Here are some simple tips to make a restaurant menu work better. These tricks help people choose the best items, boosting sales without them even knowing it! Eye-Catching Menu Design: - Show Off the Best Dishes: Place the highest-profit items in the “Golden Triangle”—the center, top-right, and top-left of the menu—where most eyes go first. - Use Space: Highlight popular items with color, larger fonts, or boxes, but don’t clutter. Give each dish room so it stands out. Easy Pricing Tips: - Skip Dollar Signs: Removing dollar signs makes the cost feel less obvious. - Use a “Decoy” Item: Place a high-priced item near other dishes to make them seem like better deals. Descriptive, Tasty Language: - Use Descriptive Words: Longer, fun descriptions make dishes sound more delicious. Try “5-Layer Chocolate Cake” instead of just “Chocolate Cake.” - Add Nostalgia: Words like “Grandma’s” make dishes feel homey and comforting. These small changes make menus more exciting and help guide choices to higher-value dishes. Got any other tips? Share below!

Hey Restaurant Managers & Leaders- new Position Checklist Templates are now live in the classroom. You must be a "Shift Leader- level 3" member in order to unlock & use them. In order to rise up in rank, all you have to do is engage in the community more! The more posts you make, comments & likes you earn, the higher up you'll rise. We've broken it down by service type- Full Service, QSR, & Coffee House to start. Inside of there, you'll find a template for every hourly role you might need. You can download your own copy to Google Drive then customize it to your brand and operation. Because you are in this skool group, these lists are FREE for you to access and use. I am selling these as bundles on my website for $47 per bundle!

If you've ever worked for a national restaurant brand, you'll know that checklists, logs, and routine are deeply ingrained in the culture and daily operations of the business. Systems help you scale because they ensure consistency, improve efficiency, and they clearly set the expectation of what is expected from each person on the team. Independent restaurant owners sometimes struggle to get these built and in place.... Checklists do take some time to plan, build, and create in an easy to follow format. And if you're not someone who likes (or has the bandwith) to sit on the computer for a long time, it can be a daunting task. So let us help. This week we'll be adding Checklist Templates to the Classroom as a helpful resource for Operators, Managers, and Leaders who want a little more structure in their restaurant. These will be FREE inside of the Training Table community for the first 50 members our skool group- so if you're reading this- that's YOU! I'll be organizing them by Service Style, and we'll have one for each hourly position to start. These will just be templates and you'll be able to download them into Google Docs and completely customize them for your own business. May they save you time and calm your chaos. If you'd like a more personalized approach to these lists for your team, reach out to me! Let's set up a call!

I am not a sports person, but I do love a good anecdote... so I'm going to share this one I recently heard on "A Bit of Optimism" Podcast by Simon Sinek when he spoke to John Burke (CEO of Trek Bicycles.. great listen- check it out...) 🎙️ Nick Saben was the basketball coach of Alabama State, and in the finals, they were up against Ohio who were 10-0. Everyone knew they were going to get absolutely killed... "We're playing the wrong game..." Alabama coaches thought, "We're trying to win, we shouldn't be doing that... What we should be doing is running every play to perfection. We do that, we'll do just fine." During practice before the big game, the coaches tell the team, "We're not going to pay attention to the crowd, to the scoreboard, nothing... all we are going to do is run every play to perfection. Every single one of you, every single time- you run the play to perfection." Game ends- guess who wins?! Nick Saben became one of the greatest coaches of all time because he never gave a shit about the scoreboard again... he only cared about running every play to perfection, and the championships kept coming. This is how we should lead our restaurant teams. Stop looking at the bottom line, sales, COGS, all that. We are coaches, day in and day out, and we must teach the team the plays... and help them run them to perfection on every shift. Your trainers and shift leaders are the MVP's, and with the right support, they will lead their teammates to greatness. This is how we take great care of our guests, our teams, and ultimately our bottom line. Coming soon to The Training Table, I'll release my courses on how to set up your systems (plays), and empower your star players to run them for you. Stay tuned, thanks for being here!