Several questions about Top Butt Sirloin.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
An excellent post! Yeah, restaurants are too often a vanity project for people with more money than common sense. They get caught up in the romanticized notion of a restaurant without a grounding in the realities involved. But I wonder what the failure rate is if you filter out the ones that were set up to fail right out of the gate?

I especially agree with one thing you mentioned- the huge sprawling menu is the hallmark of an amateur! It kills food cost to stock ingredients for two hundred dishes, especially ones that don't cross utilize products. You could have 20 pastas, and if they all use one of 3 sauces and the same basic ingredients you're probably okay. But it's difficult to stay focused with huge menus. It dilutes you identity: what is the place? A steakhouse? A bistro? What does it say about you if you have mostly French food but throw in a few Asian dishes and a few Cajun, alongside a smattering of Italian dishes? It can be done if it's done carefully but chances are it'll be an unfocused mess. With even a hundred different entrees the server staff will have their hands full and only the best of them will really understand the menu. Ditto for the cooks- that's a lot of things to learn. And ordering will be a nightmare, and you'll constantly be either running out of an ingredient or throwing it away because a few dishes don't move.

I've worked as a chef and manager for a couple decades, too. My FOH experience is fairly limited, and it's definately the area I'd need to work on if I ever decided to open my own place.

Best of luck in your endeavor. And btw, I wouldn't use select for "center of the plate" steaks. It would work okay for country fried steak, chili, salsbury steak, etc but I wouldn't feature it "naked." Fwiw I currently work for an independant steakhouse.:chef:
Yeah, Ive seen a couple of Doctors loss their *** on restaurants. I told one, its like me falling in love with the idea of being a doctor. Wouldn't it be cool, to be called "Docter", wear the cool white coat, and have a bunch of pretty nurses at my beckon and call?? Problem is, I havent been trained, and I would end up killing some folks....just like these Doctors end up killing restaurants.

btw, whats your take on Grinding the sirloin myself Vs. Ordering it already ground?
 
Back
Top Bottom