news

Masterclass tips: growing a restaurant business

26 Jan 2012

http://www.glassblowinghouse.co.uk/
 
When Ed Steven’s days as a professional rugby player were stopped short by injury he turned his thoughts to his younger days working as a dishwasher and kitchen help. Remembering that although the work was sometimes thankless and tiring, he had felt at home in the hospitality environment. So inspired, the ex-sportsman decided to take his career on the rugby field into the somewhat tangential arena of becoming a restaurant owner.
 
Today, more than three years after opening the Glassblowing House, near Plymouth, southern England, it’s clear that Ed did indeed make the right choice. It is even that case that he has used some of his sporting skills and philosophies to good advantage in the restaurant business.
 
Last week, at a Glasgow Service With Style Masterclass, held in the year-old Grand Central Hotel, Ed revealed to a full room of guests his tips, techniques and secrets of restaurant success.
 
The hour-long chat show style event was hosted by GSWS’s very own Parkinson, Mark Gallagher, general manager of Glasgow Thistle Hotel. Here we bring you some of the highlights of the talk.
 
Bringing sport to the hospitality industry
 
Ed, who now has a staff of more than 30 people at his restaurant, believes that his career in sport has had a major impact on the way he now runs his business.
 
The amiable restaurateur said: “I was very familiar with working as part of a big team on the rugby field, all pulling together, but I also learned how to lead by example. The great rugby captains all lead by example and foster amazing team spirit and dedication from their teams.
 
“Likewise, when I opened the restaurant I felt it was important that I knew how every part of the business ran and wanted to show to the staff that I could manage all areas, even the hardest areas of the restaurant. I now expect my managers to lead by example.
 
“So if there is a difficult area of the business, such as serving a large group or being the head chef for the evening, I expect my managers to be able to do this and not pass on that duty to someone else. This fosters team spirit and brings greater rewards in the restaurant as no one is shirking their work.”
 
 
Friendliness is the wow factor
 
Ed has a strong belief in friendlessness being the key asset to a business. He says: “Many restaurants can offer the same kind of thing. Great food, fresh fish, local produce, a wide menu, fabulous chefs… but to be successful you need to be able to offer something else, something that customers will want to come back for.
 
“But every customer is different so you need to tick a few boxes. For example, one customer may be wowed by the quality of the loo paper, or the cleanliness of the toilets or the funny quotations written on the walls of the toilet. Everyone has different expectations of what is good quality.
 
My key asset, I believe, is our friendliness at the Glassblowing House. We want to exceed everyone’s expectations in terms of friendly service. There is a difference between simply serving a customer politely and efficiently and really making the effort to make their meal special. I look for consistently friendly and enthusiastic staff and I expect my team to have a lasting impression on customers, in a good way.”
 
 
Sustainable businesses
 
The food for Ed’s business is as locally sourced as possible. While he didn’t set out to have a restaurant that boasted locally sourced food he says it just made sense.
 
Ed adds: “I was passing a local farm and stopped off and he said he could sell us veg straight to the restaurant. This was cheaper than buying from wholesale. I found a great rearer of meat, too, and we did the same. I also knew a fisherman and so I bought my fish straight from him. As it happens, most of the food is local and most of it is cheaper than buying elsewhere.
 
“But if it doesn’t make financial sense to buy locally I don’t. The milk, for example is bought from a national source because it’s cheaper. In a way it was accidental that I crated a sustainable restaurant but that’s because I applied common sense to the buying process.”
 
Another financially astute decision was to incentivise staff not with bonuses but with small on-going rewards. Ed says: “A bonus is a great thing but it usually means that a staff member will work their socks off to impress for a month before the bonus reward only. Instead we have an on-going incentives scheme. We don’t even offer a lot of money. For example, we take a share of the front-of-house tips and use it as a kitchen bonus scheme. So everyone starts with 100 points. They can gain points for correct labelling of food and covering extra shifts but they can also lose points for coming to work wit a hangover.
 
“We keep a points chart in the kitchen and at the end of each day the points are marked up on the chart. Although the rewards aren’t high we find that everyone has competitiveness and we find that the chart is very effective.
 
“Elsewhere in the restaurant we might offer a free dessert to staff for upselling, for example Irish coffees!”
 
The tricky business of staff
 
Ed admits that there have been mistakes made over the three years of running a business and perhaps the hardest area has been in staffing. He confesses: “There are simply some people who are no good at working in a restaurant and however hard you try to cajole and train them they just won’t be good at it. I’ve learned to recognise this and then let them go.” However, he must have been doing something right because the Glassblowing House has won awards for being a great employer.
 
