Consulting - Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting

Can You Afford Consulting?

Consulting, Hospitality Consulting, Leadership / By Ray Camillo

By January 2020 the restaurant business was getting crowded and hyper-competitive. Since about 2009, on the heels of the worst recession in most people’s memory, restaurants around the country struggled and failed. Panera Bread, Chili’s, Cheesecake Factory, Seasons 52, and Red Lobster were suspiciously still standing while higher quality mom-n-pop concepts were crushed to dust by the downturn. The sub-prime mortgage business disgusted the public.

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How to Reopen Your Restaurant – Safely and Profitably

Consulting, General, Random Stuff / By Ray Camillo

As states begin to allow businesses to reopen, most in 3 phases of lessening restrictions, all restaurant owners are scrambling to decide what to do. Questions like “can I afford to reopen my dining room with only 10% capacity”, “when will we go to phase 2 and phase 3”, “is there a possibility that I

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What You Should Not Be Delivering: 5 Common Delivery Mistakes to Avoid

Consulting, General, Service / By Ray Camillo

Whether you have been doing delivery since you opened, or you have recently launched a delivery program due to a global pandemic, there are five incredibly common mistakes we see restaurateurs making. Selling food that does not travel well. When your chef puts up a plate in the kitchen, you know that food will be

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Staying Sane While You Wait

Consulting, Leadership, Random Stuff / By Ray Camillo

In my last blog, I outlined a step by step process for preparing to reopen your restaurants. Getting a handle on your finances, applying for aid and re-engineering your business to be bulletproof are all important tasks that need to get done, but it looks like that still is going to leave us with a

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What Do We Do Now? Creating a PLAN to Reopen

Consulting, General, Leadership / By Ray Camillo

In the last few weeks, I have had some very difficult conversations with a lot of restaurant owners that I consider not only clients but friends. I’ve listened to them as they have made hard decisions to close one or all of their locations, worried about their employees while understanding that they could not financially

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7 Restaurateur “Must Do’s” for September

Consulting, General, Hospitality Consulting / By Ray Camillo

You may feel all alone in an empty dining room but take comfort in the fact that almost every restaurant suffers the September Slump. For the most part no matter how much you promote your business or how big a discount you offer, it really doesn’t drive people through the doors. Last minute vacations, back

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Restaurant Surcharges – Health Insurance vs. Tips

Consulting, General, Service / By Ray Camillo

A few weeks ago, my wife and I ate San Francisco. A recurring line item on our checks was “EE Benefits Surcharge” or “SF Mandates” charge. My first reaction was, “hey… why do I have to pay for employee benefits…isn’t that the restaurant’s problem?” It got me thinking about the whole idea of cherry-picking line

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6 Out of the Box Qualities that Make Great Restaurant Employees

Consulting, Leadership, Service / By Ray Camillo

If you go to the internet looking for what makes a good employee, every site will tell you basically the same thing. You should hire people who are committed, confident, reliable, positive, hardworking, team oriented and proactive. And it makes sense, who wouldn’t want those people in their business? However, I think we all agree that restaurants are a

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8 Reasons Why Small “Cockpit” Kitchens Make You Money

Consulting, Hospitality Consulting, Kitchen Ops / By Ray Camillo

Anyone who has opened a restaurant or is looking at doing so is faced with the high cost of occupancy. Whether you lease a space or purchase it outright, one way or another, 5% to 10% of your top line sales will go toward paying for rent, taxes, and/or maintenance. It’s inevitable. Skimp on size

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Restaurant Marketing – Tout Your Value Not Your Brand

Consulting, General, Leadership / By Ray Camillo

For restaurants, online brand presence is everything…and so is the food and the service and the cleanliness and the decor and the vibe and let’s not forget about the location. People are eating meals away from home more today than ever before. However as more restaurants open each year, competition for those dollars is fierce.

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