Opening Checklist

Before you’re officially open for the day, you want to make sure your staff can get in
and get the restaurant set up. Start with these key tasks:  

o Turn on lights and music.

o Turn on your Point of Sale system.
o Sign in or punch in.
o Refill receipt paper.
o Take count of any money in the register.
o Sweep or vacuum floors.
o Remove chairs from tabletops and position them neatly around the table.
o Ensure that all chairs and tables are sturdy.
o Place table settings.
o Stock every station with clean glassware and silverware.
o Fill water pitchers.
o Reference reservations list and be aware of any special requests or other
notes regarding the upcoming service.
o Check with the kitchen about daily specials or other changes to the menu.
o Make sure bathrooms have been cleaned and restocked with essentials, like
soap and toilet paper
o Flip the sign on your door from “Closed” to “Open.”

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Closing Checklist
When it’s time to close up shop for the night, you want to do as much prep as you
can so that the restaurant will be ready for the next day’s opening. Here are some of
the most important items for your restaurant closing checklist:

o Flip sign on door from “Open” to “Closed.”

o If your front door is glass, wipe it down to remove fingerprints.
o Wipe down and sanitize menus.
o Wipe down and sanitize tables, counters, booths, high chairs, booster seats,
and any other open surfaces.
o Refill condiments, salt, pepper, and sugar.
o Restock paper napkins.
o Place chairs on table.
o Empty all water pitchers.
o Clean and sanitize soda dispensers.
o Dry off all freshly-cleaned glassware and silverware.
o Put glassware and silverware away.
o Fold table linens and napkins.
 o Take out trash, spray bins with cleaner, and replace with new bags.
o Wipe down and sanitize bathroom counters and sinks.
o Turn off coffeemaker; clean and sanitize.
o Tidy up the coffee station and re-stock, if needed.
o Print out end-of-day report.
o Close out the register.
o Sweep, vacuum, and/or mop floors.
o Count inventory in refrigerators.
o Ensure that no food is left out.
o Clean and sanitize refrigerators and dessert cases.
o Ensure all refrigerators and dessert cases are set to 40°F.
o Wipe down kitchen sinks and restock soap and paper towels, if needed.
o Make note of anything that the next day’s staff should know for their service.
o Punch out.

Laminating these checklists and making them visible in your restaurant’s

workstations ensures that staff will always be reminded of the tasks at hand. It
might also be helpful to keep dry erase markers nearby so that servers can cross off
each item as it is completed. Depending on the staff size, duties can be divided
between everyone, or they can rotate.

When your staff is more efficient, your restaurant operations are sure to run
smoother. Keeping things organized and tidy allows for a more positive experience
for customers and gives your staff the opportunity to clock out earlier at the end of
the night, ultimately reducing your labor costs and increasing your profits. Now, who
wouldn’t want that?

1. Make the Most Out of Takeout and Delivery

No-contact takeout and delivery have become the new norm. One trend Burns noted
is a pivot to family meals, which provide benefits to both the restaurant and their
guests. By providing a meal with multiple portions in lieu of individual entrees – a
whole pan of lasagna with a large salad, for example – you save on packaging, avoid
delivery and/or third-party fees, and generate revenue for multiple meals rather than
one or two. Meanwhile, a family or couple gets a few days’ worth of meals with
limited outside contact.

2. Reach Out to Vendors

Many restaurants are doing fire sales on wine, liquor, and beer, but Burns says it’s
worth reaching out to your vendors to ask if they’ll take back any non-perishable
products. Chances are they will be able to resell it to another merchant and you’ll
get an extra bit of cash to work with. “I had a client today whose beer purveyor
actually came to their restaurant and said, ‘Hey, do you have any untapped kegs or
any unopened cases of beer? We’d be more than happy to take them back for you.’” 
3. Keep Promoting Gift Cards
The revenue from gift cards is going to help keep you afloat with cash now without
having to provide something in return until things start to get better. To sell more gift
cards, look to a past promotion you’ve run (maybe Black Friday?) and offer the same
or a similar deal via email or social. As Burns points out, gift card redemption is
about 80% on average anyway, so the rest of those sales are pure profit. 

