Leadership | KRG Hospitality

AI-generated image of a bottle of Cognac, two Cognac snifters, and some mints on a silver platter on a restaurant table

June 20, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

It’s Time to Perfect Your Moves

It’s Time to Perfect Your Moves

by David Klemt

This AI-generated image will make sense after you read this article.

Will Guidara doesn’t just believe in hospitality, he’s all in on the kind that goes beyond expectations and transforms into unreasonable hospitality.

I mean, it’s the title of his best-selling book, and the subject of a Guidara-hosted TED Talk. That should tell you all you need to know about his belief in taking hospitality to “unreasonable” levels.

At the 2025 Bar & Restaurant Expo in Las Vegas, Guidara delivered a keynote that was part challenge, part call to arms. His message was clear: the only true long-term competitive advantage in food and beverage isn’t the food, the drinks, or the space. It’s the hospitality.

The KRG Hospitality team also lives this approach to hospitality. At the end of the day, most concepts are selling the same items. Makes sense given the iron grip purveyors have on F&B, right?

So, a hugely important differentiator is how operators and their teams deliver on hospitality. To that end, Guidara has identified 130 touch points that influence the guest experience. That’s 130 in roads. Or, depending on which moments a team doesn’t leverage, 130 self-imposed obstacles or exits.

The Only Competitive Advantage

“Eventually, someone else is going to come around and create a better product,” Guidara told a packed room in Las Vegas. “The only competitive advantage that exists in the long term is your hospitality.”

That might sound like a line, but coming from Guidara, it’s a philosophy.

He urged operators to “throw [y]ourselves wholeheartedly at the pursuit of those relationships,” referring to the guest connections that drive loyalty, advocacy, and repeat visits.

These aren’t just transactions; these are opportunities to make people feel seen, valued, and appreciated.

Drilling all the way down, whether someone is tossing a few bucks at a quick bite or dropping tens of thousands for an experience, they want the same thing. Everyone wants to feel relevant. To feel important, and even cool.

You may not see the guests you make feel special every day. However, the chances of transforming them into repeat guests increases when you treat them like VIPs regardless of who they are, what they order, and how much they spend.

130 Moments

At Eleven Madison Park, Guidara and his team identified 130 distinct touch points in a guest’s dining experience.

The first moment is that guest researching your venue online, and the last is leaving their table. One of those touch points (or moments) is dropping the check.

And yet, said Guidara, most operators treat it like the end of the story, as nothing more than a transactional curtain call.

Guidara sees it as one last moment to connect. He referenced a study involving 2,000 restaurants: the 1,000 that dropped a mint with the check saw an 18-percent increase in tips. Call it a gimmick if you want, but it’s a small gesture that had a tangible impact. And all those teams had to do was include a mint that costs literally three to five cents.

A Better Ending

As I was sitting in the audience, Guidara’s thoughts on dropping the check reminded me of a Jim Gaffigan bit. Joking about the restaurant experience, he says getting the check can feel like a bit of a gut punch, particularly when the service has been so warm and friendly. Upon receiving the check in his standup bit, Gaffigan deadpans, “I thought we were friends.”

Surely, we can all do better than just walking up, dropping the check, and waiting for payment.

Guidara shared a personal example of turning this touch point into more of a moment. After delivering a particularly high check, he returned to the table with a full bottle of Cognac. He poured a splash into each guest’s glass, then simply left the bottle on the table. Rarely did anyone pour more—but that wasn’t the point. The gesture itself was the takeaway.

Do I expect operators to accompany checks with expensive spirits or wine? No, of course not. But I do want operators, their leaders, and their staff to consider what they can do to leverage the final moments of a guest’s experience.

Review, Rethink, Refresh

Guidara encouraged every operator in the room to review their own touch points.

“In the next month, identify one touch point you may not think about much, and get creative to enhance it,” he said.

This doesn’t mean swinging for the fences and transforming the moment you’ve selected into something needlessly grandiose. Instead, the key is intentionality.

Even a small change—if it’s thoughtful—can become unforgettable.

Further, taking on this exercise should help you fine-tune your service cadence. I recommend undergoing this exercise each month from now until the end of the year, choosing at least one touch point to elevate. More than likely, your steps of service will benefit from this intentionality and resulting refinement.

Team First, Always

Pre-meal, Guidara argued, is the most important time to rally your team.

It’s the moment to communicate the “why” behind your service. This is the time to set the tone, reinforce values, and spread passion.

Pre-meal also happens to be on Chef Brian Duffy’s non-negotiable daily checklist, in case you needed more proof to its importance.

“I believe passion is contagious,” Guidara said during his BRE keynote. “Energy begets energy. Passion begets passion.”

But operators have to be brave enough to go first. Too many are caught up in trying to look “cool,” when what’s actually needed is a little vulnerability and a lot of real talk.

He also reminded leaders to get their hands dirty.

Some people have a romanticized vision of restaurant, bar or nightclub ownership. They think they’ll be the cool person showing up to their hotspot in an expensive drop-top, fawned over by staff and guests alike. The reality is typically much further from that dream.

As an owner, you’ll be the one sprinting to the bathroom to unclog a toilet, or staring at an electrical panel, trying to figure out why half the kitchen went down suddenly.

When your team is in the weeds, the fastest way to earn their respect is to do the most menial task in the room: “Don’t ask them to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.”

Perfect Your Moves

Guidara uses the word “moves” to describe signature gestures. These are moments that define your operation, steps within your service cadence that set it apart.

Before you start overthinking your cadence or second-guessing every step, your moves don’t have to be dramatic or expensive. What’s important is that they’re yours.

“Only do what you can do well,” said Guidara. “If you can only do one thing, do that one thing and stand out.”

But keep a simple mantra in mind: Complication is the enemy.

“Nothing will gain traction with your team if it’s too difficult to implement.” We take this to heart at KRG, encouraging operators to keep their menus to 12 to 15 items, prepared better than any competitor makes them.

Also, bear this in mind: When team members are invited into the creative process—when they get to contribute to the magic—engagement skyrockets. The back-of-house team should be part of the initial food menu development stage. For the bar menu, the bar team should be actively engaged.

When it’s time for seasonal or mid-year menu refreshes, encourage involvement from the entire team.

Turn Guests Into Ambassadors

This isn’t about over-delivering or giving everything away. Rather, it’s about being present.

When your team is empowered and your service is intentional, you create moments that guests talk about. Those moments turn guests into evangelists.

They come back. They bring others. Your regulars become a legion of ambassadors for your brand.

We live and run businesses in a world where the food, the drinks, and the vibe can all be copied. But that kind of guest loyalty? That’s the one thing that pretenders can’t replicate.

Image: Canva

AI-generated image of a clean, well-equipped restaurant kitchen

May 29, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Who Really Owns the Kitchen?

Who Really Owns the Kitchen?

by David Klemt

AI-generated image.

Who owns the kitchen? One of our favorites, Chef Brian Duffy, has some thoughts, and they boil down to taking ownership of the systems.

His 2025 Bar & Restaurant Expo session title, “Owners & Chefs: Who Owns the Kitchen?” sounded like Chef Duffy was teeing up a showdown: chef versus operator. But he had something else in mind.

During his session, Chef Duffy addressed ownership not as a title, but as an operating philosophy.

If you ask him who really owns the kitchen, his answer will be simple: Whoever takes responsibility for its systems.

Chef Duffy isn’t just theorizing from the pass. The chef and operator has opened more than 100 venues, and actively oversees ten restaurants each week. His experience and position in the business have helped him develop a uniquely sharp eye for what separates kitchen chaos from culinary consistency.

Spoiler alert: It’s not talent. It’s not even creativity.

What matters is taking ownership of systems, communication, and accountability. Are talent and creativity important in the kitchen? Absolutely. Will a restaurant survive (and thrive) without the development and strict adherence to effective systems? I think we all know the answer to that question.

Assumption Leads to Dysfunction

If you’ve ever attended a Duffified education session or demo, you know he jumps straight in. He’s passionate about this business. He loves talking about it, sharing his knowledge, sharing new ideas, and collaborating on ways to move the industry forward.

So, while I wasn’t fully expecting Chef Duffy’s opening provocation, it didn’t entirely surprise me that he kicked off his session with it: Restaurant owners are expecting too much without saying anything at all.

“They assume chefs and kitchen managers just know what to do,” he said. “Daily, weekly, monthly.”

That assumption is where dysfunction takes root.

Duffy plans six weeks out because that’s what it takes to run a kitchen like a business. With that proactive approach to lead time, he can lock in pricing with suppliers, ensure the products he needs are available, give teams time to plan events, schedule staff fairly and effectively, and control costs with precision.

When you don’t plan ahead (or don’t plan far enough ahead), your kitchen becomes reactive. Simply put, reactive kitchens are expensive.

Worse, they’re chaotic. And chaos burns people out.

Daily: Predictable Results

Chef Duffy doesn’t do ambiguity. Anyone who has spoken or worked with him can attest to this truth.

It should come as no surprise, then, that his expectations are decidedly unambiguous. They’re detailed, repeatable, and focused on communication, clarity, and control.

Here’s his daily checklist:

POS Counts: Know what you have. Open the line of communication with front-of-house.
Tasting: Everyone tastes the specials, cocktails, wines, and even a core menu item daily.
Pre-meal: Shift briefings with intention. Share what to sell, what’s 86ed, any kitchen concerns, etc.
Prep List: Created at the end of the shift, while everything’s fresh so nothing is missed.
Protein Counts: Same timing as the prep list to eliminate guessing on inventory.
Daily Recap: Communicate staffing, equipment, prep issues, and anything else those working the next shift should know.

You’ll notice none of these are flashy, and that’s the point: These rituals are how kitchens run efficiently, end of.

Chef Duffy’s clearly communicated expectations are how you reduce waste, avoid surprises, and build team alignment.

Crucially, he has tracked the results of his approach, and says a system like this can shave one to two percent off your costs. That’s a lot of dollars over the course of a year.

Know and Sell

One of Chef Duffy’s biggest irritants? Hearing a server say, “Let me go ask the chef.”

“If a guest asks if they can have a menu item without a certain ingredient, and the server doesn’t know the answer, it means the chef never had that conversation,” he said.

It’s a trust issue, an unforced service error. And it’s preventable.

Chef Duffy makes tasting part of the daily ritual. His teams rotate through core menu items so everyone understands the food. Therefore, they can talk about it like they believe in it.

The result? More confident service, better upsells, and fewer avoidable mistakes.

Let staff know the menu, and then step back and let them sell it.

Start with a Stretch, Not a Spiral

Culture isn’t built by luck or happenstance, it’s modeled. In some cases, it’s modeled physically.

Case in point: Chef Duffy uses pre-meal to reset the tone of the shift, not just brief the team. That includes a moment of breathing, and even light stretching.

“Don’t take last night’s negativity into today’s service,” he says when breathing and stretching with a team.

In high-stress environments, leaders don’t just direct traffic, they set the emotional baseline. That moment of reset might sound small, but it says something big: We show up intentionally.

Weekly: Breathing Room

Chef Duffy doesn’t stop at sharing day-to-day expectations.

Weekly deliverables create space for the kitchen to operate with their team, not against them.

Specials: Planned one to two weeks out.
Schedules: Also one to two weeks out. Give people time to plan and live their lives.
Inventory: Always on Mondays. It’s the cleanest window between Sunday close and Monday service.
Management Meeting: Review the past week, preview the next, and talk specials, events, holidays, and team concerns.

Chef Duffy also uses scheduling software that empowers the team to submit availability and day-off requests. Why? Because quality of life matters.

“Give your team a life,” he said.

People stay where they’re respected, and that absolutely, inarguably, non-negotiably includes considering their time.

Contests and Creativity

One of Duffy’s favorite ways to build buy-in? A little friendly competition.

He and I have talked about this on the Bar Hacks podcast, and I’ve shared this competitive approach of his in previous articles.

Like I said earlier, creativity is important; it just has its time and place.

“Go into the walk-in, come up with a special,” he’ll say to the kitchen team.

He’ll cost the special, price it out, and then add a dollar. For every special that sells (usually over a 30-day period), Chef Duffy gives that added dollar to the creator of the menu item.

It’s brilliant in its simplicity: The culinary team engages their creativity, the restaurant gets a low-risk special, and staff are rewarded directly.

That kind of engagement isn’t just fun, it’s a culture builder.

Monthly: Big Picture

Monthly meetings bring the business lens into focus.

For Chef Duffy, that includes:

Owner/Leadership Meetings: Discuss sales, budget, events, catering, and marketing.
Food & Labor Cost Reviews: Not just reporting numbers, but talking about them to ensure everyone understands the situation.
Marketing Roundtables: Let’s not forget that the kitchen is a core element of the brand experience.

There’s no mystery to what’s discussed. Everyone at the table knows what they’re accountable for, and what needs improvement.

Importantly, everyone must also be given the tools to improve. Otherwise, these big-picture sessions are essentially just performative.

The Common Thread

Chef Duffy flies more than 140,000 miles a year checking in on restaurant operations.

So, what’s the most persistent problem he encounters across his travels?

“Operators don’t talk to their teams,” he says.

That’s it. Not bad food (though that’s certainly a problem). Not weak concepts and uninspired menus (also issues, industry-wide). It’s poor communication.

To be honest, that’s such a mundane problem to have, and too many operators are letting it spiral out of control. Want to improve operations? Be clear about their expectations, and transparent about the business.

Communication fixes everything.

Clear communication is also a cost-controlling measure. Put yourself in the shoes of a back- or front-of-house team member. Which do you think inspires more confidence and buy-in, knowing exactly what’s expected of you every day, or having to figure things out as you go without direction? Clear communication is an effective retention tool.

It’s also a core element of consistency.

To that point, this is why Chef Duffy insists on daily, not weekly, prep lists. When lists are weekly, people feel like they’ve got time, and their urgency disappears. Tasks get pushed, and accountability drops.

Whenever a new chef joins one of his kitchens, Chef Duffy requires a manager to sign off on their prep tasks. This isn’t done to just check a box. Instead, this requirement confirms the food is tested, tasted, and good to go.

That’s ownership not in title but in action.

Heed Warning Signs

This is one of the quotes from Chef Duffy’s session that most resonated with me:

“If your head chef or kitchen manager has a problem with over-communication, that’s not your person.’

Too many operators ignore early warning signs in leadership. They tolerate resistance to systems, and avoid hard conversations.

To be blunt, that’s unacceptable. This is, at the end of the day, business. True leaders don’t run away from difficult discussions, they stride confidently toward them; it’s the job.

Red flags don’t get less red if they’re ignored; they start to glow. When left unaddressed, red flags just get more expensive.

Identifying issues is a leadership skill. Having the courage to address them immediately is a leadership skill. Taking ownership of systems is a leadership skill.

Last Bite: Ownership Is a Verb

This wasn’t a session about chefs versus owners; this session was about chefs and owners working together to own their restaurant’s systems.

It was a call to action for anyone leading a kitchen, hiring a chef, or trying to build a better back-of-house culture.

Ownership isn’t about who’s in charge, it’s about who’s committed to clarity, systems, and communication. Ownership is about who shows up consistently for the business: the team, the guests, and the bottom line.

Want to own your kitchen? Take ownership of your systems.

Image: Canva

An AI-generated image of a vintage, spherical restaurant or pub sign emblazoned with a script-style letter "L."

May 23, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Cultivating a Legacy Mindset

Cultivating a Legacy Mindset

by David Klemt

The letter “L” is for building a long-lasting, lucrative legacy. (AI-generated image)

We talk about legacy in restaurant, bar, and hotel brands like it’s something that happens once the awards start rolling in.

But at this year’s Bar & Restaurant Expo, a standout panel turned that idea on its head.

Legacy isn’t something we leave behind; we live our legacy in real time. Every hiring decision. Every shift meeting. Each and every moment we’re engaging with the public, representing our brand. Every awkward moment when a team member calls us out, and we choose whether to get defensive or get better.

And as Gen Z makes up more of our workforce—and, increasingly, our leadership—this mindset isn’t just good culture. A legacy mindset is great business.

Last week, I hypothesized that a growth mindset will help operators set themselves up for success from the outset. This theory is grounded on a few points made by Dave Kaplan about nontraditional capital raises, as well as being prepared to expand even if that never becomes part of the plan.

Part and parcel with a growth mindset is a legacy mindset.

As it happens, a panel of hospitality, operations, beverage, guest experience, artificial intelligence, and space tourism experts assembled during BRE 2025.

This powerhouse blend of operators and innovators included:

Meaghan Dorman: The Raines Law Room, and Dear Irving
Beth Hussey: Shifty, and Hazel’s
Dave Kaplan: Death & Co., and Gin & Luck
Colleen McLeod Garner: Paragon Space Development Corp., and Cecilia.AI

Each offered a different perspective on the idea of legacy, coming together to lay out a roadmap for what lasting leadership looks like now.

Legacy is Culture That Lives Beyond You

For Meaghan Dorman, legacy starts with perspective.

Not ego. Not personal mythology. Perspective.

“Legacy is building a shared perspective that can leave your concept and live on its own,” she said.

Take a moment to digest Dorman’s viewpoint.

An operator isn’t just building a concept they control. What they’re creating is a concept others carry forward because they believe in it. The team an operator builds and the guests they work to transform into brand evangelists believe in the brand and the mission.

At least, that’s what operators should do. Ultimately, success depends on whether team members and guests believe in the operator themself.

I take this to be a founder’s versus owner’s mentality. Anyone who can afford to do so can purchase equity in a business, and take a stake in ownership. A founder, however, takes ownership of the brand, mission, innovation…the entire business. That means owning the strategy, successes and failures, and responsibility for driving team members and the business forward.

This is exactly the shift in mindset needed to engage a generation that values transparency, inclusivity, and authenticity.

If the culture can’t thrive without the operator in the room, they’re an owner, not a leader. And if they’re not a leader, they’re not building a legacy.

In fact, what they’ve built is a leash, and they’ve strapped and padlocked it to their leg.

Staff Serves Guests. Management Serves Staff.

Beth Hussey doesn’t pull her punches. She’s refreshingly straightforward with her perspectives on, and passion for, hospitality.

For her, legacy is hospitality at its most fundamental: A value that lives on in others.

Expressing those values and their importance happens through modeling: small, consistent actions that communicate the message, “I’m here for you.”

Hussey takes the radical step of flipping the power dynamic.

“Management serves employees like they serve their guests,” she said.

That one sentence reframes everything. It forces leaders to examine how they show up, particularly when it’s inconvenient.

She also challenged operators to consider whether their training programs are as guest-friendly as they expect their team members to be.

Hussey encouraged the operators and leaders in the room to stop and think about their training processes as if they had just thrown their guests into the same experience. The majority who took the time to consider how they train their staff “probably wouldn’t like it,” she opined.

That’s a gut-check moment for anyone who’s watched new hires get thrown to the wolves. And if many people reading this are being honest with themselves, they’ve done exactly that to new team members at some point in their careers.

The Suggestion Box Question

Hussey doesn’t just talk about feedback. Instead, she builds in real, actionable systems for it

Two weeks before team meetings, Hussey puts out a suggestion box, open to any team member. Before the meeting, she and her leadership team sit down, go through each suggestion, and address them during the meeting.

This doesn’t mean the team always gets their way; not every suggestion gets implemented by leadership. However, the suggestion, good or bad, yay or nay, is addressed. A reason is provided, in front of the team member who suggested it, for the suggestion being embraced or rejected. That’s a powerful message of leadership, teamwork, and valuing the team’s input.

Shifty, interestingly, features a truly anonymous suggestion box. This is a real, anonymous channel that can be reviewed ahead of a team meeting.

However, Hussey has noticed something alarming about this feature.

“Operators have asked us to turn it off, even though it has never once been used for evil,” Hussey noted, to laughter throughout the room. “Why don’t you want honest feedback from employees?”

That question says it all, really. If an operator or member of the leadership team fears their team’s honesty, the problem isn’t the team.

Codifying Culture at Scale Without Killing It

Dave Kaplan knows what it means to build a brand that people believe in—and sometimes, walk away from.

During the panel discussion, he revealed an internal saying about the brand: “Everyone quits Death & Co. at least once.”

That may sound like a negative. However, the key insight is this: Everyone comes back.

That’s legacy in action.

Operating multiple concepts in multiple cities, Kaplan has learned how important it is to codify culture without strangling it. His company’s five core values aren’t just decorative, they’re operational.

These values are applied to hiring, recognition, and even when it’s time to let someone go.

Scaling that culture requires infrastructure. Kaplan shared how they’re developing a company-wide learning management system (LMS), and investing in a tight tech stack to align operations across markets.

That said, tools alone don’t build trust. For that, a leader needs transparency.

When a major operational change is proposed at Death & Co., they open a two-week feedback window. If necessary, they even hold a town hall. This process isn’t just good policy, it’s a direct response to something Kaplan once heard from a long-time team member.

Ronald Fucking McDonald

Kaplan told the story of being a bit surprised—and somewhat frustrated—by the reactions to him visiting a Death & Co. outpost.

To paraphrase the response from a long-term (I believe original) Death & Co. team member addressing Kaplan’s frustration: “You haven’t been around much. You may as well be Ronald Fucking McDonald.”

Brutal, but honest. And exactly the kind of wake-up call too many owners brush off. To his credit, Kaplan took that blunt feedback on board.

He could’ve flexed his title as Dave Fucking Kaplan, if he were that type of person. And he could’ve taken out his frustration on the team members he felt had slighted or at least ignored him. Instead, Kaplan used that reality check as fuel to double down on being present, accountable, and humble.

There it is again: the founder’s mindset.

Here’s the unspoken truth about legacy: It doesn’t care about your title. Legacy cares about how a leader shows up, and how often.

Reverse Mentoring, AI, and the End of Top-Down Leadership

Anyone still asking whether artificial intelligence has a place in hospitality (and building a legacy), Colleen McLeod Garner has a message for you: “Pandora’s Box is already open.”

