Pizza Today - February 2021 - 36

extenuating circumstances. Role play
orders with the front-of-house employees. Every day define your culture and
end each day on a high note. This morale
boost can happen with everyone trying
the food and you outwardly having a
great time with these new employees.
You need to get them from zero to hero
in five days or less. That's a big ask that
takes a lot of investment from you and
your training team.
Friday: Train during the day and then
that night throw an invite-only soft open
for friends, family and potentially VIPs.
This soft open shouldn't be available to
many people. The guests in attendance
should be served food to try. The staff will
go through and prepare the whole menu.
Guests are not ordering their choice from
the menu; rather the servers are putting
in mock orders to get a feel for the flow
of the whole menu on the POS. Servers
take the food to the table and develop
interacting with a warm audience. If you
choose to, this is a good time to make a
toast to all those who attend. Learn your
lessons from what did and did not flow
correctly in the kitchen, and then adjust.

Saturday: Have a soft open all day

with guests invited at pre-set times. This
way, you don't bog down your kitchen,
and you get solid training all day. The
guests can pick an order out of a fishbowl
to keep the menu items ordered sporadic
and not just the most popular items. If
you want to, you can layer up dinner and
try to throw your team into a full rush;
odds are they won't need a forced rush
to feel the pressure of running a kitchen.
Servers should put all orders through
the POS and notate any issues that arise
throughout the day. Look for things like
the printer not in an ideal location or
potential modifiers not aligned correctly
in the system.
Sunday: Your staff will take Sunday
off. You won't. Take the day to delve into
what isn't right, and dedicate this day
to fixing it with no outside interactions.
Assess what was incorrect and invest the
time now to make it right before you go
live.
Monday Opening Day: It's off to
the races. You're open, and don't underestimate how crazy a Monday opening can

be. Even though it's just a Monday, you
should have all your best people ready to
work the whole week, because it's going
to get crazy Monday. Build from there
to an intensely crazy Friday. If you have
done the marketing and build up correctly, you will be inundated. Theoretically,
no person or publication should review
you for the first three months, but that's
not going to happen. Day 1 will be a
judgment day, and you need to be ready
for it.
This approach to expansion and
execution on the opening week is how
I facilitate each opening effectively. This
process is what I choose to do. Modify it
however you please, but this way is effective and avoids excessive wastes of money.
Overspend happens quickly in the lead up
to a new opening. You will have stumbles,
but if you stay enthusiastic, positive and
aware, you can make this expansion a success. You can make this a restaurant you're
proud of day one. n
MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini's
Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
https://www.speedlinesolutions.com/enterprise https://www.speedlinesolutions.com/enterprise
Pizza Today - February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - February 2021
