Flaherty’s Irish Pub opens St. Patrick’s Day to Rave Reviews
St. Patrick’s Day is a big day, so being an Irish pub, this is perfect,” Brown said. “People started gathering at 11:30. It’s just a great location. Maryville is a great city. People like to go out to eat, and this gives more of a variety compared to other restaurants.
“Our pub is a lot more authentic,” Brown said, when asked to compare his pub with other traditional Irish pubs. “Everything you see in here is from Ireland. Our menu is entirely authentic. The Guinness we serve is just like the stuff they serve in Dublin, of high quality and highly authentic.”
The pub features traditional Irish specialties, such as fish and chips, bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), corned beef and cabbage, boxty (thin potato pancakes with your choice of filling) and Guinness steak and mushroom pie, but also offers standard American fare like steak, chicken, seafood and burgers.
Brown contracted with Irish Pub business consultant Donal Ballance of Ballance Hospitality Solutions.
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Irish Business Solutions – DC Irish Pubs Workshop
We are happy to announce a special event in Washington DC for Irish Pub Owners, Operators and Leading Industry Professionals. Building on the success of last years event, Irish Business Solutions are hosting their second annual Irish Pub & Restaurant Workshop.
Date: February 4th, 2013
Venue: Phoenix Park Hotel, Washington D.C.
Time: 09:00-18:00
Who: Pub Owners/Operators and Leading Industry Professionals
Kick start your 2013 with this hard hitting seminar that focuses on:
• Profitability
• Reducing Overheads
• Grass Roots Marketing
• Delivering an unforgettable St. Patrick’s Day for your Patron’s
Reserve your space Here
Keep an eye out for futher updates over the next 14 days
We are delighted to announce we have signed agreements with the following Sponsors, Speakers and Vendors:
Sponsors:
Ol Irish Design & Build
PEL Under Counter Bottle Crusher
More to Follow.
Speakers:
Donal Ballance Ballance Hospitality
Jack C. Jones Benvinco D.C.
Andrea Howard Social Media Maxima
More to follow
Vendors:
International Spirits and Wines
Ballymaloe Foods
Media 703
Benvico
Irish Pubs Global
Ol Irish Design and Build
PEL Under Counter Bottle Crusher
More to Follow
Ruidoso Pub Biggest Seller of Guinness in New Mexico
Grace O’Malley’s runs through 20,520 pints in 2012 so far
In business for just over a year now, Grace O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Ruidoso is New Mexico’s top purveyor of Guinness beers. Sales figures from Admiral Beverage, the exclusive Guinness distributor in New Mexico, prove the heady statistic.
“Of the 215 people selling Guinness they’re number one,” said Kevin Lente, the craft brand manager for Admiral, said that is despite there being a number of long-established Irish pubs around the state.
“There’s some great ones in the state. In Albuquerque you’ve got five of them that are good. Two Fools Tavern is a great one in downtown Albuquerque but still size and just sheer mass and just great location and just a great atmosphere, nobody can beat Grace O’Malley’s. It’s unbelievable. I’ve probably been to 200 Irish pubs in my life and I’d put it in my top three.”
Read More5 Simple Do’s and Don’ts to Manage Food Cost Effectively
DO:
- Do be meticulous about checking deliveries – if you know that what you’ve paid for actually reached your kitchen, it makes your employees uniquely accountable for any losses or shrinkage.
- Do calculate the center-plate cost of each item on your menu and express it as a percentage of its selling price. Then apply a typical week’s sales mix to find out your approximate theoretical food cost – this allows you to see whether you have an issue with pricing, discounting, menu mix or ingredient cost and to make changes accordingly. Understanding where the issues are make for constructive discussion and planning.
- Do carry out monthly or periodic inventory to coincide with the bookkeeping cycle. Compare the numbers that are produced by your bookkeeper and your kitchen management with the theoretical food cost and investigate the ‘gap’. While it’s relatively easy to manage the absolute food cost number, it’s much more difficult to control the ‘gap’, but it’s the size of the ‘gap’ that determines whether management is being effective.
- Do keep a simple record of food wastage – over-production, mistakes etc. – as part of identifying the ‘gap’, have the kitchen team work to reducing the value of this each week.
- Do create a culture of using up any and every bit of food in the kitchen – freezer inventory, over-production, close to use-by etc. If you offer bar appetizers or an appetizer happy hour, keep the menu flexible and inexpensive. It is better to get some revenue for this food than to throw it out or let it burn in a freezer until its thrown out.
DON’T:
- Don’t demand an instant food cost reduction from your kitchen management. You run the risk that they will immediately look to portion size, ingredient cost or price increase to resolve the problem – all three of which will directly and negatively affect your guest.