In other words, AI is taking its place in hospitality, regardless of who agrees with it doing so. Operators can either determine the best ways to implement and succeed with the AI solutions best suited to their operations, or they can fall behind, ultimately finding themselves passed by.

McLeod Garner doesn’t support replacing people with tech. If she did, we at KRG Hospitality wouldn’t agree with her on AI, and I would say so.

Her approach is to enhance human connection through strategic automation. By streamlining ops and freeing up staff from menial tasks, AI empowers staff to spend more time doing what matters: serving guests, supporting each other, and representing the brand.

But McLeod Garner’s real breakthrough insight about leadership? Reverse mentoring.

Flip it, and Reverse It

“Age does not dictate knowledge or leadership,” she said.

In a world where Gen Z employees bring digital fluency and cultural insight to the table, the smartest thing a senior leader can do is listen. That means inviting younger team members into leadership discussions, not as silent observers, but as active participants.

An operator adding reverse mentorship to their leadership toolbox sends a powerful message: “You matter. What you do here matters. Your ideas matter.”

McLeod Garner challenged leaders to ask questions, then shut up and listen—literally.

Ask open-ended questions. Let people until they’ve exhausted the issue on their own. This isn’t done to prove a point about what a great leader an operator is; this simple action shows team members that an operator respects them enough to listen fully, and give their insights careful consideration.

Respect. Empathy. Trust. Those aren’t soft skills, they’re business survival skills. And for Gen Z, and therefore future-proofed businesses and brands, they’re non-negotiable from this point on.

The New Metrics of Leadership

What makes this conversation urgent isn’t just generational turnover. While our industry is facing that issue, what we’re all facing is cultural transformation.

Gen Z, speaking generally, doesn’t tolerate hypocrisy from employers. These team members, admittedly generalizing again, are quick to hold leadership accountable. They’re not impressed by surface-level perks or “cool culture” branding.

They want authenticity, action, and alignment.

Legacy, then, isn’t about what leaders build for themselves. It’s about what they build with, and leave for, their teams.

This commitment to legacy includes:

Transparent hiring and promotion processes.
Feedback mechanisms that actually lead to change.
Recognition systems rooted in core values.
Tech that improves but, crucially, doesn’t remove people from the human experience.
Intergenerational learning that flows both ways.

None of this is easy. It takes hard work, humility, and long-term commitment. As Kaplan has put it, practicing relentless pursuit until it’s a key component of your everyday life.

As each panelist explained in their own way, the payoff for all the hard work in developing a legacy mindset is real: improved staff and guest retention, stronger culture, and a business that stands for something more than a bottom line.

Last Call: Build a Brand That Outlives You

Legacy doesn’t just mean being remembered. At least, not to me. Legacy means an operator’s impact, and that of their brand, is being repeated.

If team members carry a former employer’s values into their next job, or share an operator’s leadership principles with someone else, or feel changed for the better because they worked with a given operator, that’s a legacy.

Achieving that type of legacy doesn’t take ten or 20 or 30 years. In fact, there’s no set timeline that determines a legacy has been developed. Building a legacy requires presence and perspective. It demands the courage to be the kind of leader a team actually wants to follow.

And if Gen Z in particular has anything to say about legacy in hospitality—and they do—that’s exactly the kind of leadership that will last.

Image: Canva

March 4, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: March 2025

5 Books to Read this Month: March 2025

by David Klemt

Our March book selections focus on outdoor cooking, miniaturized cocktails, restaurant design, hotel design, and prioritizing the right things.

To review the book recommendations from February 2025, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Tiny Cocktails: The Art of Miniature Mixology

Several years ago, Tales of the Cocktail featured an event highlighting Mar-tiny’s, miniature serves of an array of Martinis. Over the years, I’ve come across mini drinks at bars and pop-up events, and people have always seemed to find the concept compelling. Couple this interesting way of serving with today’s apparent preference for imbibing less alcohol and we have a recipe for successful drinks.

From Amazon: “Tiny Cocktails offers a unique and creative approach to mixology for those who want to savor delicious cocktails without overindulging. The recipes showcase smaller drinks with big flavors—an ideal way to explore new flavors and refine your mixology skills without making a full-drink commitment. Each drink comes in around 3-6 ounces, with about half the alcoholic punch of a full-sized cocktail.”

Order your copy here!

Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out: 100 Recipes That Redefine Outdoor Cooking

Funnily enough, this also reminds me of an awesome, engaging Tales of the Cocktail event. Not too many TOTCs ago, Kimpton Hotels hosted an event during which every food item (save for a couple of cheese boards) was prepared outside, over fire. The result was a fantastic dinner that showcased how the simplest form of cooking, when coupled with creativity, can produce something spectacular.

From Amazon: “In Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out, Michael Symon offers 100 recipes for outdoor cooking including desserts and drinks too. Featuring fan-favorite recipes from his popular Food Network show, Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out, and brand new recipes, this cookbook is sure to excite budding and expert grillers alike. From live-fire classics like Bacon-Cheddar Smash Burgers to unexpected dishes like Fettuccine with Smoked Tomato Sauce, cooks who take it outside will find all kinds of creative ways to use their grills year-round.”

Pick yours up today!

Tasteful: New Interiors for Restaurants and Cafés

I’ve had the opportunity to speak to multiple hospitality-focused interior designers on the KRG Hospitality-produced Bar Hacks podcast. In each case, I’ve asked about their process for helping clients share their vision for a restaurant, bar, or other concept and transform it into a tangible design.

To that end, I present Tasteful, which I hope will help spark creativity in anyone considering the interior design of their own concept, and explain what they’re visualizing to others.

From Amazon: “The ever-evolving landscape of the gastronomic industry never fails to surprise with new ideas and trends—and Tasteful is a testament to that. A follow-up on the earlier gestalten title Appetizer, this book is a curated selection of the most eye-catching interiors of new restaurants, cafes, bars and all kinds of food places. Featuring a variety styles from a host of diverse locations around the planet, Tasteful serves as both a travel guide for intrepid foodies and an inspiration for those passionate about design.”

Grab a copy now!

Design: The Leading Hotels of the World

On the most-recent episode of the Bar Hacks episode I speak with Michael Suomi, an award-winning architect and interior designer who specializes in unique and complex hotel projects (along with restaurant and bar designs). That episode, and this book, should inspire those opening a hotel to knock their design out of the ballpark, and create a narrative for their property.

From Amazon: “Embark on a stunning visual journey through The Leading Hotels of the World, a collection of the world’s most exclusive independent luxury hotels, which consistently dominates prestigious awards, securing top honors in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards and Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards.”

Click here to order your copy!

Undoing Urgency: Reclaim Your Time for the Things that Matter Most

One of our goals for KRG Hospitality clients sounds simple on the surface: spend less time on their business. Imagine having the ability to step away for multiple weeks throughout the year, to actually unplug and not even think about your bar, restaurant, cafe, nightclub, or hotel. We want that for all of our guests, because while we can help make brands, brick-and-mortar businesses, and menus, and make operations run more smoothly, none of us can make more time.

Undoing Urgency, likewise, is about time, and what we do with it.

From Amazon: “Undoing Urgency…details the GAME Plan (Goals, Actions, Metrics, and Execution), which turns core values into high-priority goals and minimum effective dose actions for maximum impact. The GAME Plan works for all goals, having been used at the highest levels in business, health, life, and the most personal ambitions. It takes readers on a journey of personal discovery to identify what brings them value and joy. Ultimately, Reynolds wants to help people break free of urgency and start living a value-driven life dedicated to what is most important to them.”

Buy it now!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

February 7, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: February 2025

5 Books to Read this Month: February 2025

by David Klemt

Our February book selections focus on bartender techniques and cocktail balance, mushrooms, fusion, leadership, and mastering the fundamentals.

To review the book recommendations from January 2025, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Mushroom Gastronomy: The Art of Cooking with Mushrooms

On a recent episode of the Bar Hacks podcast, the topic of mushrooms in cocktails came up briefly. While mushrooms are somewhat divisive in the beverage space, they remain an important culinary staple. To that end, we want to put Mushroom Gastronomy on your radar.

Authored by culinary writer and mushroom specialist (seriously, don’t try foraging without expertise; consuming or serving the wrong mushrooms can severely, permanently harm or kill your, your team, and your guests) Krista Towns, this book shares just about everything you could hope to know about more than a dozen edible mushrooms, and features more than 100 recipes, along with fantastic photos.

From Amazon: “The book explores 25 of the most popular edible and delicious mushrooms. Stunning photographs introduce each variety, including their unique nutritional values, ideal cooking methods, culinary tips, and flavor pairings, making this book a go-to resource for anyone interested in cooking with mushrooms.”

Grab the hardcover today.

The Cocktail Balance 2.0

As the title of this book suggests, this is the followup to The Cocktail Balance, written by Stanislav Harcinik. The Cocktail Balance 2.0 dives even deeper into bartending and mixology, focusing on theory, practice (including infusion and carbonation), inspiration, and, of course, recipes. Nearly 300 pages are packed with knowledge, recipes, and beautiful photography. The first batch of books sold out quickly, but pre-orders are open for April of this year.

From the website: “Divided into three sections—theoretical, practical, and inspirational—the book provides in-depth knowledge on various aspects of bartending. The theoretical section includes detailed Excel sheets covering margins, cocktail costs, inventory management, and profitability, giving insights into the financial aspects of bartending. It also delves into advanced mixology techniques such as carbonation, clarification, and the use of enzymes, which have recently become more popular in bars.”

Pre-order yours here!

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success

We’ve recommended multiple books written by professor and researcher Adam Grant, including Think Again and Originals. Give and Take may be just over ten years old, but it’s lessons and message or no less relevant than they were in 2014.

From Amazon: “For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom. Praised by social scientists, business theorists, and corporate leaders, Give and Take opens up an approach to work, interactions, and productivity that is nothing short of revolutionary.”

Order the paperback here.

Cutting Up in the Kitchen: Food and Fun from Southern National’s Chef Duane Nutter

I don’t usually include more than one pre-order in a monthly roundup. In fact, I try to avoid including them too often. However, this book came up on my radar, and I want to share it with you.

Cutting Up in the Kitchen is written by Chef Duane Nutter, known for fusing Southern food with other cuisines and flavors, whether regional or international. Further, Chef Nutter isn’t afraid to infuse his writing with humor. Those looking for culinary innovation and inspiration should pre-order this book today.

From Amazon: “This cookbook, full of sophisticated yet approachable recipes, is organized like a comedy act with chapter titles such as The Set Up (Cocktails), Stock Material (Sauces and Condiments), Open-Mikers (Appetizers, Salads, and Soups); Bit Parts (Side Dishes); The Hook (Fish and Seafood Main Courses); Headliners (Main Courses), and Curtain Calls (Desserts). You will find recipes for Spiced Rum Iced Coffee and Coconut Negroni to whet your whistle; Smoked Paprika Compound Butter and Mustard Green Chimichurri to flavor dishes; Arugula Salad with Golden Beets, Pickled Grapes, and Spiced Pecans along with Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs to start the meal; Sautéed Royal Red Shrimp with Bourbon Maque Choux or Lamb Burger Helper for a main course, and Buttermilk and Honey Ice Cream, Citrus Bread Pudding, or Cheesecake Flan to close the show. A good time will be had by all!”

Pre-order here!

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

If you haven’t read Bar Hacks yet, this is KRG president and principal consultant Doug Radkey’s first book. In his this book he explains the importance of nailing the fundamentals in order to:

start your operator journey in the best possible position;
stabilize your business; and
scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.

From Amazon: “This informative and conversational book is the perfect read for aspiring or seasoned bar, pub, lounge, or even restaurant owners, operators, and managers looking for that competitive edge in operations! If you’re looking for both fundamental and in-depth planning methods, strategies, and industry focused insight to either start or grow a scalable, sustainable, memorable, profitable, and consistent venue in today’s cut-throat industry–Bar Hacks is written just for you!”

Click here to get your copy today!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

January 2, 2025by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: January 2025

5 Books to Read this Month: January 2025

by David Klemt

Our January book selections focus on changing the way we approach hospitality, mastering the fundamentals, America cuisine, bourbon, and more.

To review the book recommendations from December 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Hacking the New Normal

Doug Radkey‘s followup book to Bar Hacks! The world around us has changed. The food and beverage industry has changed. The hospitality industry has changed. But will some ways of life change for the better? Will perhaps the restaurant, bar, and hospitality industry come out even stronger? With the right changes to the previous status quo, it is possible. There’s no question, resets are major undertakings, but a major reset will provide us with a clean start and that’s what this industry needs.

From Amazon: “Whether or not you’re a hotelier, restaurateur, bar owner or a front-line staff member—this book will position you for success in the new normal. With a spotlight on hybrid business models, real estate, profit margins, technology, guest experiences, culture, diversity, and mindset, Hacking the New Normal is the guidance you need.

Grab your copy here.

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

It’s the last book roundup of the year and yes, I’m taking the opportunity to recommend KRG president and principal consultant Doug Radkey’s first book. In his this book he explains the importance of nailing the fundamentals in order to:

start your operator journey in the best possible position;
stabilize your business; and
scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.

Click here to get your copy today!

Let There Be Havens: An Invitation to Gentle Hospitality

We find inspiration everywhere at KRG Hospitality. As important to us is sharing that inspiration to help our clients, partners, and readers hone their vision for hospitality concepts. This book, Let There Be Havens, is a look at “gentle hospitality,” an approach to providing impactful hospitality to those who visit your home. Operators and front- and back-of-house teams welcome guests to their “other” home every shift, and this book can improve every professional’s approach to service and hospitality.

From Amazon: “When one person reaches for another, makes an offering, and believes we all hold such worth. No matter what we have in our pockets or where we’ve been up until now, we take care of each other―whether we’re strangers on a sidewalk or families around a table. Each day, we create trails of beauty and connection. One open door opens the next. And then it happens: our streets fill with lamplight, our lives lift with spirit, and our homes become circles of gold.”

Click here to order the hardcover.

Bourbon Land: A Spirited Love Letter to My Old Kentucky Whiskey

Chef Edward Lee’s favorite spirit is bourbon. While this book, Best New Cookbook of Spring 2024 by Eater, Epicurious, and Food & Wine, dives into bourbon’s history, how to taste it, and famous distilleries, there’s another key element that should motivate you to buy it. Namely, how to cook with bourbon, and 50 accompanying recipes.

From Amazon: “Knowledgeable, entertaining, and more than a little infatuated with his subject, award-winning food writer and chef Edward Lee gives us his insight into bourbon, telling us everything we should know about the mellow honey-brown treasure that’s put Kentucky on the global map: How bourbon is made. Its history. How to read a label. A look inside the famous distilleries. The influence of oak. Tours of Kentucky’s bourbon regions. How to taste bourbon like a professional.”

Get it here.

Buttermilk Graffiti

Oh, Chef Lee is also an award-winning writer. In 2019, his book Buttermilk Graffiti won the James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in Writing. It was also nominated for other awards. Chef Lee traveled the US, learned the personal and food stories of the people he encountered, and shared more than a dozen of those stories in this book, which also includes 40 recipes.

From Amazon: “American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories?”

Follow this link to buy your copy.

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

Looking to Start, Stabilize, or Scale? Book Below to Setup a 60-Minute Result-Driven Impact Session.

Bar Hacks: ReFire podcast "black paper" background cover

December 19, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Bar Hacks: ReFire: Episode 1, Part 2

Bar Hacks: ReFire: Episode 1, Part 2

by David Klemt

The second of three real-life hospitality scenarios discussed on the new Bar Hacks: ReFire podcast deals with onboarding.

More explicitly, I, along with cohost Bradley Knebel, client services director at Empowered Hospitality, look at a situation involving onboarding, training, leadership, culture, and potential imposter syndrome.

Our goal with every episode of ReFire is for listeners to gain valuable insights into bar, restaurant, and hotel operations.

Whether you’re a bar owner, manager, or aspiring hospitality professional, these episodes of Bar Hacks offer a wealth of knowledge and strategies to navigate the challenges of running a successful bar or restaurant.

Below, a transcript of the second part of the first episode of Bar Hacks: ReFire. For the lightly edited transcript of the first situation we addressed, click here. Bradley and I jump into each scenario cold (for the most part), so the tone is conversational rather than formal. In other words, they sound better than they read.

Cheers!

The ReFire Format

David: So, for the audience, what happened is, I sifted through… I’m basically going through online—there’s subreddits that, basically, everybody knows there’s a subreddit for everything. Good or bad, there’s a subreddit for it. Servers have a subreddit. Bartenders, chefs, bar owners, restaurant owners, hotel owners… I mean, they all have subreddits. And then there’s just, you know, forums all over the internet. You can find pretty much any topic. And so, I’m kind of sifting through these for real-world situations. And the caveat there is we’re gonna take these at face value, for the most part. Unless someone is like, “I’m just kidding,” like, “I got you all like in the comments…”

But we’re going to accept that these are really happening, because anyone in the industry knows if you’ve been in there, you know, for a few years, everything happens in this industry. So, a lot of this stuff is believable, even as outlandish as it might sound. The only thing I’m going to do, really, and Bradley’s going to do when we bring these topics up, is we’re not going to read them verbatim. We’re going to summarize. And the reason for this is I don’t want people to get doxxed. I don’t want them to, you know, get review bombed because someone decided, “I’m going to side with the server on this and let’s review bomb this operator.” You know, things like that.

So, we’re trying to be general but still get to the crux of the situation, and I’m sure they’ll get more specific as we go. I chose three to start with; hopefully, we get to all three. If we have a great conversation on, like, the first one or two, we’ll save the third one, or you know, however it works, for the next one. But that’s how this is gonna work. I’m sure it’ll evolve, ‘cause I’m not, like, a strict, like, “Oh, this is how it’s going to be” ‘cause it’s quote-unquote “my podcast,” because I’m not like that. We’re going to have fun with this.

Situation 2: Imposter Syndrome and Onboarding

David: So, situation two. This bartender, the way they phrased it, I don’t think they ever did a year straight with one employer. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Like, it’s like you just said, it’s a transient business.

Bradley: Transient.

David: The experience they had was, I’m gonna go with, like, “high-volume,” but you know, it’s a college bar, a dive bar, which I… Apologies to Travis Tober, he does not like that term. He likes “neighborhood bar,” and I agree.

Bradley: I also could have felt like something like an Olive Garden or an Applebee’s, especially because they talk about how many steps there are.

David: Good point. It could be a neighborhood chain restaurant, and they’re behind the bar. That’s absolutely possible. It’s not the Baccarat Bar, we’ll just put it that way, where their experience came from.

They got hired by a more upscale, higher-end venue. They were given one training shift. And from what I could determine, the cocktails routinely had a minimum of six ingredients. So, lots of steps, and yet it was still high-volume because it was a popular bar.

So, it’s high-volume with a lot of steps, which.. That was cool, you know, call it a dozen years ago, 15, when, like, “Wow, I’m gonna wait ten minutes for this cocktail ’cause it’s supposed to be awesome.” Where now people are like, “I don’t care if it’s 30 ingredients, I want this thing in three seconds ’cause I’m not standing here, and your team is supposed to be high volume.”

So, they got the one training shift—that was it. And the ownership and leadership team appears to like to sit at the bar. And I don’t know if this is when they’re working; that wasn’t made clear. But the person feels they’re being scrutinized. They have questions. It sounds like they asked a question, at least one question, and got a very, in their opinion, terse and impatient reply. They now perceive this culture as they do not have patience for questions. “I have to just know my job. I’ve got to get these cocktails down. I have to be perfect.”

And I’ll kick this off by saying it is possible this person is just so in their head because it’s imposter syndrome, and they got one training shift, and now they, because it’s one training shift, are in their head, saying, “I have to be perfect now; I had my training shift. I can’t ask questions because I’m going to get fired or they’re going to give me less shifts because I don’t know, quote-unquote what I’m doing.”

So, it’s possible that just they’re not confident because they’re in their own head. However, that still had to come from somewhere. So, I do believe someone maybe—and I don’t even know—they gave him a short answer or a bit of a terse reaction because they’re just, maybe they’re having a bad day or they weren’t even thinking. They just threw an answer out and to them it’s not a big deal. It wasn’t a, a short or curt answer because that’s not how they meant it. They’re just like, “Yeah, you just do this,” and they walked away.

So, I think we both agree though that this does sound like we’re rubbing up on a culture issue, within the business. But they weren’t even trying to throw the ownership under the bus. They were just like, “Do I quit this job and go for something I’m more used to, or do I stick it out because this is more money?” It’s a higher-end venue, the tips are better. And I mean, the general consensus appeared to be like, “No, you stick it out. You can figure this out.” It’s bartending: If you did high-volume in an easy call bar, that’s still brutal. If you run a high-volume college bar, you’re getting destroyed. So, you should be used to it.

Just One Training Shift?!

Bradley: If it’s just Vodka Sodas all night, with splash of cranberry, or making, yeah, or you’re making, like, Death & Co. drinks to bring Dave back into the conversation, you know, bartending is hard. And, you know, there’s a reason that most volume bartenders, usually the higher volume the bar, the less touches there are. The less, kind of, ingredients per cocktail, right? It’s built for speed and efficiency.

So, I agree with you that this sounds a little bit like this person may be in their head a little bit, and maybe second-guessing themselves, or needing to build their confidence. But there’s a lot of things about this case that I think a lot of people can learn from. And the biggest flag to me is if this is an upscale cocktail bar, and if their signature ingredients have six- to eight-plus steps, which, first off, like, combine some of those into a cheater bottle or something. Like, come on, that’s crazy. But even if all of that is true, one training shift is absolutely not… Like, that, to me, is a huge flag. If I came into a bar, no matter if I’d been bartending for six months or six years, if I walked into a new space and they said, “Great, you get one shift, and now you’re on service bar,” like, that just is not a recipe for success, you know? And so, the reason that you and I kept talking about this being a cultural piece almost more than a training piece is, why is there only one training shift?