The restaurant won best independent restaurant employer and best employer in hospitality in England and Wales at the Best Employers in Hospitality awards.
 
Recruitment is the key, says Ed. “The business started with me. I learned all the jobs and tasks in the business from scratch. So I know what it takes to do each of the positions in the restaurant. But I made a mistake in thinking that everyone would be the same as players on a rugby field. I thought that like the rugby players everyone would want to win, so all the staff would be aiming to achieve the best for the restaurant. But, of course this isn’t the case.
 
“Staff all have different reasons for working and few have the same reason as the owner. My own reasons for working are to make a successful business but for a student it might be to pay for a few nights out, while for a chef his job with me might be his way of progressing to working for a Michelin-starred restaurant.
 
“So it’s vital that when recruiting you get to know what staff are looking for in their work, and then it’s also important to stay in touch with their needs and desires at work.
 
“So at the recruitment stage we make it very clear what the advantages and disadvantages of each job will be. That way the potential employee is clear form the start.
 
Training is important at the restaurant
 
Ed is quoted a saying: "Our aim is to recruit the very best employees but also to organically grow our team from raw. So inexperienced recruits who will learn the trade as junior team members before progressing to more senior positions within the company."
 
He added:  “We start our in-house training from day one. Each new recruit gets to learn a wide range of skills before they then progress to working in their own position. They all know the level that they are working at, too, so they are aware of their stage in their career and who is in charge.
 
“We felt that people like to know what is expected of them and how they can progress to the next level and pay scale if they want to. Equally if they are happy to stay being a part-time waiter for their whole time with us then that is fine too. It’s all about knowing your staff and what they want form the work.”
 
Ed has also created some staff initiatives that he believes work well for retaining and maintaining staff.
 
A weekly “10 for 10” session takes place on a Wednesday before service. Staff must attend at least two per month and during this time they must talk for 10 minutes to the other staff about a relevant topic. For example, a restaurant may decide to talk for 10 minutes about the farm that a pheasant has been raised on. Or a chef might talk about how to mix a cocktail and the ingredients in the cocktail.
 
Ed says: “This 10 for 10 session calls on staff to find out something they didn’t already know and then tell all the other staff members. It means they have a source of facts that they can then tell customers about. It also helps to build confidence in staff knowledge and spreads the word between departments.”
 
The restaurant also has pro-active training. Ed calls is a “systems approach”. He says: “All staff should know how to do every aspect of their job and we place great emphasis on them learning this from day one. They are each given the right training and if they then do not know how to do a task we take them back to the training stage.
 
“Weekly we have a further 45 minutes of group staff training. We go through staff issues and problems together and aim to resolve these. Then for the next 15 minutes a chef will cook and new dish and the staff taste and talk about it. This is followed by a cocktail. This helps to build up knowledge across the restaurant and also builds confidence.”
 
On top of this, Ed or a manager aims to have a 30-minute talk with every staff member every three months. He says: “I see this as vital for continuous employee assessment. The first half of the chat is informal, getting to find out how the staff are doing and what is going on with them and their jobs. Then we discuss what their hopes are and where they see their career going. It’s very important to understand employees and this not only empowers them but it also mean that staff are in the right positions to make the business as successful as is possible.”
 
 
Front of house centric
 
Ed encourages all of the staff team, both front and back of house to think about the customer. He says: “We are not separate but working together. I get the back of house staff to regularly come to the front of the house. S the accountant, the HR manager, the chef will all be encouraged to regularly come out and see how the restaurant is running. This fosters a great team spirit,” Again this has a rugby team ring to its theme.
 
What are the bottom line results?
 
The Glassblowing House is a success story. In difficult economic times, Ed states that the restaurant has achieved bottom line growth. He has also been able to reduced staff numbers.
 
Ed says: “We have less staff now than we used to. We worked out that three good staff are far better than four mediocre staff members so we have worked hard to create a tea of staff that work hard and enthusiastically for the business. This means we have been able to cut costs by reducing the number of staff. 
 
“We now have expansion plans. It was always my aim when setting up the restaurant that I would then expand to different sites. We are looking at a couple of other potential openings. This is how I always saw the business expanding and bottom line growth is vital.”
 
Look out for our next blog that reveals what guests of the masterclass thought of Ed’s tips and ideas.
 
