Friday AM 3.25.16

Written By: Elizabeth

LY Lunch Sales:$2036
Projected Sales : $2360
TY Lunch Sales: $2930
+/- : +44% LY and +$570 PS
Lunch Covers: 161
Avg PPA:


Previous Days Labor: 17%

Previous Days Comps: 5.10%
Controllable Comps: 6.56%

Weather: Sunny and warming up in the low 70s

Special events?: Good Friday


Who worked: Kate, Grace, Mandy, Sayo CL. Kelly Host, John SA, Taylor FR

Flow of Business, Cuts and Ticket Times:
Today was an incredibly challenging shift. Right from the start the sushi bar crashed and burned. The first 30 minutes of service was mostly all one tops that sat at the sushi bar. By the time Sayo arrived at 11:30 the sushi bar was full but only had about 3 other tables in the restaurant. That must have pushed Kazu back because from there until close we had solid 30 minute ticket times from Ichiban. From my perspective it seemed that Kazu was Ichiban, Kalynn was Niban, Jay was Sanban and Lee was in the position of Zero-ban. But Jay and Lee were doing prep. I told Kazu that he needs to pull one of them off prep to help out because it was only noon and we were on a pretty hefty wait. Jay, in the Sanban position, helped with some pieces, but it just didn't make sense to have Jay on the other side doing nigiri, when he should have been set up as Zero-ban.

In addition,  I feel there was a lapse in communication regarding the Wedding today.
Take had texted Andrew this morning that he was coming in at noon today to pick everything up, but Kalynn was working for Andrew, which I believe I overheard Andrew telling Take yesterday. Andrew in turn text Kalynn but Kalynn didn't have time to look at her phone. So when Take came in he took the ingredients he needed, which was fine, but it also included all of Kalynns cucumbers so she cut had to cut them on the fly for the service we were already in the middle of. At the end of lunch we only had one and a half rice warmers left of sushi rice, because Take told Joe not to come in early today to make extra rice. Therefore Jay is going to work through his break to complete the prep that needs to be done which includes making sushi rice.
All in all it boils down to proper communication with the sushi bar staff on what needed to be ready and when (with the exception of Krab Salad, Dynamite & Avocados)
 All of these factors went into today's mess of a service.

That being said, we really need to be staffed for business. Today is good friday- that means some people have off from work and others are going out to have a fish lunch (typical of the holiday) So in addition to our usual Friday business we also had that.

I never once got back in the kitchen to check on ticket times but it didn't seem as though they were struggling, so great job Kitchen crew

As far as servers go, Kate has one speed. Grace was flailing. Mandy and Sayo were doing great!
I had to stay on top of Grace's tables all shift, refilling waters. Kate was doing slightly better keeping waters full, but not by much. She also forgot to put in two rolls for a table. Luckily Kalynn is a rockstar and knocked them out for me.

At the end of the shift Sayo expressed her frustration with the sushi bar situation today and that she felt it had an affect on her tips. She showed me a few tickets and the tips were pretty bad ($3 on $50). I let her vent her frustrations, but I just wanted to show this as an example of how one thing can affect the entire restaurant and leave lasting impressions with guests.

Regarding the flow of business, after the sushi bar immediately filled up, the dining room did, we went on a wait around 11:45 and didn't get off the wait until 1:45. Had 4 more tables walk in at 1:56 and got last call all in around 2:15. I ordered Pizza for lunch because I was too busy to put orders in and it was a busy shift overall.

3 Staff members that stood out (why/how):
I think I covered this. Grace needs some serious work. I'm just getting really frustrated with her lack of urgency.

On a side note, after I was finished writing this I overheard Jay tell Camacho that he missed a hell of a shift today. Camacho asked what happened and Jay said "it was a shit show" (I agree, but I can't write that in the notes) and thank goodness he put his notice in. I came out of the office and asked if that was true. He said yeah and told me about something with Uchi. I told him they're not going to pay him very well. He said he knew and then shrugged. I can not stress enough the importance of communication in this restaurant. We're going to have bad days, that's for sure. But we're not going to be able to keep anyone of quality if the bad days are constant or far too frequent. That goes for every where in the restaurant, not just sushi bar. The kitchen too.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

Any VIP's in?
Rob sat at the sushi bar
Dena
Ish
Rachel & her friend who isn't so friendly.

Comps& Void Detail:
Kitchen error for a 35 minute sushi lunch
voided a few that pieces that were taking too long that guests couldn't wait for.


R&M needs:

86'd items/ need more: