O’Dell Restaurant Consulting Blog

Articles, conversations and Q&As for current and future restaurant owners and food service professionals.

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Is it a good idea to shrink our Italian restaurant’s menu by 15-30%?

March 6th, 2008 · 3 Comments

We currently have 60 entrees and 24 soup/salad/apps. We are known for our pizza, so we have a full pizza section which includes 6 sizes, 2 types of dough, 33 toppings, calzones, strombolis, 6 specialty pizzas, 7 sandwiches, beer, wine, and standard beverages.Which is better, 50 items or 100?
If you ask me, you need to [...]

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In a chain restaurant, will a unit that has skewed product sales towards higher food cost menu items have a higher food cost?

February 23rd, 2008 · 2 Comments

Yes, more sales of higher food cost items will yield a higher overall food cost. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing though. A low food cost isn’t what makes you profitable. A high gross profit is, meaning that making $4 gross profit on a $7 sales is better than making $3 gross profit [...]

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