The next Masterclass with Ruth Jackson, of Whitbread, is on February 22.
http://www.glasgowservicewithstyle.com/index.php/events/masterclass-with-ruth-jackson-whitbread
 

When Ed Steven’s days as a professional rugby player were stopped short by injury he turned his thoughts to his younger days working as a dishwasher and kitchen help. Remembering that although the work was sometimes thankless and tiring, he had felt at home in the hospitality environment. So inspired, the ex-sportsman decided to take his career on the rugby field into the somewhat tangential arena of becoming a restaurant owner.
 
Today, more than three years after opening the Glassblowing House, near Plymouth, southern England, it’s clear that Ed did indeed make the right choice. It is also that case that he has used some of his sporting skills and philosophies to good advantage in the restaurant business.
 
Last week, at a Glasgow Service With Style Masterclass held in the newly refurbished Grand Central Hotel, Ed revealed to a room full of guests his tips, techniques and secrets of restaurant success.
 
The hour-long chat show style event was hosted by GSWS’s very own "Parkinson", Mark Gallagher, general manager of the Glasgow Thistle Hotel. Here we bring you some of the highlights of the talk.
 
Bringing sport to the hospitality industry
 
Ed, who now has a staff of more than 30 people at his restaurant, believes that his career in sport has had a major impact on the way he now runs his business.
 
The amiable restaurateur said: “I was very familiar with working as part of a big team on the rugby field, all pulling together, but I also learned how to lead by example. The great rugby captains all lead by example and foster amazing team spirit and dedication from their teams.
 
“Likewise, when I opened the restaurant I felt it was important that I knew how every part of the business ran and wanted to show to the staff that I could manage all areas, even the hardest areas of the restaurant. I now expect my managers to lead by example.
 
“So if there is a difficult area of the business, such as serving a large group for example, I expect my managers to be able to do this at times, and not always pass on that duty to someone else. This fosters team spirit and brings greater rewards in the restaurant as no one is shirking their work.”
 
Friendliness is the wow factor
 
Ed has a strong belief in friendliness being the key asset to a business. He says: “Many restaurants can offer the same kind of thing. Great food, fresh fish, local produce, a wide menu, fabulous chefs… but to be successful you need to be able to offer something else, something that customers will want to come back for.
 
“But every customer is different so you need to tick a few boxes. For example, one customer may be wowed by the quality of the loo paper, or the cleanliness of the toilets or the funny quotations written on the walls of the toilet. Everyone has different expectations of what is good quality.
 
My key asset, I believe, is our friendliness at the Glassblowing House. We want to exceed everyone’s expectations in terms of a customer friendly service. There is a difference between simply serving a customer politely and efficiently and really making the effort to make their meal special. I look for consistently friendly and enthusiastic staff and I expect my team to have a lasting impression on customers, in a good way.”
 
Sustainable businesses
 
The food for Ed’s business is as locally sourced as possible. While he didn’t set out to have a restaurant that boasted locally sourced food he says it just made sense.
 
Ed adds: “I was passing a local farm and stopped off and he said he could sell us veg straight to the restaurant. This was cheaper than buying from wholesale. I found a great rearer of meat, too, and we did the same. I also knew a fisherman and so I bought my fish straight from him. As it happens, most of the food is local and most of it is cheaper than buying elsewhere.
 
“But if it doesn’t make financial sense to buy locally I don’t. The milk, for example is bought from a national source because it’s cheaper. In a way it was accidental that I created a sustainable restaurant but that’s because I applied common sense to the buying process.”
 
Another financially astute decision was to incentivise staff not with bonuses but with small on-going rewards. Ed says: “A bonus is a great thing but it usually means that a staff member will work their socks off to impress for a month before the bonus reward only. Instead we have an on-going incentives scheme. We don’t even offer a lot of money. For example, we take a share of the front-of-house tips and use it as a kitchen bonus scheme. So everyone starts with 100 points. They can gain points for correct labelling of food and covering extra shifts but they can also lose points for coming to work with a hangover.
 
“We keep a points chart in the kitchen and at the end of each day the points are marked up on the chart. Although the rewards aren’t high we find that everyone has competitiveness and we find that the chart is very effective.
 
“Elsewhere in the restaurant we might offer a free dessert to staff for upselling, for example Irish coffees!”
 
The tricky business of staffing
 
Ed admits that there have been mistakes made over the three years of running a business and perhaps the hardest area has been in staffing. He confesses: “There are simply some people who are no good at working in a restaurant and however hard you try to cajole and train them they just won’t be good at it. I’ve learned to recognise this and then let them go.” However, he must have been doing something right because the Glassblowing House has won awards for being a great employer.
 
