Restaurant Reservation Book

Choosing a Pen and Paper Reservation Book Over Computer Software For Your Business

2012-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

It sometimes seems that everyone does everything digitally. In many situations, using a computer to perform a task can make things faster, simpler, and more organized. However, there are times when using pen and paper is actually better.
This is especially true when it comes to reservation books. When you’re making a reservation for a client or guest, you want everything to go perfectly. You don’t want to waste your time and you certainly don’t want to waste the time of your client. Everything needs to be neat, organized, simple, and ready at a moment’s notice. While computer software can be most of these things, most of the time, it will never be as reliable as the original pen and paper reservation book.

Reservation Books Are Always Ready

When the phone rings or a client walks through the door of your business, you want to be able to pencil in their reservation immediately. A pen and paper reservation book is always easier to grab when the phone rings. It’s much faster than logging into a program on your computer and much more reliable. You never have to wait for a screen to load so you can spend less time waiting and more time taking care of your clients.

Reservation Books Are More Personal

Though many reservations are made over the phone, chances are you make many of your businesses reservations with the client in person. Whether the client drops in to make a reservation for later in the day or week, or is scheduling their next visit at the end of a previous one, there will be times when your client is with you when you make the reservation. Nothing breaks the interaction between two people like turning away from someone to use a computer. If you’re keeping reservations in a pen and paper reservation book, you never have to worry about a computer coming between you and your clients.

Reservation Books Are More Permanent

If you’ve ever lost an important file due to a computer crash, you know how devastating it can be. While computer software can be backed up, there is still the possibility of losing your reservation information due to software problems or power issues. Pen and paper reservation books are permanent. There are no files to lose, so you never have to worry about being left in the dark when it comes to your business reservations.

Reservation Books Are Less Expensive

When you’re using software, there is always the possibility that you’ll have to pay for an update. Some software even requires you to pay a monthly fee. Pen and paper reservation books are less expensive than software and they have no recurring costs.

Reservation Books Require Less Training

When you rely on your employees to record and keep track of reservations, you need to know you can count on them to find the information they need. However, you don’t want to spend a lot of time training your employees to use expensive software. With pen and paper reservation books, don’t have to worry about costly and time consuming training. Paper books require less training of staff to use and result in fewer errors like overbooking and lost reservation information.

Reservation Books Are Better

In the end, pen and paper reservation books are just better. They’re always ready, more personal, more permanent, less expensive, and require less training to use. Don’t waste time and money on expensive software when you can buy a beautiful pen and paper reservation book for a fraction of the cost.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

From our table to yours, we wish you a Very Merry Christmas!

-ReservationBooks.com

Why Does Your Restaurant Need a Reservation Book?

2011-12-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

Table reservation and management are among the important systems that any restaurant manager will have to establish in order to keep the business running smoothly. The last thing that any manager would want to happen is the absence of an available table when a reservation holder already arrives at the restaurant. For this purpose, a restaurant reservation book is needed by the podium at the entrance.

A restaurant reservation book basically tracks all reservations made with the restaurant on any given day. It contains information such as the time for which a customer made a reservation, the number of seats, contact information, and other pertinent requests. This book likewise lists down all customers who come in without reservations and ensures that the restaurant management has an idea of how many tables are supposed to be occupied at any given time.

Other models of restaurant reservation books do not stop there. There are also those books on which information about the weather, product deliveries, and personnel availability during given any given shift are placed. By recording these bits of information in a restaurant reservation book, a manager can make important decisions that could heavily affect the dynamics of the restaurant. For example, a manager can use the information on the restaurant reservation book to find out if there is a need to add personnel for a particular shift, or if there is a need to reduce reservation allotments at a given hour in favor of walk-in clients.

More sophisticated models can also provide equally important information, such as the dishes that are most popular among customers during a particular day.

These books are normally sold on an annual basis similar to time planners used by people for their own meetings and appointments. After a year has ended, a reservation book can be stored in the archives for long-term planning among the restaurant management.

2011-12-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

TOP RESTAURANT STORIES FROM NOVEMBER

My friends at Restaurant SmartBrief wanted me to share with you this months top restaurant stories. Each and every day their team scans the best, most useful restaurant and foodservice news from a wide range of sources. If you are not already receiving their daily newsletter your missing out! Signup now so you do not miss a single restaurant story!

November's top stories.

Forbes names Smashburger "America's Most Promising Company" Full Article Here

Does the world really need another burger joint? The big

three-McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's-clog strip malls and highways, with 28,000 locations in the U.S.; smaller players like Jack in the Box, Hardee's and Five Guys Burgers & Fries add another 12,000....

Restaurant trade group declines to endorse Cain Full Article Here

Members of the National Restaurant Association's board of directors are keeping mum on reported sexual-harassment accusations made by former employees against

presidential hopeful Herman Cain. Individual members are expressing support, but the association as a whole voted not to endorse his presidential bid, according to this report....

Groupon's payment schedule irks eatery owners Full Article Here

Some restaurant owners say they're souring on Groupon because the daily deal site holds onto their money for too long. Unlike many of its rivals, Groupon collects the money immediately but pays merchants in installments spread over 60 days. "The payment timing is so erratic you can't count on any of that money helping to pay your bills," said Meridian Restaurant owner Mark Grohman, whose third Groupon deal was his last....

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How to leverage social media to increase business.

2011-07-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

There’s no getting around it anymore – marketing through social media is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Especially if you’re a restaurant owner with a limited advertising budget.

The good news is that more people than ever are plugged into some form of social networking, with trends projected to rise steadily in the years to come. That’s a teeming, connected marketplace just waiting for a reason to walk through your doors. So give them one.

FourSquare is one of the newer social media applications businesses are using to increase traffic.

The concept is stunningly simple. Essentially, FourSquare lets your friends know where you are, and vice versa, by simply opening the app on a smartphone and using GPS functionality to “check in.” The app can be tied in to a user’s Facebook page so the location and who he or she is with is displayed on the user’s news feed.

At first glance this seems pointless for marketing purposes, right? Not so fast.

Restaurateurs can put FourSquare to work for them – for free! – crafting deals, specials, giveaways, and promotions designed around getting people to “check in” (i.e. spend money) at their restaurant. Use it as a way to increase reservations on a typically slow weekday (“On Mondays, get 15 percent off your bill when you check in on FourSquare”), or as an incentive for first-time customers (“Complementary dessert the first time you check in on FourSquare”) and a reward for veterans (“Get a free appetizer with every five check-ins”).

It can even be tweaked for one-time promotions designed to create buzz and return business – “If 200 people check in this Saturday night, we’ll give every customer 20 percent off their bill next Sunday from 4 pm to close!”

With 300,000 users and growing, FourSquare is a cost-effective, leading-edge way of increasing reservations and boosting revenue.

THE LESSON:

Very few people go out to eat alone. If you can get one person with Foursquare to take interest in your deals, chances are they’ll bring others along.

Thursday Restaurant Show

2011-06-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with David Scott on his Thursday Restaurant Show a few weeks back and here is the transcript.

Dave Scott: Hanging out. It’s our Thursday Restaurant Show. We are here on Skybergate.

A little bit later on in the show, we will tell you some of the programs coming up and some of the things that you can experience here on skybergate.com. We broadcast, remember, from 9 a.m. right through until 9 p.m. a little bit of everything.

Here is your chance to join us live here as well if you would like to do so. Let me give you the phone number, 702-476-3306. That is 702-476-3306. You can join us and become part of the discussion anywhere along the way.

One of the websites is www.reservationbooks.com. You will also find my next guest on Twitter, on Facebook, and you will find his blog at blogspot.com.

Good morning. Dave Lipson.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Hi, how are you Dave?

Dave Scott: I’m doing great.

Twenty years in the business, that’s a long time. You must like it.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, I love it. I love it, so…

Dave Scott: What is it? What is it about the restaurant industry that catches you?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, I think it’s the people and the friends that you make. Just the experience and knowing that your hard work pays off, you know, seeing that guests, you know, be happy with the things that you have created and accomplished in your restaurant.

Dave Scott: What type of restaurant do you have?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, I actually own a Denny’s, actually.

Dave Scott: Oh, really?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct.

