A Restaurant Is a Gambler’s Game

I’ve been pondering this for a while. It might sound like complete common sense, but I’m constantly going over why things happen the way they do, how they could improve and what actually underpins the outcome of a service.

I genuinely thought running a restaurant would be more straightforward than it is. I knew there would be problems, obviously, but I thought that with enough systems, organisation and clear communication, you could create a machine that more or less flowed.

You cannot.

One of the biggest factors affecting everything in hospitality and therefore every meal you ever go out for, is the sheer number of variables involved.

That is what makes restaurants so interesting and also so damn difficult to get right.

Staff are walking variables. Your strongest person can have an off day. They can be sick, distracted or carrying something personal that they cannot leave at the door. They might dislike somebody they work with. They might have messed up their plans, promised a friend they would go to a party and suddenly decide they need to call in sick.

Then you have the supply chain keeping the restaurant functioning: waste collection, cleaners, maintenance, laundry and suppliers. Suppliers are the big one. When a delivery does not arrive, or turns up without something as basic as chips, it can upset a surprising number of people.

And then there are the customers. More on them shortly.

We had a turbulent Friday night last week and it jolted me.