Have you noticed that being positive is becoming a bit of a liability. We meet a friend on the street and we are feeling bubbly, delighted and generally happy to be alive on a crisp, sunny day. ' How are you', we ask in an equally sunny, cheery way? 'Aw, you know yourself, struggling, how are things with you?' comes the reply.

What does it really matter when another restaurant closes? It is just another business corpse to be tossed on the mountain of others whose bones are long since scorched by the sun. What does it matter and does anyone really care?

Selling More Food - There is no Magic Bullet !

‘It’s a question of doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well’.

(F.Prager- Founder of Movenpick)

A. N. Other Pub is in trouble. Money has been carefully spent on refurbishing it in an effort to entice in new customers (and keep the old) and stave off the recession by keeping the offering fresh... 

QUESTION

I run a 60-seater restaurant in a reasonably busy market town in the South East. Our offering is not quite fine dining, but at the upper end of the bistro scale and influenced heavily by classic French cooking. Traditionally we were a restaurant where people came for special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, or family celebrations. Unfortunately, business has fallen off dramatically in the recession and I am conscious that it is time for a revamp as I feel that both the design of the restaurant and the menu on offer is quite dated.

Can restaurateurs return to school to boost their profits?

Blathnaid Bergin says there is more to running a successful food outlet than good cooking...
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January 5th 2011. The New Year period saw frantic efforts to inject joy, optimism and alround good cheer into the uncertain times ahead. A lovely program on Radio 1 on Jan 31st at midday focused on positivity and all agreed that it was good to be positive and great to give thanks. Amen to that.

Having just completed the first exhilirating and energising 12 Week Certificate Course in Restaurant & Kitchen Management at the School one thing is clear, it pays to be very well informed. As my work in the industry continues, I am advising operators who are facing seismic challenges. I have such admiration for people who are creating employment, 30 jobs here, forty jobs there, ten more in another spot. They take all the risks, have to pay all the cheques, deal with all the myriad regulatory bodies, lie awake at night when the books dont balance.