Dave Scott: So, I mean, in the scope of things, where is Denny? Is that considered a mid-priced restaurant? It’s a fast food restaurant, right?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com It’s sort of both. We’re located actually in Canada up here and we actually have one of the busiest Denny’s for about ten years running, actually.

The prices are getting a little bit higher here in Canada. You know with the cost of food going up these days but I have clienteles, an older clientele these days and it’s a fantastic restaurant.

Dave Scott: We try to run the gamut. We’ve talked people from the gulf all the way up to some of the restaurants where it will cost you $350 an entrée. Where do you place the average need for people?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, I think the average…

Dave Scott: Well, obviously $350 an entrée is not what I would consider being the average meal for people out there when they plan on going out to eat but neither is the McDonald’s fast food.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com You’re right. The average meal, you know, I’m sure in Vegas, you sort of expect it going there but there are reasons why you can’t afford that. There are, of course, a gamut of restaurants that you can go to and I think that is sort of universal in the United States and Canada. You will always find something that will suit your needs.

I think what restaurants need to do these days is sort of design their menu a little bit more appropriate where they can actually get a more diverse customer into their restaurants.

They have, you know, the, say, $27 entrées like the steaks and that kind of stuff but also have something like the, you know, an $8 item that, you know, it still gets people into the restaurants.

I know a lot of restaurants here in Canada, they are doing these things and this, and it has been going o for years and years, but they are doing like 10-cent wings or whatever it may be, free wings with a purchase of a drink. I think that the more that you do and the more that you offer, you will get more customers in the door.

Dave Scott: It has to be hard to plan a menu though. I don’t think we appreciate what you, as owners, go through in trying to plan a menu. You’re probably lucky because you have the franchise so that…

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Exactly.

Dave Scott: They pretty much plan it for you.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yup.

Dave Scott: It has to be difficult to come up with a menu in that is going to service all of the customers within your range.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh I think in this day and age, with place like LinkedIn, I think there are a lot of experts that you can find out there that will really help you, and help you on. Some of these experts are doing things for free because they just want the word of mouth to go around. So utilize the social media these days and get on LinkedIn and get those menu experts and find people like myself who has some tools that are offered for free that you can utilize in your restaurant.

So start a conversation and ask a lot of questions.

Dave Scott: You put a lot of things together that you just couldn’t find in the industry, right?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I did, yeah. It was one of our things a few years ago. We came out with the website called Free Restaurant Forms. What we wanted to do when we started another restaurant, there wasn’t a lot of tools like, you know, application forms that were readily available. So, I guess probably about four years ago, I decided to actually put everything together that I had, like, build all the advertising, training manuals, application forms, washroom checklists, and the majority of posters for restaurants, kitchen inventory forms, and I put all those together on a website for all the new and up and coming, and it doesn’t even have to be up and coming as long as the people who actually need these are on the restaurant work practically.

Dave Scott: Help me understand the difficulty you go through as a restaurant owner in ordering products. How the heck do you know how many sausages you’re going to serve in the next week or how many burgers you’re going to serve and not have too many but yet have enough?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, just making sure that you are doing your inventory and talking to your staff, and keeping a working eye with communication with your staff and, you know. It’s usually always your staff doing the overseeing a manager who knows the numbers.

The key in being organized and knowing what your sales forecasts are, one of the other tool that we sell on reservation books is called the Manager’s Logbook, and this is, it is a basically a day timer for a restaurant team where they can track sales, track what happens, track pricing, what was sold out, you know, what is coming in the weeks ahead, what are the reservations. So, that’s a key thing that is immediate in all restaurants.

Dave Scott: I assume you have visited the United States once in a while?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I have, actually a couple of times. I actually just got back from Vegas last month.

Dave Scott: How much difference between Canada and the US when it comes to the restaurants?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think they are similar. I think in Canada, we have a lot more liquor laws and you can’t do things. We can’t do like two-for-one alcohol week. We can’t do happy hours well so there’s a lot of restrictions that, you know.

Alcohol gets people in the doors and the bars and taverns, and we have those restrictions here that are sort of limited to what we can do so we have to sort of be creative and do some more items with food like free wings. There are a lot of restaurants doing fee wings on certain hour of the day or half-priced appetizers that sort of thing, so.

Dave Scott: You can’t do a happy hour?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com We cannot, no.

Dave Scott: How do you survive without a happy hour, Dave?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, we do other things. We do the, there’s this one where we build it in where you get beer and food for a certain price, so.

Dave Scott: So there are ways around everything.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com There is but it’s very, up here, it’s called the LTVO, at least around Ontario. You really have to follow the rules which is obviously in the States as well but there is definitely a lot more rules here.

Dave Scott: Why is that? Is there a problem with alcohol consumption?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com No, I think up here it has just been a law for so long and it’s just no one’s really complaining. I think that’ the thing. We have a lot of laws here. It’s like the Canadian Restaurant Association and stuff, but we have more law being our taxes and other things that I think are more important to restaurateurs. I think that’s the things.

There are only a few that really cared about it and want to but we try to keep alcohol consumption down and it’s definitely a big thing, especially in this day and age with drinking and driving and everything else. It hasn’t been a major concern, I think, on most restaurateurs’ minds.

Dave Scott: I have to take a quick break here but I want to come back in a minute. I want to talk about the economy and how it is affecting you, people in Canada, versus what is you know is happening to us here in the United States.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Okay.

Dave Scott: So, hold on just a second.

Dave Lipson is my guest. He is the owner of Knife & Fork Productions. It’s a company that has been producing reservation books for restaurants and hotels across North America for over ten years now, also the owner of a restaurant himself.

Dave Scott: It’s a good two-days show here this morning. Thursday morning, the restaurant show, the 31st of March. We end another month and I’ll just gave you a quick break here about what we’ve got coming up because on Tuesday of next or rather Monday of next week, Tom Garcia is going to join me. Tom is the conservative talk show host for the American Hour. He broadcasts out of Florida and he will be joining us and we will talk a little bit about a conservative point of view. You know my side is much more of the liberal side so it should be an interesting hour as we get together on Monday.

Next week, we will talk with Karla Calagrino who has a number of restaurants around the country and also right here in Las Vegas. Many of her restaurants are high-end restaurants at the Tropicana Hotel, so Carla will be with us next Thursday on the Restaurant Show.

Right now, Dave Lipson is here. Hey, Dave, is the economy in Canada as bad as we’re seeing here in the United States?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com No, I think ours is a little bit better. We’ve got a lot more mortgage restrictions here and we sort of see on top of it so. Our dollar is doing a little bit better right now than the American Dollar.

We’re still struggling here.

We had the implementation of, it is called Agent E-tax a few years ago and there’s not a lot of logging. Our tax rate here is 15%, which make a lot of people stay in. They come to the restaurants, you k now, you pay 15% tax and then if you want to get on top of that, you know, the average being whatever, 12-15%. Adding 30% on to a check is a tough thing.

Dave Scott: Yeah.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com It definitely affected our economy.

Dave Scott: So, is that 15% much like our sales taxes then?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, 15% being the tip and then 15% being our tax rate, so…

Dave Scott: Oh, okay.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, yeah.

Dave Scott: Are you seeing less people coming out to eat?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Definitely. I think one of the things that a lot of restaurants are seeing before is, you know, people would go out before a show or before a movie, or something that they were doing that day but now it seems to be only, they are doing one thing, right. They won’t go to the restaurant and go bowling, or do another. It would just be sort of a one thing so it has definitely taken its toll in Canada.

Checks are down as well, you know, and that’s why I said, you know, they are in the show that I think a lot of restaurants, what they need to do is sort of look at, you know, adding, not discounting. I’m not a believer in discounting or paper bond or things like that but you know, adding in things to their menu that make it economic for people to come out.

I know some restaurants up here, there are a few, you know, they will do things like give free drink on Monday and these restaurants are packed. They are just, you know, and that’s what..

Dave Scott: Are we talking, basically mid-range restaurants?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct, yeah.

Dave Scott: Okay. You’ve been in the business a long time so no doubt you have seen change, and not only the industry but you probably have seen change in the type of person that goes out to eat too, right?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, correct, yeah. In Canada, we have got a, you know, a really large Asian group right now and schooling cost are dramatically up here in Canada a well so college students and the university students are definitely feeling the crunch. It definitely has changed over the last few years.

