Have I mentioned before how much menu planning sucks? I think I have, but I was probably whining about the mechanics of it all–the research, recipe development, portion and cost measure and specification, training, logging, etc etc
But, menu change sucks for an even bigger reason than the arduousness. Menu change sucks because, you are damned if you don’t and damned if you do. Menu change is like, great taste vs less filling, the senate and congress, coke and Pepsi. We change menus because we want to stay fun, or interesting, because the seasons change, because trends change, because we get bored, because YOU get bored. “Scott, when are you going to change the menu?” “Scott, have you ever been to that boring place there that hasn’t changed their menu for 10 years?” “Scott…you know what you should put on the menu….”
So, we change. Twice a year. Now, the simple math is, when you add, you must take away. If we don’t, the menu gets huge, and harder to execute; “Scott, the food takes way too long at your place.” A big menu also creates less predictability, and therefore, more waste. “Scott, your menu is too expensive.”
So, we take away. Generally, the items that sell the least. Again, simple math.
True story; A girl walks into a bar. (no seriously) She sits down with her mother to order, sees me coming, turns on her stool and says: “Scott, what the hell? Why did you take the potato skins off the menu?” Tue story: Very next night, I show up at our friend’s house for Monday night dinner and no more than two minutes into serving myself some Turkey pie, someone says: “Hey Scott, I heard you took the potato skins off the menu. Were you drunk?” And, from the other room; “HEY, I heard that rumor too…what gives man?”
Feel my pain…
(May I suggest the new, cheesy, spicy Pork Cracklins or perhaps, the new Pulled Pork and Black Bean Nachos with three cheeses, creme fraiche, house made picallily….)
I can hear it now; “Hey Scott, they’re good, but they ain’t no padayda skins”
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