Are they just churning through people so fast that they literally just have to be live instantly because the owners are sitting at the bar constantly critiquing everybody? And are their cocktails built for their concept? And I think that is a big issue. If you have that many steps in your cocktails, but you have 150 covers in your space, like, there’s no way that those two things are going to meet. Even if you have 30 covers in your space, there’s no way that those two things are going to meet.

If it’s a purely cocktail bar where people are supposed to be coming in, and getting a bunch of different cocktails, and ordering something different every time. And so for me, from the employee standpoint, there are a few things that I would question, and I take issue with. Well, is this place set up to support me? You know, it’s funny because the last question, we talked all about the employer standpoint, right? Like, the employer standpoint against the employee. But it is a relationship. And it is, when we talk about interviewing a lot, right, that interviewing needs to be a dialogue. It isn’t just me asking you questions, you answering questions, and then “boom,” question two. It needs to be a dialogue.

And I think employment is a dialogue, right? You’re giving just as much to your employer as they should be giving to you. And that is in training, that is in culture. And so, how are they supporting you and your growth? And it sounds like here that they’re not, from a technical standpoint. And, like, I think it’s what probably most of the people on the thread were saying is, you can learn anything. You can learn all these cocktails.

Three Months

Bradley: Like, this is going to sound really dumb, but when I first started bartending, ’cause I am a virgo and a perfectionist and a Millennial, so, like, all those things just combined into a terrible mixture. But the first time I started bartending, I literally sat home. I didn’t have any pour spouts. So, I may or may not have borrowed them from work—I’m sorry, boss, I’m telling you this 20 years later—and put them into empty wine bottles. And I just practiced, because we also had to do counts instead of jiggering. And so I was just practicing until I figured out how it all kind of worked together.

And then the next thing is, you know, I tell people this all the time, that it takes three months just to figure out what your job is, and how to be good at it. Not to be good at it, just how to be. There’s different cultures, there’s different steps, there’s different people you’re dealing with.

How do I show up on time? What is my uniform? How do I get it cleaned? Where is everything set? What is my opening side work? When is lineup? Who are the regular guests? What do people usually order? What am I recommending? There are so many pieces of a job, especially in the dining sector, that come together that it takes you three months just to figure out. “Okay, what am I actually doing? How do I actually do it? What does success look like? What is my team here? And are they supportive or not supportive? And who can I lean on? And then also how do I get better?”

And then it takes another three months to get better. Whenever I’ve promoted a server assistant to a server, a server to a sommelier or a captain, you know, prep cook to a line cook, like, garde manger to, like, flat top, or if they’re looking, working on a grill. No matter what your promotion is, and actually the biggest one is from line level into management, right? So, like, going from a server or bartender into a manager for the first time is, give yourself some grace. It takes three months just to figure out what the heck is going on. Like, who’s here, who are the players, what am I doing, what’s important, how often do things rotate, how much do I really need to know these things? And that takes you another three months just to build that skill set. And so, if you’re working for an employer that gives you one training shift and then is critiquing you for not being perfect right off the bat, to me, that’s less of a flag of you not being a skilled bartender and more of a flag of this is maybe not a place that’s going to be supportive for knowing that the restaurant industry is so transient.

And the restaurant industry is a lot of times almost like the gig economy. Before that became my thing, it was the pre-gig economy. Are they going to be there to really help your growth, and as things change, and as you either get another bartending job—because very few bartenders have one job, they tend to have two or three. So, if you get another job, if you are in school, if you’re an actor or in some sort of artistic discipline and are going to need to go on show, how supportive are they going to be in view of that lifestyle? Or if you’re a dedicated bartender full-time, then this doesn’t sound like a bar that’s going to dedicate timing to you to grow.

So, my biggest pushback to this employee is, hey, get out of your head. You’re not going to be perfect. Like, you have to learn it. But is this a place that’s going to support you, or is it time to look somewhere else? Because I’ll tell you one thing—going to the last one (the first story of this episode). So, we’re in a talent shortage, still there. There is a plethora of jobs out there. And talk about the one job that’s almost most in demand on the front of house side, it’s bartenders. Bartenders who have done it for six months. When I was bartending and when I was hiring bartenders, especially pre-pandemic, if you didn’t have bartending on your resume for two years you wouldn’t get an interview. Now, if you’ve had bartending on there for three months, great, let’s go in. I’m going to ask you what a Cosmo is, and if you can answer, that’s question one, check. Different game.

Leadership Sitting at the Bar

David: And my one of my flags was: Why is management or leadership, if they’re sitting at the bar, I’m blown away by that. Like, what are you doing?

Bradley: That’s, that’s a revenue-generating spot. Yeah.

David: You just decided to voluntarily give up money. I don’t understand that. Like, what are you doing? And then do you micromanage everybody, or is it the bar team? And again, it’s perception. Like, did this person, every time they happen to look up because they’re not confident in themselves, perhaps do they think they’re being stared at by this team that’s not even looking at them? They just re looking around, like, “Hey, you need to touch that guest. That’s a VIP; we should go say hi. Those people look new, look like they’re having a blast. Let’s go introduce ourselves.”

We don’t know exactly what that was, but if you are micromanaging, I have a big issue with that because no one performs well under that kind of pressure, really. I mean, maybe a 20-year veteran bartender who’s like, “Yeah, you can micromanage me all you want, I don’t care. I’m gonna get this done, get my tips, and get out of here. Like, watch me all you want. I’m not doing anything, so go for it.”

But I do wonder… I mean, I don’t want, I don’t ever wanna see leadership or management lean against the bar, even a little. And sitting at the bar when they’re working, like, that’s not okay with me at all. I mean, yeah, you check in with the bar team, but you can do that from the side of the bar, you can go behind the bar, but to sit there… And now guests are like, “Why? Is this person, is this bartender not doing the right thing?” It just, it leads to a lot of questions either from the guest side, which you definitely don’t want, and from the team side, like, “Wow, this team, the leadership team, doesn’t trust me. And I (ostensibly) did nothing wrong, and they just are watching me like a hawk. Like, did I do something wrong?”

Like, it’s just, to me, it’s just too many questions. And I know there are people who, they’re micromanagers, but then maybe they need to be moved or spoken to or something. You just can’t do it that way anymore. It just doesn’t, it doesn’t work. And if you, if you are behaving that way, then why’d you hire this person? If you’re just going to watch them like that, then they shouldn’t have been hired or you’re in the wrong position, to be honest. Like, maybe you shouldn’t be a manager. Like, sorry, but that could be.

Coaching, Holding People Accountable, and Setting Standards

Bradley: I think there’s a big difference between coaching, holding people accountable, and setting standards versus micromanagement, right?

David: Absoutely.

Bradley: I think a lot of that—I mean, there’s a lot of very, I mean, specific differences—but I think it really comes from, are you doing it for the employee’s benefit, or are you doing it to control the output? Right?

So, you are never going to be able to replicate yourself. And this idea of people saying, “I need to find somebody who’s just like me, who’s going to do this just like I’m going to do so I don’t have to manage them,” is a fallacy. That’s not true.

It’s all about building standards, building practices, and holding people accountable, and coaching them in the moment, but not doing it through fear or doing it through anxiety. Because what does that do with somebody being watched, but they’re being watched with a knownn critical eye? Like, if somebody’s just being watched and, like observed, that’s one thing. If somebody’s being watched and observed where they know that they’re being nitpicked and critiqued, they’re going to fumble.

Think about it: No matter how confident you are, somebody comes in and says, “I’m going to rate you today.” The nerves happen. I mean, to use the Tokyo Olympics, like Simone Biles, even people at the highest caliber can get nervous when they know they’re being watched, and they know they’re being critiqued. And so, that has a whole separate issue. I just watched that documentary. But it really shows that we as human beings, we want to know our boundaries, we want to know what success looks like. We want to be helped and given the tools to achieve success. But if you’re just constantly nitpicking and aren’t, like, really helping me get there, then you’re just creating moments for me to have anxiety and get stressed. It’s just going to make me perform worse instead of better.

David: I did an assessment not long ago. Flew in, get there, and rumors already started like, I’m there to fire people. And that’s not what I… You’d have to, like, punch me in the face for me to be like, “You need to fire this person.” Like, that’s not what I’m there for. And turned out they had a platform they were using, and the bar team was really, they weren’t all outgoing [toward me]. When I was just trying to just talk and see what their guest service is like. How chatty they were. Just kind of watch them a little bit.

And the one bartender was like, “Oh, you’re from this company, right? You’re here to test us, right?” And I was like, “Do you want me to test you?” Like, what would I be testing on, cocktail builds? I’m like, “No, that’s not why. I don’t work for that company, and that’s not why I’m here. But if you want me to test you, I will.” And, then I got him to calm down, and he then totally relaxed. The rest of the bar team relaxed. So, yeah, if they even have an inkling that someone is in there to evaluate them, that’s a lot of pressure. I feel the same. I feel the same way when the client is watching me assess their team… They’re like, “Well, why is he watching that? Like, what does he see? Like, I feel pressure a little bit. I don’t want to screw up an assessment. Like, I don’t want to interpret this wrong. Yeah, it’s just pressure that you don’t need to put on someone.

Is There Even an Onboarding Process?

David: And also, before we on to the next one, it does make me think that there isn’t a onboarding process. And if there is, you have a training shift, and then now you’re a bartender. It’s like, okay, but if you’re micromanaging, I really don’t think that you have an onboarding process. Because if you did, you would trust the process, and let these people assimilate and get in their own grooves.

They’re not gonna work exactly how you expect them to. They’re bartenders, servers, whatever; they have their experience. They do what they’re gonna do behind the bar. They hold jiggers differently. They sometimes build cocktails a little bit differently. It just happens. So, I just don’t think that you actually have onboarding, and I definitely think, “Do you have manuals? Really?”If you are going to sit there and stare somebody down while they do their job that kind of brought that red flag where I don’t think there’s onboarding.

Bradley: I absolutely agree that there’s none. And I also have to wonder about people in that sort of environment. Because we’re kind of leaning towards we think that this is a pretty, maybe, aggressive micromanaging environment, which I think it is. At least, the person who wrote this thinks it is. But in those environments, too, the staff tends to band together a little bit, for better or for worse. And so I also wonder if he’s reached out to other bartenders. It’s like, “Hey, can you help me get this cocktail? I can’t figure it out.” Or, “How did you get faster at this?” Because, especially if it’s a tip pool, and whether tip pools exist in the restaurants at large or not, a lot of them in New York City do, but most bars are pooled in general just because it’s easier. And so, it incentivizes every other bartender to want you to be just as fast as they are. And so, is either this person too nervous to ask another bartender for help, or does the bar in general have a culture of just, kind of, like, sink or swim? Which, my very first server shift in my entire life was a sink-or-swin shift, and I had never served ever before. And I’ll tell you that that was a terrifying and terrible experience. Apparently I did okay, but it felt shitty the whole time.

So, culture starts the very first day. Culture starts, actually, during the interview process. And so, this employee doesn’t feel like they were set up for success. If they were set up for success, then they’re not the right fit for the company culture, where they just aren’t the right fit for what this bar is trying to do. But it also sounds like the owners, and/or management, and/or leadership could use a little bit of a, “Hey, you have to trust the team. You have to trust the process.”

“If you can’t trust the team, it’s the process that’s wrong.”

If you can’t trust the team, it’s the process that’s wrong. The training process is wrong. Your coaching and standards process is wrong. Your communication of systems is wrong, or you don’t have any. Also, again, there should never be a cocktail—and you, some people, will disagree with me, but then you can charge $50 for them—there shouldn’t be a cocktail that has that many steps to create. Especially if high-volume has anything to do with the bar concept.

David: Yep. There’s a bartender, bar owner out here in Vegas. They don’t like all the steps for a Sour, and they have developed a technique to remove one to two steps, make it that much faster. Their whole team knows it; anyone who’s working behind the bar there knows this technique. So, yeah, adding steps is… I have zero problem with keg cocktails. I think people for some reason think they’re hilarious. I mean, look at all the pour walls. People are like, “I’m gonna come to this bar and restaurant, and put money on a card to serve myself drinks.” Like, people like this kind of stuff. So, you can take steps out. Like you said, if you can can make housemade ingredients that much faster, then those are the right steps to take. And I’m sure the bar team would be like, “Yeah, we can do this if you’ll let us do it.”

Bradley: We had a rule that a drink on our menu should never have more than three touches. Right? You have the base spirit, you have one juice, and, you know, it was always, like, the combining of other ingredients, and then either one more or a bitters or something. Maybe you had four touches at the most. But you’re not sitting there trying to like reinvent the wheel every single time. If you always have a one-to-two ratio of a ginger syrup to some other juice, then just put it in a cheater, just put it in a bar bottle, and just have that two-to-one ratio because also you know it’s already measured, right? And so, prep, absolutely, just in the kitchen and in the bar, is the best recipe for success.

Going way off tangent for this topic, but it sounds like very little process exists here, right? There’s no onboarding process, there’s no training process. It seems like there might not be a good feedback process or coaching process. There’s definitely no bar process that I think is really setting the team up for success. Or this person is just so under-qualified and over-exaggerated that they came in and just, essentially, they’re like, “Oh, you’ve got this. You can do this in your sleep,” right? And then left. So, there’s something weird happening here. But I definitely think that it’s a mismatch between employer and employee.

“It’s all solvable.”

David: Yeah. And we’re not trying to roast the owner because we don’t know how much of this is true. Again, like I said in the beginning, we are taking these at face value, just as learning opportunities, really. So, it’s not like we’re like, “Oh yeah, this operator is terrible.” There does seem to be…there’s an issue. And again, the issue could literally just be this person is convinced they faked their way into this job ,and now it’s coming home to roost. And they have zero confidence because they’re trying to mask that: “Man, I probably don’t belong here.”

Which, again, I think is silly if you can learn this. And again, like, to your point, is the bar team cool enough to be like, “Hey, this impacts all of us. It impacts the servers. If this bar is slow and our drinks are slow, like, we all need to be…we can help you improve this.” Like, “Let’s do this.” And they obviously saw something in this person to hire them. I’m hoping it wasn’t just “here’s a body” if it’s a more upscale, higher-end spot.

So, that should tell them, hey, you got the job—nice. Gotta keep it. And you’ve done high-volume, most likely. If you worked in a college bar or a neighborhood bar, you’ve probably done volume. So, now it’s steps. It does suck: There are at least six ingredients in some of these signatures. Hopefully, there’s also, you know, people drinking G&Ts and Jack & Coke, and not a big deal. But this isn’t something that can’t be solved. And it’s either on the process side and leadership side, or it’s—

Bradley: Or it’s imposter syndrome.

David: Yeah, exactly. So, it’s just, what is the actual issue? It’s all solvable, is the great part of that one.

Note: Transcript provided by Eddy by Headliner, edited by author for clarity.

Image: Canva

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December 13, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Bar Hacks: ReFire: Episode 1, Part 1

Bar Hacks: ReFire: Episode 1, Part 1

by David Klemt

In the latest episode of the Bar Hacks podcast, I introduce an innovative format called Bar Hacks: Refire, tackling real-world hospitality scenarios.

Joined by Bradley Knebel, client services director at Empowered Hospitality, the first episode offers a fresh perspective on managing bar and restaurant challenges.

The discussion kicks off with a focus on staff management, addressing the question of rehiring former employees. What may seem like a simple question proves to be anything but when Bradley and I break down the interplay of labor shortages, cultural fit within a team, and other key elements.

Our goal, as it will be with every episode of ReFire, is for listeners to gain valuable insights into the decision-making process behind giving second chances, and the impact of such decisions on team dynamics.

Whether you’re a bar owner, manager, or aspiring hospitality professional, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge and strategies to navigate the challenges of running a successful bar or restaurant.

Below, a transcript of the first part of the first episode of Bar Hacks: ReFire. Bradley and I jump into each scenario cold (for the most part), so the tone is conversational rather than formal. Cheers!

Transcript: Bar Hacks: ReFire: Episode One

David: Hey, welcome back to the Bar Hacks podcast… We’re gonna try something a little different today with the format, and I’m kind of playing around with it. I think I’m gonna call it Bar Hacks: ReFire because we’re giving people a second bite of the apple for a situation that maybe we read about that we don’t agree with, or that we can study and kind of revisit as a way to give some advice.

But my guest today is Bradley Knebel. He is the client services director at Empowered Hospitality. He worked for, I wanna say a decade, for Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group until a couple years ago. He was the GM of Tatiana, and he helped bring that restaurant to, I believe, a three-star review in The New York Times. It has also been recognized as the number one restaurant in New York City during its tenure. And we met at this year’s Flyover Conference, me and Bradley, and we were hanging out with the founders of that show, Sarah Engstrand and Greg Newman. (And just a little drive-by on Dave Kaplan, as well, was hanging out with us, of Death & Co.)

We just had some really great conversations, and some good drinks, and really good pizzas at that one spot. They were, I think, wood-fired out of a food truck. Really good. So, I was doing my second ever public speaking engagement, which was still nerve wracking for me. I know I do a podcast, but this is completely different than talking to a room full of industry experts and industry newbies who are hoping I can tell them something good. And I think, Bradley, it was your first public speaking since Empowered Hospitality and doing your thing over there, and you and Kaplan were nice enough to sit in on my session and actually ask me questions that were helpful for everyone else, and yourselves.

So, I had this idea bopping around in my head about a different podcast format, because I was like, “Well, I do interviews, but I don’t always get the chance to address, you know, operator topics and server topics, and bartender and chef topics, because I want the audience to learn from the expert that I’ve got on.” That’s my very long-winded way of saying, welcome, Bradley, and let’s try this new podcast format.

Bradley: Hi, Dave, thanks for having me. I’m super excited about this. I think it’s going to be a really fun format, and I like the Bar Hacks: ReFire because we’ve all had to refire something that didn’t come out right. Or you accidentally overcooked something because something else comes up in the moment, and you just totally forget that you have something cooking. So, I love the name. And also, for your second public speaking, I thought you did incredibly well. I certainly enjoyed your conversation, and it was also so relevant to what you do, and kind of what you and I have talked about in the past of like, how do you build successful restaurants from the ground up and where do you start? And we’ve even joked about how many people we’ve met who just say, “I have money, I want to open a restaurant. Let’s do this,” and don’t realize how hard it is. So, really excited to dive in on some of these questions we have today, and thank you so much for having me on the show today.

David: Absolutely. And hopefully we do many more of these.

The ReFire Format

Situation 1: Second Chances? Hire Hard, and Manage Harder

David: Situation one is interesting. So, this is written ostensibly by a bar and restaurant owner, and we can all relate to this, you know, the past couple years. This one said the past year or so he’s had trouble—actually, I don’t know if it’s a he or she, I shouldn’t even say that—they have had trouble finding and keeping staff, and when they do keep them, keeping them happy.

So, the kitchen has two or three cooks. It’s a relatively small team. When it’s busy in the restaurant there are, from what I can interpret, there are two cooks on. And when it’s slow, one cook is doing everything. Pretty standard for a small operation, I would say. (These days, you’re trying to control labor costs. My business partner Doug will say, “We don’t cut costs, we control them.” You start cutting things and it can get ugly, and it’s a whole other can of worms. I’m sure Bradley would agree with that.)

They had a new hire, seemed perfect. From what I understand, they were a good fit because everybody relies on one another. Like, “Hey, I need to take this day off. Can you take this?” It’s very…it seems informal. They can just talk to each other and get things done. But because It’s a small team, they need someone reliable, which is what they thought they had. This is a part-time worker; they had another job.

Within that first month, just a slew of, just, unfortunate events struck this new hire, and they could not, they couldn’t sustain it. And so, they gave no notice—they just quit. The operator didn’t freak out in the, in the post, was just like, “That’s really disappointing that they didn’t even, you know, text me like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this for another two weeks.’” But it does seem like real life got in the way, and this person wouldn’t probably have been able to reliably give, you know, two weeks or a week.

However, a couple weeks after that happened, the person came to get, I assume, their first paycheck. Their last, but I’m assuming their only, paycheck. And I don’t think the operator was there. They talked to the lead chef, and they apologized, and they expressed that they had stabilized everything, and just a bad time all at once, basically. And they would really love to come back. And, in fact, they would like to come back full time. So, I don’t know if that means that, the job they lost, they couldn’t get that back, or they were just like, “You know what? I actually like this place. I would like to be here full time.”

And so, the whole point of the post was, do you give second chances? Or would you give second chances to someone who just quit and then shows up for their paycheck? So, because of what Empowered does, specializing in HR and things like that for this industry, I figure we’ll go with you first on this topic and see what your initial thoughts are.

Tornado People

Bradley: Yeah, I think some things that are really interesting about this question, and thanks for passing it over, is it was a really short tenure before the person left. Right? So, this cook in question was there for, I think it sounded like a month. And then because of life… And I think it’s important in this instance to state that the incidents that led to this employee leaving were outside of the workplace, and I think that’s an important distinction here. So, there were things that happened in this employee’s personal life. It was losing a job and some other pretty unfortunate situations that led to them basically leaving with no notice, which is never a great sign. That feels really terrible. As an operator, you’re now scrambling. You thought you had your plans in place. And for such a small team, as you mentioned earlier, if it’s a team of three or four people, losing one is a massive part of that labor force.

So, I think the flag here is: Do you think it’s repeatable? Do you think that that one blip and moment was a really unfortunate circumstance? We’ve all met—I like to call them tornado people, where for good or for bad, things just spiral around them. Things are just never going well. There’s always: breaking this lease; I had to leave; I had to move out of this apartment; I just lost this job; you know, my partner just said this. And so, if it’s somebody who is just a tornado person, it’s going to kind of keep revolving back. So, I would be really worried with this employee and with this hire. Is this a pattern? Just a pattern you saw a single piece of that becomes unreliable?