- Don’t expect instant results from trying to improve food cost. It’s a planned journey with a route map and milestones that tell you how well you are doing.
- Don’t implement lots of paperwork for your kitchen management or you will end up in a bureaucratic mess. Understand what the issues are (see the do’s!) and take practical, operational actions to resolve them.
- Don’t use as your guide any food cost number other than the one generated by your bookkeeper/accounting package each month or period. Have your periodic management-generated kitchen inventory used only to provide opening and closing inventory valuations and have those counts independently validated.
- Don’t allow discussions with your kitchen management to focus on any one issue as a way of resolving food cost challenges. Truly, managing food cost is about understanding five components – plate cost, menu pricing, menu mix, waste management and portion consistency – an about managing each of them efficiently.
Ensuring a Quality Pub Experience
Do you ever get so busy with the day-to-day operation of your pub that it’s sometimes difficult to really judge how you’re performing? To assess the quality of what we do, we use a number of viral sources… feedback from our employees, comments from our guests, your own gut feeling…but, at the end of the day, we probably end up benchmarking our performance by the sales figures. If the sales are good, we’re probably doing a decent job, right? Well, possibly… but not necessarily.
Let’s say you have a developing performance issue in your pub right now…. it could be inconsistent food quality, it could be service speed, it could be an arrogant bartender…in most cases, you almost certainly won’t catch the issue straight away.
Seven Restaurant Trends Appearing This Year
CHICAGO — Restaurants across the U.S. face a varied landscape of expected trends during 2012. A leading restaurant research and consulting firm is seeing seven developments making news in the coming year.Technomic Inc describes a scenario in which restaurant chains serve up more transparency and restaurateurs cook up more social networking efforts to push sales.
1. Consumers Seek a Twist on the Familiar: Shell-shocked consumers are in no mood to take risks, but novel flavors still tingle their taste buds. Look for comfort foods with a twist (gourmet, ethnic, artisan, wood-fired) as well as innovation in familiar formats (sandwiches, wraps, pizza, pasta) rather than breakout items taken from less-familiar global cuisines.
2. Commodities Costs Drive Rustic Fare Made In-House: Commodity costs are rising, labor costs hold steady and diners demand rustic fare, the simple preparations of fresh ingredients. Result: operators will curtail purchases of value-added items in favor of cheaper cuts, beans, grains and produce that require more back-of-house prep to transform into honest, homestyle food.
Read MoreSt. Patrick’s Day: Facts, Myths, and Traditions
On St. Patrick’s Day—Thursday, March 17—millions of people will don green and celebrate the Irish with parades, good cheer, and perhaps a pint of beer.
But few St. Patrick’s Day revelers have a clue about St. Patrick, the historical figure, according to the author of St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography.
“The modern celebration of St. Patrick’s Day really has almost nothing to do with the real man,” said classics professor Philip Freeman of Luther College in Iowa.
Who Was the Man Behind St. Patrick’s Day?
For starters, the real St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. He was born in Britainaround A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves.
What’s more, Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy, Freeman noted.
Read MoreNiagara Falls to turn green on March 17th – The Irish Times – Tue, Feb 21, 2012
NIAGARA FALLS will turn green for the first time this year to mark St Patrick’s Day, Tourism Ireland has announced.
This will be the third year of the tourism agencys “greening” initiative which sees famous landmarks lit up in green in honour of Ireland’s patron saint.
Some 32 cities are involved in this year’s campaign. The London Eye; the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai; Table Mountain in South Africa; the Empire State Building in New York; the Sky Tower in Auckland; and the TV tower in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz are among the attractions which will go green.
Read MoreClink Restaurant Wales: Eatery In Cardiff Prison Trains Convicts In The Ways Of Fine Dining
In many ways, Clink restaurant, which Wales Today reports will soon open in Cardiff, Wales, will be like any other fine dining establishment. It will have white tablecloths, fine silverware and serve intricately-plated dishes made — whenever possible — from locally-sourced ingredients.
But in other ways, Clink will be unlike almost any other restaurant in the world. The main difference? The 100-seat restaurant will be located in a prison, and it will be staffed mostly by convicts.
Read MoreCanadian restaurateurs holding steady despite food and labour cost pressures
TORONTO – Rising food and labour costs are the top two challenges facing Canada’s restaurant industry, according to the latest findings from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association’s (CRFA’s) Restaurant Outlook Survey. The survey also finds a growing number of restaurant operators expect sales to slow over the next six months. Despite these pressures, restaurant operators are holding the line on menu prices and staffing levels.
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