Yes! One of the local pubs did this – Reading between the lines what they actually said was:
“We’re taking out the kitchen to install large washing machines so we can wash all our money in it” judging by the current state of said pub!
Oh well, time to check out new eating establishments
I doubt they’re sabotaging themself, more trying to adapt and generate income in very difficult times.
The problem with this is its cuts of the source of those parties and events. If you like the food and atmosphere of a restaurant, you are more likely to book it for an event.
If you have never eaten there you are less likely to book it. It might work for a short time – as people attending parties/events there might also book, but that will run out.
If they’re doing that they’re already not making money on the thu-sun dining runs. Usually this kind of cutting down means less staff, fewer expenses, and a desperate but usually doomed attempt to revive the restaurant in some fashion.
Evolution, not revolution
Food tends to be like a Loss Leader lot of the time don’t it?
So much effort and faffing for naff all margin,
….it’s usually accompanying drinks margin that makes the food even worth serving
If this gaff has parties booking in left and right, paying to hire location, paying for entertainment and drinking like veritable fishes….
**dollar signs must be rolling round in their eyes**
….they probably can’t wait to bin the poorly performing standard food service off and focus on lucrative events
Plus, set menus and all booked in advance will assist so much with planning and prep AND cut wastage. Usually people come in and order on spec, planning is largely speculative and then specials boards attempt to rehash leftovers and shift them….
“our ‘legendary’ Sunday roasts will no longer be available”
Because they were such a legend in the area they’re being fucked off, never to return again.
Are they sabotaging themselves? Or, are they just focusing their business on what makes them money?
Remember, the original McDonald’s looked at their sales and saw they were selling nothing but burgers, fries, Coca-Cola and milkshakes, so they kicked all the other items off the menu. (A lesson they could do with re-learning)
I’m picturing the failing restaurant/cafès in those TV shows, where they’ve devolved into just a local watering hole.
As someone who works in a pub kitchen I totally understand it. The amount of money we get from selling food just isn’t enough to keep up with rising costs and wages. For every good day we have we have 2 or 3 bad days where we’re losing money.
I don’t think it’s self-sabotage, more an attempt to get back on a sinking ship to survive a little longer.
The benefit (to the employer) of event work is that it’s much more cost efficient in terms of food wastage and employee cost if you can get everything booked in advance. Sure you might have days with no bookings but at least then you don’t have a kitchen staff to pay.
If you can’t afford to staff an empty restaurant, what else are you supposed to do? They are probably haemorrhaging money and throwing away a lot of food. This move might allow them to stay open. The idea that they are sabotaging THEMSELVES seems a bit naive- we’re in a cost of living crisis. The saboteurs are in another castle.
🤷 If it’s not cost effective, why would they continue. Sounds like they’re trying to adapt to the demand they see.
My party is a small one, just 4. It will be on a Sunday and we would like catering, a roast dinner.
A once popular food pub in my town now is drinks only and instead has Friday/Saturday evening pop up food stalls which they advertise on their FB.
This will be the fact that their current business model is not sustainable so they are trying to save the business. It’s probably this or no business.
Food is much more labour intensive than drinks. Plus drinks have far less wastage if left unsold. Plus kitchens have variable usage costs when in operation – ovens, appliances etc.
Also they probably have serious staff shortages. Perhaps they fired a bunch of people?
The options are:
* Reduce the cost per hour of food labour
* Simplify the menu to reduce the amount of labour per meal and reduce wastage
* Increase the average food spend per customer
* Raise menu prices
* Reduce the ingredients cost.
* Close the kitchen at times when profitability is marginal.
They went for the last option. It’s quite understandable. Business costs, especially labour costs, are high at the moment.
We hired a pub for our wedding reception. It was a lovely little country pub overlooking all the fields. They ended up doing a similar thing, because when people like myself booked it for an event people would turn up, see there is a private event and go off elsewhere for dinner never to return. Their successful events side of it killed off the pub. The reason you needed (or rather I wanted) to pay for exclusive hire was the bar was tiny so you or the drinkers in the pub would take forever to get served. They really needed a dedicated bar for the event area and to leave the pub open to the public.
Yep, sat night we went to a nice local family pub that we have been going to for years to be told there’s no food because there’s a 50th birthday party in the room upstairs.
It just struck me as an odd decision as it’s always busy with families eating, but everyone of those families/bar one obviously got back in their car and drove to the nearest competitor. We went a little further and had a really nice meal in a location we wouldn’t usually think of, and will certainly be returning.
The maths will have been done, by someone with more knowledge on the market than me. But I just hope theyve accounted for the regulars and family pop ins, just not having their location on the radar in future.
