LOUISVILLE Ky. As at most eateries, business at Asiatique Restaurant is down a bit. Yet the bottom line hasn't weighed as heavily on the mind of co-owner Pabs Sembillo nearly as much as the fear that some of his employees might leave.
For months his staff of well-trained cooks has logged fewer hours and netted smaller paychecks, leaving some working outside jobs part time to make up the shortfall.
So to increase sales and staff hours, Sembillo and co-owner chef Peng Looi created a weekend brunch in early October. In its 12-year history, Asiatique has served only dinner, which, even in slow times, was covering overhead. That made breakeven for brunch an easy proposition, plus it provided a new opportunity for employees to work longer hours.
"How long can you expect somebody to stay if he's got to work another job to pay his bills?" Sembillo asked.
In just a month, the new brunch has generated good sales and solid margins, and the front-of-the-house staff is happier, too.
"None of them wanted to do this originally because they didn't think they'd make money," Sembillo began. "But now that they're seeing how easy brunch is, they're saying, 'I'll volunteer next week if you need me.'"
Much of labor management in slow sales periods is a mindset, according to restaurant owner-turned consultant Bill Marvin.
"I tell people their payroll isn't too high, their sales are too low," he said. "You can contract your staff size to the point that you disappear, but that'll get ugly soon, especially on those days when you're unexpectedly busy."
To make revenue rise, John Gutekanst, owner of Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio, turns artisan bread maker every Friday night. Working without sleep, he bakes 350 loaves to sell at the local farmers market the next morning. Hawking his ciabatta, fougasse, baton, brioche and sfincione nets about $2,000 in sales. Over the course of a year, "that adds about a hundred thousand dollars in business, almost an extra week of sales per month," he said.
That Gutekanst turns out such photo-worthy loaves using only a conveyor impingement oven adds to the challenge. He'd love to use a traditional deck oven, but he hasn't the space in his 1,100-square-foot shop. To relieve the burden where he can, he pays a staffer to join him on the graveyard shift.
"She gets some extra hours, I get good help and the store makes money," he said. "How can you go wrong with that? … You've got to do anything that helps right now."
Faced with a new restaurant and lackluster lunch service, a client of consultant Marvin sent his waitstaff out to greet nearby business owners and employees and invite them personally to dine. That effort didn't net any tips immediately, but over time, a traffic crush followed.
"This was a few years ago, so a million-dollar increase in lunch sales might not sound like a lot," Mavin said. "But that's how much that operator attributed to sending his staff out."
Dave Reasner, an 11-unit Dairy Queen franchisee, agrees that sales — even low-margin ones — remedy any labor woes.
"I've got to admit, we're not doing anything deliberately to keep the staff pumped up, but we're doing everything we can to add sales," he said. "When you generate those, everything else runs well and everyone's happy."
As temperatures fall, Reasner's frozen dessert sales slip, so he's created customer appreciation days "with a couple of ridiculous price offers" to ratchet up transactions in his units. By staggering those events across his system, he saw their impact clearly.
"Sales rose 30 percent over what they'd normally be on those days,” he said. He added, “Yes, when you run those prices you have higher costs, but that kind of volume gets everyone [on staff] excited and keeps customers thinking about us."
Peter Pierce, general manager at Slightly North of Broad, an upscale southern bistro in Charleston, S.C., was almost shy about admitting that his sales have not slowed.
"We're packed every day,” he said. “But when you look around, a lot of our competitors aren't."
Asked what's keeping the wheels turning so fast, Pierce said without hesitation, "It's what you get for the money: We're a value."
Abusy restaurant attracts top-notch staff, who, when treated right, will stick around awhile, he said.
"We're not hiring college kids looking for tips, we want professional staff interested in service," Pierce said. "The way to get that is to give them a place that's busy, to offer health insurance and benefit days. In return we get loyalty and longevity, and we get knowledgeable and well-trained staff."