And also, can you trust this person again? Especially because the kitchen is run on a singular body during, I’m assuming, lunches, Sunday, Monday, Tuesdays… You know, if this person is working a Monday dinner, how confident are you now that they’re going to show up? Labor is hard right now. You’re seeing a massive labor shortage, especially in the culinary world. There’s a huge disparity in the back of house right now, and it’s real. But you also need to make sure you’re hiring the right thing. And you mentioned earlier, I worked for Union Square Hospitality Group for Danny for a long time, and one of our big tenets, when it came to talent and came to people, was “hire hard, and manage harder.” It’s finding the right fit, and sometimes it can be really challenging. That does mean having to jump in. And as anybody who’s worked in this industry long enough knows, that sometimes mean you’re washing dishes by yourself at 1 am because your dishwasher stormed out, or your dishwasher is now covering a prep station, or, you know, one of the other crazy things that just happens in this industry.

So, my big thing to question here is, do you think this is a pattern? Is this something that’s going to happen again? Do you think you can trust this employee again? And then my biggest question also was, what was it about this employee that made them, quote-unquote, a perfect fit? Was it because they just didn’t complain and did their job well, or were they adding to the culture? So, if they were adding to the culture, if they were adding to the standards, if they were really building themselves in the space, then I, I think a second chance could be warranted, knowing all the life circumstances that went into it. But if this person was a good fit just because they came in usually on time, usually did what they were supposed to do, and left the station usually clean, I just… The risk of having another month spiral out to me is a really big concern, especially for a team that small, and for a team who has to operate on their own pretty consistently.

Two Minds

David: And then the other question is, so you, let’s say now we’re, we’ll bring you back. And then the question becomes, what kind of limitations do you put on this? Because I’m of two minds.

Okay, well, the apology does go a long way, I appreciate that. Maybe the owner wasn’t on property when the person came. And then the question in the back of my head would be, did you plan that so you don’t have to deal with the owner, and you apologize to the cook because maybe you respect other chefs, but you don’t really respect the owner, or you just didn’t wanna deal with the owner, or they just happen to not be there and you want to apologize to everybody who you affected. That’s possible.

But then you start doing the, you know, okay, well, we need to do, like, a 60-day probationary period, or a 90-day. And while I do agree with those, sometimes, I do think they do affect the culture, and they affect your employees. Like, “Right, I have this constant, like, just spotlight on me. I’m afraid to make any mistake.” Or what if legitimately something just happens? Like, okay, so their car broke down, and then they went to get the bus, and that’s running late, or it’s just stuck in traffic. They try to get there and they’re still late. Are you going to listen to them and not ding them? Or is it, “Okay, well, I don’t want to hear it again. You’re out of here.”

So, I do think probationary periods make sense, but not when you are laser-focused on them. You made a huge mistake and now we’re going to put these limitations on you. That’s not healthy, I don’t think, for either side. So, I maybe would do it like, hey, you can come back, but we’re going to go part-time first, and then I really don’t want…I’m not going to give you a lone shift; you’ll always be with another one of their cooks, and hopefully they show up for every shift.

But then it’s, you know, do the cooks get input? Does the owner get to go, “Okay, look, this is going to affect you directly. This is your team, essentially. Do you want this person back?” Because I do think that these are conversations you need to have with the team affected. And it does affect the entire team, but the direct team first. And then if you wanna ask the front-of-house manager, “What do you think of the situation? Like, do you trust the kitchen if this person’s here?”

So, I don’t think there’s, a silver bullet. I think it really is going to come down to a culture. And like you said, was this person a good fit because of culture, or were they a good-

Bradley: Fit because they were a body?

David: That’s…yeah, that’s the answer. If it’s because “I need this person here,” then if there’s only a month, I think you can survive another month looking for somebody, and hopefully they work out better. And I hate saying “hopefully,” ‘cause that’s so not strategic. Like, “Oh, I hope they work out.” But that really is part of it. Like you said, you hire hard.

But still, I mean, one of our industry peers thought they hired the right general manager for a restaurant once, and turned out they were doing drugs in the office, and stealing money. And I’m not vilifying the drug part, to be honest; that’s an issue that we need to address with a lot more compassion. But they were stealing money, and committing crimes on the property, and that was the issue. And none of that had even occurred to them because the interviews were so good, and the in-person interactions were so good when they were on site. So, it didn’t even occur to them until they didn’t show up and they’d been arrested, and the cops like, “Hey, does this person work for you? ‘Cause check all this.”

There’s always the X factor, and we have to put a lot of trust in people when we hire them. But that is also why I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the standard interview questions. Like, let’s just rubber stamp this. We ask these questions, we pencil-whip the answers, they got them, alright? Most people know how to answer an interview question to get, you know, a thumbs up from somebody.

So, I think a lot of the approach of, “Let’s hang out for a shift.” (And we have to pay them for the shift.) But like, are, they a good fit? Do I want to spend 13 hours with this person a day, or am I like, “Oh, get out of here”? Like, I can’t stand you already. Or—because we can train skills, we all know that—like you said, is it a body? And if it’s a body, I think you move on. Like, I appreciate the apology, but I don’t think it’s worth the headache if that’s the case.

“Probationary Periods are Fake”

Bradley: I agree. We, at Empowered Hospitality, advise clients that probationary periods are fake. And I think there are a few things that probationary periods always worry me because, especially depending on your jurisdiction, depending on where you are in the country, they may or may not be legal, they may or may not be enforceable. Empowered Hospitality operates mostly in New York City, but we have clients all over the country. But we advise all of our New York clients that probationary periods are fake. You know, you might say that you have a 30-day probationary period that you try to terminate somebody, but if you terminate without documentation, they can still go to unemployment court. And if you’re in a very pro-labor state like New York, in a pro-labor city like New York City—which isn’t a bad thing, I think this is a great thing; like labor needs protection—but you’re going to lose that case. Even if they’re on a 30-day probationary period, even if you put it in a handbook, even if you had them sign something… Probationary periods, I think, don’t work, in my personal, professional opinion. I think it just, it’s stage shifts, it’s having trails that should be paid, and in some places need to be paid, but, like, seeing them in action.

And, I also… One of the big flags here, too, is the first three months that somebody is in a job, not only is it when they’re learning the job, they’re learning the culture, they’re learning how to be successful, but it’s also when they’re on their best behavior. So, in this first 90-day cycle when this person is supposed to be on their best behavior, and it’s usually when you get the least amount of complaints and the most amount of, I don’t want to say production, but kind of, like, positive enforcement into the company, they’ve already come in, spiraled out, left with no notice, come back and apologize, and then tried to change the initial condition of their employment, which was part-time, into full-time. So, they’re basically coming back during the window that you’re really evaluating them as a long-term employee. They have basically said, “No, I want to change what I’m doing.”

And then I also have this, like, needle in the back that’s saying are they coming back full-time because they lost their other job that they can’t get back, and they just need something, and you’re the easy target? And all of this to say, if you get along with this person really, really well, you believe that it was an unfortunate event, they’ve shown track record either through resumes or through word of mouth that, like, it was just a blip, and you’re willing to take that risk? Absolutely. There’s so much risk in our industry. Every hire is a risk. Every time you buy a new product from a new vendor, it’s a risk. There’s so much risk in this industry outside of just financial. And so, if you’re willing to take that risk, then that’s a risk you’re willing to take. But it is a risk.

You know, it’s because also, what’s one thing we say all the time? It’s not the shining employee, and it’s not the employee that’s the worst, it’s the employee that just coasts. That’s the biggest detriment to your business. The biggest detriment to your business is the person who just does enough, but doesn’t do enough to actually, like, get anywhere, either probationary or excelling. And so, if you hire this person in and then they end up being one of these tornado people, but they don’t do anything like quit again on the spot, it’s gonna be really challenging to exit this person successfully without risks of the business. And right now, you’re at a moment that there is no risk to not hire them.

The Verdict

David: I probably wouldn’t hire back. And, not to sound like I’m not compassionate, because my gut reaction, personally, with no business involved, is, yeah, they apologized. It was a month. Like, they had a string of things that did not directly involve the company go wrong. Like, let’s try it again.

But on the business side, the operator side, I’m like, what probably wasn’t even a full month of work, you already survived without this person after this all happens. So, I would just keep looking. And as far as probationary periods, you’ll never see it listed in one of our manuals. We do onboarding manuals. We do training manuals. We do checklists. We do a ton of documents for our clients when they ask us to. We have never talked about a probationary period. It’s just like, nope: this is what we expect from you, we’re gonna document it if you don’t do it, and corrective action. It’s gonna start with, “Hey, just don’t do that again,” and then it escalates. So, we don’t do probationary: it’s just, “Please don’t break the standards. If you do, we can talk about it, ‘cause maybe the standard should change.” I mean that does happen, but it’s mostly just don’t do that. And then we’re gonna keep having to escalate this if you keep doing this.

Bradley: And you mentioned something that I think is really important: the day the employee starts, they’re your employee. And by all intents and purposes they’re the same. They need to be treated the same as somebody who’s been there for five years, right?

So, yes, they’re taking more coaching, and there’s more training. They’re taking more time as you’re adapting them to your culture. But that doesn’t mean that there’s any different standard that you can hold them to because they’re new in terms of, like, paperwork, termination process if you have a disciplinary process laid out within your handbook or laid out within any sort of documents or policies, especially if they sign off on them. So, making sure that every hire is a commitment, and you should be willing to put the time and investment into them, but you also have to hold all of them accountable in the same way.

Because I also worry—and kind of diatribing on this a little bit—I worry what message is to sending to the rest of your team, right? If he would have, I’m assuming this person’s a he, but if this person would have quit and said, “I can’t give you notice because of all of these things. I can try and pick up a shift here, but right now this isn’t working,” that’s one thing. But that’s not what happened in this case, you know? This person had a bunch of unfortunate situations happen to them outside of work. But then instead of trying to work with their employer to say, “Hey, I’m working through these things, can I take two weeks to figure this out? I know I just started.” But it was, “I’m gone.” And then a month later like, “Hey, I’m back. Can I get a job?” And so, if it was one of my clients, I would be hard pressed to advise “Yes.”

David: And it was a “he.” When they wrote it, it was a “he.”

“You have to protect your entire team”

Bradley: If it was a tough labor market, I could see there were definitely extenuating circumstances that could sway one way or the other. But just at face value, this feels like a really challenging rehire. Not because they don’t care about the person. I don’t think anybody gets into this industry because they don’t care about people. And I’m super empathetic, but I’ve been in restaurants for 20 years. It’s very transient. We’ve seen people come and go.

And just the risk that I would have taken 20 years ago… And on people, I take less now. I think maybe I’ve been burned too many times, or seeing too many patterns come through, but… At the end of the day, you feel bad for this one person, but you have to protect your entire team. And so when you’re the employer, sometimes the good of the whole team makes you make some tough choices, or makes you make choices that maybe you personally don’t agree with or personally make you feel, “Hey, I feel like I might be a bad person, but I can’t do this because I have 16 other people that work for me that show up every day that have been there consistently, and they need to have a team that shows up as well.”

I’m going to go back to the biggest flag here for me is that it was only one month of, like, good behavior. If this had been somebody who had been there for, like, three months, six months, a year and then had to quit, no notice, all these things happened in their personal life, and then came back and was like, “Look, I am so sorry life spiraled.” You also have a little bit more judgment on that person’s character. One month in, you don’t know who that person is.

David: Excellent point. Yeah. There’s no way that they—well, not no way—but it’s very low odds they knew exactly who this person is after, I think they said they worked like two or three shifts a week, part-time. So, you just don’t know.

So, yeah, I think both of us are agreeing that you just move on from this, not because you’re cold-hearted, but because it is the best decision for the company, and the team. Like I said, if you really have that culture where you have a meeting, like, “Hey, this is what happened, you all have a vote.” I mean, I’ve seen that happen; it does happen. If that’s the kind of culture, maybe it’s a different answer. But I don’t think the market is so bad that you can’t do without, you know, finding another, waiting another month, two months to hire another person who will fit the same role part-time with the possibility of going full-time. I don’t think it’s that dire.

Pass them On?

Bradley: If you, if a few heartstrings pulled out for this man and you, I still don’t know if I bring him in for the culture. But nobody in restaurants also doesn’t know anybody. It’s, “Hey, I don’t think it’s a good look to bring you back here. It doesn’t set a good precedent for the team. You know, I also am not sure this is, like, going to be a great long-term fit. But if you’d like, I’m happy to talk to somebody else, and see other places in the industry that you might be able to go.”

But that’d be a risk because then you’re putting your reputation on this person’s shoulders.

David: True.

Bradley: But if you trust that they’re good… I still don’t know that bringing them back on sets the right precedent for the company. You could help them in other ways instead of just bringing them back into your space, into your business.

David: That’s a good point. Yeah. You could definitely pass them on. But like you said, now you get the phone call from the person you passed them on, like, “What did you do?!”

Bradley: After a month, they’re like, “They just quit.” Exactly, yeah. I’d say history always repeats itself. And that is long-term and short-term. So, that would be my biggest concern here, outside a few others.

Listen to Bar Hacks: Refire, episode one on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Note: Transcript provided by Eddy by Headliner, edited by author for clarity.

Image: Canva

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December 3, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: December 2024

5 Books to Read this Month: December 2024

by David Klemt

Our December book selections focus on nailing the fundamentals, an infamous drink, themed sips and bites, non-conformists, and more.

To review the book recommendations from November 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France’s Most Notorious Drink

It’s undeniable that, until relatively recently, absinthe has been one of the most misunderstood beverages on the market. Who hasn’t heard or read that one of its most infamous effects is hallucinations? Well, it turns out that the people most famous for imbibing this legendary drink were just drinking so much of it, they were hammered out of their minds. There are no psychoactive ingredients in absinthe.

So, what else have we gotten wrong about “the green fairy”? This book answers that question, and so many more.

From Amazon: “At the height of its popularity in the late nineteenth century, absinthe reigned in the bars, cafés, and restaurants of France and its colonial empire. Yet by the time it was banned in 1915, the famous green fairy had become the green peril, feared for its connection with declining birth rates and its apparent capacity to induce degeneration, madness, and murderous rage in its consumers. As one of history’s most notorious drinks, absinthe has been the subject of myth, scandal, and controversy.”

Order your copy now.

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope

We at KRG Hospitality support World Central Kitchen with donations, and have done so for years. WCK’s values align with our own, and its a charitable organization that truly supports people, and provides hope.

Their first-ever cookbook, aptly titled The Word Central Kitchen Cookbook, won a James Beard Award this year. Now, you can support the WCK and their campaigns, and recreate or find inspiration from their recipes. This book is well (and creatively) organized, with chapters titled Empathy, Urgency, Adaptation, Hope, Community, Resilience, and Joy.

From Amazon: “In their first cookbook, WCK shares recipes inspired by the many places they’ve cooked following disasters as well as inspiring narratives from the chefs and volunteers on the front lines. Photographs captured throughout the world highlight community and hope while stunning food photography showcases the mouthwatering recipes. ”

Get the spiral-bound version here!

Puncheons and Flagons: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cocktail Book

There’s no doubt that Dungeons & Dragons has grown in popularity over the years. It appears this interest in the game can be credited at least partially to podcasts and videos of actual game play. In fact, I listen to three D&D-themed podcasts regularly, and try others from time to time…and I’ve never played the game.

If you operate a concept that encourages gamers to gather, play, socialize, drink, and eat, you’ll find value in the pages of Puncheons & Flagons. Alongside shareable snack recipes are cocktail and zero-proof drink builds. Basically, everything your gamer guests need to keep game play going strong.

From Amazon: “Entertain fabulously while you adventure in your next D&D campaign! Puncheons & Flagons is a delightful and fun-filled cocktail and snacks book filled with fare that would be served up at your character’s favorite tavern, inn, or market along the Sword Coast. All seventy-five dishes, created by a professional recipe developer, are easy to prepare and provide everything you need for hosting and entertaining with D&D flair.”

Hardcover available here.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

While we all need to understand and master the fundamentals, every operator and hospitality professional takes a personal journey to and through this business. We categorize concepts but each is different, and the vast majority are based on a unique vision. It’s a key driver for the team KRG Hospitality; we love learning about our client’s projects, where we can help, and working alongside them to bring their vision to reality.

In other words, this is an industry of non-conformists hellbent on making their own way. This book is a deep dive into the mindset that drives so many hospitality pros.

From Amazon: “Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.”

Order the paperback here.

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

start your operator journey in the best possible position;
stabilize your business; and
scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.

Click here to get your copy today!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

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November 1, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: November 2024

5 Books to Read this Month: November 2024

by David Klemt

Our November book selections focus on recognizing your own potential, developing and enhancing culinary and cocktail skills, and leadership.

To review the book recommendations from October 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Soups, Salads, Sandwiches: A Cookbook

Who doesn’t appreciate dining on a soup, salad, and sandwich? It’s one of the most famous food-based trinities in the world. Each of these individual items is a blank canvas for creativity from your kitchen team; they can be as simple or complex and inventive as you and your team desire. A soup, salad, or sandwich can introduce guests to new flavors. When presented as a trio, they can also tell a cohesive, compelling culinary story. In this aptly named cookbook, Matty Matheson tells interesting stories, and shares more than 120 recipes.

From Amazon: “Packed with character, personal stories, 126 scrumptious recipes, and vivid photographs of a day-in-the-life with Matty and his family, Soups, Salads, Sandwiches will have you fearlessly whipping up your own combinations in the kitchen.”

Order your copy today on Amazon, or wherever you get books.

Unsliced: How to Stay Whole in the Pizzeria Industry

Mike Bausch, the author of Unsliced, was one of the first guests on the Bar Hacks podcast. If you’d like to give his episode a listen, it’s number number 18 (Spotify link | Apple Podcasts link). In his book, Bausch lays everything out for pizzeria operators, from leadership and marketing to adjusting your mindset.

These two sentences from the description of Unsliced say it all, and they resonate with me and my partners at KRG Hospitality: “It’s hard not to get discouraged in this business. But with the right perspective, smart systems, and hard work, your restaurant can thrive.”

From Amazon: “If you own a pizzeria, you know something most people don’t: the pizza business is more cutthroat, stressful, and multifaceted than Wall Street. Every day is a constant struggle to manage overhead, attract loyal customers, stand out from the pack, and keep your employees motivated.

“Running a pizzeria is hard. But it doesn’t have to be as hard as you think.”

Pick this book up here.

The Bartender’s Pantry: A Beverage Handbook for the Universal Bar

Published earlier this year, The Bartender’s Pantry by Jim Meehan and Bart Sasso offers a unique departure from the standard cocktail recipe book. As you glean from the word “pantry” in the title of this book, Meehan and Sasso encourage bartenders to take a culinary approach to crafting drinks. However, The Bartender’s Pantry is also aimed at cooks. Really, this is a great book that should help bring the front and back of houses together. There are more than 100 recipes, and this book is available in a flexibound version, which makes it infinitely cool.

From Amazon: “Each chapter features artfully illustrated recipes incorporating the featured ingredients that bring the reader into the kitchens of some of the world’s most revered bartenders, baristas, importers, and chefs. Their innovative takes on traditional recipes including horchata, matcha, Turkish coffee, sorrel, kvass, and ice cream are followed by full-page photos of over 50 cocktails that incorporate them including modern classics like the Gin Basil Smash, Earl Grey MarTEAni and Penicillin.”

Grab the flexibound version from Amazon.

Beyond the Hammer: A Fresh Approach to Leadership, Culture, and Building High Performance Teams

Author Brian Gottlieb identifies three challenges that just about every business faces: leading staff to take ownership of the work they do; friction between departments or separate teams; and producing inconsistent results. He also presents a strategy in Beyond the Hammer to overcome these challenges, in addition to high employee turnover, and burnout.

From Amazon: “These common issues create high turnover and force managers into crisis mode where they’re consumed putting out daily fires. Over time, the very nature of the business changes and a new culture emerges; one shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior.”

Hardcover available on Amazon.

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

If you’ve listened to episode 100 of the KRG Hospitality-produced Bar Hacks podcast (Spotify link | Apple Podcasts link), you’ve heard Tako Chang talk about discovering the Double Chicken Please team’s hidden talents. Moreover, you’ve heard how impressed she is with the team’s skills, and encouraging each member to develop them further. That’s an example of great leadership.

This book, written by organizational psychologist Adam Grant, addresses finding and exploring your own potential; doing the same for others; and why we should focus more on learning than working ourselves to the bone to achieve success.

From Amazon: “Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.”

The hardcover costs less than the paperback right now on Amazon.

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

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October 2, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: October 2024

5 Books to Read this Month: October 2024

by David Klemt

Our October book selections focus on restaurant and bar interior design, developing leadership skills, an infamous liqueur, and themed cocktails.

To review the book recommendations from September 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Dining Out: The New Restaurant Interior Design

Impactful bar, restaurant, and hotel design is paramount. Your space is how your guests interact with your brand in person and online. It’s much more than just four walls; your venue is the physical manifestation and representation of your concept. Therefore, it’s important that you nail your design details. I think you’ll find Dining Out inspiring.

From Amazon: “The book takes the reader on a journey to some of the most cutting-edge examples in restaurant design and architecture from around the world. With a descriptive text for each project, it focuses on the craftmanship, color schemes, decorative details, lighting and furnishings that form the identity of the space, serving as a source of inspiration and reference for professional designers, foodies and other people involved in the restaurant business. Interior and exterior photographs, as well as blueprints of each design, present the reader with a rich range of styles, from modern minimalist spaces to ones defined by bold contemporary colors, a sleek industrial look or designs that look to the past for inspiration.”

Order your hardcover copy here.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working

Part of being an entrepreneur or member of a leadership team is implementing new initiatives. And sometimes, after monitoring these new initiatives for a set amount of time, we find out that they’re just not working. So, what do you do? This book will help you take decisive, timely action.

From Amazon: “Changing how we work can feel overwhelming. Like trying to budge an enormous boulder. We’re stifled by the gravity of the way we’ve always done things. And we spend so much time fighting fires—and fighting colleagues—that we lack the energy to shift direction.

