Field Investigation Recap / Introduction to the Menu

The day started with each group getting up in front of the class and discussing the restaurants were were assigned to investigate. To recap, we were split into five small groups and sent out at the end of last class to check out local Italian eateries in the Chelsea area of Manhattan.

The content of the discussion centered around the three tenants of the concept statement: Design, Service, Food. From determining what these three elements were about, we took educated guesses about what these places did to be competitive; Chelsea has a LOAD of Italian eateries, multiple spots on each block. Here is a quick breakdown of what we looked at, and in italics how it differentiates themselves.

• Da Umberto -- high end prices, clubby, hard to notice. Quiet date spot
• Olive Garden -- illusion of a bargain, family-friendly, familiar to commuters and tourists. Safe & unchallenging
• Le Zie -- Ugly decor. Inexpensive. Interesting, fresh menu. For locals
• Il Bastardo -- Modern with nice traditional touches. Space to socialize & drink. Not-so-quiet date spot
• Bar Baresco -- Very wine oriented, lots of small plates. Sit for a snack and a drink

My team covered the last one. The presentation in class was a bit of a practice in public speaking, and I ended up speaking for us. Since we were there when it was closed, my wife and I had lunch there yesterday. The food was good, but we were offered wine and opportunities multiple times -- at one point my wife mentioned her pregnancy to politely get the waiter to back down. That caught the attention of the class, a few murmured congratulations. Huh. There is something to this public speaking thing. After that little pregnancy-aside, they seemed more alert to my comments about the design of the bathrooms (individual rooms with mirrors on three walls for checking yourself out), the large backroom (which according to the waiter, used to be a disco back in the day) and the slightly loud Euro-disco music in the dining room (which would of probably evoked a stronger negative reaction from an older clientele.)

Second part of today's class was an introduction to the menu. As mentioned earlier, one of our texts is called Management by Menu, whose pretense is that all planning, design and strategy in starting and running a food service operation is determined first by the menu. Richard proposed the question: What does a menu tell you about a restaurant.

• kind of food served
• level of dining
• clientele targeted
• service level (depending on how simple or complex dishes are determines the amount of training both front and back of house staff need, as well as how much staff)
• preview of the atmosphere and decor
• beverage selection
• operation information
• expectations of how much time the client will spend (a snack joint is a quicker turn around than a fixed menu with 6 courses)
• determines your equipment (a grilled steak will require a steak and....a grill)
• food & beverage cost
• space needed (expensive restaurants tend to give more wiggle room to each diner than a fast casual, which will pack 'em in)

A well designed menu is a key to success, in both it's content and graphic design. Richard quickly sketched two menus on the board. One was the proportion of an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper, the other was long and thin. The first had two dense columns of squiggles, the later a few small bunches of squiggles punctuated by spaces between them. From these basic sketches, we could infer that the first was from a lower-end place that could accommodate snackers and drinkers to a diner with a broad appetite, while the later was probably on the higher-end, demanding more of a commitment from the client in terms of time and money.

The class ended with another round of the mission statement workshop. Jazzman was absent, Pastry still hasn't written one, so we reviewed Northfork's statement again first, the coffee and gelato cafe in Long Island's Northfork. We bounced around the idea of the clientele's expectations -- if they are up there going to wineries, well, that's not kid friendly. Perhaps take the concept of the winery and transpose the coffee and gelato product on it? A flight of small tasting cups of coffee, matched with a flight of small tastes of gelato?

Then we got into mine, the first time it underwent the scrutiny of my fellow students, who seemed to dig it. While defending it and explaining it more thoroughly to Northfork, she said she started getting hungry for pizza -- I guess that's a compliment to me, that my enthusiasm got her motor running. Richard joined us and chimed in on my concept, giving some pointed (but always kindly) advice and pointers. I won't go into it here, but he did hint that opening a restaurant to create a reputation to market a pizza product on might be the way to go. I'm not surprised, as opening a restaurant is the whole gist of the program. However, there must be a way to make a reputation in pizza in ways other than just opening a storefront....maybe hooking up with a celebrity chef? Partnering with a known restaurant? Associating with another brand? His comments made me think, and will revise and add notes for tomorrow's class.