That is worded really badly lol
I used to play music on the folk scene in pubs. The merry-go-round we used to experience was a landlord welcoming us with open arms to create an atmosphere, with the next few months the place heaving with diners coming early to eat and then most sticking around for the music later.
Eventually they’d cram so many tables into the place that there wouldn’t be be any room for the musicians, and we’d have to start later and later, and eventually asked not to be there at all. A few months after that we’d usually see the place close and looking for new management. Rinse and repeat.
Not every pub, mind, but the more remote the more chance of this happening; they create a reason for people to drive into the middle of nowhere and then dilute the experience to the point where people look for other places to go. The amount of “new venue” music nights I’ve been to in the same establishment (7 was the record), where the club just moved around different pubs until they were forced to move again, was really something.
Big events like wedding are incredible lucrative.
Small events? I have no idea.
This type of stuff also sometimes happens when someone else takes over the business.
A very successful restaurant in my area passed the ownership down to their kids when they retired and the first thing the kids did was try and change it into another type of restaurant which lost them most of their existing customer base. They gave that new restaurant type about a month and shut it down then a few weeks later opened as a fish and chip take away. They gave that about a month and shut that down when it failed to build a customer base. The place then sat closed down for about a year at which point they re-opened once again back as the type of restaurant it had originally been when it was successful only they never managed to win back their original customer base and they shut down again after a couple of months.
So these drastic changes of business focus can sometimes be a sign someone else has got control of the business and they have their own thing they want to do with it.
My local restaurant started closing on quieter days. Problem is people walking past see it closed and then assume it’s always closed and don’t think to go there even when it’s open.
A local restaurant did this. They were a fantastic restaurant with great reviews.
That was 8+ years ago and they’re still there so the business model must work.
They’re changing into hosting parties and serving drinks compared to being a restaurant. They probably think there is more money in it
100% yes, this was posted outside my local Italian during refurbishment, it was fantastic…
This is the managed decline of our restaurant industry, it doesn’t really make sense to open a restaurant that you can’t afford to run because people can’t afford to eat there
how is this sabotaging themselves? They’re obviously not working in those previously offered capacities, so they’re not doing it.
‘i cant believe hes sabotaging himself by putting that fire out’
29 comments
Yes! One of the local pubs did this – Reading between the lines what they actually said was:
“We’re taking out the kitchen to install large washing machines so we can wash all our money in it” judging by the current state of said pub!
Oh well, time to check out new eating establishments
I doubt they’re sabotaging themself, more trying to adapt and generate income in very difficult times.
The problem with this is its cuts of the source of those parties and events. If you like the food and atmosphere of a restaurant, you are more likely to book it for an event.
If you have never eaten there you are less likely to book it. It might work for a short time – as people attending parties/events there might also book, but that will run out.
If they’re doing that they’re already not making money on the thu-sun dining runs. Usually this kind of cutting down means less staff, fewer expenses, and a desperate but usually doomed attempt to revive the restaurant in some fashion.
Evolution, not revolution
Food tends to be like a Loss Leader lot of the time don’t it?
So much effort and faffing for naff all margin,
….it’s usually accompanying drinks margin that makes the food even worth serving
If this gaff has parties booking in left and right, paying to hire location, paying for entertainment and drinking like veritable fishes….
**dollar signs must be rolling round in their eyes**
….they probably can’t wait to bin the poorly performing standard food service off and focus on lucrative events
Plus, set menus and all booked in advance will assist so much with planning and prep AND cut wastage. Usually people come in and order on spec, planning is largely speculative and then specials boards attempt to rehash leftovers and shift them….
“our ‘legendary’ Sunday roasts will no longer be available”
Because they were such a legend in the area they’re being fucked off, never to return again.
Are they sabotaging themselves? Or, are they just focusing their business on what makes them money?
Remember, the original McDonald’s looked at their sales and saw they were selling nothing but burgers, fries, Coca-Cola and milkshakes, so they kicked all the other items off the menu. (A lesson they could do with re-learning)
I’m picturing the failing restaurant/cafès in those TV shows, where they’ve devolved into just a local watering hole.
As someone who works in a pub kitchen I totally understand it. The amount of money we get from selling food just isn’t enough to keep up with rising costs and wages. For every good day we have we have 2 or 3 bad days where we’re losing money.
I don’t think it’s self-sabotage, more an attempt to get back on a sinking ship to survive a little longer.
The benefit (to the employer) of event work is that it’s much more cost efficient in terms of food wastage and employee cost if you can get everything booked in advance. Sure you might have days with no bookings but at least then you don’t have a kitchen staff to pay.