“But with the right strategy, we can move the boulder. In Reset, Heath explores a framework for getting unstuck and making the changes that matter. The secret is to find ‘leverage points’: places where a little bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Then, we can thoughtfully rearrange our resources to push on those points.”

Place your pre-order for this book today.

Cocktails and Consoles: 75 Video Game-Inspired Drinks to Level Up Your Game Night

At the end of August, I shared some interesting information from a Datassential report. According to the intel agency, close to 200 million Americans are gamers, and that interest in gaming spans all ages. Further, gamers spent well over $50 billion on this particular hobby in 2023. Datassential also found that 45 percent of gamers have made F&B decisions after consuming video game-related ads or content, so this info is relevant to restaurant and bar operators.

From Amazon: “Created especially for video game fans, this cocktail book features controller-friendly recipes that all offer playful homage to favorite games and characters including The Oregon Trail Buck (The Oregon Trail), Pom of Power (Hades), The Miles Edgeworth MarTeani (Ace Attorney), The Cake Is a Lie (Portal), Stardrop Swizzle (Stardew Valley), Miriel, Pastor of Vows (Elden Ring), Ether (Final Fantasy XIV), Liquid Snake (Metal Gear Solid), Lady Dimitrescu Fizz (Resident Evil Village), Sardegna Simulator Spritz (Gran Turismo), Falcon Punch (Super Smash Bros.), and more. Cocktails and Consoles has the perfect drink for every player and every video game!

Click here to order your copy.

Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit

So, perhaps I’m a bit odd, but I like the taste of Malört. Strangely, even though I grew up outside of Chicago and began my journey in bars and nightclubs in the city, I didn’t try Malört until I moved to Las Vegas. If you haven’t tried it, and you have a distributor who can get it for your bar reliably, you, your staff, and your guests are in for an experience.

From Amazon: “Author and beer expert Josh Noel unpacks a uniquely American tale, equal parts culture, business, and personal relationships—involving secret love, federal prison, a David vs. Goliath court battle, and, ultimately, the 2018 sale of Jeppson’s Malört, which made Pat Gabelick, a 75-year-old Chicago woman who spent much of her life as a legal secretary, into an unlikely millionaire.”

Grab yours here!

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

Yep, I’m taking the opportunity to recommend Doug Radkey’s first book. Radkey is, as you may know, the president of KRG Hospitality. In his this book he explains the importance of nailing the fundamentals in order to:

start your operator journey in the best possible position;
stabilize your business; and
scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.

Click here to get your copy today!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

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Two people sitting outside on a bench, dressed professionally, discussing goals and business

September 27, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Someone to Rely On: Accountability

Someone to Rely On: Accountability Partners

by Jennifer Radkey

To share or not to share, that is the question. More specifically, should you share your goals with others or should you keep them top secret?

I find there are three different groups of people when it comes to goal setting. There are the people who like to shout their goals from the mountaintop for everyone to hear. Then there are those who share with just a few select people. And, of course, the people who keep their goals entirely to themselves.

Is one approach better than another? The answer to that question depends on who you are telling your goals to, if anyone.

Be Strategic

You need to be strategic with whom you share your goals. Before you tell someone an intended goal you need to consider if sharing with them will affect your chances of reaching it.

There has been quite a lot of research recently on goal setting. One of these studies was done by NYU psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, and it included four tests.

In these tests subjects wrote down their goals, and then worked on them for up to 45 minutes. They were allowed to stop working on their goal at any time. Half of the test subjects kept the goals they had written down to themselves; the other half announced them out loud to the group.

Here’s the interesting thing: Those who had kept their goals to themselves spent the entire 45 minutes working on their goal, and still felt they had a ways to go before reaching it. The study participants who announced their goals to the group averaged only 33 minutes of working on their goal, and felt that they were close to completing it. So, they didn’t feel the need to continue working on it.

Essentially, they gave up on it.

Be Cautious

What does all this suggest? Well, due to how our brains work, sharing our goals gives us the same psychological satisfaction as actually achieving them. Therefore, we don’t do the same amount of hard work to reach them.

Hearing a lot of personal praise from others when we share a goal gives us that hit of satisfaction, making the process of achieving it less necessary. On the opposite end, hearing disapproval of our goals may make us doubt ourselves, and give up before even getting started.

So, should you keep your goals top secret? While research is still being done on this topic, it appears that sharing your goals with carefully selected individuals and reporting on your progress with them can actually aid you in achieving your goals.

You need an accountability partner.

Be Selective

When seeking an accountability partner you want to choose someone who embodies three main traits. They need to be impartial, honest, and positive.

An impartial accountability partner is not personally invested in whether or not you reach your goal. They come from a neutral space, and while they are rooting for you to succeed, there’s nothing in it for them either way.

They are able to provide unbiased observations, and offer a very helpful outsider perspective that often allows for greater clarity.

Friends can serve in this role if they don’t have a personal stake in whether you reach your goal. They would like you to because they want to see you succeed, but there’s nothing in it for them, no matter the outcome.

If your goal is to open a new restaurant, your spouse, as supportive and amazing as they are, may not be the best accountability partner. This is because the outcome of you achieving or not achieving this goal is going to have implications on their own life as well.

An honest accountability partner can be relied on to tell you the truth, and to ask the questions needed for you to be honest with yourself. They don’t tell you what you want to hear; they tell you what you need to hear.

In order to reach goals you need someone who will spark light on reality, someone who will point out what you are doing well, and what you may not be doing competently. They are honest in a helpful way, never in a degrading way. I don’t believe in being brutally honest; we should all be honest while remaining respectful of others.

Be Mindful

Lastly, the best accountability partners have a positive mindset. They will help you seek ways in which you can improve and grow.

A great accountability partner will cheer on your successes, and help you create action plans when reaching your goals becomes challenging. An accountability partner is there to help you thrive, not bring you down.

Effective accountability partners can be difficult to find. This is one reason why the coaching industry has taken off like it has. A good life coach becomes an accountability partner, a sounding board, and creates space for self-discovery and planning.

Unless you are organized, resilient, and dedicated to taking action, you may want to share your goals with an accountability partner who can help you stay focused and motivated along the way.

As for the social media blasts sharing your newest goals…maybe hold off on those until you have reached the goal. As good as it may feel to share with everyone, you may actually be doing more harm than good.

Cheers to personal and professional growth!

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An AI-generated image illustrating the concept of systems, analysis, and improvements

September 24, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

The Modern Approach to Systems: Part 2

The Modern Approach to Systems: Part 2

by Doug Radkey

Six Sigma is a data-driven methodology that focuses on reducing variability and defects in processes to improve overall quality and efficiency.

The term “Six Sigma” refers to a statistical measure that indicates a process is nearly perfect, with only 3.4 defects per million opportunities. This is a methodology that aims to streamline operations, reduce waste, and enhance guest satisfaction by eliminating errors and inconsistencies systematically.

If you want to learn more about the Kaizen approach, please refer to part one of this series, in which we outline the definition and case-study use of Kaizen in bars, restaurants, and hotels.

Introduction to Six Sigma

The concept of Six Sigma was developed by Motorola in the 1980s as a means to improve manufacturing processes and product quality.

Its development was driven by the need to meet the increasingly stringent quality standards in the electronics industry. Motorola’s success with Six Sigma prompted other companies to adopt the methodology, most notably General Electric (GE).

Under the leadership of CEO Jack Welch, GE refined and expanded Six Sigma principles, applying them across various business units to achieve significant cost savings, and quality improvements. This broader application demonstrated the versatility of Six Sigma, making it relevant across industries beyond manufacturing.

The core concepts of Six Sigma revolve around a structured problem-solving framework known as DMAIC, and a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making. These elements are crucial for identifying inefficiencies, implementing improvements, and sustaining high-quality outcomes.

Framework

The DMAIC framework is the backbone of the Six Sigma methodology, providing a systematic approach to process improvement.

It consists of five phases:

Define: In this phase, the project team identifies the problem, defines the project scope, and sets specific goals. This includes understanding guest requirements and expectations, which are crucial for ensuring that improvements align with guests needs.
Measure: The measure phase involves collecting data on the current process to establish a baseline. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are identified, and data collection methods are standardized to ensure accuracy and consistency. This phase is crucial for quantifying the extent of the problem, and providing a foundation for analysis.
Analyze: In the analyze phase, the collected data is examined to identify root causes of defects or inefficiencies. Statistical analysis tools, such as regression analysis and hypothesis testing, are used to uncover correlations and patterns. This phase helps isolate the factors contributing to variability and defects.
Improve: Based on the insights gained from the analysis, the project team develops and implements solutions to address the root causes. This phase may involve redesigning processes, implementing new technologies, or training staff. The goal is to reduce variability, eliminate defects, and enhance process efficiency.
Control: The final phase focuses on sustaining the improvements made. Control measures are put in place to monitor the process, ensuring that changes are maintained, and that the process does not revert to its previous state. This may include implementing control charts, conducting regular audits, and setting up a response plan for any deviations.

Six Sigma’s emphasis on data-driven decision-making sets it apart from other quality improvement methodologies. By relying on empirical data and statistical analysis, Six Sigma users can make objective decisions based on facts rather than intuition.

Belt System

A unique aspect of Six Sigma is its structured certification system, represented by different belt levels, similar to martial arts.

These belts denote varying levels of expertise and responsibility in Six Sigma methodologies:

Yellow Belt: Yellow Belts have a basic understanding of Six Sigma principles, and assist in data collection and process mapping within their work areas.
Green Belt: Green Belts work on Six Sigma projects part-time while performing their regular job duties. They lead smaller projects, and support Black Belts in data analysis and project implementation.
Black Belt: Black Belts are full-time Six Sigma professionals who lead major projects, mentor Green Belts, and drive process improvement initiatives. They possess advanced statistical analysis skills, and a deep understanding of Six Sigma methodologies.
Master Black Belt: Master Black Belts are highly experienced Six Sigma experts who provide strategic direction, mentor Black Belts, and oversee large-scale improvement projects across the organization. They play a crucial role in developing Six Sigma strategies, and ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
Champion: Champions are senior executives who sponsor Six Sigma projects, and ensure they align with the organization’s strategic objectives. They provide the necessary resources and support to ensure project success.

In summary, Six Sigma is a robust methodology focused on reducing variability and defects through a structured, data-driven approach.

The DMAIC framework guides project teams through problem identification, solution implementation, and control, ensuring sustainable improvements. The certification system, with its various belt levels, provides a clear path for professional development and project management within the Six Sigma framework.

As a result, Six Sigma has become an essential tool for organizations seeking to enhance quality, efficiency, and guest satisfaction.

Applying Six Sigma to the Industry

Through the use of data-driven techniques and structured problem-solving frameworks, Six Sigma helps hospitality businesses optimize processes, enhance quality, and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

Below, I explore the application of Six Sigma in bars, restaurants, and hotels, highlighting specific areas of improvement.

Six Sigma in Bars

Analyzing Beverage Preparation Times: Six Sigma methodologies can be used to analyze the time taken to prepare various drinks, identify bottlenecks, and streamline processes. By collecting data on preparation times and using tools like time-motion studies, bars can pinpoint inefficiencies in their workflow. For instance, rearranging the bar layout, standardizing drink recipes, or optimizing the order in which ingredients are prepared can reduce preparation times. The reduction in prep time leads to faster service, happier guests, and more profits.

Reducing Waste and Improving Inventory Management: Six Sigma tools such as a root-cause analysis can help identify common sources of waste, such as over-pouring, spoilage, or theft. Bars can maintain accurate stock levels, reduce over-ordering, and minimize losses through the implementation of standardized inventory tracking systems, and the conducting of regular audits. Additionally, Six Sigma’s emphasis on data analysis can guide purchasing decisions, ensuring that inventory is aligned with actual demand.

Enhancing Guest Service: Six Sigma can be used to develop and implement comprehensive training programs that cover all aspects of service, from drink preparation to guest interaction. Bars can ensure that all employees provide a uniform level of service by setting clear performance standards, and evaluating staff regularly against this set of criteria. This consistency not only enhances the experience but also strengthens your brand’s overall equity.

Six Sigma in Restaurants

Improving Order Accuracy and Reducing Wait Times: Six Sigma methodologies can optimize the entire order-to-delivery process, from taking orders to serving food. Process mapping and flowcharts can identify potential errors or delays in the process, such as miscommunication between front-of-house and kitchen team. Implementing technology solutions such as digital ordering systems or kitchen display screens (KDS) can reduce these errors, and streamline communication. Additionally, Six Sigma’s data-driven approach can help restaurants analyze peak times and adjust staffing levels accordingly, reducing wait times and improving service efficiency.

Implementing Quality Control Measures: Six Sigma can establish quality control measures for food preparation and presentation, ensuring that each dish meets established standards. This includes defining portion sizes, cooking temperatures, and plating guidelines. Regular quality checks and guest feedback can help maintain these standards and identify areas for improvement. By reducing variability in food quality, restaurants can enhance guest satisfaction, and build a more loyal base of targeted guests.

Six Sigma in Hotels

Reducing Check-In/Check-Out Times: Six Sigma can optimize these procedures by analyzing data on check-in/check-out times, and identifying factors that cause delays. For instance, complex booking systems, insufficient staffing, or lengthy verification processes can all contribute to longer wait times. Streamlining these procedures, such as implementing mobile check-in options or express check-out services, can reduce wait times, and enhance the overall guest experience.

Enhancing Guest Satisfaction: Six Sigma can help establish and maintain high standards for room cleaning and upkeep. This involves defining cleaning protocols, setting time standards for housekeeping tasks, and inspecting rooms regularly for quality assurance. By using control charts and other Six Sigma tools, hotels can monitor the consistency of their housekeeping services, and address any deviations quickly. This attention to detail ensures that guests receive a high level of service consistently, contributing to positive reviews and repeat business.

Analyzing and Reducing Service Errors and Complaints: Service errors and complaints can impact a hotel’s reputation and guest satisfaction negatively. Six Sigma can help hotel operators analyze service errors systematically, including incorrect billing, room assignment issues, or poor guest services. Hotels can implement targeted improvements to prevent future occurrences by categorizing complaints, and identifying their root causes. This might include additional staff training, process adjustments, or technology upgrades. Addressing service issues proactively allows hotels to enhance the overall guest experience, and reduce the likelihood of negative reviews.

In conclusion, Six Sigma provides a structured and data-driven approach to improving operations in the hospitality industry. Whether in bars, restaurants, or hotels, this methodology helps businesses streamline processes, reduce variability, and deliver high-quality experiences to their customers.

Hospitality businesses can achieve operational excellence—and gain a competitive edge in a dynamic and demanding market—by embracing and implementing Six Sigma.

Benefits of a Systematic Approach

While Six Sigma and Kaizen are distinct methodologies with unique strengths, combining these approaches can provide a comprehensive framework for achieving operational excellence in the hospitality industry.

Together, they offer a balanced focus on both long-term strategic improvements and continuous, incremental changes, addressing various aspects of business operations.

Here, I explore how these methodologies can be integrated, and the benefits of leveraging both to enhance your brand’s performance.

How to Integrate Six Sigma and Kaizen

Six Sigma: Focuses primarily on identifying and eliminating defects, reducing variability, and optimizing processes through a structured, data-driven approach. It is particularly effective for tackling complex, high-impact issues that require deep statistical analysis and root-cause identification.
Kaizen: Emphasizes continuous improvement through small, incremental changes. It encourages a culture of employee involvement and teamwork, focusing on making everyday processes more efficient and effective.

Sequential Implementation

Start with Six Sigma to address critical issues, and achieve significant breakthroughs in process efficiency and quality. The DMAIC framework can be used to tackle complex problems, ensuring that major defects and inefficiencies are identified, and resolved.

Follow up with Kaizen to maintain the momentum of improvement. Once the significant issues are addressed, Kaizen can help sustain the gains by fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

This approach ensures that even minor inefficiencies are regularly identified and addressed.

Parallel Application

In some cases, Six Sigma and Kaizen can be applied simultaneously to different areas of the business.

For instance, Six Sigma can be used to optimize high-priority processes such as inventory management and order accuracy, while Kaizen initiatives focus on enhancing guest services and staff engagement.

Comprehensive Improvement

By combining Six Sigma’s analytical rigor with Kaizen’s focus on incremental change, your hospitality business can achieve comprehensive improvement(s).

Six Sigma addresses large-scale, systemic issues, while Kaizen ensures that smaller, day-to-day improvements are made consistently. This dual approach covers a wide spectrum of operational challenges, leading to more holistic development.

Enhanced Employee Engagement

Kaizen’s emphasis on involving all employees in the improvement process complements Six Sigma’s structured project management approach at the leadership level. This combination fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among staff at all levels.

Employees are encouraged to contribute ideas and solutions, creating a more inclusive and engaged workforce. The involvement of employees in both large-scale Six Sigma projects and smaller Kaizen initiatives ensures that everyone is invested in the organization’s success.

Flexibility and Adaptability

The integration of Six Sigma and Kaizen allows businesses to be more flexible and adaptable. Six Sigma provides a robust framework for addressing well-defined, complex problems, while Kaizen offers a more flexible, grassroots approach to managing change.

This adaptability is crucial in the hospitality industry, where market conditions and guest expectations can change rapidly. Businesses can respond more effectively to new challenges and opportunities by using both methods.

Balanced Approach to Cost and Efficiency

Six Sigma’s focus on reducing defects and variability often leads to cost savings through improved efficiency, and reduced waste. Kaizen, on the other hand, emphasizes optimizing everyday processes, which can lead to incremental cost reductions and efficiency gains.

Together, they provide a balanced approach to cost management, ensuring that both significant and minor inefficiencies are addressed.

To the Future

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, the future of systematic approaches like Six Sigma and Kaizen holds promising potential for further innovations and advancements.

With the increasing integration of technology, such as AI-driven analytics and automation, these methodologies are set to become even more powerful tools for optimizing operations, and enhancing guest experiences. The future will likely see more sophisticated data analytics capabilities, enabling real-time decision-making and predictive insights that can address issues preemptively, before they impact guests.

Additionally, the focus on sustainability and ethical business practices will drive the development of new strategies that not only improve efficiency but also reduce environmental impact.

Moreover, the rise of remote work and digital collaboration tools for larger hospitality groups and portfolios will make it easier for global teams to implement and sustain these systematic approaches, regardless of geographical location. This shift will further democratize access to best practices, allowing even smaller hospitality businesses to compete on a larger scale by adopting proven methodologies.

Simplify the Journey

In light of these advancements, we encourage hospitality businesses to embrace Six Sigma and Kaizen as integral parts of their operational strategy.

Adopting these methodologies helps businesses to improve processes, reduce costs, and enhance the quality of service systematically. This not only leads to immediate benefits, such as increased guest satisfaction and loyalty, but also positions businesses for long-term success in a dynamic and competitive market.

The journey toward operational excellence is continuous, and the integration of these systematic approaches can be a game-changer. As the industry moves forward, those who invest in these methodologies will be better equipped to adapt to new challenges, and seize emerging opportunities.

We urge hospitality businesses to take action now, leveraging Six Sigma and Kaizen to build a resilient, efficient, and guest-focused operation that stands the test of time.

Image: DALL-E

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August 20, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Why You Should Invest in Strategy

Why You Should Invest in Strategy and Foresight

by Doug Radkey

A surprising trend is emerging: Many aspiring entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and seasoned business owners are hesitant to invest in two key elements.

Those elements? Strategy and foresight.

Despite understanding the importance of strategic direction, they often prioritize more immediate needs such as hiring talent, refining processes, and other operational aspects. However, these efforts, while crucial, can lack cohesion and effectiveness without a well-defined strategy guiding them.

Financing can be tight but that’s not often the issue. I’ve witnessed business owners eagerly spend $25,000 on new tables and chairs—when they weren’t necessary—while hesitating to invest the same amount in strategic planning that could yield a much higher return on investment.

It’s even more surprising to see new entrepreneurs pour over $1 million into launching a new bar or restaurant, only to balk at a $25,000, comprehensive strategy package.

This package, which includes a feasibility study, concept development playbook, brand strategy, marketing playbook, tech-stack playbook, financial playbook, and business strategy playbook, is often dismissed as “not in the budget.”

Yet, this investment in strategy is crucial for setting a strong foundation, and ensuring both short-term and long-term success. It’s like navigating without a map, or building a house without a blueprint; there may be some progress, but without a clear vision and destination, there’s a much greater risk of veering off course.

In terms of restaurants, bars, or hotels, a lack of strategy and foresight leads an owner to crumble their business to the ground.

This article explores the reasons why investing in strategy and foresight is not just a wise choice but an essential one for ensuring success and stability in an increasingly unpredictable industry.

What are Strategy and Foresight?

To overcome the laundry list of potential obstacles in this industry, you must prioritize strategic thinking, invest in the necessary resources and expertise, and cultivate a culture that values long-term planning.

No matter whether you’re starting, stabilizing, or scaling your brand, you need both strategy and foresight on your side.

Foresight

Foresight is the process of anticipating and envisioning potential future scenarios, trends, and developments. It involves analyzing emerging patterns, uncertainties, and possible disruptions to understand what the future might hold for you and your bar, restaurant, or hotel.

Foresight is not about predicting the future with certainty but about exploring a range of possibilities, and preparing for each of those scenarios.

Key Characteristics:

Explorative: Foresight explores multiple potential futures rather than focusing on a single expected outcome.
Long Term: Typically, a focus on the long-term implications of current trends and decisions.
Proactive: Foresight encourages proactive thinking and planning to anticipate changes, and prepare for various possibilities.
Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis: A combination of qualitative insights and quantitative data to create comprehensive future scenarios.

Strategy

Strategy, on the other hand, is the formulation and implementation of a plan to achieve specific goals and objectives. It involves making deliberate choices and decisions to allocate resources, navigate challenges, and capitalize on opportunities.

Strategy is focused on setting a clear direction, and determining the actions needed to reach desired outcomes.

