Y2.U7.3 Menu What is a Menu?

What?•Function does a menu serve

•Are the different types of menus

•Factors must be considered when creating a menu

•Are various methods used to price a menu

• Is needed to analyze a menu

What is a menu?

•For customers, a list that describes the food and drink offered

•For the foodservice manager it is a strategic tool that defines the purpose of the restaurant and every phase of its operation

Essential Tool

•The menu is an important working tool used to plan, organize, operate, and control back-of-the-house operations

•The menu is a published announcement of what the restaurant has to offer

•The menu is the most important communication tool for the foodservice operation

Menu as Tool

•The menu defines the purpose, strategy, market, service, and scene of an operation

•The menu defines the type of employees and servers required

•The menu defines the amount of training all employees will need

Menu as Tool

•The menu is a production plan

•The menu is a guide to purchasing

•The menu serves as a service schedule for employees

•The menu is the most important advertisement for the restaurant

•The menu helps to sell items

Menu/Market

•The menu should reflect the market•Type of restaurant, target customers,

customer needs, product availability

Commercial/Noncommercial

•Commercial includes any type of operation that sells food and beverages for profit: full-service restaurants, quick-service chains, hotel restaurants, etc.

•Noncommercial are those operations and that operate food services to support the actual purpose of the establishment: space schools, colleges, airlines, and hospitals

Menu Types

•A la Carte: offers food separately that separate prices

•Cyclical: normally institutional or non-commercial, a menu made for certain time periods that repeat

•California: lists all meals available at any time during the day

Menu Types

•Du jour: “of the day,” offers different foods each day

•Limited: offers a few selections, used often by quick-service restaurants and cafes

•Fixed: same items every day (supplement with du jour)

Menu Types

Prix Fixe: Offers multiple menu items at one price, often a choice of app, entrée, dessert

•Table d’hôte: Very similar to Prix Fixe, but price is based on entrée.

Menu Order

•Usually appetizers and soups, salad, sandwiches, entrées, vegetables, desserts, beverages

•Variety is important to customer satisfaction and can be achieved within classifications by using different cooking methods, tastes, textures, and seasonings

Menu Development Factors

•Physical layout, space

•Skill level and number of employees

•Availability of ingredients

•Target market wants and needs

•Target market expectations of offering and price

•Profit margin

Menu Development

•List all possible items

•Eliminate items

•Tailor items to fit customers, cuisine, and theme

•Choose items within the price range that can be prepared well

•Make final selections for the printed menu

•Save rejects for possible future use

Design

Medium

•Paper stock: heavy (fancy), lightweight (casual)

•Menu Board: Chalk, letter, electronic

•Spoken, memorized

Layout

•How the menu is categorized and sequenced adds to the identity of the operation: one page, many, hectic, subdued

Design

Color

•Colors offer an emotional element to identity: from sophisticated to rowdy; blue/green for seafood, red/orange for BBQ

Font

•Can highlight: italic, Bold

•Can signal personality: formal, casual, classical, modern

•Readable

Design

Art

•Straight/angled borders or curvy: images; cars/diner, flames/BBQ

Pricing

Food Percentage Method

•Often different for each menu category

•Set the percentage of menu price food cost will be (33% - 0.33)

Item food cost ÷ Food cost percentage = Menu Price

$0.75/.33=$2.27

Pricing

Contribution Margin Method

•Operation wide data to determine a dollar amount that must be added to each menu item’s food cost

•2 steps:

(total nonfood cost + target profit) ÷ Number of Customers = Contribution Margin

Contribution margin + food cost = menu price

Pricing

Straight Markup Pricing

•Markup the costs according to a formula to obtain selling price

•Margin is defined in terms of selling price

•Markup is determined in terms of costs

•Should be enough to cover operating costs and a profit

Pricing

Average Check Method

•Divide total revenue by the number of seats, average seat turnover, and days open in one year

Pricing

Set Dollar Amount Markup

•For use with major menu items

•Adds a fixed dollar amount to the food cost of an item

Food cost + Markup = Menu price

Markup = Profit per menu item + Labor cost per menu item + Operating cost per menu item

Pricing

Set Percentage Increase method

•For use with major menu items

•Builds on set dollar markup by determining what the percentage is in comparison to the items’ food cost

Food cost Percentage = Markup⨯

Markup ÷ Food cost = Percentage

Q-Factor

Accounts for misc. items such as s&p, butter, ketchup, sliced lemon, etc.

•List items, determine amounts, determine costs, add in cost

Analyzing The Menu• Important to analyze how well each item on

menu is performing after the operation has open some time (3 months).

•Look at sales volume and calculate the sales volume percentage by comparing each items’ sales against total sales

•A sales mix analysis indicates the popularity and profitability of each item •This allows decisions about which menu items to

leave alone, change price, promote, rethink or eliminate•Think about why

Analyzing The Menu•Star: popular and profitable, generally leave

alone, test increasing price or methods to sell more

•Plow horse: popular less profitable, possibly raise price but are often sensitive price increases

•Puzzle: unpopular and very profitable, reposition, promote, sample- possibly lower price

•Dog: unpopular and unprofitable, eliminate, increase price to puzzle

Analyzing The MenuBakeCartAna

A B C D E F G H

ItemName # SoldMenu Mix %

Selling Price

Item Food Cost

Item Contri-bution Margin (D-E)

Total Revenue (BxD)

Total Food Cost (BxE)

Total Item Contri-bution Margin (G-H)

Contri-bution Margin Category

Menu Mix % Category

Menu Item Class

Cup Cakes 48 0.119 0.75 0.33 0.42 36 15.84 20.16 0 1 PlowhorseTruffle 47 0.116 1 0.33 0.67 47 15.51 31.49 1 1 StarMuffin 29 0.072 0.75 0.18 0.57 21.75 5.22 16.53 1 1 Star

Foggie 44 0.109 0.5 0.5 0 22 22 0 0 1 PlowhorseSourdough 8 0.02 2 0.6 1.4 16 4.8 11.2 1 0 PuzzleCinnamonBun 44 0.109 1.25 0.46 0.79 55 20.24 34.76 1 1 Star

Xcookie 0 0.12 0.375 0.12 0.255 0 0 0 0 1 PlowhorseDoughnut 42 0.104 0.75 0.23 0.52 31.5 9.66 21.84 1 1 Star

Brownies 41 0.101 0.75 0.46 0.29 30.75 18.86 11.89 0 1 Plowhorse Pepperoni Rolls 33 0.081 1 0.34 0.66 33 11.22 21.78 1 1 StarPotato Rolls 11 0.027 0.75 0.09 0.66 8.25 0.99 7.26 1 0 Puzzle

Potato Rolls (4) 24 0.059 0.5 0.09 0.41 12 2.16 9.84 0 1 PlowhorseFriands 34 0.084 0.75 0.21 0.54 25.5 7.14 18.36 1 1 Star    0     0 0 0 0 0 0      0     0 0 0 0 0 0      0     0 0 0 0 0 0  

                 

Total 405   13     338.75 133.64 205.11

H/G           0.394509    Average Contribution Margin           0.506444    

                 Mix Percentage Rate           0.053846