If you can’t afford to staff an empty restaurant, what else are you supposed to do? They are probably haemorrhaging money and throwing away a lot of food. This move might allow them to stay open. The idea that they are sabotaging THEMSELVES seems a bit naive- we’re in a cost of living crisis. The saboteurs are in another castle.
🤷 If it’s not cost effective, why would they continue. Sounds like they’re trying to adapt to the demand they see.
My party is a small one, just 4. It will be on a Sunday and we would like catering, a roast dinner.
A once popular food pub in my town now is drinks only and instead has Friday/Saturday evening pop up food stalls which they advertise on their FB.
This will be the fact that their current business model is not sustainable so they are trying to save the business. It’s probably this or no business.
Food is much more labour intensive than drinks. Plus drinks have far less wastage if left unsold. Plus kitchens have variable usage costs when in operation – ovens, appliances etc.
Also they probably have serious staff shortages. Perhaps they fired a bunch of people?
The options are:
* Reduce the cost per hour of food labour
* Simplify the menu to reduce the amount of labour per meal and reduce wastage
* Increase the average food spend per customer
* Raise menu prices
* Reduce the ingredients cost.
* Close the kitchen at times when profitability is marginal.
They went for the last option. It’s quite understandable. Business costs, especially labour costs, are high at the moment.
We hired a pub for our wedding reception. It was a lovely little country pub overlooking all the fields. They ended up doing a similar thing, because when people like myself booked it for an event people would turn up, see there is a private event and go off elsewhere for dinner never to return. Their successful events side of it killed off the pub. The reason you needed (or rather I wanted) to pay for exclusive hire was the bar was tiny so you or the drinkers in the pub would take forever to get served. They really needed a dedicated bar for the event area and to leave the pub open to the public.
Yep, sat night we went to a nice local family pub that we have been going to for years to be told there’s no food because there’s a 50th birthday party in the room upstairs.
It just struck me as an odd decision as it’s always busy with families eating, but everyone of those families/bar one obviously got back in their car and drove to the nearest competitor. We went a little further and had a really nice meal in a location we wouldn’t usually think of, and will certainly be returning.
The maths will have been done, by someone with more knowledge on the market than me. But I just hope theyve accounted for the regulars and family pop ins, just not having their location on the radar in future.
That is worded really badly lol
I used to play music on the folk scene in pubs. The merry-go-round we used to experience was a landlord welcoming us with open arms to create an atmosphere, with the next few months the place heaving with diners coming early to eat and then most sticking around for the music later.
Eventually they’d cram so many tables into the place that there wouldn’t be be any room for the musicians, and we’d have to start later and later, and eventually asked not to be there at all. A few months after that we’d usually see the place close and looking for new management. Rinse and repeat.
Not every pub, mind, but the more remote the more chance of this happening; they create a reason for people to drive into the middle of nowhere and then dilute the experience to the point where people look for other places to go. The amount of “new venue” music nights I’ve been to in the same establishment (7 was the record), where the club just moved around different pubs until they were forced to move again, was really something.
Big events like wedding are incredible lucrative.
Small events? I have no idea.
This type of stuff also sometimes happens when someone else takes over the business.
A very successful restaurant in my area passed the ownership down to their kids when they retired and the first thing the kids did was try and change it into another type of restaurant which lost them most of their existing customer base. They gave that new restaurant type about a month and shut it down then a few weeks later opened as a fish and chip take away. They gave that about a month and shut that down when it failed to build a customer base. The place then sat closed down for about a year at which point they re-opened once again back as the type of restaurant it had originally been when it was successful only they never managed to win back their original customer base and they shut down again after a couple of months.
So these drastic changes of business focus can sometimes be a sign someone else has got control of the business and they have their own thing they want to do with it.
My local restaurant started closing on quieter days. Problem is people walking past see it closed and then assume it’s always closed and don’t think to go there even when it’s open.
A local restaurant did this. They were a fantastic restaurant with great reviews.
That was 8+ years ago and they’re still there so the business model must work.
They’re changing into hosting parties and serving drinks compared to being a restaurant. They probably think there is more money in it
100% yes, this was posted outside my local Italian during refurbishment, it was fantastic…
https://preview.redd.it/awh1v0wq3v5f1.jpeg?width=550&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a50dd0bcda1a25eebd0791b605f406d1a6a73b6
This is the managed decline of our restaurant industry, it doesn’t really make sense to open a restaurant that you can’t afford to run because people can’t afford to eat there
how is this sabotaging themselves? They’re obviously not working in those previously offered capacities, so they’re not doing it.
‘i cant believe hes sabotaging himself by putting that fire out’
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