Key Characteristics:

Directive: Strategy provides a clear roadmap and actionable steps to achieve goals.
Focused on Execution: The practical aspects of how to achieve desired outcomes, including resource allocation, prioritization, and performance measurement.
Short to Medium-Term: Strategy often addresses short to medium-term objectives, aligning current actions with long-term vision.
Decision Making: Strategic decisions based on the current understanding of the environment, resources, and capabilities.

Why You Should Integrate Strategy and Foresight

When you combine strategy with foresight you and your business can make more informed decisions. An informed decision is the consideration of both the present context and potential future developments.

Foresight provides valuable insights into emerging trends and uncertainties, helping your brand anticipate challenges and opportunities. This integration ensures that strategic decisions are based on a comprehensive understanding of possible future scenarios. Strategic decision reduce the risk of being caught off guard by unexpected changes.

Integrating foresight into the strategic planning process enhances your businesses adaptability and resilience. Foresight allows you to explore a range of possible futures, and develop contingency plans for different scenarios.

This proactive approach enables you and your team to respond quickly and effectively to changes in the external environment. Whether technological advancements, market shifts, or sociographic adjustments, you’ll be prepared to adapt quickly.

Innovation and Risk Management

Foresight provides a long-term vision, while strategy focuses on short-term actions. By integrating the two, your hospitality business can align its immediate goals and actions with its long-term vision. Doing so ensures consistency and coherence in decision-making, and helps you stay on track toward achieving your long-term objectives. It also helps bridge the gap between future aspirations and current realities, creating a more cohesive and actionable playbook.

When you act with foresight, you encourage the exploration of new ideas and potential innovations by identifying emerging trends and disruptions. Integrating foresight with strategy enables your business to pursue innovative solutions proactively, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. This combination fosters a culture of innovation, and encourages you and your team to think beyond the present, seeking ways to stay ahead of the competition continually.

Foresight helps identify potential risks and uncertainties that may impact your business in the future. Incorporate these insights into the strategic planning process so you can develop strategies for your business that mitigate or manage risks.

A proactive approach to risk management reduces vulnerability, and enhances organizational stability.

Foresight and Strategy Sample for Starting a Hospitality Brand

Strategy

Feasibility Study: Assess market demand, demographics, competition, and potential profitability. This foundational step provides a realistic view of the business opportunity and potential challenges.

Brand and Concept Development: Define the unique selling proposition (USP), story, target market, and brand identity. Develop a detailed playbook outlining the concept, including menu/room design, service style, and intended ambiance.

Site Selection and Design: Choose a location based on the completed feasibility study. Design the space to reflect the brand’s identity and concept with a reputable designer who follows the vision.

Foresight

Market Trends Analysis: Identify emerging food and beverage trends, changes in consumer preferences, and demographic shifts. Use this information to shape the concept and offerings.

Regulatory Landscape: Anticipate potential changes in regulations related to health, safety, and licensing. Prepare to adapt to these changes to ensure compliance and minimize disruptions.

Technological Integration: Explore advancements in restaurant and hotel technology. Plan for their implementation by developing a tech-stack that enhances the guest experience, and operational efficiency.

Foresight and Strategy Sample for Stabilizing a Hospitality Brand

Strategy

Operational Efficiency: Streamline processes, optimize inventory management, and implement cost-control measures. Review financial performance regularly to identify areas for improvement.

Marketing and Branding: Develop a cohesive marketing strategy to build brand awareness and loyalty. Leverage social media, local events, and partnerships to attract and retain guests.

Guest Experience: Standardize service protocols, and enhance staff training. Focus on delivering consistent and high-quality experiences to build a loyal guest base.

Foresight

Scenario Planning: Develop contingency plans for potential disruptions, such as economic downturns, supply chain issues, or changes in consumer behavior. This preparedness helps the business remain resilient in the face of uncertainty.

Competitive Analysis: Monitor competitors’ strategies and market positioning continuously. Adapt and differentiate the brand’s offerings to maintain a competitive edge.

Guest Feedback and Data Analysis: Collect and analyze guest feedback to identify emerging preferences, and areas for improvement. Use this data to refine offerings and enhance guest satisfaction.

Foresight and Strategy Sample for Scaling a Hospitality Brand

Strategy

Expansion Planning: Evaluate potential markets for expansion, considering factors such as demographics, market demand, and competition with a feasibility study. Develop a scalable business model and expansion strategy.

Brand Consistency: Develop and maintain brand standards, and ensure consistency across all locations. Implement standardized operating procedures and quality control measures.

Partnerships and Collaborations: Explore strategic partnerships with suppliers, local businesses and community partners, or other brands to enhance offerings and expand reach.

Foresight

Future Market Opportunities: Identify emerging markets and growth opportunities, such as new geographic regions, niche markets, or evolving guest segments. Plan to enter these markets with tailored offerings.

Innovation and Adaptation: Foster a culture of innovation by encouraging the exploration of new ideas, products, and services. Stay ahead of industry trends and incorporate innovative solutions to differentiate the brand.

Risk Management: Assess potential risks associated with scaling, such as supply chain complexities, cultural differences, or operational challenges. Develop an outlook to mitigate these risks and ensure smooth expansion.

In Summary

The integration of strategy and foresight into your hospitality business is not a luxury but a non-negotiable.

Investing in these areas will provide your business with the tools and insights needed to navigate uncertainties, anticipate market shifts, and make informed decisions that align with your goals. Far from being mere expense lines, strategy and foresight are foundational elements that drive growth, innovation, and resilience.

Prioritize strategic planning and future-oriented thinking so your business can create a cohesive and actionable roadmap that bridges the gap between current realities and future aspirations. This investment enables you to address potential challenges, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge in a proactive manner.

Whether starting a new venture, stabilizing your operations, or scaling your business to new heights, the integration of strategy and foresight empowers you to outperform the competition in this ever-changing environment.

Ultimately, the value of investing in strategy and foresight goes beyond immediate financial returns. This integration cultivates a culture of continuous improvement, adaptability, and forward thinking, ensuring that your business is not only prepared for the future but also positioned to shape it.

As such, you should view these investments not as costs but as crucial assets that contribute to the success and sustainability of your brand.

Image: Canva

A viewing scope looking out toward a sunrise or sunset

August 19, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Mindfulness Monday: Believe in Your Vision

Mindfulness Monday: Believe in Your Vision

by Jennifer Radkey

Belief is a powerful thing, a commanding and inspiring force that draws us to people who believe in their purpose or their dream wholeheartedly.

Right now, you probably have a dream, a vision for your future or your business’ future. You could go after that dream on your own. However, at some point you are going to need someone else to believe in you and your vision.

That belief, that buy in from others, will help you build your team, secure funding, and gain personal support.

If you have a vision that you want others to believe in, whether a vision for the future of your business, yourself, your community, or your family, you need to believe in it first yourself.

Doubt can be sensed. Uncertainty clouds clarity.

Before asking others to believe in and support your vision, stop and ask yourself if you truly believe in it. If not, what is stopping you?

Start there. Tackle your own uncertainties before sharing the vision with those you need to believe in you.

Alignment

So what is blocking you from truly believing in your vision?

Most likely your thoughts, mindset, and actions aren’t aligned with your vision or goals. When this occurs, you wind up sabotaging yourself.

Sometimes, we do this wittingly. However, we most often sabotage ourselves unknowingly.

For example, if you believe you are undeserving, or if your self-worth is low, you can’t believe in your vision 100 percent. Do you have thoughts similar to “I don’t think I’ll be able to pull this off,” or “be realistic, no one will ever support this dream of mine”? If so, your thoughts and mindset are not in alignment with your goals.

It’s possible you have a checklist of actions you need to complete for you to realize your dream. If you haven’t checked anything off in months, if you’re procrastinating rather than taking purposeful action, your actions are not aligned with your vision.

You need to stop standing in your own way. We all need to be mindful and stop sabotaging ourselves.

First Steps

If you have low confidence or sense of self-worth, that’s where to start. Begin by looking at ways to boost your self-image. The more you believe you are worthy, the more you will believe in your vision.

What else can stand in your way of believing in your vision? Lack of knowledge and fear of the unknown.

We see this often through our work at KRG Hospitality. Clients come to us with a vision to open a new restaurant, bar, or hotel. And while the visions are solid, many people lack operational knowledge—and therefore lack confidence in themselves to believe that their concept will be successful.

One proven solution is to complete a detailed feasibility study for our client. Feasibility studies are amazing tools that not only prove your vision and concept, but also build confidence through the power of knowledge.

Knowing exactly why a specific business will work in a certain market (or should be located elsewhere) empowers a client to understand how their concept will perform in the real world. Knowledge is power.

When you remove an obstacle as daunting as the unknown, fear subsides. You are able to focus and develop an unwavering, justified belief, and others will take note.

The Power of Belief

Truly believing in your vision will not only help others believe in it too, but it will create a ripple effect of other positive attributes.

Belief boosts resilience, and increases determination and willpower. You will view setbacks as temporary, and challenges as opportunities to shift your mindset, and grow.

Motivation will increase, and you will become less risk averse. As you step out of your comfort zone to pursue your vision, you will, ultimately, end up inspiring others while inspiring yourself.

It’s true, not everyone will believe in your dreams. You don’t need everyone to believe in them. All you need is a handful of supporters to turn vision into reality.

But to inspire those few, you will first need to inspire yourself.

So, go ahead and choose the dreams worth going after. Dedicate yourself to those dreams—you’ve got this!

Cheers to professional and personal well-being!

Image: Matt Noble on Unsplash

August 2, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Hospitality Reinvented: A New Series

Hospitality Reinvented: A New Podcast Series

by Doug Radkey

In my opinion, and likely that of many others, the hospitality industry today is at a crossroads, facing both unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

As we navigate these changes that are upon us, it’s clear that a reset or reinvention is not just desirable, but essential.

To truly understand hospitality and the way forward, let’s take a few steps back.

Hospitality has its roots deeply embedded in ancient civilizations, where the concept was often viewed as a sacred duty and a fundamental aspect of societal norms.

In ancient Greece, for instance, the idea of “xenia” represented a code of hospitality and protection that was honored by both hosts and guests. This tradition emphasized generosity and courtesy toward strangers, reflecting a reciprocal relationship that benefited both parties.

Similarly, in medieval Europe, hospitality was a core tenet of life. Monasteries provided food, shelter, and medical care to travelers and pilgrims. These historical practices established the foundational principles of hospitality that continue to influence the industry today.

The Definition of Hospitality

At its core, as we know it today, hospitality is about providing a welcoming environment, exceptional service, and genuine care for guests. The fundamental principles include warmth, generosity, and attentiveness to the needs of others. These principles are designed to make guests feel valued and comfortable, creating a memorable experience that encourages repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth.

The essence of hospitality lies in anticipating and exceeding guest expectations, ensuring that every interaction is characterized by respect and kindness. This unwavering commitment to guest satisfaction is what distinguishes truly exceptional hospitality services from the rest.

In the modern era, hospitality has evolved to incorporate technological advancements and changing consumer preferences while maintaining its core principles. Today, hospitality encompasses a broader range of services and experiences, from luxurious accommodations and gourmet dining to personalized services and cutting-edge technology.

The rise of digital tools on the hotel side, such as mobile check-ins, AI-powered concierge services, and virtual tours, has transformed how hospitality businesses interact with and serve their guests. Moreover, contemporary hospitality also places a strong emphasis on sustainability and cultural authenticity, with many brands striving to minimize their environmental impact and offer experiences that celebrate local heritage and traditions.

These modern interpretations reflect the industry’s adaptability and commitment to enhancing guest experiences while trying to stay true to the timeless principles of warmth and generosity.

The Purpose of Hospitality

The primary purpose of hospitality is to create memorable experiences that leave a lasting impression on guests. In today’s competitive market, it is no longer sufficient to simply provide a place to stay or a meal to eat.

Hospitality businesses must go above and beyond to craft unique and personalized experiences that guests will remember fondly, and talk about long after their visit.

This involves attention to detail, creativity, and a deep understanding of what delights and surprises a targeted set of guest. From custom welcome amenities and personalized room settings to curated local excursions and immersive cultural activities, the goal is to create a sense of wonder and joy that makes guests feel special and valued.

Another vital purpose of hospitality is building meaningful relationships with guests. Hospitality is fundamentally about human connection and fostering a sense of community. By treating guests as individuals rather than transactions, hospitality businesses can cultivate strong, lasting relationships that encourage repeat visits and brand loyalty.

Genuine, personalized interactions during which staff take the time to understand and cater to each guest’s unique needs and preferences are mandatory. Building relationships also means engaging with guests before, during, and after their stay through various touchpoints and guest journey maps that now many include personalized emails, social media interactions, and follow-up surveys.

Ongoing interactions help to establish a deeper bond with guests, making them feel appreciated and connected to the brand.

Elements of Hospitality We Need to Leave in the Past

One of the key elements that the hospitality industry must leave behind is the reliance on outdated practices. These include rigid check-in and check-out times, excessive paperwork, and a lack of technological integration.

Modern guests expect flexibility, convenience, and efficiency, which cannot be provided through antiquated methods. Embracing digital solutions such as mobile check-ins, contactless payments, and automated booking systems can streamline operations and significantly enhance the guest experience.

We need to move away from outdated practices so hotels and other hospitality businesses can meet the evolving expectations of their clientele, and stay competitive in the market.

Reluctance to Change

Resistance to change is another significant hurdle that the hospitality industry must overcome. The rapid pace of technological advancement and shifting consumer preferences demand that businesses continuously adapt and innovate.

However, a reluctance to embrace new technologies and modern approaches can stifle growth and lead to stagnation. Successful hospitality businesses must foster a culture of innovation and agility. They need to encourage their teams to stay ahead of trends and adopt new practices that enhance guest satisfaction and operational efficiency.

A commitment to embracing change and aligning a forward-thinking mindset will help operators better navigate the challenges of the modern marketplace.

Lack of Sustainability

Further, the hospitality industry has long been criticized for its unsustainable practices, including excessive water and energy consumption, waste generation, and reliance on single-use plastics. As environmental consciousness grows among consumers, it is imperative for hospitality businesses to adopt more sustainable practices. This includes implementing energy-efficient systems, reducing water usage, minimizing waste, and sourcing eco-friendly products.

Many bars, restaurants, and hotels are now pursuing green certifications and adopting practices such as using solar energy, installing low-flow fixtures, and offering recycling programs. Prioritizing sustainability means hospitality businesses can not only reduce their environmental footprint but also attract eco-conscious guests.

Toxicity

Lastly, toxic workplaces that fail to take care of their team members are another critical issue that needs to be addressed.

The hospitality industry is notorious for high employee turnover. Unfortunately, we’ve become known for poor working conditions, lack of career advancement opportunities, and inadequate compensation. Each of these go against the essence of hospitality.

How we treat our guests is how we should treat our very own people. Creating a positive work environment that prioritizes staff well-being, professional development, and fair treatment is essential for retaining talent and ensuring high-quality service. This includes providing comprehensive training programs, offering competitive salaries and benefits, and fostering a supportive, fun, and inclusive culture.

Hospitality businesses can improve job satisfaction, reduce turnover, and ultimately enhance the overall guest experience by investing in their people.

Where the Hospitality Industry is Going

There’s no secret, hospitality is embracing technology at warp speed. Operators are now inundated with solutions promising to enhance operational efficiency, plus staff and guest experiences.

Innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are transforming how hotels and other hospitality businesses operate.

AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are improving guest services by providing instant responses to guest inquiries, along with personalized recommendations. IoT devices are enabling smart room controls, allowing guests to adjust lighting, temperature, and entertainment options with ease. Blockchain technology is enhancing security and transparency in transactions and loyalty programs.

Leveraging these advanced technologies sets the hospitality industry down the path toward providing more seamless, personalized, and engaging experiences for guests.

Focus on the Right KPIs

As the industry evolves, so do the metrics used to measure success. Traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) such as occupancy rates and average daily rates are being supplemented with new, more holistic KPIs.

Guest satisfaction scores, social media engagement, and sustainability metrics are becoming increasingly important. For example, Net Promoter Scores (NPS) provide insights into guest loyalty, and the likelihood to recommend the hotel to others. Social media metrics, including likes, shares, and reviews, reflect the hotel’s online reputation and guest engagement.

Additionally, sustainability metrics such as energy consumption per guest and waste reduction rates are being tracked to ensure that the hotel is meeting its environmental goals.

These new KPIs offer a more comprehensive view of a hotel’s performance, encompassing guest experiences, brand reputation, and environmental impact.

The Guest and Staff Experience

The future of hospitality is also about reimagining staff and guest experiences to create more meaningful and memorable interactions.

For staff, this means providing ongoing training and professional development opportunities. This approach keeps the team updated with the latest industry trends and technologies. Despite the technology, operators need to empower team members. A great leader ensures their teams are receiving valuable training on the skills and knowledge they need to excel. Doing so improves service quality, and boosts morale and retention rates.

On the guest side, new programming and experiences are being introduced to cater to diverse interests and preferences. By focusing on innovative staff and guest programming, the hospitality industry is creating environments that are enriching, engaging, and memorable.

Spirit of Hospitality

With all that said, amidst all the technological advancements and new metrics, it is essential to bring back the true essence of hospitality and what it means to be hospitable. We have to get back to the “why” of what we do in this industry, and remind ourselves once again about the true definition of hospitality.

At its core, hospitality is about genuine care, warmth, and making guests feel welcome and valued. This involves cultivating a culture of empathy and service excellence in which every guest interaction is an opportunity to create a positive impact.

Personalized service, attention to detail, and going the extra mile are the hallmarks of true hospitality. It’s about creating an atmosphere where guests feel at home, whether they are eating at a restaurant, having a drink at the bar, or staying for a night or an extended period.

Blending modern conveniences with the timeless principles of hospitality ensures that the heart and soul of hospitality remain intact, even as it continues to evolve and reinvent itself.

Introducing Hospitality Reinvented Podcast Series

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, staying ahead of trends and innovations is crucial for success. That’s why I am excited to announce the launch of the Hospitality Reinvented podcast series hosted with yours truly, Doug Radkey.

This podcast, set to go live this month, aims to explore and discuss the latest developments in the hospitality industry. I’ll provide insights and strategies to help operators and their businesses thrive in their dynamic and competitive market.

The Hospitality Reinvented podcast will delve into a variety of topics, from the integration of modern technology and new KPIs to reimagining staff and guest experiences. Each episode will blend timeless principles of hospitality with modern innovations and strategic playbooks, offering listeners practical advice and inspiration to create a guest-centric, sustainable, and forward-thinking industry.

The podcast will serve as a valuable resource for hospitality professionals looking to reinvent their operations and stay ahead of the curve. Join us on this journey as we explore how to blend tradition with innovation to shape the future of hospitality.

Tune in to Hospitality Reinvented each week and discover how you too can transform your business and create lasting, memorable guest experiences.

Join us on this journey by subscribing to the Hospitality Reinvented podcast, following us on social media, and staying engaged with the latest insights and trends here at KRGHospitality.com.

Image: KRG Hospitality

A team meeting at a table, with people taking notes on notepads

July 25, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Feedback: Friend or Foe?

Feedback: Friend or Foe?

by Jennifer Radkey

Feedback can be used as a powerful tool for personal and professional growth, so why is it that the majority of people purposefully avoid it?

The short answer is that we don’t like to be told that we aren’t doing a good job. Even if the feedback is all positive, there is that slight chance that there might be some negative feedback. Therefore, it’s avoided all together.

There needs to be a mind shift towards feedback. Instead of thinking of it as a criticism of you personally, think of it as constructive advice for how to become a better version of you. Once you accept that, you can use that feedback to build a better version of your business.

Feedback is subjective to the person who is giving it. It is dependent upon that person’s experiences, values, and beliefs, which is why it can not be taken at face value. Feedback needs to be heard without judgment, and then examined for validity.

Assessments and feedback are tools that, when used properly, can give you an edge over your competition.

These tools provide clarity, and allow you to see potential areas for growth that you may not have been able to notice otherwise. When the feedback is positive, it highlights strengths for you to celebrate. When it is negative, it shines light on areas that need to be examined and possibly improved upon.

Who wouldn’t want that opportunity? So, instead of hiding or running away from feedback, what should you be doing?

Seek it Out

Make it a goal to actively seek feedback from others. Shifting your mindset and perception of feedback—positive or negative—to accept that it will help improve your business is powerful. If you are the one seeking feedback, then there is no room to fear it.

Who should you be asking for feedback from? Everyone!

Let’s start with your team. Your business is only as strong as your team. Your success relies heavily upon their performance.

You are most likely already providing constructive feedback to your team and celebrating their successes. (If this is not the case, you need to make this change.)

Are you asking for their feedback though?

Knowing how your team feels about working in your establishment is critical for creating a positive culture, lowering turnover, and building a reputation that makes people clamor to work for you. Create anonymous surveys or bring in a third party to conduct stay interviews to obtain the most valid and truthful feedback from your team. Many may be too fearful to share their honest opinion face to face with an owner or a member of a leadership team.

Next up, you need feedback from your guests.

Most operators already have a system in place for hearing customer feedback, whether it be Google reviews, Facebook reviews, or another platform. The question is…what are you doing with those reviews? Are they being read and considered, and replied to with a thoughtful response?

All three of those actions need to happen to take full advantage of the feedback guests provide. A guest who feels heard and valued is a guest who will respect your business.

Lastly, what feedback do your colleagues have for you? What are your competitors saying about you? Do vendors have a positive experience interacting with you?

The more you know about how others view your business, the more power you have to make informed, effective changes.

Analyze It

Once you have received feedback it’s time to approach it from a curious and analytical mindset. Remove emotional response (or accept your emotional response and put it aside) so that you can benefit from whatever the feedback may be.

Yes, if the feedback is negative you may have an initial negative response. You may feel defensive, angry, anxious, or frustrated. Accept that these are natural responses and then move on.

You will not be able to clearly analyze the feedback if you are stuck in a negative mindset.