Dave Scott: Do you see people still going out but just less, or not going out at all?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com It’s just less, I believe so.

Dave Scott: Why have you been in the industry?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Sorry, what was your question?

Dave Scott: Why have you been in the industry?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yep.

Dave Scott: Food prices in 20 years have skyrocketed. From the standpoint of an owner, how do you handle that? How do you continue to raise your prices as is necessary to cover bases but not raise them so much that you are going to drive people away? Where is that happy medium for you as supplier of food?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think one of the hard things in raising the price is sometimes, it’s going to scare off new clientele or clientele that you have, they see that but they don’t understand it. I know having this discussion with a restaurateur yesterday, one of the things that he is looking at doing this is to not raise pricing. What he is doing, he is saving on labor. So, what he’s doing is, you know, on a night, he will have, you know, three chefs in the kitchen so what he’ll do is once the majority of the dinner rush has gone through, he will cut back the third chef just to save money without bringing the cost increase to the restaurant’s clients that are coming in.

They are cutting like four hours a day which sort of, it’s really tough to do and I hope service doesn’t suffer because of it, not having an extra person because obviously, the times would be a little bit extra but I think as a manager or as an owner, it if you really stay on top of things, it will help. Another thing that can be done as well is, you know, really outsourcing and looking at different distributors and partnering. It is definitely a really tough thing to do and it’s definitely a full time job but everybody in the restaurants know that you live the restaurant. You live and breathe it. It’s not an eight hour a day that’s for sure so I think…

Dave Scott: We’ve talked to David Hayden. I don’t know if you’re familiar with David but he’s got a great side out there. He deals with servers, basically telling them how they can make more money and how to improve the server ability to the customers. He said that things are really strange in trying to do this. We’ve had a lot of complaints on the show about restaurants, instead of raising their prices, lowering their food quality.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, which is a shame. I think there’s ways that you can get around that. I think you can, you know, join a partner, buying plans, and I think there are ways around it.

I just told restaurant owners and managers just, I think what they really need to do is just get a little bit more organized, sit down, and have that daily meeting. With the fast pace of restaurants and they way they are, it’s really hard to find that time and find, but you have to in this day and age. You really do. You really need to look at costs, it’s your bottom line.

Dave Scott: Yeah, I would assume that could be the death of a restaurant, once you cut the quality of the food.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Absolutely. Absolutely so.

Dave Scott: We know that presentation is a big part of food service. Is that a concern of yours in a franchise restaurant?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, I think it is a paramount.

I think you have to have that. I don’t think you’d be in the business if you didn’t have that so..

Dave Scott: But is there something that’s created for you by the franchise or is it something..?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com It is, correct. Yeah.

Dave Scott: So they tell you how to present things on a plate.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct.

Dave Scott: Do you have any leeway as the franchise owner to make the changes?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I know at ours but we don’t. Some others, they may.

Dave Scott: So generally, in the franchise basis, the individual stores or restaurants have to follow exactly what they are given from corporate.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think it depends on each franchise.

Dave Scott: Uhuh. When we were talking, I mentioned David Hayden, we were talking about servers. In the United States, we have states where servers are paide$2.60 an hour, others are paid minimum wage, either the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25, or in some states, they have a special rate allowance, if you will, for servers because they consider them making their moneys on tips and not necessarily on the hourly wage. What is it in Canada?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well it’s different for every province in Canada, province being like a state. I know in Ontario, minimum wages, I believe, $10 or $15 right now.

Dave Scott: Is that for servers as well as everybody else?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com No, that would be just for servers.

So we have different classifications of minimum wage.

Minimum wage for a person who is making tips is different from a standard minimum wage. I will be honest, I’m really not sure exactly the minimum wage is for a non-tipped person but I do believe it’s about 10 or 15 for a tipped wage. I think it’s about $10.85 for busboys. There’s a little bit extra money for, you know, busboys and hostesses. There is also a scale if the person is still in school or under the age of, I believe, 18 where they take out, I think it is 50 cents less.

So we have some varying tools that the government has already implemented to definitely help out restaurants. Here’s a funny thing. You know, in another province of Quebec, servers actually have to report their tips income to the manager at the end of the night and pay the taxes to the manager. So the manager actually collects it. I’m not sure how it’s done but it’s an interesting thing that I know the Canadian Restaurant Association is sort of, from what I understand, we’re being against.

Dave Scott: We have that same situation here in the States.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, yeah.

Dave Scott: The IRS demands that tips be reported and taxed as income. In many cases, the restaurant does it. They have to go the manager at the end of the night, here’s the amount of money, then he deducts the tax from that amount of money right there and then.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Exactly. I think it’s only done on credit card receipts. I believe that on, I haven’t read in to it that much so just as a…

Dave Scott: Well, that’s surprising that you’re tipped minimum wage is $10.15, which is far excess of what we have here in the States.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well what would be the average in the States for a server? Is it $3.10?

Dave Scott: $3.35.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah. It’s definitely a tough way to make a living. We’ve got servers up here and I know on one of your other radio shows, you know, there are servers who can easily make, you know, $50,000 in tips and…

Dave Scott: Yeah, that’s David’s point, if you do it right, but obviously, they have to be at a high-end restaurant. It’s not going to happen out of a franchise restaurant.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I’ve actually seen it in franchises up here. I don’t know about in the States but up here in Canada, you need to make that even in the steak house up here. You can make about, you know, $30,000. You really have to work it. Having the servers be the type that come in at the six o’clock shift and leave at the 8 o’clock. I’m talking seasonal professional servers who know how to upsell, who know what they are doing, who work the eight-hour shift or the lunch and the dinner. They go in for two hours of lunch and then go back for, you know, five hours of dinner, so, it definitely can be done.

Dave Scott: So upselling is really a necessity?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, absolutely so. I don’t know a single restaurant that, even though on your mind, especially in this day and age.

Dave Scott: And in your case, are the server… How do you upsell at Denny’s?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh..

Dave Scott: And I don’t meant that derogatorily but how do you do that at Denny’ s?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com It’s just adding in extra things, you know, making sure, when somebody orders a coffee, you say would you like an orange juice with that as well? There’s always an opportunity no matter what restaurant it is to upsell. There’s always something, you know, suggesting something that maybe you like a little bit better out of a server to a customer who has an extra $1.50 or $2 price tag on it. It’s very easily done.

Dave Scott: All in the hopes of making the ultimate check larger therefore, the tip larger.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct, yeah.

Dave Scott: And you say your average on a 15% is your considered appropriate tip?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think between 12 and 15 is sort of standard. I know some people would argue. Definitely some people do 10 but I know the servers. I was for years and years, and I kept track of all my tips for all these seven years in a row and my average after tipping busboys and hostesses at that time was probably about 11.5% to 12%

Dave Scott: Yeah, we average somewhere around 20% now. It’s what’s considered the acceptable tip.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think it really depends on the restaurant as well so..

Dave Scott: And if there’s a large crowd, usually six or more, then it’s an automatic 18% added to the bill right off the bat.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I have been seeing more of that, correct.

Dave Scott: Do you do that in Canada?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Some restaurants do, do it up here.

Dave Scott: I’ve got a problem with that because my whole concept behind tipping is it was good service so therefore I will tip you and to have it automatically entered, and I understand the problems from the server’s side, you know, sometimes , they get a pack a piece if there are six people there. But, it just seems unfair to me that…

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think the server needs to work harder. I know one other thing that we implemented in one of the restaurants that I was at, we actually left it out to the server whether they wanted to add it. It was actually parties that cater more and we put the automatic fortuity on it but the owners of the restaurant actually allowed the servers to actually inform the customers at the beginning the meal that if they don’t want to do that. And I actually, for all my table life, I did not do it. I inform the customer I say, “I have been asked to put an 8% fortuity 24:51 or sorry, 15% fortuity on it but I don’t want it. I want to let you know I’m not going to do this for you. You know my name is Dave. I’m going to take care of you. If there’s anything at all that you need to, let me know,” and I would always make more than 15%.

