Do You Run a Restaurant? Or Just Have Someone who Cooks?

Restaurants are fun, sometimes glamorous. I love a nice roadside diner, a good high volume burger place can be exciting. Sushi counters. And it's fun occasionally to go to a fancy pants place, where they keep your water glass full like it's synchronized swimming.

I've long had the fantasy of running a restaurant, but I never will. To me, they're just "boats on land," in as much as they're holes you throw money into. But I'll use one today as an analogy.

Restaurants Are Systems

The worst advice you can give a friend who cooks really well is "You should open a restaurant." There's a reason they fail at such a high rate. It's because most people go in thinking that "cooking well" is the core to running a restaurant, and it's not.

The absolute key to running restaurants, in my absolutely lay person opinion, is to manage a set of systems and respond to useful data. I've got a friend ( Joe Sorge ) who knows what he's talking about, so he can disagree. But I'll press on.

If you think of it, the menu is one system. You might cook five signature dinners, and let's say five simple lunches, but if the ingredients to make all ten meal variations are completely different, that means you have to order more food. It means you have to store more food. It means more varieties of foodstuffs can go bad, if an item gets less popular. Thus, a system where you can overlap some of the ingredients between dishes becomes important. Plus, a system where you have some highly perishable items, but some that can last longer becomes important.

But that's one system. Another is sourcing the food. Another is timing the meal. I've heard that desserts might be high ticket items, but they also slow down the ability to turn over tables faster, and thus deliver more full meals. So, there's a velocity consideration to restaurants, too. Velocity, margin, shelf life, all these systems overlap and add up.

It can be a very complex business, a restaurant.

Or You Can Just Cook

Maybe you try to satisfy the customer by giving them what they asked for when they asked for it. No harm in that, right? Just cook up some burgers. It's not that hard. Why does everyone say this takes time, anyway? A burger takes maybe four minutes on the grill, and what? One or two minutes tops to put it on a plate with some fries? Easy.

Just cook what people want. If they stop buying burgers, run out and get some nuggets. Kids love those chicken nuggets, right? And hot dogs. Or pizza. Americans eat pizza like we're in an eating contest. Let's just do that. Unless that stops working. Let's just do what we need when we need it, right?

Systems or Die

I had a meeting a few years back with someone and asked what I thought would be a really simple question: "How many ____ are you putting out this quarter?" This person's job was to lead the people who did the functions that made the things. I was met with a blank stare.

Maybe it's me, I thought. "So, your people are doing work, and you're meeting with them about the work, and there's a lot of work happening. Do you know what all is going to be the results of all this work?" Still nothing.

Without a system, you're just cooking. Any system. The simpler the better.

I met a person who sold computerized scales to restaurants. You can put the scale on the shelves in the back and then when someone takes a tomato out of a bin to slice for a sandwich, the system knows the difference, and reports that there's one less tomato in the bin. Sounded great to me.

The person said, "Yeah. I can't sell them. It's been hard. Because the system right now is a worker goes in the back, looks in the tomato bin, does a count, and tells the supply person to order another 20 tomatoes. They use a scrap of paper and a pencil to do it."

(Now, I'm still a huge proponent of digital systems, but I love it when they work simply. I think the digital scales thing is probably still better than paper because then there's data, but I digress.)

Understanding Systems and Changing Systems is Hard

I really love the new book RESET, by Dan Heath . He's got some great (but simple and useful) advice about how to look at systems that aren't working and how to unravel them and make a better result.

A restaurant is a system. It's MUCH better than just having a cook in the back. But not all systems are great. When something's not working, there's an easy checklist we should consider:

• What is supposed to happen?
• What's happening instead?
• Is there a process in place?
• Is everyone following the process?
• If no, is the process to hard to follow?
• If no, are the people the problem?
• If no, is the process no longer aligned with reality?
• What's the problem?

I think it's more or less that simple (simple, but not easy).

What most of us do is not rocket surgery. But I'll say this: everything is MUCH harder, and there's a lot more tension and stress and frustration when there's not a system or systems in place. As long as the systems work reasonably for all stakeholders.

I'm still not opening a restaurant, but I have a lot of respect for the ones who manage their systems well and deliver a repeatable experience that meets my needs.

What's your take on it?

Chris...