What is it like to manage a restaurant?

Their tasks usually include all kinds of tasks, from recruiting and managing staff, managing marketing, managing operations, processing inventory and financial figures, meeting customer expectations and much more. From prioritizing to delegating, restaurant managers must leverage a variety of skills to succeed. What do you need to be consistent about? When there's a rush at the door and there's a little circus in the kitchen, your employees need to know that you're going to be consistent. Their consistency allows them to handle high voltage loads without cracking.

According to a recent survey, 46% of restaurant managers and owners said that hiring, training and then retaining staff is their main challenge. According to the National Restaurant Association, 56% of adults surveyed said they would rather spend money on an experience than simply go to the store to buy food. You may think that you only manage the preparation and delivery of food, but you also manage the customer experience. Join 140,000 other leaders and get updates that will help you grow your company, inspire new ways to engage your employees and resources to help keep your workplace running smoothly.

I mean, if you become a restaurant manager, every day is basically like Liam Neeson in THAT scene from the movie Taken. So what do your guests want? When you become a good restaurant manager, you focus your strategy on the needs of your guests. General management or ownership is a terminal position in most restaurants that cannot be climbed much higher unless you opt for the corporate route and move to a position of regional manager. In addition to formal restaurant management training, continuing education allows managers to hone their skills and keep up to date with the latest trends and requirements affecting restaurant operations.

Rachel Titcomb, global general manager and marketing director of Fat Baby and Loco Taqueria %26 Oyster Bar, both in South Boston, says management trust in their staff helps the service run smoothly. If you own a restaurant, managing it is difficult if you don't fully understand every part of your business. Culinary and hospitality management programs may exclude some critical features found in restaurant management training programs. For example, instead of having a manager open the restaurant, you can trust a longtime employee to carry the keys and open or close it.

Culinary management training often includes a focus on food preparation, culinary imagination, and food and wine pairings. Once you understand the basics of running a restaurant, the next step is a mid-level position that begins to lay the foundations of management. Restaurant management certifications offer courses designed to teach new and developing management staff about the revenue, forecasting, administrative tasks, and leadership skills needed to manage a restaurant. Some of the most distinguished schools that offer restaurant management programs are the Penn Foster Career School, Cornell University, the Toronto School of Management, the Culinary Education Institute and the Culinary Institute of America.

On the other hand, it's much easier to manage a more focused menu in which common ingredients are shared between menu items.

Ernest Dargatz
Ernest Dargatz

Freelance food geek. Bacon expert. Certified internet buff. Typical coffee nerd. Avid coffee evangelist.