I know there are some servers out there that are just sort of getting by day to day and they are not professional servers, I think, they would leave it on there. I didn’t agree with it. I was in a restaurant in Toronto about six months ago where the 15% was added on to our bill. We were never, and this was a high-end restaurant, we were never informed of it. There was no, it was on the check but it wasn’t circled or highlighted, or like you know, in red, and we actually took above it so we took another 20% on top of the 15% and somebody had said at the end of day that they had checked the bill and noticed that we had tipped 35% so we called the restaurant and obviously, they refunded our money but we said, you know, the server should have told us when we put the check down. They didn’t tell us in the beginning. They didn’t tell us at the end. We were sort of bothered by that. And you know, as the restaurateur, I probably won’t go back there just because of the one action of the one server. If he would have told us, we would have given higher than the 15%. The service was great was just that one little thing sort of threw us off.

Dave Scott: Yeah.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com So he did that, and on top of that, getting that large tip, he thanked us but there was no notice of like, “look at how much money you just tipped me,” you know, sort of thing. He wasn’t overly…

Dave Scott: He wasn’t about to tell you, you gave him 35%.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, yeah, but he didn’t give us the indication like, he would have just sort of just say so.

Dave Scott: Well, it’s mandatory here that that be posted at the entrance to the restaurant.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, yeah. It’s definitely not, as far as I know, there are no laws on that here.

Dave Scott: Huh. Do you have a strong restaurant association up there?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com We do. We actually have the provincial and as well the Canadian Restaurant Association.

Dave Scott: Do the servers have a union?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com They do not.

Dave Scott: Do they try? Do they think they want one? Have they every gone after it?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I have seen some and I have seen restaurants close and move because of it. There are some in, from my understanding, some colleges because the colleges are unionized and it’s sort of funny, because they are college and they have, they are unionized with the CEO workers or something.

I’m not as knowledgeable about union as maybe I should be but I don’t know if I really agree with them. I think I need some more information to definitely make a viable decision on it. But there are not, it’s not known up here, no.

Dave Scott: Okay, don’t go away. Hold on.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Okay.

Dave Scott: So those of you that are out there, if you’re listening live with us, then by all means, join the conversation. Get into it here. We’d like some of your thoughts. We are talking with Canada right now, Dave Lipson is my guest, and we are trying to look at some of the comparisons between restaurants in Canada and United States, and here in Las Vegas of course.

If you’d like to join us, 702-476-3306. If you are listening on podcast then you went to the davescottshow.com and podcasts of each day’s show are available there to you right there on the website. I will give it an hour or two after the show. That gets up onto the website.

If you don’t have the opportunity to listen there, we are rebroadcast skybergate.com. They rebroadcast us from 6 until 7 p.m. at night. We are all talking Pacific Time, by the way, and that is we will be live here in 6 to 7, well, I say live. The show is live every morning, Sunday through Thursday from 9 until 10.

You’re welcome to join us. You are encouraged to be a part of the program. If you have some questions for Dave Lipson, now is a good time to join us. If you have a comment or two that you would like to throw into this, we are talking about serving. We are talking about restaurants and what we could..

What do you think, Dave, is the ultimate that a diner should expect when they go out to the restaurant?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think to dine in good service and just a pleasant experience. As I said, you know, we had a fantastic experience in that restaurant but that one little thing sort of threw us off at the end of the meal. I think you really, I think that the restaurant owners and managers, you really have to treat the person like they are in your own house, like you are a host, and you know, “welcome to my house” and treat them like they are going to be treated there.

Dave Scott: I know most of the conversations that we have had, it always manages to creep in that the dining experience is something that most restaurants are really looking to present. It’s not necessarily the food. The food, and I don’t mean to lessen the value of the food, but it’s almost secondary to the experience of the atmosphere of the restaurant, the service that is received, the friendship, the almost family atmosphere that restaurants create.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com That’s right. I think great service can save a bad meal. You really shouldn’t have bad meals but as a restaurateur, I know things sometimes happens. Some things go wrong. It does happen. I think if the server is professional, knows what they are doing, those that can handle very tough situations, I think a lot of times, it can be avoided.

Dave Scott: Is there anything in Canada, you said you spent time here in Las Vegas. Anything in Canada, in your province, that equals what you found restaurant wise here in Las Vegas.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Uhm, we have a couple of great cities like Toronto and Montreal. Montreal is sort of a haven for, you know, fantastic chefs and a lot of restaurants in the downtown area.

Dave Scott: Do you have a lot of celebrity chefs up there?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Uhm, they are sort of known in circles but not as, I guess, readily advertised as in Vegas.

Dave Scott: Oh.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, not as done but in circles and you know, the community. We know where they are and where they move to, and what they are opening and what they own.

Dave Scott: That has become a big thing in Las Vegas over the past couple of years.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yes, it was for sure.

Dave Scott: Did you get the chance to run around and visit some of the high-end restaurants while you were here?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I did a few, yeah. I actually just got back from New Orleans as well and we did the exact same thing in New Orleans. We went to some fantastic restaurants. We went to Merrill’s Place and we went to Josh Fletcher’s Place.

Dave Scott: So in New Orleans also has a large contingent of celebrity chefs.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com They do for sure, yeah. I didn’t see a lot of advertising about it. I did sort of take a look at some of the material in the hotels and that kind of stuff and looked around for it, but for sure, I think Vegas definitely uses it to their advantage.

Dave Scott: As a restaurant owner, if you had total control, could do anything you wanted, which you have for a bit because of the franchise, but if you could do anything you wanted and open your restaurant to your specifications, what would be different from every other restaurant out there?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think service is lacking. In the last, about ten years, I think a lot of the restaurants are just hiring people in just as body to get it done. I would like to see that sort of going back to the roots of welcome to my house and welcome to my restaurant.

You see it in a lot of smaller towns’ restaurants that are doing, just create numbers for a small business. You definitely couldn’t see it them doing it, you know, their numbers in the city core, but the small towns, they are doing it well. They know all the customers’ names when they walk in the door. Sort of like, you know, how Cheers was on TV.

Dave Scott: Yeah.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com But, you see these restaurants doing, you know $1.7 million and you think that could they do $5 million and keep it up. I don’t they could but I think restaurants should have that feeling where, you know, not necessarily that people know your name but you know, they sort of remember you, make you feel at home, and the experience is just topnotch.

Dave Scott: How about the décor, how important is that to a restaurant?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I think so. I think I’m overly picky. I, you know, always check the washrooms as often. I definitely believe in busboy or a member of the staff going into the washroom and making sure, you know, stuff is off the floor and the washroom is clean. I know in another bar that we ran, we actually had an attendant in the washroom at all times, and they were being paid $10 an hour to be in there and keep it clean, so, I definitely think it’s definitely important.

And you know, it’s so easy these days in cities, you know, go to the local college and find the, you know, decorators that are taking this to be a living and utilize them and get ideas from them and cost effective ways to make a restaurant look beautiful. There are so many things that you can do just from, whether even just a quick paint job to have this to be done.

I know one thing about Denny’s is, every ten years actually, each Denny’s need at least, I know, it’s four hours that we need to put in a certain amount of money into décor changes, and a lot of the times every ten years, we have got $100,000 in the remake or remodel. Not necessarily remodel built on them but updating in things that need to be done. You need to have that money readily available every ten years to do what, you know, the test is to bring it up to a sort of standard.

Dave Scott: Isn’t part of the concept behind the franchise that they all look alike?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct.

Dave Scott: Alright. So if you had full reign, what’s your fantasy décor? How would you theme your restaurant?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Hmm, been in sort of being in the Irish pubs that kind of thing. there are a number of them here I don’t think that, the thing that I find with a lot of restaurants is they will have that thing like Irish pub but they won’t offer the… they won’t carry through with all the concept. Their menu will have other things on it. I think I know for sure in our town, we need an amazing Irish pub that follows through it - from the uniform to the food, just the beers and the liquor and the up, and you know, high-end scotches, just the whole flare of it.

Dave Scott: And you don’t have one?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com We have some but I think they sort of, appears sort of made it a bit more Canadian. They offer things like poutine and some other things obviously people are looking for but. When I go to a restaurant, if I want a steak, I’d go to a steak house, you know. I don’t want, you know. If you see fish on the menu, of course, you know, you have to offer those but I want to go and I want to be taken care of. Like when we went to Josh Fletcher’s Place in New Orleans, we let the server read the course. We said…

Dave Scott: Really.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.comThis is our budget, go ahead, surprise us, so, and we had the best meal we had in years.