The restaurant won best independent restaurant employer and best employer in hospitality in England and Wales at the Best Employers in Hospitality awards. They were also shortlisted for the national Hospitality Apprentice of the Year Award.

Recruitment is the key, says Ed. “The business started with me. I learned all the jobs and tasks in the business from scratch. So I know what it takes to do each of the positions in the restaurant. But I made a mistake in thinking that everyone would be the same as players on a rugby field. I thought that like the rugby players everyone would want to win, so all the staff would be aiming to achieve the best for the restaurant. But, of course this isn’t the case. 

“Staff all have different reasons for working and few have the same reason as the owner. My own reasons for working are to make a successful business but for a student it might be to pay for a few nights out, while for a chef his job with me might be his way of progressing to working for a Michelin-starred restaurant.
 
“So it’s vital that when recruiting you get to know what staff are looking for in their work, and then it’s also important to stay in touch with their needs and desires at work.
 
“So at the recruitment stage we make it very clear what the advantages and disadvantages of each job will be. That way the potential employee is clear from the start.
 
Training is important at the restaurant
 
Ed is quoted as saying: "Our aim is to recruit the very best employees but also to organically grow our team from raw. For example inexperienced recruits who will learn the trade as junior team members before progressing to more senior positions within the company."
 
He added:  “We start our in-house training from day one. Each new recruit gets to learn a wide range of skills before they then progress to working in their own position. They all know the level that they are working at, too, so they are aware of their stage in their career and who is in charge.
 
“We felt that people like to know what is expected of them and how they can progress to the next level and pay scale if they want to. Equally if they are happy to stay being a part-time waiter for their whole time with us then that is fine too. It’s all about knowing your staff and what they want from the work.”
 
Ed has also created some staff initiatives that he believes work well for retaining and motivating staff.
 
A weekly “10 for 10” session takes place on a Wednesday before service. Staff must attend at least two per month and during this time they must talk for 10 minutes to the other staff about a relevant topic. For example, a waiter may decide to talk for 10 minutes about the farm that a pheasant has been raised on, the source of the food. Or one of the team might talk about how to mix a cocktail and the ingredients involved.
 
Ed says: “This 10 for 10 session calls on staff to find out something they didn’t already know and then tell all the other staff members. It means they have a source of facts that they can then tell customers about. It also helps to build confidence in staff knowledge and spreads the word between departments.”
 
The restaurant also has pro-active training. Ed calls it a “systems approach”. He says: “All staff should know how to do every aspect of their job and we place great emphasis on them learning this from day one. They are each given the right training and if they then do not know how to do a task we take them back to the training stage.  Robust systems and processes underpin this training.
 
“Weekly we have a further 45 minutes of group staff training. We go through staff issues and problems together and aim to resolve these. Then for the next 15 minutes a chef will cook a new dish and the staff taste and talk about it. This is followed by a cocktail. This helps to build up knowledge across the restaurant and also builds confidence.”
 
On top of this, Ed or a manager aims to have a 30-minute talk with each staff member every three months. He says: “I see this as vital for continuous employee assessment. The first half of the chat is informal, getting to find out how the staff are doing and what is going on with them and their jobs. Then we discuss what their hopes are and where they see their career going. It’s very important to understand employees and this not only empowers them, it also means that staff are in the right positions to make the business as successful as possible.”
 
Front of house centric
 
Ed encourages all of the staff team, both front and back of house to think about the customer. He says: “We are not separate but working together. I get the back of house staff to regularly come to the front of house. So the accountant, the HR manager, the chef will all be encouraged to regularly come out and see how the restaurant is running. This fosters a great team spirit.” Again it can be seen that this is part of the legacy of Ed's rugby team days.
 
What are the bottom line results?
 
The Glassblowing House is a success story. In difficult economic times, Ed states that the restaurant has achieved bottom line growth. He has also been able to reduce staff numbers. 
 
Ed says: “We have less staff now than we used to. We worked out that three good staff are far better than four mediocre staff members so we have worked hard to create a team of staff that work hard and enthusiastically for the business. This means we have been able to cut costs by reducing the number of staff. 
 
“We now have expansion plans. It was always my aim when setting up the restaurant that I would then expand to different sites. We are looking at a couple of other potential openings. This is how I always saw the business expanding and bottom line growth is vital.”
 
* Look out for our next blog that reveals what guests of the masterclass thought of Ed’s tips and ideas.
 
* The next Masterclass with Ruth Jackson, of Whitbread, is on February 22.