The blame game can be a losing proposition

Resort dining is a lot more than just turning the key and waiting for people to find you. The 2024 season is just around the corner, and smart restaurateurs here in the Cape Region must adapt. Some adjust their menu selections. Others offer carefully crafted happy hour specials where locals (and smart vacationers) can enjoy savings. Others put mindful consideration into their hours and days open. I still remember the words of the late Matt Haley when I interviewed him years ago for one of my very first Cape Gazette columns, “If a restaurant can make it to President’s Day with the lights on, then they’ll survive the summer.” The goal is simple: Keep the lights on during the off-season.

A few years ago, I was asked about restaurants that had closed over a couple of years. During my research it became clear to me that there was a definable reason for every closing. Washington, D.C. hospitality expert and restaurant consultant Jay Coldren sums it up nicely: “I explored the genesis of ego-related issues within the restaurant industry and the impact that these big blind spots can have on [a] restaurant’s bottom line. But diagnosing the source of these problems is only the first step. Ego-related problems are always emotionally charged, and bringing them to light can challenge the core beliefs of your key people. Business owners need strategies and techniques to combat, harness and redirect the source of these hurdles in a way that contributes to the success of the business.”

Well said, especially when a few failed owners – not all, mind you – choose to blame the economy rather than their own lack of skill, operating capital or whatever. I wonder if that failure to take responsibility for their actions helped to hasten their demise. Economy or not, some of the defunct restaurants did have serious flaws. The lack of server training is the primary subject of daily emails I receive from disappointed patrons. For a young person taking a job in a restaurant, the lack of comprehensive training translates into ownership’s lack of concern for customer service. “If the owner can’t be bothered to train me,” they say, “then I’ll just wing it.” They wing it, and voila! – people go once and never return. I’ll never forget when I asked one server about the preparation of a particular dish. She launched into an annoying soliloquy about how she was a vegetarian and would never eat that. Blah, blah, blah. A properly trained server would never have done that.

And the kitchen is no different. Personnel who lack oversight have no incentive to check the accuracy of orders. Quality restaurants employ expeditors to do that job, and well-run restaurants take the expo station very seriously. Without an expeditor or any oversight in general, orders that come out wrong are delivered with wide-eyed innocence by apathetic servers. Apologies are few and far between, simply because they don’t know any better. On a visit to a local place that closed several years ago, a simple ham and cheese sandwich took 45 minutes (the restaurant was empty). I mentioned that to the owner, who stared back at me in expressionless silence. A fellow restaurateur in Bethesda, Md., used to amaze me by never being on the premises. As he locked the door for the last time, he claimed that he was a victim of his (largely untrained) staff and, yup, the economy.

Of course, financial difficulties are real and can wreak havoc on many industries. But the fact remains that there are many restaurants that stay busy. I believe it all boils down to four qualities that successful eateries have in common: (1) You will almost always find the owner(s) or a skilled, well-paid manager on the premises tending bar, busing tables, greeting guests or cooking. (2) Smart restaurateurs adapt quickly to economic changes with careful menu and price management, smart advertising and strategic cost control. (3) They make heartfelt efforts to right the inevitable wrongs, and most importantly, (4) the staff admires and respects them – mainly because of reasons 1, 2 and 3.

Running a consistently successful restaurant is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. It’s almost like you start anew every day. People who have achieved that goal have no time to make excuses. In spite of all the unexpected twists and turns of resort dining, consistently good food and service will beat the economy every time.