2000 Top 100
Technology upgrades help independents hone operations and buy more time for guests.

By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor and Janice Matsumoto, Associate Editor

Every penny of profit counts in the restaurant business. Especially when the restaurants in question are independent operators, flying solo (or nearly so), without the major buying power of a national chain network behind them.

As this year?s listing of Top 100 independent restaurants illustrates, technology does make a difference. It lets operators drive down costs, improve efficiency, helps them serve guests with more panache, and gives them additional time to put toward the care and feeding of customers.

Warner LeRoy, owner of Tavern on the Green in New York, one of the perennial top-grossing restaurants, leverages the power of technology in all its guises.

?In theater, technology plays such an important role in creating illusion-as-reality. When I opened Tavern on the Green in 1976, I knew we?d have to stay on the cutting edge of technology in order to realize the restaurant?s potential.?

At $34.4 million annually in sales, many would say that Tavern?s potential has been reached. But not LeRoy. ?We?re always experimenting, always looking for better ways to do things.?

Examples: For lighting, LeRoy is testing new computer chips that give a more realistic flicker to an electric flame. For inventory control, a wide-area computer network serving Tavern on the Green and Russian Tea Room prevents on-premise larders from running out of key items. And for customer service, an improved Web site provides online, real-time reservations, access to menus, and even views of rooms, tablecloths and floral options.

?People from all over the world are flocking to the site to take advantage of being able to secure reservations almost instantly,? LeRoy says.

UPPING THE ANTE

The combination of savvy operators and cutting-edge technology has helped make the independent road an especially profitable one over the past year.

As R&I?s Top 100 Independent Operators listing shows, the cut-off line edged upward from the previous year to $7.15 million, for Water?s Edge Restaurant in Long Island, N.Y., compared to $6.9 million for last year?s 100th largest operator. On the top end, Windows on the World takes over the No.1 spot with $34.9 million, replacing long-time, top-grossing Tavern on the Green. Technology, in all its forms, has helped even the playing field between independents and chains.

?Our business is so marginally profitable that being able to squeeze even a quarter of a percentage point in any one area means tens of thousands of dollars,? says Charles Milite, president of New York?s Coffee Shop.

Yet in the maze of voice-mail and hand-held order pads, online reservations and virtual kitchen tours, will microchip efficiency and robots supplant graciousness and appreciation? Fat chance, operators say.

?You can have all the expensive [point-of-service] systems and fancy software, but unless you have cooks executing well and servers taking care of people, technology means nothing,?? says Steve Reynolds, president and chief executive officer of The Yard House in Long Beach, Calif. ?It?s still a people business.?

Like subtle seasoning in a soup, technology should work invisibly in the background, making life run smoother for operators, wait staff and customers. R&I looks at how the country?s highest-volume independent operators pepper their restaurants with technology.

GUEST-WARE

Headsets and pagers are the aides-de-camp for hostesses and floor managers at Bob Chinn?s Crab House in Wheeling, Ill. They eliminate the guesswork of which tables are open for the next party at the multi-roomed, 650-seat restaurant. Servers and busers are always ready for the next party.

Technology enables guests at Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, Calif., to stroll the grounds instead of being slaves to a line; hand-held pagers vibrate when the table is ready.

Not everyone is a fan of pagers. At the Coffee Shop, ?too many customers walked off with them,? says Milite. Not even the servers would cooperate. ?We tried a beeper system to give an alert when orders were ready, but servers would turn them off, ignore them or take them home. So we got rid of the beepers. Some things work better the old-fashioned way.?

WEB SAVVY

Brothers Russ and Monte Ferris, owners of Venus de Milo in Swansea, Mass., split duties and expertise. Monte sticks to operations while Russ, the computer whiz, handles technology.

Updating the Web site and getting positioning in various Internet search engines paid off. His Web presence boosted annual sales of the signature lobster bisque, clam chowder and fresh lobsters by 50%, says Russ Ferris. It also increased the restaurant?s visibility and brought in new customers. Half of Web orders come from people surfing the Internet.

?The business just snowballs, and maintaining the Web costs us little,?? Russ Ferris says. Record keeping for banquet sales (which comprise 65% of revenue) is handled more efficiently. Staff is better able to serve repeat customers by tracking past functions in the database. Billing is simplified because checks can be itemized for food, taxes and beverages. He and his accountant designed the software, which cost $6,000 less than purchasing a similar program.

More restaurants are using the Web to prequalify employees. Atlanta-based Great American Restaurant Group, which operates Carlyle Grand Cafe, Mike?s American Grill and Sweetwater Tavern, posted an online application form on its Web site late last fall.

?We?re seeing good results,? says Tony Ford, director of operations. ?It gives people the opportunity to apply from their homes. We include criteria so they don?t have to take the time to come in person to apply.?

BACK-OF-HOUSE-WARE

Tracking sales, linking inventory to accounting and the efficiency of online reservations are invaluable to executives such as Robert Kurtz, chief financial officer for Tavern on the Green.

?There?s less human error now,?? says Kurtz. ?What technology does behind the scenes makes everything better for front-of-the-house.??