Dave Scott: Ohh. You need guidance on the Canadian menus that you didn’t see in New Orleans or Las Vegas?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com No, I don’t think so. You know, at least, with New Orleans, you sort of expected to see, you know, lots of seafood and that kind of things.

Dave Scott: Cage and cage in there.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, you know where you are and what’s regional to it.

Dave Scott: What, at your restaurant or in the Canadian provinces there aren’t unique dishes that you wouldn’t find in the states?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Uhmm, I know one of the things down, like where I am, poutine is a big thing down here. It’s sort of a Quebec flour based is what it is. It’s a French fries with gravy with a cheese curd on it. A cheese curd is a, you know, four cheese made so they are kind of, you know, funny shaped pieces of cheese but that’s a large thing in our area that a lot of people sort of flock to from different provinces and Americans has sort of seen as a Canadian item.

Dave Scott: Don’t go away, hold on. I’ve got a take a break here and take care of some business. I’m Dave Scott. We are together from 9 until 10, Sunday through Thursday. Today is our Restaurant Show, we are talking all things food, drink, serve, and dining out. So if you’d like to join us, we’ve got an open phone line. I’ll be back.

Dave Scott: This is Dave Scott. We are together on a Thursday, number 31 for the month of March. If you missed the show or parts of the show and you want to catch up on it tonight, the rebroadcast on skybergate.com. That will be from 6 until 7 p.m.

Dave Lipson is my guest. He is in Canada. We are talking about some of the differences between Canadian and American restaurants. He has been in the business over 20 years so he has seen a lot happen.

Take just a minute here for me, Dave, and give me some of the ways of contacting you. I’ve got a bunch here between Twitter and Facebook and…

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com That’s right. Well at reservationbooks.com, the emails actually come direct to me. Phone number is 1800-942-7086 and I’m open for conversations with restaurateurs every day. I connect with a lot of people on LinkedIn. If you want to search for me, again, search for reservationbooks.com. or Dave Lipson. You will certainly find me and a lot of other restaurant professionals in my sort of grouping, if you want to take a look at LinkedIn.

I’ve made it sort of a thing to do this days. Every morning, I tend to go 10 minutes and I connect with people on Twitter and LinkedIn and start a conversations. I find it very important to businesses these days and I definitely recommend it for all restaurateurs to do it as well.

Dave Scott: Before you go on, do you find much competition between restaurateurs? Are they really willing to openly share ideas and suggestions?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I do believe so. I know in one of the restaurants that we were at, we actually had, it was in the mall area, not in the indoor mall, but an outdoor mall where each with a standalone unit and we have five restaurants and we’d all, all of us sort of mingled together and you know, meet at each other’s bars afterwards and all the restaurant managers and owners knew each other and we host each other’s Christmas parties so, I definitely think competition is one thing and it’s definitely done, you compete for different things but we definitely have always share ideas between restaurants.

I know where we were, we actually had, we were close to the hockey arena in our town so the five restaurants actually shared a school bus that would go around to each of the restaurants and then bring the clientele to that arena to watch a national hockey game.

Dave Scott: So, if the mountain won’t go to Muhammad, Muhammad will go the mountain.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah.

Dave Scott: Reservation books, free service, anybody can participate, those holding restaurants, I assume?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, for, sorry, for reservation books?

Dave Scott: Yeah.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well, we, let me tell you that we sell reservation books. It’s a paper product. They come in one-page per day and two-page per day. They range in price. The cost is about $79 for paper book. Each page is dated. You can track weather on them, you know, just in case, a lot of restaurants or, sorry, reservations didn’t show up.

Dave Scott: Uh-uh.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com We have a standard information and I started the company, you know, a couple of years of ago, about 20 years ago actually, with me, I couldn’t find a reservation book that sort of suited our needs. They had pages that didn’t have dates on them or the contact there, it was too small or they didn’t have a phone number area or a note area for birthdays. So, I talked together with a couple of other restaurant owners in the city and I said, you know, listen, we can all use that will actually suit our needs and we came up with Reservation Book. I put it online when the internet was sort of starting and years later, I got a ton of restaurant clients using it. year after year, they give me a call and they go, “I love your book and send me another one.”

We’ve got the basic information like time, number, people, smoking or nonsmoking, jot the reservation as is the staff member, you know, contact person, company name, phone number, and notes area, and they come down to, coil down to a three ring like a soft Napa leather binder that are usually used more in the high-end restaurants that has a large (0:44:13.2 unclear) area

But as I said earlier, we have some other tools that can be used by restaurateurs and that would be the free restaurant forms. Just enter your name and email and we will send you a link and it has got all the inventory forms that any restaurant would need. They will definitely find something out there. it’s about 120 forms ranging from Word forms to Excel forms that could be used every day in restaurants.

Dave Scott: Sounds crazy but I don’t think most people, and I know I didn’t realize that a reservation book had all these information on it. I thought it was a note where you put the name, the time the people were coming in.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Some restaurants still do that. They still use the Post-It note and they stick it up on the wall and..

Dave Scott: Yeah.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com If you lose a reservation, you’re in trouble, you know what I mean? You really have to be organized and stay on top of it.

On the front cover of our Reservation Books, we actually say, “Today’s preparation determines tomorrow’s achievements” and we stand by that. you really need to be organized and that’s one of the reasons we came up with these free restaurant forms to get restaurateurs, you know, just more involved in their restaurants and know what is happening.

Dave Scott: So do you use your reservation books to recontact guests?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Well..

Dave Scott: Is it a marketing tool for you?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com In one of the restaurants that I did manage, we actually did. I used it and has something for a year for marketing. Usually about October, you start wanting to, sort of start getting your Christmas reservations and filled up so what I would do is I would give the reservation book to a pleasant-spoken hostess and I would have her call all our reservations and say “we are now booking for Christmas. I wanted to invite you in and see if you’d like to book a reservation,” and we’d normally fill up our reservations for Christmas. Usually about the third week of October, we would be filled up and we could plan ahead, order the food, and know what’s going on, hire more staff that are needed at that time of the year and so. It’s definitely something that’s done and I suggested that to a lot of people who are worried of their books.

Dave Scott: So it becomes a marketing tool for the restaurant itself.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Exactly, yup, yup.

Dave Scott: Do most people market or do they just expect that the name, especially in a franchise situation, the name sort of bring them in. Do you need to market?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh I think in today’s age, you definitely need to market and there are some really some cool tools out there that don’t cost a lot of money.

Dave Scott: It has been… let me go back here a minute because you didn’t give us the rest of your information. Facebook?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah, you can search me on Facebook. The name would be Reservation Books with an “s”.

Dave Scott: Twitter?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Twitter, I am, let me just take a look, it is reservation book as well.

Dave Scott: Without the “s” right?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Correct.

Dave Scott: And you’ve got a blog too. Do you blog regularly?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com I blog not as much as I should. I’d like to get into some more writing. I’m looking at, I wrote with a partner a while ago about marketing and it’s called Marketing your Meatballs and it’s sort of about today’s age and you know, social media.

I’m writing a new one now with some key ideas about social media as well and if you go to our free restaurant forms, they can sign up for that. You will definitely have that emailed to you. It’s an interesting, you know, it’s a small little book. It’s about 20 pages long and the new one that we’re doing is a lot about viral marketing and inexpensive ways to market so.

Dave Scott: So that’s the restaurantreservationbook.blogspot.com.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com That’s right, yeah.

Dave Scott: Great.

Hey, it has been fascinating, Dave. I appreciate it.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Hey, it’s been great talking to you.

Dave Scott: Anything I didn’t’ ask you about the differences between Canada and the US? Did I miss anything?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com No, I don’t think so. I definitely love coming I guess down to you and New Orleans is a great experience. I will definitely be back in Vegas in the near future. It was definitely something that was sort of, I’m surprised I didn’t do it earlier, so.

Dave Scott: Do we get a lot of “us” coming up to you?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, for sure. Absolutely especially..

Dave Scott: Really?

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Especially we get a lot of… yeah. I think it’s a… I’m notorious down in Canada but we definitely still market quite a bit and you know, I think, I believe, 8% our population is on your border, so…

Dave Scott: Uh-uh.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Yeah.

Dave Scott: Hey thanks a lot I really appreciate it.

Dave Lipson/ReservationBooks.com Oh, thanks Dave.

