Pattaya Beer Garden – Growing Pains

[PattayaPete]

I have posted about delays in getting the food out at the Beer Garden a few times now. It really has been our major problem since we started and we really hit a bit of a wall this past fortnight. In my previous posts about this problem I have outlined actions taken to improve the situation and yet it continues to be a problem.

 

You could be forgiven for thinking that previous solutions have failed. While that would appear to be the case the reality is that the restaurant side of the Beer Garden has grown phenomenally in the past few months and the solutions applied have all worked but been too little, too late.

 

The real problem has been a lack of management in the kitchen. Although I would consider myself an experienced manager, the kitchen side of the business scares me. I am the world’s worst cook and what I know about organizing a kitchen would take about two seconds to tell. Given my lack of expertise I made a point of hiring a very experienced Executive Chef and gave her full power to run things as she saw fit.

 

Well, Pin is a great Chef and generally the quality of the food we have been putting out has been excellent. Sadly though, it has dawned on me that she is a crap manager. In August we were doing about 100 meals a day. In September we hit 150 and things started to slow down again. In October, Mikey, an experienced western Chef spent a week with the staff working on their western food skills. At his suggestion we added a new super sized grill, extra burners and a salamander. In October we hit 200 meals a day.

 

On Loy Kratong night in November the kitchen did 450 meals. Not surprisingly the delays that night were looooong. It concerned me but it was a special night and a one off or so I thought. Last Monday we hit 400 meals again and once more delays in getting the food out at peak times hit one hour or more. This was exacerbated as one of our evening cooks had to attend to a dieing grandmother, so we were one cook down that night.

 

I’ve been keeping out of the kitchen as I felt I was just getting in the way. A visit to see the problem close up on Monday revealed utter chaos. Food orders were streaming off the printer and falling on the floor. One of the service staff had been seconded into preparing vegetables to free up the cooks time for cooking and the two cooks on duty were running around like blue arsed flies. Not a good look.

 

That night after the rush had died down I had a meeting with Pin to discuss what we were going to do about the problem. The discussion was somewhat fruitless. One of the things that bug me about Thai staff is that they generally don’t see the big problem as they concentrate on the small details. Pin’s suggestions were all detail issues which would help a little but would not solve the overall problem. I decided then and there that I would have to get involved more directly or things would only get worse.

 

Monday night I sat down and wrote out all possible solutions. These included increasing the price to dampen demand, building a second kitchen, hiring more staff, finding a good kitchen manager or reducing the number of items on the Menu.

 

It seemed to me that price rises or limiting the menu were counter-productive. Any business that tries to limit demand must be doing something wrong. That left management, staff and a second kitchen as possibilities. A second kitchen is do-able as we do have the space. However other restaurateurs around town have told me they envy our kitchen for its size and equipment. It seems unlikely that more equipment was going to fix things.

 

That left management and staff. On the evening shift when we have the longest delays we have three cooks and two kitchen hands working. Of course they have holidays and sick grandmothers and days off so more often than not one or more of them is away. I decided to add one more kitchen hand to work from midday to 8 pm with the sole purpose of doing prep work. Then two more cooks to cover 3 pm to 11 pm which are our busiest food times. This would increase the staff at busy times by almost double.

 

I had another meeting with Pin early Tuesday and pointed out that she is a great Chef and a nice lady but as a Manager she was doing poorly and so I’d decided to get more involved. Hopefully with my management experience and her cooking experience we could get it sorted. I was a bit worried about her reaction but I am pleased to say she agreed with me and was well aware of her own limitations. I think I took a big load off her shoulders and she has been really happy this week.

 

My first “management” decision was to set goals for the kitchen. I wanted an average order time of ten minutes and no more than twenty minutes when very busy. I nominated Pope, our trainee bar manager as special kitchen liaison and gave him the responsibility to prioritize and organize food orders coming off the printer and getting the service staff to inform customers if the delay was going to be more than 20 minutes. Pin was given the job of finding the new staff asap.

 

That was Tuesday and since then we have continued to do over 400 meals a day. We have one extra cook already at work and another starting on 1 December. Still looking for the prep person but finding him/her is a priority. Delays at the busiest times are down to 40 minutes. That is still unacceptable but getting better daily. The kitchen now seems to flow rather than lurch from crisis to crisis.

 

My apologies to any customers who have experienced unacceptable delays. We are now getting on top of the problem and I hope to meet our time goals by 1 December. For now things are definitely better than they were and set to improve further over the next ten days or so.

 

I think I know how to manage a bar and the bar at The Beer Garden runs very smoothly. We are seeing a similar growth in the bar business but that bar staff have coped admirably. The kitchen has been a huge learning curve for me but really it is just another management problem and I’m not so scared of it now. As I pointed out to the staff this week having problems dealing with quite meteoric growth is a lot more fun than dealing with the opposite problem.

 

I hope to see you soon at the PBG for a cold beer or a hot freelancer or a speedily delivered meal

 

Pete

[7-Eleven]

Thanks for your report mate... I ate at your place almost daily when I was there in September... never thought there was a problem. Keep up the good work.

[monster]

400 Meals a day!!!!!

 

I am sure there are bars that would like to see 400 customers a week.

 

Just to add to your woes make that 401 meals a day from next week.

