So many of us are guilty of falling into the same trap: over time, we develop great faith in our people, so we continually provide what we think are opportunities for their advancement. After all, they are punctual, responsible, caring, excellent at ...

Substance abuse in the restaurant industry Anthony Bourdain, on multiple occasions, compared a restaurant to a modern-day pirate ship filled with counterculture non-conformists who all band together for a singular purpose in a small stuffy room and s...

When restaurant staff are ready for a promotion People love to work somewhere they can grow. Most employees want not only a job, but a career. Right beside that, employers understand their business cannot grow without great people. So, putting both t...

Pizzeria owners are rarely only owners. Instead, we don many hats and understanding every role in the shop. In fact, I know one clever owner who wears a shirt that says “Maintenance Man” on the back. Even if we’re not masters in every facet of ...

How to handle the seasonal staff exodus at restaurants and pizzerias Handling the exodus. It’s a little dramatic, but it might feel like that when you have one, two or maybe even three employees that decide to leave all at once. I’ve noti...

Get more out of your team meetings “Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system,’ to coordinate its actions.” — Bill Gates OK, do you really need to run your company like Bill Gates does?...

Restaurant manager compensation isn’t what it used to be With respect to manager compensation packages in today’s hospitality environment, Uno Pizzeria & Grill CEO Erik Frederick acknowledges one overriding truth: “The old rules,” he says...

Common Compliance Issues with Tips, Tip Pooling and Service Charges Tipping models and service charges are some of the most discussed topics in restaurants today among restaurateurs, employees and customers alike. While tips and automatic service cha...

You Get the Staff You Deserve Restaurant Employee Training is an investment The quality of your training directly correlates to your team’s potential success, which affects the quality of your food and the end customer dining experiences. Great...

Don’t blame others for a bad hire. Look in the mirror. We all know the saying about subpar employees: One bad apple ruins the barrel. But if that’s true, why do we as pizzeria owners tolerate the bad apples on our staffs? Obviously, no one wants ...

Why is it that you can have two people with relatively the same age, background and acumen have two vastly different outcomes from the same team? The straightforward and non-simple answer is leadership. Once you see them in action, is only when you s...

Proper PTO Paid time off, also known as PTO, isn’t easy for restaurant companies to navigate. It can enhance the likelihood of retaining top-tier talent, but it can also be easily abused. PTO is never fun when it leads to vital personnel gone when ...