The Art of a Restaurateur
A restaurateur must be a master of all trades. Can you fix a plug, stop a leak, unblock a toilet, sort out when a dishwasher breaks or your refuse doesn’t get picked up, manage your cash-flow, pay your suppliers without credit, without an overdraft (as you are new) and that’s not forgetting the customers, bloggers and critics.
I believe to be a successful restaurateur you need to know EVERY JOB in your restaurant, because how do you know if the KP (kitchen porter) is stealing food, if your chef is screwing you over with a supplier, if your floor manager and bar manager are in cahoots? If the barman is pulling long measures, missing stock, is your menu priced right?
As a restaurateur you need to be the face of your restaurant, you need to smile at your customers and appear in control regardless of the situation. For your staff you need to show a strong work ethic that operates on rewarding great work and punishing bad work, obviously in relation to the crime.
A restaurateur must be the leader with a vision for the future and they must convey what is important to them in regards to the restaurant, to everyone that works there. If the restaurateur is slap dash and lazy then expect the staff to act the same, if the restaurateur is proud and serious about the business then the staff will mirror that.
I believe that discipline, respect and fairness are the most important traits for any business owner and leader of people. Most people crave structure and discipline, they need to know that they will get rewarded and respected if they work hard and at the same time they expect the bad behavior of other colleagues to be addressed immediately, to enforce discipline and to not to ruin the harmony within the team or question the business ethos.
The restaurant business is infamous for long antisocial hours people have to work. The hours are very long, as a new restaurateur setting up a business, they are expected to be there from the moment you open until the closing time, but as for antisocial hours? I disagree. A restaurant is a very social job, if you are on the floor you get to talk to customers as part of your job and if you in the kitchen, you have the camaraderie of the kitchen team. The only antisocial part is in your private life, where it is important to have understanding and support on both sides.
It is important when the time is right to start training up a protégé to take pressure off you and allow you time to look at and grow other parts of the business.
Having systems in place can really help control the business and allow consistence results without you having to constantly monitor everyone.
When it comes to paying wages and bills, there is a certain hierarchy that mustn’t be messed with if you want to grow your business smoothly. The big three payments that come first above all are: Tax to the government, Utilities (Gas, Electric) and Wages to staff then and only then food/drink suppliers. You can’t operate if; the government close you down, if you have no gas or electric or if you have no staff. Food/drink suppliers can always be found. Obviously to run really smoothly everyone must be earning and happy.
To sum up a restaurateur has to be a master of several jobs and have a good understanding of every job. They thrive on finding solutions to problems, it is amazing what comes to mind when your back’s against the wall. A restaurateur must be good at psychology, knowing when to shout at or cuddle someone in order to keep the troops happy and consistent. A restaurateur is a master juggler without a safety net, who believes in themselves and knows it will all work out.
A poignant quote from my least favorite Rocky movie (5) ‘it’s not how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.
But what is more important than anything else is PASSION.