Dave Scott: Don’t go away for just a second. Bear with me here. I’m going to take a quick break and then we will come back. We will wrap things up here for this morning. I also want to give you some of the programs coming up here at skybergate.com to let you know what’s happening in some of the shows that you might be able to listen to so stay there, we’ll take a break. I will be right back.

GET PERSONAL Everyone has a story. Customers should know yours.

2011-04-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

In 2002, a Brooklyn native named John LaFemina opened a restaurant named Apizz in New York City’s Lower East Side. The end.

Wait, what? That’s got to be the worst story ever told. It’s not even a story, just a statement of facts. There’s got to be more to it than what’s listed here.

Of course there is. In fact, there’s much more, enough that one day LaFemina decided he ought to chronicle his journey from jeweler to high-class restaurant owner. The resulting book, A Man and his Meatballs, is an enlightening and frequently hysterical account of the trials and tribulations he faced while attempting to build, open, and manage Apizz.

Your story does not begin and end within the span of a single sentence. But unless you take the time to record and circulate your backstory, you’re just the guy who signs the checks.

People crave intimate connections. We want to relate to others. It’s intrinsic to our character. It’s why we gravitate toward charismatic, like-minded individuals and tend to appreciate someone more after we’ve come to know a lot about them.

You may feel like simply telling your story on a website or to your staff is a waste of time. Think again.

Where would you rather eat: a slick corporate chain with the personality of a tortoise, or a place where the owner laid the floorboards himself and proposed to his wife near the handpicked oven after all the customers had left for the night? Who would you work harder for, a corporate flack who knows his employees as social security numbers on a spreadsheet, or the guy who went to the same high school as your parents and toiled for 80 hours a week over the first year getting the place off the ground?

"Marketing is about making connections, and the ability to have customers recognize pieces of themselves in your journey is a priceless dividend. They can’t do that if don’t know who you are and how you came to own your establishment." says Dave Lipson of Reservationbooks.com

No one is asking you to write the next great American nonfiction book. A simple five- or six-paragraph rundown on your website will suffice. If you’re better at massaging dough than you are sentences, ask a staff member with some verbal dexterity to take a crack. Chances are they’ll leap at the chance. Remember, this doesn’t have to award-winning prose, just an honest snapshot of who you are and what you did to make it where you are today.

THE LESSON: Restaurants are not self-spawning organisms. Lots of time, effort, sweat, and pride went into creating your successful business. Make sure your customer base knows it.

Restaurateurs from Ottawa

2011-03-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

The day has arrived and the restaurateurs from Ottawa are on the way to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. Unable to go in past years due to busy schedules in the restaurant industry and of course our own private parties we decided to finally make 2011 our year to cross this off our bucket list. So Randy Fitzpatrick of ever popular Petit Bills Bistro decides that the best course of action is to fly out of Syracuse New York so we pack up the truck and make our way.

Trying to make reservations at the vastly popular Dinosaur Bar-b-Que we were stopped in our tracks. The vastly popular restaurant did not take reservations and no good for Dave Lipson of Reservationbooks.com as one less client to peddle his restaurant reservation books too. The owners were gracious enough to wish us a great time and say that we were for sure have a memorable night at their smokehouse.

We checked in to the hotel and made out way over to find an hour wait for a table for these hungry restaurateurs. So we saddled up to the standing room only bar and took sport in our 1^st libations of the night. The place finely decorated with paraphernalia from places all over the USA. Colorful pictures of concerts and tickets to shows with a beer list that would be envious of any restaurant. The best of all is the Take Out Beer Jug. Oh how I wish Canadian law was not so uptight. The wait of an hour went by as we chatted about all the things we had in store for us on our travels. We got our table by our lively hostess yelling in a microphone. Lipson party of 4 please put up your hands. We do so and are directed again by the same lively hostess on the microphone: It’s the booth behind you. For years we had always taught our hostesses how to sit a guest and in this fine establishment it worked. All so well.

There sat our table all set with sauces, menus and cutlery waiting for us to sample the wares. We order right away as the smells of bbq wings and brisket is all around us making us salivate and in need of meat. Meat done right in a smoker and then bbq’d by a professional. Wings arrived and were devoured in no time. Sauce was fantastic with the added touch of wings not just perfectly sauced by bbq on an open grill. A rare treat to find in restaurants was the deviled egg. On the menu ordered by 3 they were incredible. Perfect use of mustard. A few more wobbly pops and the boys were primed for the meat we had heard so much about. We ordered a sampler platter each and sat there and waited. In no time at all it was here. Ribs, oh glorious ribs. There were perfect. No other way to describe them. Perfect. We ate and ate and laughed and laughed. What a treat to eat at Dinosaurs so close to our home. We for sure will be back and I suggest to you all if you are ever in upstate New York. Please do wait the hour…it is so worth it.

Our new look

2010-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Knife and Fork Productions has been supplying manager's communication books and reservation books for years. Recently the website at reservationbooks.com has been revamped to offer you even more assistance in finding the products you need for the efficient operation of your restaurant.

Our goal is to provide books in the format that works for your restaurant business.

If you are not sure of the format, click on the link that takes you to our products page. You can browse the pages to see various reservation book layouts, just as if you had the book in front of you. The goal was to provide you with the same experience as you would get if you were flipping through the pages of an actual restaurant reservation book.

If you need further help in making up your mind, you may want to look at our competitors' offerings. We are so convinced of the value and quality of our products that we're sure you will come back to ReservationBooks.com to find the reservation book your restaurant will need.After all, we want you to be completely satisfied with every aspect of your experience in shopping our reservation book inventory.

When you are ready to order, we have redesigned our order page so that you can see all the products we offer. This saves you from having to flip back and forth between pages to compare the formats. We've made every effort to make shopping and purchasing from Reservationbooks.com easy and convenient. Of course, your sensitive payment information is always safe with us.

Many things in our product line and on our website have remained the same. We've kept the same commitment to environmentally sustainable products. Our products remain your best choice for tracking and organizing your daily operations. We're proud of the fact that our satisfied customers keep coming back and telling us what they like about our products and service year after year.

Canadian Food Show

2010-03-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Reservationbooks.com had the pleasure this past weekend to visit the Canadian Restaurant Food Service association’s trade show in Toronto. The CRFA Show is the leading foodservice and hospitality event in Canada. A comprehensive forum of industry products, the CRFA Show attracts 12,000 industry professionals and puts them face to face with exhibitors showcasing all their latest products.

I spent the day perusing all the new restaurant equipment, talking with leading experts in their respective fields. I tasted some fantastic food from all over the world and saw some really cool new products.

Why Reservationbooks.com Is The Best Source For Reservation Books In The Market

2010-01-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

When restaurant owners shop for supplies, they preferred to know that the company they're dealing with has some experience in the restaurant industry and understands exactly what a restaurant needs. They would never go looking for items to supply the restaurant on a used car lot. Nor would they try buying supplies from someone whose work experience is limited to a hardware store. This is why Reservationbooks.com is the best source for reservation books in the market.

Reservationbooks.com is owned by a seasoned restaurateur with years of experience in the industry. Add to this the fact that for the last 12 years he has refined and specialized skills pertaining to the creation of reservation books that will fit the needs of any restaurants from the smallest casual dining establishment to the most expensive fine dining in the world.

All of the books sold are created with spaces on the pages to record data of many different types that affect the bottom line of the business for that day in addition to spaces to mark where people have called in to reserve a table. There were several styles to choose from and reservation books are the only products or supplies sold by reservationbooks.com.

They do not attempt to sell cutlery, dishes, or kitchen equipment with reservation books. Their focus is on creating the best quality and most useful reservation books available at reasonable prices.

Why A Major Motion Picture Company Came To Reservationbook.com For A Reservation Book Needed In Their New Movie

2010-01-05T07:41:00.001-08:00

Recently, a major motion picture company came to Reservationbook.com to order a book needed for an upcoming movie. Why would such a large corporation come to us to fulfill such a simple requirement? The answer is quite simple. Reservation book.com is the leading authority in producing quality, attractive reservation books for use in high-end to casual dining restaurants.

In this case, the book appears in a scene in the movie It's Complicated when Meryl Streep enters a high-end restaurant alone and gives her name to the hostess who checks the reservation book. One might think that reservationbook.com had paid to have the book placed in the movie to gain the exposure. This could not be further from the truth.