A successful operator uses strategic thinking as their main tool to gain clarity. Get curious and start asking questions.

Is the feedback relevant? Is there truth in it? What experience led to it? How was that opinion formed?

Some feedback will require action to be taken on your end, others will not. It’s up to you to analyze and decide.

Implement It

After requesting and analyzing feedback, it’s time to implement it!

Purposeful action defeats fear every time. Take what you have discovered through the feedback that you sought out, and put it into action.

Create S.M.A.R.T. goals and an action plan for you and your team. Or, if the action is larger in scale, host a team meeting, and work together to create the goals and plan. Creating goals as a team allows for everyone to take ownership of the process and the results.

Don’t forget that it’s not only negative feedback that may need to be addressed with action, but positive feedback as well.

How are you going to share positive feedback with your team, and how will you celebrate it? Success is not only built upon implementing change where needed but also in the act of practicing gratitude when needed. Make sure you are doing both.

So, it’s time to stop hiding from feedback; it is your friend.

Seek it, analyze it, and then implement it. Not all feedback requires action on your end, but sometimes you will receive valuable feedback that may create a change in your business that could propel you to another level of success. Be ready for it.

Cheers to personal and professional growth!

Image: Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

Black-and-gray, AI-generated image of a ram's skull covered partially by a shroud, with the word "death" underneath it

July 19, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Entrepreneurship with Purpose

Entrepreneurship with Purpose: Your Why, How & What

by David Klemt

Don’t freak out! This is subtext, and a nod to the Death & Co. brand and their Big Horn Sheep cocktail mug.

Not every operator can transform their vision for owning a bar into building a hotel, so when someone who does just that wants to talk, it’s wise to listen.

I can’t be sure if the Death & Co. team knew they were building an empire when they opened their first cocktail bar. After listening to David Kaplan’s keynote at the 2024 Flyover Conference, I do believe the team laid the foundation to ensure their success before ever greeting their first guests.

Further, I like to think that opening in NYC on NYE and ushering in 2007 with a brand-new concept embodies the Death & Co. ethos. Literally, the bar and its first patrons marked the passage of time from one year to the next. Figuratively, death symbolizes change, and Death & Co. as a brand is certainly a metaphor for revolution and metamorphosis.

As a bar, Death & Co. is noteworthy for the significant contributions it made to the modern Cocktail Revival. Among the craft cocktail bar’s New York scene peers were Pegu Club, Milk & Honey, and Employees Only.

According to Kaplan, six years went by before the team even considered taking on a new location. In 2018, Death & Co. Denver opened inside The Ramble Hotel. A year later came Death & Co. Los Angeles. Four years after opening in LA, in 2023, the craft cocktail brand entered the Washington, DC, market. Announced a couple of weeks ago, there will be a fifth outpost in Seattle.

And those are just the Death & Co. locations.

Why, How & What

The type of unrelenting success achieved by the Death & Co. team doesn’t happen overnight. It takes drive and clarity, and a ruthless dedication to understanding purpose, process, and outcome.

Expanding on the point of clarity, Death & Co. falls under the Gin & Luck umbrella, of which Kaplan is the CEO.

During his keynote, titled “Crafting Success: The Journey of Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship,” he shared his personal and professional approaches to business. Along with being engaging and informative, Kaplan is also transparent.

For example, he shared his personal core values and those of the Death & Co. brand. Kaplan’s are the pursuit of excellence, meaningful work, relationships, challenges, and creativity. As a brand, Death & Co. core values are curiosity, pursuit of excellence, Always Be Knowing (ABK), contagious joy, and connection.

But, I get ahead of myself. To start his keynote, Kaplan explained a few key terms and how they relate to one another. A person’s why, personal or professional, is their purpose for doing something. On a grander scale, their why can be the purpose that drives their entire life.

How is process, the systems and procedures that will move one forward. What, in this context, is outcome, or the result that a person is working to achieve.

As Kaplan explained, when one comes to understand their purpose, that leads them down the path of understanding and developing their process. Ultimately, understanding the why and how leads to an understanding of their what.

Do the Work

Among the excellent points made by Kaplan was this: None of us are born with an understanding of entrepreneurship (including those who make being an entrepreneur look so easy).

Rather, in Kaplan’s opinion, we’re all faking it until we make it. This goes for business partners and investors, as well. Basically, people who are faking it until they make it are walking into rooms with people who are doing the same, or have done so to get into a particular room themselves.

That doesn’t mean that every new business owner is being disingenuous. Nor does it mean that every partner is being deceitful about what they bring to the table.

In my interpretation of what Kaplan shared during his keynote, every entrepreneur—until they’ve achieved their desired outcome—is an unknown quantity. They need to develop the confidence to share their vision clearly to their future leadership team, front- and back-of-house teams, partners, investors, and guests.

So, how does an entrepreneur develop an optimistic view of the challenges they’re about to face? And how do they gain the confidence to inspire others to buy into their ideas?

There are a number of exercises that will help a person understand their identity, path, and another “why.” Another way to state this is that one can find their true calling, take psychological ownership of their journey, and develop the entrepreneurial passion to make their dream a reality.

However, to gain this understanding, people need to put in the work.

Effective Exercises

If one works hard now, they can develop the psychological capital necessary to take on difficult challenges in the future.

In the context of Kaplan’s keynote, this means if a person works toward self-awareness today, they’ll put themselves in a better position to be a successful operator before they open their doors for the first time.

There are all manner of self-defining activities and questions that can help a person understand who they are. As importantly, they can give a person an idea of their true aspirations. A few examples are completing the University of Pennsylvania’s Values in Action Strength Test, practicing mindfulness (being present in the moment), journaling, and meditation.

As far as self-defining questions, here are a few examples:

What are my dreams and goals?
What’s my biggest strength?
What’s my biggest weakness?
Am I the type of person who makes decisions based on intuition or logic?

Again, that’s barely a handful of the questions one can ask themselves to gain self-awareness.

Another important exercise is to identify personal and professional core values. Kaplan recommends people do this in a setting outside of their normal routine. So, not at home, their current workplace, a cafe one frequents regularly, etc.

Core Values

When a client signs on with KRG Hospitality, part of the process includes identifying core values, as well as creating a mission statement. This important exercise is known as Napkinomics.

Questions and prompts include:

How important is growth to you, professionally and personally?
Where do you want to see the brand within the next five years?
Describe a similar brand, and why you’re drawn to it.

Helpfully, Kaplan shared his approach to identifying core values during his Flyover keynote.

First, he considers peak experiences. Then, crucially, he flips that on its head and recalls negative experiences. Another key step is considering important aspects to experiencing fulfillment. Ask yourself what feels essential, adding context to each answer. At the end of this exercise, one should have a list of personal core values. (As a reminder, Kaplan’s and Death & Co.’s core values are shared at the top of this article.)

There is, however, another step that Kaplan shared during his presentation: Revisiting core values.

As he said, a person can—and I’ll add absolutely should—revisit their personal core values. They’ll likely change throughout the years. So, a person should update them from time to time.

Also, Kaplan advises people to give themselves grace; one should realize that they may not live their core values every day of the week. That’s perfectly acceptable. However, if someone finds that they’re routinely not living their core values, it’s time to revisit and update them.

The Mission

During his keynote Kaplan explained that a mission statement should encompass several key components. These are one’s skills and abilities, personality traits (a.k.a. how they operate), values, dreams, and passions.

A mission statement is a declaration of purpose, which is why it’s such a powerful tool. Again, we walk KRG Hospitality clients through this process utilizing Napkinomics.

During his keynote, Kaplan shared the following fill-in-the blanks-style sentence. It should provide someone with an idea of how to identify a personal or brand mission statement.

“I will [action] for [audience] by [skills] to [desired result].”

From there, one can polish and restructure the sentence to craft a non-negotiable declaration of purpose that fits them or their brand. For example, Kaplan shared Death & Co.’s mission statement:

“Creating experiences and connecting people through cocktail-anchored hospitality.”

Providing context, Kaplan shared a long-form version of the above: “We create experiences to foster and allow for deeper human connection through cocktail anchored hospitality.”

With the mission statement in place, Kaplan, his partners, and the Death & Co. team have been able to identify and work toward a key goal:

“To become the most established cocktail-anchored hospitality company in the world by December 31, 2028.” For the eagle-eyed, that’s a deadline of 20 years after the NYC bar’s grand opening.

Now, “most established” can be seen as somewhat nebulous. So, the Death & Co. team has identified metrics to ensure their lofty goal is SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound):

A great place to work.
The thought leader in the space (being part of the overall hospitality conversation, and helping lead others).
A healthy, profitable business.
Regionally and globally recognized.

Tie it Together

Considering the symbolism of death as change, you and your team are undergoing a metamorphosis.

Taking the steps to pull your concept out of your imagination and bring it to life involves change. Changing your personal relationships, your position within the hospitality industry, your relationship with risk… Changing your life, and significantly so.

Further—no pressure—you’re also transforming the lives of everyone who buys into your dream and decides to work with you. You’re asking people to bet on you as a leader, and buy into your vision. Whoever accepts that challenge is risking a lot, and this cannot be overstated.

Keeping your business alive and moving forward also requires change. It will have to evolve with the times and guest expectations. And should you scale your business you’ll once again face significant changes.

Becoming an entrepreneur requires the “death” of your previous life. In the infancy of this process, you’re going to feel discomfort. You may feel fear, and you’ll feel uncertainty. A deep understanding of why, how, and what are crucial to navigate the process and work through those feelings.

After all, if you don’t know what you’re working toward, why would you endure this challenge? How will you achieve your “what” if you haven’t developed the process to get there? And without a “why,” no entrepreneur’s vision becomes reality.

There’s no reason to fear the death of your life prior to the beginning of your journey as an entrepreneur and operator. The only things to fear are never taking the first step, and not starting off in the strongest position possible.

Sit down today to identify your why, your how, and your what. If you need help, we’re here for you.

Image: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This image was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system.

Interested in checking out the Death & Co. Big Horn Sheep cocktail mug? Click here.

July 2, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: July 2024

5 Books to Read this Month: July 2024

by David Klemt

Our inspiring July book selections will give you a new perspective on developing leadership skills, identifying your core values, effective branding, and more.

To review the book recommendations from June 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Wawa Way: How a Funny Name and Six Core Values Revolutionized Convenience

Core values is one of the topics that came up during the inaugural Flyover Conference, which took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. In fact, keynote speaker Dave Kaplan of hospitality group Gin & Luck (Death & Co.) shared his approach to identifying personal and brand core values. (Yes, I’ll be writing an article on that for publication in the near future.) This book, written by Howard Stoeckel, vice chairman of Wawa, illustrates the importance of identifying, adhering to, and revisiting core values on a regular basis to forge a path toward long-term success.

From Amazon: “Grahame Wood opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for Wawa dairy products. Since then, the convenience store has grown into a well-known company that competes against the biggest industry players in the world in three areas: fuel, convenience, and food, all while maintaining their personal approach and small business mentality. Now, almost 50 years later, Wawa has opened its first store in Florida and begun to play on the national field. How did it happen? What are the reasons for their success? Why have they been able to go up against the big guys with nothing more than homegrown talent?”

Pick up the paperback here.

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Interestingly, The Checklist Manifesto credits the US Air Force with implementing checklists to great success. As a former airman myself, I can attest to the USAF’s strict usage of this simple but effective tool. So, it should come as no surprise that I—and the rest of the KRG Hospitality team—are firm believers in operators using checklists every day. Indeed, one of the services we provide is creating tailor-made checklists for our clients.

Moreover, Dave Kaplan recommended this book during the Q&A session of my Flyover Conference session. Now, I’m recommending this book to you and our clients.

From Amazon: “We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.”

Get your copy today.

Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You

Are you aware there’s a position within the US Department of State dedicated to advising president, vice president, and secretary of state on diplomatic protocol? The person in this role is the chief of protocol, and they claim the ranks of assistant secretary of state, and ambassador. Among their responsibilities, this person ensures those in the highest offices are aware of and understand cultural gestures. Further, these people know how powerful seemingly “small” gestures are in influencing interactions and experiences.

Savvy operators will see parallels in the experiences they deliver to guests. Protocol was written by Capricia Penavic Marshall, former chief of protocol to former President Obama. In its pages you’ll learn the importance of etiquette, diplomacy, implementing and training your team on SOPs, and how there are no “minor” details in hospitality.

From Amazon: “Sharing unvarnished anecdotes from her time in office—harrowing near misses, exhilarating triumphs, heartwarming personal stories—Marshall brings us a master class in soft power, unveiling the complexity of human interactions and making the case that etiquette, cultural IQ, and a flexible mind-set matter now more than ever. When the notion of basic civility seems to be endangered, Protocol reminds us how critical these principles are while providing an accessible guide for anyone who wants to be empowered by the tools of diplomacy in work and everyday life.”

Buy it here!

Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World

As an operator, your time is your most-valuable resource. Therefore, you need to make sure you spend it wisely and take massive action. This relates to marketing and branding, as creating content is a waste of time if it’s not impactful, relevant, and engaging in order to result in traffic and sales.

From Amazon: “In his latest book, [Gary] Vaynerchuk argues that today’s fast-growing businesses, brands, content creators, and influencers have one thing in common: They mastered storytelling in areas of underpriced attention, which predominantly exists across a handful of social media platforms. Informed by 20+ years of business and marketing success, he contends that the biggest transformation and opportunity is the “TikTokification of Social Media.” Increasingly, platforms are distributing content based on what users are interested in, rather than who they follow.”

Grab yours now.

Bar Hacks: Developing The Fundamentals for an Epic Bar

start your operator journey in the best possible position;
stabilize your business; and
scale when the time comes, if that’s what you want.

Click here to get your copy today!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash

An abandoned saloon covered in dust and cobwebs

June 26, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Ghosting in the Professional World

Hello, is Anybody There? Ghosting in the Professional World

by Jennifer Radkey

We could be transforming this abandoned saloon into an amazing bar and restaurant, but we got ghosted. Also, drink Spork beer!

The act of ghosting may have started in the dating world but this phenomenon has, unfortunately, taken root deeply in the professional world.

In case you haven’t had the (dis)pleasure of experiencing ghosting, allow me to summarize. Ghosting is suddenly becoming unresponsive to all forms of communication without explanation.

Not only is ghosting toxic to business relationships and your brand image, it can be toxic to your overall mindset and feelings of self-respect.

People participate in the act of ghosting for many reasons, which can include:

conflict avoidance
indifference; and
low accountability.

These are not traits that lend well to earning respect from others or yourself. It’s good practice to protect your mental health and set clear boundaries, but this should not include the act of ghosting.

You are a professional. You can deal with uncomfortable situations and be responsible to yourself, your team, and your industry.

Ghosting can feel like the easy route, but it comes with long-term consequences. How you choose to interact with your team, your colleagues, other industry professionals, and your clients/customers is all a reflection of your personal and professional brand.

Check in with these five examples of ghosting in the professional world to make sure that you’re not participating in any actions (or inaction) that may result in a loss of respect.

Not Responding to Quotes and Proposals

You needed a service for your business, so you reached out to another business for a quote or proposal. Then you received the proposal, read it over, decided it wasn’t right for you…and never responded.

Remember, you sought out these professionals—they didn’t cold call you. They gave you their time to put together a quote or proposal. The very least you can offer is acknowledgement that you received their quote, along with an update on where you stand.

Let’s start respecting each other’s time and effort.

Not Following Up with Job Candidates

We all complain when we’re ghosted by a job candidate and they don’t show for an interview. But that goes both ways.

Make sure that you’re taking the time to respond to job candidates (particularly after the interview process) to provide an update on the position.

You are your brand and represent its values; every impression matters.

Breaking Promises to Your Team

You promise your team a team-building event, or an end-of-quarter bonus. Then you fail to follow through.

Nothing breaks respect faster than not following through on promises. If you can’t make a promise happen you need to take ownership of that and honour your integrity by letting your team know.

They may be upset that the event isn’t happening. However, they’ll at least respect you for being honest and upfront with them.

Not Reading or Responding to Customer Reviews

Ghosting a customer or client will not only result in losing that particular person’s business but future prospects as well.

We don’t succeed without our clients, and they need to feel acknowledged when sharing reviews, good or bad as they may be.

If you don’t have time to read and respond to all reviews on your own, make sure you have someone on your team who can perform this task for you. Thoughtfully, of course.

Being Inaccessible to your Team

If you find yourself hiding from your team in a closed office or behind your computer more often than not, it’s time to acknowledge that you have been ghosting them.

A present owner is an involved owner. Not only will you have a better finger on the pulse of your business, you’ll create stronger working relationships with those on your team.

It Starts with You

If we want to bring clear communication and respect back to the professional world, it’s going to have to start with you. Complaining about being ghosted and then participating in the act of ghosting yourself is not going to change anything.

We all need to take pride in being professionals, and go out there to earn the respect of others and ourselves.

Take pride in becoming an open communicator and demonstrating respect in the workplace. Not only will this aid in your overall success, doing so will create a healthy mindset too.

Cheers to personal and professional well-being!

Image: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This image was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system.

June 25, 2024by krghospitality krghospitality No Comments

The Power of an ImpactMAP™

The Power of an ImpactMAP™

by Doug Radkey

Let’s be honest, the line between success and failure often hinges on the ability to act decisively and act with purpose.

In this article, we’re going to explore two areas of your hospitality business that are under your control: creating a plan, and taking action.

Understanding the Risk of Inaction

The concept surrounding the Risk of Inaction—arguably a new form of ROI—captures the potential losses businesses face when they fail to take strategic actions.

Inaction in the hospitality industry can manifest in various harmful ways. Inaction can also stem from multiple sources: fear of change, lack of resources, or simply underestimating the competition.

Regardless of the manifestation or cause, the consequences are usually the same: stagnation, decline, and, ultimately, a shuttered business.

Let’s put this into context by taking a look at a sample of both a restaurant and a hotel business.

Failure to Innovate

If a restaurant does not act to continuously re-engineer its menu, it risks diminishing profits, providing a low-level guest experience, and mismanaging inventory. Without regular strategic updates, the menu may fail to reflect current culinary trends and guest preferences, which can lead to a decrease in interest and satisfaction.

Additionally, sticking with a static menu can prevent the restaurant from optimizing ingredient use, productivity, and cost-efficiency.

At the end of the day, this lack of adaptation and innovation will result in diminishing sales and profitability, making it difficult for the restaurant to sustain its operations.

Failure to Update Systems

If a hotel on the other hand decides to not use a modern and fully integrated Property Management System (PMS), it risks operating inefficiently and falling behind in today’s technology-driven hospitality environment.

A non-existent, outdated, or fragmented PMS can lead to significant operational issues, such as slow check-in and check-out processes, errors in room availability and booking management, and ineffective communication between different departments. That’s just to name a few crucial issues.

This inefficiency can impact guest experiences negatively, leading to dissatisfaction and potentially harming the hotel’s reputation.

Furthermore, without a modern PMS, a hotel may struggle with data management, limiting its ability to effectively analyze performance metrics, forecast demand, and implement dynamic pricing strategies. These disadvantages will result in lost revenue and reduced competitiveness in a space where guest expectations and operational efficiency are increasingly driven by technological advancements.

In each example above, the risk of inaction leads to missed opportunities and underperformance.

The Power of an ImpactMAP™

To combat the risks associated with inaction, your hospitality business can benefit significantly from developing an ImpactMAP™.

This strategic tool can help you identify where you currently stand, define where you want to go, and outline the steps required to get there, thereby helping you create not only strategic clarity, but drive and accountability.

The Assessment

To create an ImpactMAP™ and to take action immediately, you need to first assess your operations.

An assessment of your hospitality business is a comprehensive evaluation process aimed at analyzing various aspects of your business to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement or opportunity. The goal is to gather actionable insights that can help optimize operations, enhance guest experiences, and massively improve your profitability.

The assessment should involve on-site observations, staff interviews, and a deep dive into the following eight categories, culminating in a detailed report that provides recommendations and a strategic plan for future growth and sustainability.

For each of the eight categories, consider a 3x matrix with three responses to the following questions:

Where are we now?
Where do we want to go?
What resources do we need?
What’s holding us back?

Then, create a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) goal for each response in your “Where We Want to Go” list.

What are the eight assessment categories?

1. Brand Strategy

Assessment: Review your core values, story, messaging, philosophy, design, and reputation.

Opportunity: Enhance brand alignment across all touchpoints to ensure consistency while refining your brand messaging to better connect with targeted guest profiles.

2. Internal Programming

Assessment: Review your pricing strategy, guest experiences, property / menu / room management systems and programs.

Opportunity: Optimize your offerings based on guest preference data and a profitability analysis, along with potential upgrades to your amenities to enhance guest satisfaction and to compete with today’s market standards. In summary, implement efficiencies to improve guest experiences and operational workflow with a focus on your internal programming.

3. Marketing Plans

Assessment: Review guest profiles, guest journey maps, guest databases, awareness and retention strategies, and your digital marketing portfolio.

Opportunity: Integrate advanced digital marketing techniques to increase reach and engagement while developing targeted promotions and partnerships, and by leveraging data analytics to tailor marketing efforts more precisely to guest behaviors and trends.

4. Tech-Stack Plans

Assessment: Review guest facing technology, POS / PMS system, integrations, and marketing.

Opportunity: Identify current technology gaps and plan for a strategic integration of systems that enhance guest experiences while streamlining operations.

5. Standard Operating Procedures

Assessment: Review of all internal and external systems, plus training programs and SOPs.

Opportunity: Ensuring that all staff are clear on their roles and responsibilities, which enhances overall service quality through the development of standardized procedures that ensure consistency and efficiency across the business. Implement feedback systems to continually refine and improve SOPs based on real-time challenges and successes.

6. People and Culture

Assessment: Review of staff experiences, onboarding, productivity, growth, and retainment.

Opportunity: Strengthen employee engagement through improved communication and support systems. Foster a culture of innovation and openness in which employees feel valued and motivated. Develop leadership from within to enhance management effectiveness and succession planning.