[sTORMY]

Hi Pete,

 

Yes, the food must be good! I was taking a tg out for dinner last month and asked her to take me to the place that serves the best Thai food in South Pattay....well she promptly took be to the Beer Garden and said that it was the best 'real' Thai food around. By that I think she meant Issan food!

 

The meal was great and the only comment I had was that the tables are too wide - you have to almost shout to the person opposite!

 

Cheers

 

Stormy

[Esco]

Thanks for the update Pete. Will come round next month and dont mind the 40 minutes delay as long as the beers only take 5 mins to get on the table

[argyllman69]

look foward to visiting pbg in dec have heard plenty about your good food and of course your freelancer,s

 

look foward to visiting pbg in dec have heard plenty about your good food and of course your freelancer,s

[Sean K]

There’s a cafebar I used to go to when I lived in Amsterdam, it had 5 standard menu items and 5specails on the day so only 10items on the menu. But what they cooked was fantastic and I never had a bad meal there or got bored with the menu.

So don’t rule out having a smaller menu as if the food is of a high quality that’s what counts.

 

I think you've done a great job with the beer garden, it always a stop off for me before I head to WS.

[gordy]

Was in PBG last trip and didnt notice any excessive delays.

[monkey01]

not a bad posistion to be pete being to busy sure beats being to quiet

I will be in pats in feb will send you a pm before i leave the uk so you can get my dinner ready

[camy9000]

So don’t rule out having a smaller menu as if the food is of a high quality that’s what counts.

Im a chef and agree with this 100%

[moon71]

The smaller menu option seems to be winning here, i like that idea but heres another thought worth considering.

 

If i was in your kitchen, the busier you got, the less interested i would be to perform, i don't particularly like working hard. If i knew one night was going to be extemely busy, i might even come up with a story as to why i can't come to work, sounds familiar?

 

Introduce a bonus scheme for targets met in the kitchen or to all the staff employed. A baht bonus to staff if all meals are cooked an served within 25minutes will improve teamworking. Add a bonus too for 400meals cooked an watch your abscondance rate dissapear. Make a chart, put it on the wall for all to see, workers love that shit. Pay the bonus monthly as a lump so it realy sticks out. This might be better than hiring yourself out of the problem. Working harder does require reward, otherwise , why bother as a worker, but if a bonus system (which was achievable) was in place, watch me/them work there arse of to get it.

 

Bonuses brings many other benefits too, as the staff will be performing better as they now have an added interest in the business.

[onenosite]

I would like to send my thanks to Pete and his staff. Having had many meals at PBG in the prior

3 weeks I can testify to excellent food and service. In ever waited any unusul amount of time for

food and Almost as soon as I said "Tiger draft please" a very cold beer was placed before me. But for

those who have not been there. It is one of the best locations in PATTS. the views are amazing and every

direction is worth a photo-op. I even met a lovely FL there one night. If there is one thing to be careful

of, Do not let the girl have you try any of that stuff they eat. I think its called somtam. Better to just eat

burning coals from BBQ. The stuff was so hot I could not feel my bottom lip for hours. As for the menu,

I liked the vairity myself. The sashimi prawns, followed by another thai prawn dish and chases down

with a few sliders. great way to start an evening. Also a perfect place for a relaxing afternoon session

To discuss plans with mates. I was also happily suprised with the number of FL there one night. I think

I got the best one. Just smile and say hello and the rest is easy!

[timorno]

good that you are trying to do something about this... if its not working I suggest you just hire someone with experiences in large restaurants... some of the huge seafood places have even more tables than your place but manage to serve the dishes quickly... it can't be this difficult

[LongPlay]

I agree with some of the above posts. It is great to have a problem with too much business. The specialty manager's position, for your kitchen will do the trick. Keep looking and get one ASAP. It will make you live longer, by keeping the stress levels on YOU to a much smaller level. You have the winner of all winners in your location / theme / ambiance. Keep it going.

 

Hoping to see you again mid year. Will certainly visit EVERY time I am in Patts....

[ishtar]

Pete, ate dinner at your place last night around 7:30pm. My cold beer arrived with a minute or two after ordering it and the food arrived 5 minutes thereafter. (June) service staff was excellent.

[markus_welby]

I happened to try for some sweet & sour pork on one of the nights in question. The very nice young woman let me know there was a 1 hour delay. I decided to eat elsewhere, but was happy the staff were advising customer of the delay rather than just taking the order and letting the customer find out for themselves, so no worries.

[BigBangkokTheory]

I happened to try for some sweet & sour pork on one of the nights in question. The very nice young woman let me know there was a 1 hour delay. I decided to eat elsewhere, but was happy the staff were advising customer of the delay rather than just taking the order and letting the customer find out for themselves, so no worries.

 

Absolutely! OP is definitely doing the right thing by setting expecations upfront when there will be a delay...smart move

[crazy_gman]

Pete I was there Loy Kratong night and I do remember the food taking a while but it was no big deal, it was well worth it once it got there, and like everyone else said as long as the beer is served fast and cold I don't really care how long it takes for the food, if I want fast food and I pop over to crappy Mac's for a burger, but the PBG is a place to chill out and relax..

 

I was also the on the 13th of Nov and I must tell you there were some real lookers in there, I actually was talking to a smoking hot FL but I had made other plans so couldn't take her with me but I really wanted to.

 

Thanks Pete and I am trying to come back for Christmas but not looking good, flights from Canada are very expensive that time, might have to wait till mid January..

 

crazy_gman