In fact, according to Bob Burg, 'Exposure plus 95 cents might buy you a decent cup of coffee. The key is to position yourself in your market as the expert, the resource, the only person your prospect would even THINK of doing business with or referring to others.'

The reason this movie house came to reservationbook.com is because we are the best and most reliable at producing and distributing high-quality reservation books. We have worked hard to position ourselves as the leader in this industry. The fact that such a large corporation came to us for fulfillment indicates that we have been highly successful in our efforts.

It goes without saying that a company this size would never go to a second rate supplier for anything that would be used as a prop in one of their films, especially not something that would be shown on camera. If a company that size recognizes Reservationbook.com as the expert in this type of material, restaurant owners and managers can rest assured they will not be disappointed by the quality or service they receive if they order our products.

Why Does A Restaurant Need A Reservation Book?

2009-12-28T08:49:00.000-08:00

Restaurant owners and managers of many different types of restaurants ranging from fine gourmet dining to casual dining find it helpful to maintain reservation books at the host/hostess's podium. These books serve a wide range of purposes other than simply recording when someone calls and reserves one or more tables. With the new year approaching fast, it is time to consider ordering your 2010 restaurant reservation book.
In addition to recording reservations and ensuring that tables are available when a reservation holder is scheduled to arrive, reservation books allow restaurant owners to track vital information that affects their business.
The pages include space to record the weather outside, deliveries by vendors, personnel shortages or overages per shift, etc. All of this data impacts the bottom line in any restaurant's business. Employees can also record parties that come in without reservations and the number in the party. This allows tracking of the number of customers served in a given day.
Using reservation books to track all of this information over time allows managers to plan and make decisions about the amount of food to have on hand, the number of employees to schedule and when, and much more.
A high quality leather restaurant reservation book can be kept for many years after it is used. It not only looks good on the podium, it lasts through rough treatment without being severely damaged. Being able to keep such records for a period of years allows managers to track trends in weather, customer preferences of meals, number of customers visiting on different days, and other information that can influence decisions about how to run the business.
There are many different reasons why a restaurant reservation book is an essential tool in the day to day operations of any class of restaurant. They are for far more than writing down reservations in.

How A Restaurant Reservation Book Can Make Business More Efficient

2009-12-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

2010 reservation books are being printed and bound right now. This may not seem like important news unless you own or manage a restaurant. Restaurant owners have known for years that the use of a reservation book can help to streamline the operation of the establishment and track important data, such as how many guests were in attendance, what the weather was like, and more for any given day.

Many people do not have any idea what sort of information can be written in restaurant reservation books. They think that the only data entered is information on groups who have called ahead to ensure that they have a table at their convenience. However, this only a small portion of what is recorded in reservation books. In truth, they are more like a daily journal that tells what happened in the dining room on any given day as well as why, when known.

Restaurant owners and managers who want to give the impression of being more upscale tend to order a leather reservation book. Once they have it in hand, they tend to realize the quality work that goes into the binding is worth more than just the appearance of the book. The leather binding will last for many years and allow managers to refer to the book for any information they need about a specific day for record keeping purposes.

Even casual dining restaurants that do not deal with reservations on a regular basis can benefit from the use of a reservation book. As stated, these books make wonderful journals with preprinted spaces to put certain data about a given day that impacts the operation of the business.

Any restaurant owners or managers who have not already ordered their 2010 restaurant reservation books need to give serious thought to getting an order placed to be prepared for the new year.

Happy Holidays from ReservationBooks.com

2009-12-15T07:39:00.001-08:00

New Twitter Page

2009-11-30T07:58:00.001-08:00

Reservationbooks.com is proud to announce our new look of our twitter page. We wanted to incorporate some ideas from our other two website www.reservationbooks.com and www.reservationbooks.info and our new design has accomplished this.

Please take a look and tell us what you think.
http://twitter.com/reservationbook

In this day and age you need to stand out in a crowd. Making subtle changes to everything you do can accomplish this. We think that it is the little things that we do on a consistent basis that are usually the most powerful.

2009-09-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has come and gone and the economy still shows small signs of improvements for restaurants across North America. Restaurants have used the down time to better menu items and streamline their costs. They have realized that to compete in today’s global market they have to become better in everything they do. Dave Lipson and Reservationbooks.com has also taken this time to improve on all their books as well.
It’s now official; Reservation books.com is now ready to ship their 2010 reservation books. “We have made some great improvements to our restaurant reservation books for 2010” says Dave Lipson. We have taken our cover and now made it of an 80 pound plastic. This will replace our old cardboard cover. The plastic cover is virtually tear proof and can withstand water damage. We have also upgraded all our paper from a 30 pound weight to a 60 pound weight. This making the reservation book pages more durable to tearing.
We are confident at www.reservationbooks.com that our reservation books will withstand the daily use and abuse most reservation books take in restaurants. From fast paced areas to being used by multiple people through the day.

New information page for reservationbooks.com

2009-08-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Dave Lipson the owner of Knife and Fork Production's a company that supplies reservation books to hotels and restaurants across North America has released a new webpage that will assist his customers in finding the reservation book they need for their restaurant. Reservation books and page layouts of these books are sometimes hidden and hard to see on websites so he has devised a way for his clientel to see and get what they need easily.

After years of trying to figure out the best way to help his clients find what they need he has streamed down his website to show his reservation books in a clearer more precise manner. A one page website at www.reservationbooks.info The page shows all his reservation book pages in an easy to use page flip program. You can see the 1 and 2 page per day reservation books and even each page of his very popular Manager log books.

The page also offers a link to his Twitter, Blog and Facebook pages. On these pages you can find various helpful tools to assist in running your restaurant.

If you are looking for a 2010 reservation book for your restaurant now is the time to order. The new year will be upon us in no time and as reservationbooks.com says "Today's preparation determines tomorrows achievement."

Restaurant Newsletter Builder

2009-07-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce the debut of a new company that will assist restaurants in telling their story.

www.RestaurantNewsletterBuilder.com

RestaurantNewsletterBuilder.com gives users access to a complete email newsletter marketing system designed to increase business by attracting new customers and maintaining existing ones. Easy-to-manage email lists, measurable data, and unparalleled support—it’s a full-service email marketing solution with a wide range of features.

Here is the press release witsh some more information

http://www.prlog.org/10289565-use-restaurant-newsletter-marketing-to-increase-profits-and-get-results.html

Taste of Ottawa

2009-05-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

I am very proud of my longtime friend Randy Fitzpatrick who in his early days assisted with the beginnings of www.reservationbooks.com

Randy and his restaurant Petit Bill's Bistro www.petitbillsbistro.ca was featured on the front page in the Food & Wine section of our local paper last night.

Here is the article...and the lobster poutine is that good!