4. Maintain Communication With Your Guests

Even if your restaurant is currently in the worst-case scenario and is shut down due
to the coronavirus, keeping your restaurant top-of-mind for guests is crucial to
winning back their business when it’s time to reopen. “If you’re not communicating
with me and telling me what’s going on, I think you shut down for good,” Burns says.
He recommends keeping content light and entertaining to get guests excited about
coming back. Share videos on your social media teaching knife skills, basic recipes,
or

Update your menu and evaluate your P&L statement

Burns recommends taking the opportunity now, while business is slow and you have
less inventory coming in, to learn how to better manage food costs, revamp your
menu, and widen your margins. You can use your own POS data to research your
historic menu trends, best selling items, and dishes that are more cost and effort
than they’re worth. “Trim your menu down and take off those things that aren’t
selling. I know for a lot of chefs, menu items are like children. We don’t want to get
rid of one, but if the kid’s not contributing, they have to get out of the house.” 

He also wants restaurant owners to start looking deeper into their P&L statements
to better understand where their money is going to make better decisions now and in
the future. “The good thing about a crisis, we get rid of those things that are the fluff
and we strip down to the basics, so we’re running a little leaner and meaner. This
crisis is going to change the way we operate, and smart businesses are going to
operate smarter. They’re going to look at their key performance indicators on a daily
basis, and they’re going to look at their P&Ls a little more often,” he says.

Ramp up your digital marketing game

Burns recommends taking photos and writing posts to stay in communication with
guests now, but also to have some content banked for the future when you are ready
to reopen. Start playing with free design programs like Canva, Adobe Spark,
or Vimeo Create to create event announcements or videos, update or redesign your
website with a user-friendly tool like Squarespace, or take some online classes or
workshops on the basics of digital marketing.
Update your hiring and training methods
A lot of people are unemployed right now, and when restaurants are able to reopen
there are going to be a lot of people looking for work. “Before, we had a market
where everyone complained it’s hard to find people, couldn’t find talent. Nobody
wanted to work. That’s going to shift very quickly,” Burns says. Hire the right people
now and set them up for success, and you’ll lower your turnover rates, saving you
money in the long run.

Now is also the time to update your onboarding process and training procedures so
you are prepared to hire the strongest and most qualified staff when the time comes.
Burns recommends updating your training manuals and current materials but also
suggests getting creative with video content. “Now’s the time to grab your iPhone
and do some training videos,” he says. Make a video with step-by-step instructions
on certain tasks – how to make a caesar salad or how to fold the napkins, for
example. “You start making a little library of training videos for your team that you
could upload to a private YouTube channel and then, when you start up again and
you’re rehiring and retraining, now you’ve got a library that you can send them.
People love that kind of stuff.”

showing a new recipe you are developing. Promote this content to your email
subscribers as well to get more eyes on your message.

Social media is also a great communication tool for restaurants who have pivoted to
takeout and/or delivery only models. Things are changing fast, so remind and update
your customers daily on your menu, ordering options, social distancing procedures,
and more.

5. Take Baby Steps When it’s Time to Reopen

After this is over, things won’t immediately go back to the way they were. Guests
will still be wary of getting too close to strangers and as a business owner, it’s
important to make sure everyone feels comfortable coming into your restaurant. This
includes maintaining a strict cleaning regime, but also keeping some social
distancing protocol in place. 

“If you’ve taken tables out for social distancing, maintain that for a little while. Be
conscientious that people are going to be hesitant and a little afraid, so roll things
back out into the world a little slowly,” Burns says. If your restaurant also runs
events, like live music, trivia, or other features that bring in crowds, keep those
small for a while and limit the number of people, giving everyone a comfortable
amount of space.

For fast casual and quick service restaurants especially, Burns also recommends
investing in mobile or order-ahead options with limited or no-contact pick up for
guests who will still be wary of close contact.