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What Restaurants Can Learn from Olive Garden to Improve Alcoholic Beverage Sales

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The last few days has seen quite a bit of news about Olive Garden and their parent company, Darden.  Starboard Value, a hedge fund that is one of the largest shareholders of the public company, has recently put forward a slate of 12 new board prospects to replace the entire board of Darden.  Now, Starboard has released a 300 slide deck blasting the inefficiencies they see with Olive Garden and other concepts like Longhorn Steakhouse, while outlining turnaround steps they would take to get the brands on the right track.  According to Starboard, Olive Garden is missing out on $56 million in annual earnings by not taking basic steps with their beverage program.

If you are in the hospitality industry, I highly recommend taking a look at Starboard’s analysis and proposal for yourself.  But after spending hours reading through their materials, I’m going to highlight several things called out in the report that all restaurants should be focused on to improve the guest experience and bottom line.  While there are a lot of problems identified and solutions proposed in the report, I’m going to focus on alcoholic beverages based on our experience at Uncorkd and provide information on how to improve your beverage sales. Read more

Using Technology to Improve Wait Staff Training

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Training your wait staff on your beverage menu can be difficult.  With frequent turnover among servers, new wines, beers, spirits and cocktails to learn and so much else to do, we hear frequently that staff training if one of biggest challenges for restaurant owners and managers.  Most of your staff already has smartphones and tablets, or at the very least, access to the internet.  So why not have your servers brush up on their knowledge away from the restaurant using their own devices?

Uncorkd digital menus make it easier to train wait staff on wine and other beverages.  Servers can use their own iPads or borrow them from the restaurant to study up on all your drinks, reading tasting notes, understanding producer information and learning food and wine pairings.    Many of our customers allow staff to take an iPad home for the night to study up on the menu, which can be very helpful when new beverages are added.

Beyond the iPads, Uncorkd provides a web-based version of the menu, complete with pictures and tasting notes.  Staff can access the beverage menu online from their computers or smartphones, to read up on things as well.  With access to the internet everywhere, there’s no excuse for servers to not be up to date on your latest menu changes.

If you’re focused on ensuring your staff is knowledgeable and well-trained, and all successful restaurants are,  then Uncorkd can better educate your staff (and your customers) on your beverage selections.  Cheers!

Wine pairing with chocolates

Will Your Servers Make These Wine Pairing Mistakes Tonight?

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It’s a Friday night and your restaurant is packed. You made sure your servers clearly understood each of the specials, and that they are upselling things like specials. You’ve trained them to walk diners through each detail and ingredient of your menu, and you even know that they can discuss how each dish is prepared. You’ve done a good job hiring servers who are kind and attentive to your customers’ every need, but, we’re sorry to tell you, unless you’ve trained your servers about good wine pairing, they are destroying your return business and not maximizing your profit. Here are three common wine pairing mistakes that your servers are making right now.

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