I am not normally a big fan of poutine, the quintessential heart-stopping Quebec favourite that, to me, looks suspiciously like a core sample from a city dump.
But I'm game to try almost anything, especially when the version created by Petit Bill's Bistro on Wellington Street features chunks of tender lobster meat in a rich cheese sauce topping a pile of homemade french-fried potatoes.
The fact that CTV News anchor Max Keeping loves the stuff only makes it more compelling.
And so I tried it, and can report here that it is very, very rich and very, very good.
Small wonder that Keeping, a native of Newfoundland, loves this marriage of Maritime and Quebec cuisine. So much, in fact, that he orders it often.
And, I predict Lobster Poutine will be among the most popular dishes served at the 13th annual charity fundraising cocktail party, called Bon Appétit, to be held Tuesday at the Aberdeen Pavilion in Lansdowne Park.
It is indescribably delicious, although probably not all that healthy.
"I tell the world how great this lobster dish is," Keeping says. "I bought $100 worth of it as my contribution for a lunch about two months ago at the station to honour Newfoundland and Quebec.
"Everybody loved it. I'm really surprised how well the flavours work together."
Opened on Friday the 13th in April 2007, Petit Bills is among 90 Ottawa area restaurants, caterers, wineries and breweries that will showcase their wares to an estimated 1,800 people paying $75 each to sample some of the city's best eats.
A tax receipt is given for $45; for tickets, go online to www.bonappetitottawa.ca, or call 613-231-5651.
We have Petit Bill's show-stopping Lobster Poutine recipe here, along with another delectable morsel on page F4 from chef Michael Hay at Courtyard Restaurant called Horseradish Bread Pudding and Asparagus Canapés with Tarragon and Smoked Trout -- a delicious, yet light flavour combination.
Last year, Bon Appétit raised $80,000 for 23 area charities, many of them small organizations like Maison d'Amitié, a shelter for battered women. The fact it is a registered charity makes its financial performance open to public inspection, which is not always the case at some other fundraisers.
Bon Appétit chair Geneviève Rochon says her volunteer directors last year raised $110,000, of which almost three-quarters of the money or $80,000 actually made it to the charities. The remaining $30,000 paid for rent of the pavilion, booths, putting up drapery, printing and advertising.
"Our mandate is to help alleviate poverty affecting children and the elderly. But what's unique about this is we try to assist small, local organizations that do not, by and large, have paid fundraisers," Rochon says.
"So we're helping the smaller, grass-roots organizations that may be overlooked for funding by major charity campaigns.
"I think Bon Appétit is the largest food and beverage event in the city. People want to be part of the show and we've had to turn away participants because there is only so much room.
"We have 12 volunteers on our board of directors and one part-time paid employee who co-ordinates the event and handles administration and ticket sales. Everything else, from getting the booths to putting together the show and dealing with charities, is done by volunteers. And all of our board members pay for their own tickets."
A total of 61 restaurants and caterers will participate this year, up from 56 in 2008. Another 30-plus wineries and breweries bring the number of booths to more than 90.
This year, organizers are selling wine glasses at $3 each, or two for $5, in an attempt to reduce the garbage.
Among participants this year, chef Hay at the Courtyard is especially anxious to present his seasonal bread pudding and asparagus dish, as local asparagus will be in season very soon.
"Many of the ingredients are local," Hay says. "And if you can't find local asparagus then you can use fiddleheads blanched 45 seconds in boiling, salted water.
"We always have some Art-is-in Bakery baguette kicking around, which makes excellent pudding.
"Our herbs in the summer come from David Burnford at Riverglen Farms in east Ottawa, but you can head down to the Ottawa Farmers' Market, which opens May 10 at Lansdowne Park, to find your own favourite farmers.
"And the trout we use in this dish comes to us from The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply, which has a retail outlet on Kent Street," Hay says.
"It's always best to choose local ingredients when available, not only because they taste better and have more nutritional value, but also because you're supporting the local economy."
Over at Petit Bill's, the sinful lobster poutine was inspired by a similar dish co-owner Terry Fitzpatrick discovered in Calgary. The good news is, chef Glen Sansome was only too willing to give it a try when he joined the kitchen crew seven months ago.
This delicacy comes with home-cut fries, lobster, shellfish butter sauce and mascarpone cheese and sells for $15. It's one of Petit Bill's top sellers.
"We've all heard of foie gras on poutine, but we felt this fit our theme as a French bistro with a Newfoundland accent," Sansome says.
"I was surprised to see how well it sells and the positive reaction we're getting. It's a great appetizer and not at all difficult to make. Once you get the sauce together, it makes itself.
"It has great wow appeal. Max Keeping has been back at least a half-dozen times since we put it on the menu."
What can I say? The guy has taste.
Find out for yourself what all the fuss is about when you drop by Bon Appétit next week.
- - -
Lobster Poutine From Petit Bill's Bistro
Serves 6
- 1 live lobster (or pre-cooked)
- 1/3 cup (75 mL) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (250 mL) lobster stock (or substitute fish stock, or clam juice)
- 1 container (475-g) mascarpone cheese
- 1 cup (250 mL) heavy 35-per-cent cream
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) minced garlic
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 11/2 pounds (680 g) French fries, deep-fried or oven-baked)
1. Lobster: In a large pot of boiling, salted water boil live lobster 8 to 10 minutes, or until base of tail starts to separate from body. (Or, bypass this step and use pre-cooked whole lobster.) Remove lobster from water, cool, then remove all tail, claw and arm meat. Cut meat into small bite-size cubes; reserve.
2. Sauce: In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter, then add stock, mascarpone, cream and garlic. Whisk together and reduce temperature to low; simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in lobster meat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and pour over fries to serve.

Reservationbooks.com is a great source for reservation books

2009-03-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Reservationbooks.com is a great source to find reservation books. They carry a wide range of books so no matter what type you need you will be able to find one that suites your needs. Books can be found that have one day per page, more than one day per page, single reservations per day or reservations based on time. The different options you chose would be mirrored in the price of the books so you should have a good idea of your budget when looking for a reservation book.
Reservationbooks.com also provide front of the house reservation books. These books are more difficult to find compared to regular reservation books as they have additional areas not found in general reservation books. If you cannot find what you are looking for then you can have your reservation book custom designed to meet your needs.
Front of the house reservation books keep a list of managers, staff working each shift, all appointments including vendor appointments, employee training and day to day housekeeping schedules. The front of the house book will display who is working what shift so you can ensure you have every position appropriately covered in the kitchen, dining rooms, housekeeping, and bar etc.
Manager communication books can also be obtained at reservationbooks.com and books that cover specific areas within your company. Books can be found that cover the restaurant and bar areas individually as well as a book just for the kitchens. Reservation books can also be purchased in many different languages and are used around the world.
No matter what type of reservation and information you need to keep track of you will be able to find a reservation book. Despite the rise of technology reservation books are still popular and used extensively, particularly in the service industry. As long as reservations are being made, reservation books will be used.

Reservationbooks.com video

2009-01-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

We have completed our 1st ever video for our website. It was a ton of fun to make and we stress the point at Reservationbooks.com this is all we do. No plates, no bartending supplies. Just reservation books for your restaurant. I love this quote by Bob Burg...Exposure plus 95 cents might buy you a decent cup of coffee. The key is to ‘position’ yourself in your market as the expert, the resource, the only person your prospect would ever even THINK of doing business with, or referring to others. —Bob Burg

Reservationbooks.com learns a valuable life lesson.

2009-01-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Reservationbooks.com has joined forces with World Vision Canada and has sponsored a child in Malawi
Dave Lipson, owner of Reservationbooks.com while in a training session that led teams through a series of individual and team challenges that focused on understanding, support and unity in the workplace learned a valuable lesson.
The pinnacle of this training session was the final challenge during which every single member of the team was put to the test. The Step into Your Power Corporate Trainers oversee and support several sustainability projects in Malawi, Africa through World Vision. This final challenge required the group to come together as a team to help raise funds for the villages in this poor country. In the test we managed to raise funds for a new water processing plant in the village of Malawi.
“The experience changed the way I feel about the way the world works and how one person CAN make a difference.” In that one day I grew as an individual; I also recognized the needs of others and responded. I wanted to continue to help and teach my son what I had learned. Our company now sponsors a 7 year old boy named Moses in the village of Malawi. “I hope my son learns what I have from this humbling adventure.” One person can make a difference in the life of someone else.”

2009 reservation books

2008-12-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Since the end of the year is quickly drawing to a close, it is a good idea to get your 2009 reservation books in place. Before you know it the holidays will be here and people will want to start planning their events for the next season, and you will want to be ready.
Decide which type of reservation books you will need for your restaurant or hotel business. If all you need is a simple daily one-page reservation book, then just buy that. However, many businesses require something a little more sophisticated than that. If you are tracking hair or spa appointments you will most likely need a reservation book that can accommodate two pages of reservations. You may not always have two pages of reservations every day, but there will certainly be times that you do so you should start the year off properly by getting the right book. You won't want to switch books mid-year because you selected the wrong book to purchase. Keeping all of your reservations in one place is important for keeping accounting and organizational records.
Some businesses like to have customized reservation books. There are places that will customize your book by putting your business name and log on the cover with gold foil embossing, but you can get more customized than that if you need. If you want a book that is larger than 8.5 x 11, you can get it, but that will come with an additional fee for the paper customization. Most reservation books are black, but you can get customized colors too such as red, green, blue or lizard or crocodile mock covers too.
You can usually purchase specialized modules for the catering department of your hotel or restaurant. This allows you to track event data separately from the day to day data. You will need additional staff to help out with the event, so it is a good way to make sure you have full coverage for the day.

Welcome to our blog

2008-11-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

For more detailed information please visit:
http://www.reservationbooks.com