Restaurant Realisations

Interviewing more staff has the benefit of a crash course in learning about restaurant tips and realisations about our own place:

• Role play is important for staff training.  How do we simulate those situations where staff will have to react quickly and well to issues that a customer brings up?
• Having someone with setup skills will help us get through this first month of operations.  How do we set ourselves up for success?
• There should be little or no divide between "Front of House" and "Back of House".  We are all one team.  It goes to the extent that the servers should know what all the food tastes like and is made up of.
• We have to be proud of our food in order to upsell it.  
• The hard part with a new restaurant is finding a proper place to train the staff, given that any other kitchen will be different to the kitchen that we will use.
• Everyone has an opinion for a restaurant because everyone has been to one.  Be prepared for the barrage of (good and bad) advice.
• Cooks love the freedom of a small restaurant.  We have to make sure our kitchen manager knows that they will be constrained by a set menu.
• Any breakages / variance in beverage sales need to be reported.  It may sound harsh, but sometimes the waiter must pay in order to learn.  I am unsure about this one, not sure about the culture that this will bring to our restaurant.
• Our kitchen manager must be about execution. quality and consistency.  It is like an army in the kitchen, everyone has to know their place.