Glitch-free computers are as essential a tool for wait staff as knives are for chefs. Staff complaints at the Yard House plummeted after upgrading software and hardware. Servers didn?t miss the sluggish computer performance or the dreaded Sunday-lunch breakdown. The malfunctions cost Reynolds up to $5,000 per week. Now, customer tickets are printed in the kitchen and the bar, allowing servers to spend more time at the tables.

?Technology raises the staff?s confidence level,?? says Reynolds. ?It makes a difference, knowing that the 30 orders on the line at once will get filled without a hitch on Sunday.??

Technology also conveys a message of being ?with it? to customers and staff. ?The people we hire are usually between the ages of 21 and 30. They?re computer-savvy. They look to see what you?ve got,?? says Reynolds. ?They couldn?t do an old-fashioned manual [guest] check if their lives depended on it.??

Ideally, new computer systems should boost efficiency all around. Thanks to a new order-entry system at Taste of Texas, a 350-seat steakhouse in Houston, servers no longer have to manually run orders from table to butcher shop to kitchen. The system also has improved customer service at the end of the meal by increasing the number of credit card-readers from four to 11 and all but eliminating waits to tally up.

?Customers get their checks much faster now,? says Steven Edelson, senior restaurant manager.

ON-TRACK INVENTORY

Knowing the numbers daily instead of monthly puts Mike Sheridan?s mind at ease. When the vice president of Millrose Brewing Co. in South Barrington, Ill., and his four accountants made a wish list for an ideal program, to their surprise they got it all: a $70,000 investment in hardware, software and training. Now, with a new accounting system that removes guesswork, problems can be avoided or handled more efficiently, says Sheridan.

The system reduces tension among employees and alerts managers to how and where food costs need to be tightened. ?Employees can better explain where the money goes,?? he says. Up-to-the-minute sales figures ease the chore of inventory and minimize the number of employees needed to execute it.

The same is true for Great American?s Carlyle Grand Cafe, Mike?s American Grill and Sweetwater Tavern. A computerized inventory, ordering and food production system, linked with a time and attendance system, are monitored daily at the central support center.

?No longer is there a mysterious budget number that someone arbitrarily believes is the food cost,? says Tony Ford, director of operations for the group. ?This system lets you see your [cost] variances every day. It gives managers a clarity they never had before. Now we?re making budgets based on real-time information, rather than historical data the way we used to. The guesswork is gone.?

SOUND INVESTMENT

A new sound and paging system at Gladstone?s Malibu in Pacific Palisades, Calif., has a subtle effect on customers.

?They sing more,?? says Christine Lloyd, marketing director. During the recent $3 million renovation, management ordered a sound system that could be controlled and zoned to eight areas. An audio engineer was hired to create a system that is resilient and resistant to salt water, the sea breeze, can be heard over the sounds of the waves and highway traffic, and would not interfere with radio frequencies from boats and ships.

?Customers have options of dining in a quiet setting or amid live music,?? says Lloyd. Private parties can crank up birthday sing-alongs without interrupting other people.

Walkie-talkie and signal-paging systems were scrapped after testing. Employees became too intrigued with the electronics as toys and the personal touch was lost. ?There?s nothing more impersonal than to be served by someone wearing a headset and carrying on a second conversation with ?Roger. And over,??? says Lloyd.

Reservationists at The Manor in West Orange, N.J., handle 300 to 500 reservation requests per day. With the new computerized reservation system, the volume is handled with minimal error and maximum personal attention.?There?s no trouble trying to figure out someone?s handwriting,?? says Roxanne Farina, controller and reservations manager. ?It?s neater.??

Staff can track customer habits, such as last visit, preferred table or server, beverage choice or dietary concerns. It makes the customer feel special. ?It?s a tool that lets our 17 reservationists do a better job,? Farina says.

One ?techno-trick? that?s invisible to guests but yields plenty of repeat visits, is a state-of-the-art POS system at Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn, in Frankenmuth, Mich. The system tracks guest information so that birthday dates of regulars pop up from the database at the click of a mouse. Customers get a birthday phone call and employees reap the fun of hearing the surprise in a guest?s voice and being on the receiving end of gratitude.

Perks and discounts lure regulars back. The inn?s newly created Perks Club tracks customer spending on lodging, food and beverage and retail. Numbers are stored in a personal account in the database, says Kim Hervert, Perks Club manager. The system enables staff to follow as many as 100,000 customers.?We identify and reward them, provide better service, alert them to future promotions and give guests an incentive to return,?? Hervert says.

AGE ALERT

California?s laws and penalties for serving alcohol to minors keep the staff of 80 at Sagebrush Cantina on their toes, especially on Sundays when the crowds at the Calabasas location can swell to 5,000.?You don?t guess, you check,?? says Charlie Halstead, general manager. Spot checks are made swiftly and accurately, thanks to a POS system that swipes drivers? licenses.

?Technology makes it easier to do the manual stuff,?? he says. ?Each day we are up-to-date with food costs, and how and where we?re spending. Before, it was monthly. Technology makes us wiser.?