7. Financial Health

Assessment: Review of all financials, including Revenue, COGs, KPIs, Expenses, Debt, and Profit.

Opportunity: Identify cost-saving opportunities without compromising service quality. Explore new revenue streams that align with your brand values and market opportunities. Implement more rigorous financial tracking and forecasting tools (such as technology) to better predict financial trends and react proactively.

8. Mindset

Assessment: Daily habits, work / life balance, decisiveness, communications, and growth-based thinking.

Opportunity: Develop a mindset of continuous improvement among all staff levels (starting with yourself) to foster an environment of excellence. Cultivate resilience by planning for crisis management and business continuity. Promote a guest-centric approach, aligning all business decisions with guest satisfaction and personal development outcomes.

Creating the ImpactMAP™

By following the above 3x strategy for each category, you will have created 24 SMART objectives that will be the foundation of your ImpactMAP™ to move your business forward over the next one to six to 12 months.

Importance of SMART Objectives

What does SMART mean and how does it work?

Specific, Clarity, and Focus: SMART objectives provide clear and concise goals that everyone in your business can understand and rally behind. This clarity helps to focus efforts and resources on what’s most important.
Measurability and Tracking: By setting measurable goals, your business can track progress and make data-driven decisions. This measurability allows for adjustments to be made in strategies or tactics to ensure the objectives are met.
Achievability: Goals that are achievable motivate staff. Setting impossible goals can lead to frustration and disengagement, whereas achievable objectives encourage team effort and commitment.
Relevance: Ensuring that each objective is relevant to the broader business goals ensures that every effort made contributes to the overall success of your brand.
Timeliness: Incorporating a timeframe provides urgency, a deadline, and accountability, which can help prioritize daily tasks and long-term plans.

However, you shouldn’t try to accomplish all 24 objectives at the same time. Once you’ve set your 24 impactful objectives, prioritizing them is crucial to stabilize your hospitality business and aim for scalable growth.

Best Practices for Prioritizing Objectives

Assess Business Needs: Start by conducting that thorough assessment of your business to identify key areas that need improvement.
Impact Analysis: Evaluate the potential impact of each objective. Prioritize objectives that offer the greatest benefits in terms of guest satisfaction, revenue growth, and operational efficiency.
Resource Availability: Consider the resources available, including budget, people, and technology. Prioritize objectives that align with current resources or where adjustments can be made to accommodate necessary changes.
Quick Wins: Identify objectives that can be achieved quickly and with minimal disruption to your ongoing operations. These quick wins can boost morale and provide visible improvements that justify further investments in other areas.
Strategic Importance: Some objectives, while not providing immediate benefits, are crucial for long-term success. Prioritize these based on their strategic importance to the business’s future.
Stakeholder Input: Engage with various stakeholders, including management, staff, and guests, to gain insights into which objectives they feel are most critical. This can help in aligning the goals with the needs and expectations of those most affected by the changes.
Balanced Scorecard: Use a balanced scorecard approach to ensure that objectives across different areas such as guest services, internal processes, financial performance, and learning and growth are all being addressed.
Iterative Review: Regularly review the priorities as situations and business dynamics evolve. What may be a priority today might change based on market conditions or internal business changes over the next three to six months.

Once you have your objectives prioritized, it’s time to assign or delegate them as needed and have those assignees (including yourself) take ownership of the objectives with their signature to add another level of accountability.

Implementing the ImpactMAP™

Before starting, ask yourself one final question: What will happen if we don’t take action?

Be detailed and mindful of what the short-term and long-term consequences might be if you don’t act.

Effective implementation of an ImpactMAP™ requires knowledge of these consequences, along with a commitment from all levels of your business. It starts with comprehensive training sessions followed by regular review meetings, which are both essential to assess progress, address challenges, and refine strategies as needed.

Take a SMART-ER approach, which is where you Evaluate and Re-adjust the SMART objectives halfway through the timeline you’ve set.

Conclusion

Risk of inaction is a silent threat that can undermine any business, particularly in this dynamic industry.

Adopting an ImpactMAP™ and making a commitment to take massive action allows you to manage your operations proactively, adapt to changing market conditions, and set a course for sustainable success.

This strategic approach not only mitigates risks but also empowers your hospitality business to thrive in a competitive landscape—but it starts with you and your mindset toward taking action.

Image: KRG Hospitality

Two people jogging through a city at sunrise, going in opposite directions

June 12, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

Try, Try Again: Creating Positive Habits

Try, Try Again: Creating Positive Habits

by Jennifer Radkey

It turns out that some AI platforms aren’t good at telling time, so instead of an image of an alarm clock, here’s the 5 A.M. Club going for a jog.

Ever wonder why some people seem to effortlessly achieve their goals while others struggle? It’s all about the habits they have cultivated.

We all have great intentions to practice healthy habits that are good for our body, mind, and soul…but we face roadblocks in committing to them.

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?

“How does she have the time to workout, run a business, take care of her family, and have hobbies? She must be part of that 5 A.M. Club. I could never do that; I’m not a morning person.”
“I wish I could post to social media daily. I know I could reach more potential customers if I do. I don’t know how to come up with that much content though.”
“I want to feel stronger. My friend has started strength training, and he seems so much more confident and happier, but I’m a cardio person.”
“I wish I could take a few courses, but I don’t have time for that.”

All of the statements above have one thing in common: They have already given up before even trying.

There’s a wish to become better at something, and then there’s an immediate shut down.

Here’s the thing—you don’t know that a habit will work for you or not until you try it.

You Have to Work at It

Experience eclipses all for learning about yourself. You tell yourself that you aren’t a morning person and you can never wake up at 5 a.m. But until you try it…how do you know that?

Developing new habits takes time and commitment. If you’re serious about making changes to your life and you know that certain habits will help you achieve that goal faster, you owe it to yourself to try.

On average it can take at least two months to actually form a new habit. Trying something for a week and deciding it’s not for you doesn’t do you, your goals, or the habit proper justice. Give things time.

If, after several weeks, you feel that the change really isn’t for you, no problem! At least you’ll know that it doesn’t work from experience, not from your limiting beliefs.

The same advice applies to your team. If you’re trying to encourage daily habits in the work environment, it’s going to take time before everyone’s consistently participating.

Yes, they’re going to need daily and weekly reminders. Yes, it’s going to take more than a week or two. If the habit you’re trying to implement will create a more efficient, successful business, it deserves time and commitment from you.

Mindset is contagious, just as action and inaction are contagious. If you want your team to adopt a new habit, you and your leadership team must show up and participate in the habit as well.

Make it positive. Demonstrate the value of doing it. Have patience while your team practices the new habit.

Positive habits are the powerhouses behind personal and professional success. By consistently doing small things, you can create a ripple effect of positive change.

Image: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This image was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system.

Plénitude restaurant in Paris, France, number 18 on the 2024 World's 50 Best Restaurants list

June 7, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

The World’s Best Restaurant: 2024

Barcelona is Home to the 2024 World’s Best Restaurant

by David Klemt

Plénitude restaurant in Paris, France, number 18 on the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Winner of the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2024.

Revealed at an awards ceremony hosted by Wynn Las Vegas, The World’s Best Restaurant—and The Best Restaurant in Europe—is located in Barcelona, Spain.

Helmed by three incredible chefs, Disfrutar earned the number-one spot on the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Providing a hint of what guests can expect, the restaurant’s name translates to “Enjoy.”

Interestingly, the trio of chefs—Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas and Eduard Xatruch—were members of the senior creative team at El Bulli. To provide a measure of context, El Bulli clinched the top spot on the very first World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2002. The legendary restaurant would go on to earn number one again in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

So, it’s not a stretch to say that when Chefs Oriol, Casañas, and Xatruch opened Disfrutar in 2014, the restaurant world expected amazing achievements. By 2018, the three chefs led their restaurant to a debut on the 2018 World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking, finding themselves at number 18. Just a year later, Disfrutar reached number nine on the list.

For our Canadian and American readers, I’m going to reveal two bits of news now. First, there are no Canadian restaurants on this year’s top 50 list. That means that taken together with the expanded, 51 to 100 ranking, Canada is a no-show.

Second, only two American restaurants landed among the 50 best restaurants in the world. One is in New York, the other, California. There are three other American restaurants—two in New York City and one in Chicago—on the expanded list. However, a Los Angeles restaurant, Kato, bagged the Resy One To Watch Award 2024.

In contrast, Mexico City is home to three restaurants in the top 50, as Lima and Tokyo. Paris and Bangkok each boast four restaurants, grabbing the most spots.

Salud to Disfrutar, and cheers to every restaurant team that earned their way onto the 2024 list!

World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024: 50 to 11

Uliassi (Senigallia, Ancona, Italy)
La Colombe (Cape Town, South Africa)(New entry)
Hiša Franko (Kobarid, Gorizia, Slovenia)
Schloss Schauenstein (Fürstenau, Graubünden, Switzerland)
SingleThread (Healdsburg, California, US)(Re-entry)
Arpège (Paris, Île-de-France, France)(Re-entry)
Mingles (Seoul, South Korea)(New entry)
Nobelhart & Schmutzig (Berlin, Germany)(Sustainable Restaurant Award 2024)
Ikoyi Restaurant St. James’s (London, England, UK)
Mayta (Lima, Peru)
Le Du (Bangkok, Thailand)
Piazza Duomo (Alba, Piedmont, Italy)
Sorn (Bangkok, Thailand)(Re-entry)
Oteque (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)(Re-entry)
The Jane (Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium)
Frantzén (Stockholm, Södermanland and Uppland, Sweden)
Rosetta (Mexico City, Mexico)
Pujol (Mexico City, Mexico)
Den (Tokyo, Kantō, Japan)
Belcanto (Lisbon, Portugal)
Restaurant Tim Raue (Berlin, Germany)
Boragó (Santiago, Chile)
Elkano (Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain)
A Casa do Porco (São Paulo, Brazil)(The World’s Best Female Chef 2024: Chef Janaína Torres)
The Chairman (Hong Kong)(Highest Climber Award 2024)
El Chato (Bogotá, Distrito Capital, Colombia)
Odette (Singapore)
Sühring (Bangkok, Thailand)(Re-entry)
Steirereck (Vienna, Austria)
Floriège (Tokyo, Kantō, Japan)
Wing (Hong Kong)(New entry)(Highest New Entry Award 2024)
Reale (Castel di Sangro, L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy)
Plénitude (Paris, France)(Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2024)
Kol (London, England, UK)
Kjolle (Lima, Peru)
Sézanne (Tokyo, Kantō, Japan)
Quique Dacosta (Dénia, Alicante, Spain)
Trèsind Studio (Dubai, UAE)
Lido 84 (Gardone Riviera, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy)
Septime (Paris, France)

World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 10 to 1

Don Julio (Buenos Aires, Argentina)(Beronia World’s Best Sommelier Award 2024: Pablo Rivero)
Gaggan (Bangkok, Thailand)
Alchemist (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Quintonil (Mexico City, Mexico)
Atomix (New York City, New York, US)
Maido (Lima, Peru)(Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award 2024: Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura)
Diverxo (Madrid, Spain)
Table by Bruno Verjus (Paris, France)
Asador Etxebarri (Atxondo, Biscay, Spain)
Disfrutar (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)

DISFRUTAR, BARCELONA, IS NAMED NO.1 IN THE LIST OF THE WORLD’S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS 2024

Disfrutar in Barcelona is named The Best Restaurant in Europe and The World’s Best Restaurant 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna
Announced this evening at an awards ceremony in Las Vegas, the 2024 ranking includes restaurants from 26 territories in five continents worldwide and introduces three restaurants making their list debut
Neil Perry, original founder of Rockpool Group in Australia and current chef-owner of Margaret in Sydney, receives the Woodford Reserve Icon Award
Paris-based Nina Métayer wins The World’s Best Pastry Chef Award 2024, sponsored by Sosa
The Beronia World’s Best Sommelier Award 2024 is presented to Pablo Rivero of Don Julio, Buenos Aires
Wing in Hong Kong earns the Highest New Entry Award
The Highest Climber Award, sponsored by Highstreet World, goes to The Chairman, Hong Kong
Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin is announced as the winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award
Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura from Maido in Lima receives the Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award 2024

5 June 2024 – The world of gastronomy came together in the neon-lit city of Las Vegas in the United States this evening to celebrate and recognise The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, with Barcelona’s Disfrutar named The World’s Best Restaurant and The Best Restaurant in Europe. The awards ceremony, hosted at Wynn Las Vegas, honours the very best gastronomic talent from 26 territories across five continents.

Disfrutar, the Barcelona restaurant run by the skilled chef trio of Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, is named The World’s Best Restaurant 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua
Panna, succeeding the 2023 winner, Central in Lima, which now enjoys an elevated position in the Best of the Best hall of fame

Ranked at No.2 in the 2023 list, Disfrutar is famed for modern techniques and beautiful ingredients, resulting in an experience that subverts traditional fine dining in a completely surprising way. The tasting menu showcases a Mediterranean identity with avant-garde flavours to deliver daring contemporary food that is truly thought-provoking. Disfrutar is followed in the ranking by Asador Etxebarri (No.2) in Atxondo and Table by Bruno Verjus (No.3) in Paris.

William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, comments: “It is with great excitement that we announce the list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, and honour the iconoclastic Disfrutar as The World’s Best Restaurant. The team, led by Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, has shown extraordinary dedication to its craft, amazing and delighting diners with every dish on its extensive menu. This year sees the culinary community celebrate a truly global list featuring restaurants across 26 territories, demonstrating that the appetite for diversity and excellence in hospitality shows no sign of waning.”

Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura, the chef-owner of Maido in Lima, wins the Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award 2024, the only award to be voted for by his peers, in light of his dedication to putting Peru onto the world culinary stage, evidenced by Maido’s position as No.1 on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023.

Australian chef and restaurateur Neil Perry – whose restaurant portfolio has included the legendary Rockpool Bar & Grill, Rosetta and Spice Temple, as well as his latest venture, Margaret – has enjoyed a career spanning more than 45 years and is now rewarded with the Woodford Reserve Icon Award. Perry is arguably his country’s most influential chef and is known for his visionary interpretations of Modern Australian and Asian cuisines.

Nina Métayer is named The World’s Best Pastry Chef 2024, sponsored by Sosa. Métayer’s sculptural creations have garnered attention the world over and her beautiful work is inspiring a new generation of pastry chefs.

Restaurants from four new cities have entered or re-entered the list, with La Colombe in Cape Town (No.49), SingleThread in Healdsburg (No.46), Oteque in Rio de Janeiro (No.37), and Mingles in Seoul (No.44), showing the awards’ ever-expanding international footprint in recognising the best restaurants across the globe.

Based in Hong Kong, chef Vicky Cheng’s Wing (No.20) is recognised with the Highest New Entry Award 2024, and The Chairman (No.26) – also in Hong Kong – bags the Highest Climber Award 2024, sponsored by Highstreet World. The Chairman moves up 24 spots from the 2023 list and was also recognised as The Best Restaurant in Hong Kong by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024.

The Beronia World’s Best Sommelier Award is presented to Pablo Rivero, sommelier and owner of Don Julio, Buenos Aires. Previously recognised as Latin America’s Best Sommelier 2022 as part of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, Rivero is known for his championing of the region’s wine and his thoughtful pairings with local produce.

Berlin’s Nobelhart & Schmutzig (No.43) is announced as the winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award, in recognition of its unerring advocacy for better agricultural policies and the voices of producers. Its ‘brutally local’ ethos is testament to its personal relationships with farmers and growers, allowing the team to offer a truly regional and seasonal menu.

The evening also celebrated those honoured with pre-announced special awards. These included: Champions of Change winners Jessica Rosval and Caroline Caporossi – founders of Roots in Modena, a social enterprise restaurant that hosts a training programme for migrant women – and João Diamante of Diamantes Na Cozinha in Rio de Janeiro, founder of a culinary initiative which creates opportunities for young people in vulnerable situations; Janaína Torres, winner of The World’s Best Female Chef Award; Plénitude in Paris, which was presented with the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award; and Kato, Los Angeles, which picked up the Resy One To Watch Award.

The Voting Process

The list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 is created from the votes of 1,080 international restaurant industry experts and well-travelled gourmets who make up The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. The gender-balanced Academy is comprised of 27 separate regions around the world, each of which has 40 members including an Academy Chair. No sponsor from the event has any influence over the voting process.

Professional services consultancy Deloitte independently adjudicates The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, including the ranking from 1-50. This adjudication ensures that the integrity and authenticity of the voting process and the resulting lists are protected.

Best of the Best

Those in the elite group of No.1 ranked restaurants (listed below) have delivered on their exemplary reputations time and again and will be forever honoured as iconic dining destinations in the Best of the Best hall of fame. The chefs and restaurateurs who have led these restaurants to the pinnacle of the list have expressed their desire to invest in the future of the sector and ‘give back’ to the food world through new projects and innovation. The following restaurants have been named No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants since the list’s inception and were therefore not eligible for voting in 2024:

El Bulli (2002, 2006-2009)
The French Laundry (2003-2004)
The Fat Duck (2005)
Noma – original location (2010-2012, 2014)
El Celler de Can Roca (2013, 2015)
Osteria Francescana (2016, 2018
Eleven Madison Park (2017)
Mirazur (2019)
Noma – current location (2021)
Geranium (2022)
Central (2023)

See above for the 2024 one through fifty ranking.

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June 5, 2024by David Klemt David Klemt No Comments

5 Books to Read this Month: June 2024

5 Books to Read this Month: June 2024

by David Klemt

Our inspiring June book selections will give you a new perspective on goal-setting and teamwork, develop leadership skills, and improve your F&B program.

To review the book recommendations from May 2024, click here.

Let’s jump in!

Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest

I first had the opportunity to hear Fawn Weaver tell her story, the story of Uncle Nearest, and boldly proclaim the superiority of Tennessee whiskey to Kentucky bourbon six or seven years ago at Tales of the Cocktail. Her presentation, literally kneeling on a bar for nearly an hour so everyone in the room could see and hear her, blew me away. I’ve been a huge fan every since. If you ever get the chance to hear Weaver speak, don’t think about it, just do it. And make sure to pre-order this book today because this story is incredible.

From Amazon: “Embark on a captivating journey with Love & Whiskey. New York Times bestselling author Fawn Weaver unveils the hidden narrative behind one of America’s most iconic whiskey brands. This book is a vibrant exploration set in the present day, delving into the life and legacy of Nearest Green, the African American distilling genius who played a pivotal role in the creation of the whiskey that bears Jack Daniel’s name.”

Pre-order this book here!

A Quick Drink: The Speed Rack Guide to Winning Cocktails for Any Mood

I can’t imagine that Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix need introductions at this point in their careers. Both are icons of the industry, and both have dedicated themselves to not only the crafts of bartending and hospitality but also giving back. Not only will you find more than 100 cocktail recipes in A Quick Drink, a portion of the proceeds are going to breast cancer charities.

From Amazon: “Award-winning mixologists Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero co-founded Speed Rack, a global all-women bartending competition where competitors show off their talents making both classic and original drinks as quickly as their arms can shake and stir—all in the name of raising money for breast cancer charities… Shining a spotlight on the most influential women behind the bar today and their inventive drinks, this hot pink celebration of the incredible Speed Rack community is an unconventional, inspiring resource for home bartenders and professionals alike.”

Order your copy today!

Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends

Benny Blanco wears a lot of hats—artist, actor, music producer, and now author—and now he’s adding an apron to the mix. This cookbook is irreverent and informative, and I learned about it from a mention on Matty Matheson’s Instagram. If Matheson digs it, that’s all the endorsement I need to pick up a copy.

From Amazon: “I’ve been told some of the finest stories over meals. I’ve laughed so hard I thought I was going to actually die. I’ve fallen in love—sometimes with the food, sometimes with the person across the table. I’ve cried in good ways, and I’ve cried in bad ways. I hope you’ve been lucky enough to have all these same memories and then some. But if you haven’t, I can make you a promise. If you follow these three simple steps, it will all become a reality: Open this book. Open your heart. And open wide, baby.”

Pick it up now.

How to Lead with Purpose: Lessons in Life and Work from the Gloves-off Mentor

Look, you’re going to make mistakes as a leader. We all do, and we’ll continue to make them as life goes on. However, we can avoid some mistakes by learning from others’ experiences. Similarly, we can mitigate the damage when we make those same mistakes by, again, learning from others. Moreover, great leaders can make the world a better place by making a positive impact on the people they lead.

From Amazon: “Liam Black has been supporting social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven leaders for decades, and he understands what it takes to do work that goes beyond the bottom line – and what it can take out of you, too.

“In this no-bullshit, woo-woo-free book, he reveals how to align purpose and leadership, how to deal with uncertainty, imposter syndrome, anxiety and loneliness along the way, how to exercise authority (even in the face of endemic sexism), and when it’s right to walk away.”

Place your order or download it here.

Start Less, Finish More: Building Strategic Agility with Objectives and Key Results

As an entrepreneur or member of a leadership team, you’re likely familiar with the abbreviation “KPI.” However, the abbreviation “OKR” may be new to you. Whereas the former means, “key performance indicators,” the latter stands for, “objectives and key results.” To provide a quick explanation, the OKR approach usually consists of stating a huge goal, then creating a strategy around the measurable metrics that will help an organization know if they’re on track to achieving said goal. There are some people who prefer KPI to OKR. I think both can be implemented by different members within the leadership team.

From Amazon: “Written with senior leaders in mind, Start Less Finish More is an accessible and to-the-point manual that will give you practical, step-by-step tools for implementing OKRs in your organization. OKR leadership begins with the development of a lean, engaging, adaptive strategy that is translated into short term—typically 90-120 day—stretch goals. Leading OKRs is a transparent, engaging process that aligns the whole organization to your strategy, building collaboration, commitment and accountability at all levels.”

Get yours today!

Image: Mikołaj on Unsplash