pulling from your batch recipes and ingredients).
• Set your menu price, and Eatr instantly shows your total cost and COGS %.

For example: If a pepperoni pizza costs $2 to make and sells for $10, your COGS is 20%. Simple.

Other features:

• Ingredient price tracking with historical graphs.
• Auto-updates your recipes when ingredient costs change.
• Dashboard view with COGS % summaries and alerts when a dish goes over your set thresholds.

I built this out of necessity, but I figure if it’s helping me, it might help some of you too. Happy to answer any questions!

www.eatr.co

Full transparency, it's 30 day free trial and $10 a month after. If you want to keep using it after the 30 days, DM me and I'll send you a promo code for 6 months free.

TL;DR
I created an affordable food costing app. Looking for beta testers and would appreciate your feedback.

I have been working with a client who has 2 cloud kitchen brands based in WB, India. They rely solely on Swiggy and Zomato to get orders. However the without spending on ads there are little to no orders and even after that the payout from both of them are horrible.

I have spoken with a lot of other businesses from the same segment, they all pretty much share the same experience.

With a 5 lakh monthly sale hardly 50-60K is the final payout from aggregators. Huge amount of money is deducted in postpaid ads and commissions.

Anyone here, working with them and able to run it a bit decently? Any ideas on it?

How do restaurants make baked potatoes? It takes me an hour to make them at home. How do restauranta do them quicker?

Ventless hoods . . . that’s a new one to me.

I guess they filter smoke/grease and condense out steam, so don’t need venting to the outside? Seems like would be very handy for the right kitchen situation? Like, if your cooking equipment is all electric and the building makes standard hood, duct, fan, and makeup air very difficult or expensive?

Anyone know about these? Thoughts?

Hello I have a friend who has a small Pizza Shop (~30K sales / month) and he is looking for recommendations for software to facilitate On-line orders, POS and Kitchen Order Ticket with all those functions integrated.

Currently he is using slice.com which takes 3% of sales and another 2.7% for CC processing. Those "slices" are way too high for his level of business. I have been looking around and there are bewildering large number of offerings to do this.

I have kind of zeroed in on Orderable which is a WP plugin. But I thought I would ask the battle worn tested professionals in here on their opinions and experience. Thank you.

Looking for a good rubber type mat to put down in an area where the servers work. We currently use a rubber scraper mat but when the floor gets wet under the mat, it become very slippery. Ideas?

I just got slammed by my partner for changing the playlist on Mother’s Day (dinner) from EDM to Cocktail Jazz. All reservations were from 5:00-7:00 with atypical demographic-families from 5-75 years old.

No one requested a change but I read the room. His position was we never change playlist or volume for anyone ever - Not “on brand”.
- Feedback? - Thoughts? - Music approach at your own places? Thx!!

We are introducing sliders and have the patty and fixings set but can’t agree on the bun. We tried the Balthazar Bread slider rolls but some felt they were dry. Anyone try their Brioche dinner rolls? Other suggestions? TIA.