We Make Meals
on Thursday, May 28, 2009Follow the Bouncing Ball
We have really had our eye on making the restaurant successful. And it works. Serving lunch and dinner, with brunch on the weekends. The thing we haven’t mastered is keeping our eye on two balls at the same time. As the restaurant does better and grows, the take home meal business weakens and wanes. This is a riddle because the dinner menu evolves around the take home meal menu. What you get for $14 in the restaurant you can take home to prepare at home in one step for less than $6. It was always our imagination that showcasing the meals at our table would encourage folks to take them home to enjoy in their own dining room.
We asked for your feedback and we acted on it. The old ordering system was a pain – so we changed it. Some of you said the meals were too fancy – so we created a Crowd Pleaser menu. Some of you said you only use us for special occasions – so we created the Fine Cuisine menu. We are doing more. The new website design is almost done. We will soon have nutritional information, caloric ratios, complete descriptions as well as cooking instructions posted for every meal. We plan to add a budget-minder menu so families with children can pick up a higher volume, healthy meal on the cheap and feed the crew. But we wonder, are we beating a dead horse here? What gives?
What we do know is that there is not a viable business at this location for an affordable restaurant that seats only 30. We have half-decided to create a lane change in the evening right around 8 PM and crank up the wine bar scene with special pours, a unique menu and live music. Folks have shown us that they love having a place in the neighborhood to hang out. At least then we could get a turn on the tables some evenings. This has not proven to be a late dining neighborhood but, again, folks do crave a place to go out, meet, visit, party… whatever.
Your Input Is Needed
The question remains though, even as we continue to reincarnate, even with these enhancements, will the meal business pick back up? And can we make this a viable business if it doesn’t? What is your opinion? Get off your hands and put in your two cents. Add your comments below. Let’s have a conversation. We’d sure appreciate your input.
Hi guys,
Our family uses your business both as a restaurant and for the take-home meals. I used to be the type to taste something at the restaurant and then buy it to take home. Lately, I order something at the restaurant that I know the kids won’t eat, then order “family-friendly” meals to take home.
Where we’re at as a family is that we’ve ordered so many meals both on-site and take-out that we’re getting a little bored. Everything tastes good, but there haven’t seemed to be a lot of changes in the actual entree selections of the menu even though you split it into two separate sections.
You might be trying to be too good at too many things at once. What is it that you’re best at and passionate about? What is it that you *really* want to be? You may never be able to please both the fine diners and the budget-concious families, so you might need to choose.
Because of the “family-style” big tables, I always figured your restaurant was family friendly and that bringing kids was not a problem. You and your staff have never treated us as though we were a problem, but your fine diners might not like us being there. That didn’t occur to me until I heard a comment from a diner at the table next to us about how kids at brunch was OK but they shouldn’t be in a nice restaurant like this for dinner. So at some point you might have to choose your target market and head in that direction. Alcohol seems to have a higher profit margin if I remember correctly, so you might lean more towards the fine dining with wine.
I suspect you’ve already done a lot of business analysis but the CPA side of my brain needs to say it. You might do a little cost accounting by revenue type to see what’s actually profitable. Look separately at each type of revenue and the cost of goods, associated labor, and overhead for that revenue. Then figure out how to grow the areas that are profitable and kill the ones that aren’t working for you.
Best of luck with whatever you decide.
Nancy, Clint, Makena, and the little boy with your Spy-Vs-Spy book.
Hello Nancy-
I appreciate your insights into the analytical side of the business and lord knows I give it a lot of thought. For us, the food is more profitable than the wine, the wine grows the ticket. Our markup on wine is minimized and intended as such in order to engender relationships and regular diners. Regulars tend not to be regulars at places where they are gouged on wine. The problem with us “choosing a horse to ride” between take-home or dine-out business is that the rent load relative to the dining capacity makes it very hard to have a profitable business at this location. This neighborhood has a dinner hour. The demographic is much more homogeneous than the close-in urban neighborhoods. If we were in town, with Janet’s biography and our approach, the “foodies” would be there for us. It’s the foodies who make the hot spots hot spots. They create the buzz. And… they go out at times other than 5:30 – 7:00 on Friday and Saturday. They work on Friday and Saturday. They go out after work. They give you “turns”. So, by “this location” I don’t just mean that we’re small. I also mean that the lifestyle of the dominant demographic is a limiting factor.
With regard to children in the restaurant during dinner hour. Let me help the person who is grumpy about that find a very special place where they won’t be bothered. Some place far away. We are all about getting folks back to the table and building community. With regard to you personally, I want to say that I have also had a number of people make the effort to tell me how darling Makena is as she eats, smiles and waves to passerby’s. We don’t have and don’t want a restaurant that is not a welcoming place for you and your family. That’s just whe we are and there’s no future for us in taking any other approach. We have wondered if folks would show up after 8 PM if we made a lane change by turning down the lights and turning up the music… less table “seating” and more hanging out.
As to your comments on the meals… I think I agree with you. Perhaps this is one of the ways that focusing on the restaurant has undermined the meal business. We typically have 25 items on the take home meal menu and we have fallen from 12 to 10 to 8 new items in the last 3 months. And, honestly, some of those new items have been remarkably similar to their predecessors.
Hmmm. Anybody else?
Hi,
I start off by apologizing that Bruce and I have such ‘screwy” eating times we miss your table meals. I missed every day of fresh bakery goods!!!!! . Since summer is here are you thinking of a picnic meal once in a while? Fruit, salad, roll ups, desert and of course a Bottle of Wine. I actually need a picnic basket for the zoo concerts. Also I will remember that many of your take home dinners are great for weekend camping.
Thanks for the conversation
Judy Brown
We love Bethany’s Kitchen/Table- I frequently stop by for a morning bagel or stop in for lunch or dinner. Our neighborhood needs a great place like BT to have brunch, hang out, get wine, etc. I think the old axiom is true…do one thing and do it better than anyone. I think having both a restaurant AND take home meals is confusing for people. For whatever reason, the take-home meal business just doesn’t seem to resonate with people.
One other thought…advertise!! I don’t think people know you are there. Put coupons/flyers on doors. Put up a big sign. I tell everyone I know about BT b/c I think it’s great.
:)
Sara Peters
Hell Sara-
You and Nancy make excellent points. The best work we do in the take home meal department is accomplished when we sell meals that are also carried on our restaurant menu. It has been a drain on our time and resources to try to maintain a program for selling prepared meals as if that part of our business could generate the same revenue it used to. We still want to sell prepared meals and believe that it is a valuable service. But I think we are going to back off and allow Janet and the staff to focus more on the restaurant. We will offer a smaller menu of assembled meals and a more diverse restaurant menu. We will focus more on the seasonal offerings and on meeting special dietary needs. Your input has helped us each that decision. Thank you.
David
Hello rather not. This is not really a great suggestion only because it should have been obvious to us from the day we opened. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. All of the meals in the cooler are now dated and priced. -David