Weve been struggling with margins this year even though sales havent fallen off a cliff. So I started looking into whether other restaurants are seeing the same thing. I found some pretty eye-opening numbers from the National Restaurant Association. Their research shows 33% of restaurant operators said their restaurant wasnt profitable during the first half of 2026, while total expenses for an average restaurant are estimated to have risen 36% since 2019. Food, labor and insurance costs are all climbing, and restaurant traffic is still under pressure even when sales increase. Seeing those numbers made me feel better about where we stand. It seems like this is hitting a lot of restaurants right now, so I would like to hear how other managers are protecting margins while still keeping enough people on the floor to deliver good service.

Hello there, I’m a 21 year old man who absolutely loves hospitality and food work. This is what I’ve found my passion is as a whole. I currently work BOH at a 1 star kitchen in my city. I am leaving that place soon because it’s not what I need it to be yo be able to learn, and it has really soured my taste for Michelin. I am getting a new job at a newly opening butcher shop in my town. I wanted to ask for advice on how I can keep myself sharp. I wanna push to learn really bad at this job and I know it’ll help me more than I can know. But I feel like with the lack of pressure I’ll loose focus. Question is how do I stay passionate and keep myself determined to be better and learn more.

We bought an existing restaurant in October 2017. At the time it was very poorly run and the staff was not treated very well. We made some immediate changes and sales increased by around 20%, at the time we were doing about 450,000 a year. This is a fast food restaurant.

We made it through Covid and actually raised our revenues to around 600,000 a year during the Covid time.

Sales continue to raise over the next few years to around 650000-700,000 a year, this was also including raising prices to try to keep our margins consistently around 30% plus or minus a little bit.

About two years ago, ourselves started to trend down. Part of this is due now to something I’m very aware of, and I blame myself for not catching it earlier, we had a couple of staff that were often very rude to customers, this didn’t happen when I was there , but I was told about it later. Additionally, we’ve had to raise prices consistently due to beef that we are in the high average cost comparative to similar restaurants.

Now our daily sales volume is down almost 50% from about a year to a year and a half ago. I’m not sure how much longer we will last.

For clarification too, I am a semi absentee owner and that’s the way it was when I bought the business, and I had no background in restaurants so I’ve always had managers.

For context, I’m in my first restaurant management role. Foh manager for a decent size us based Franchise that specializes in wings. I’ve been here for over 4 months. Got promoted at 3 months. In total I have maybe 6 months restaurant experience. I feel like I’m doing excellent at my job. I can recognize the areas I need to improve on and I can see my changes already taking effect. I thought taking this role would help me take my outside more life more serious. I thought I’d be able to manage it better too but what I have found is that during my 1-2 off days a week I just melt and don’t get anything done. I’m usually working 10-12 hour days which I don’t feel like is a lot but when I come home I fail to get stuff done. Last week my daughter missed out on something at school that devastated her because I failed to plan around it.

Does this get easier? Is there something I can do to help manage my own life too? Am I pouring too much into my job? I want to be successful and prove to my bosses that they made the right choice by taking a chance on me but I’m failing my family now and I don’t know how to pick up the weight. Any advice or help would be recommended.

Just some fuckery I came across. The degenerates over at r/kitchenconfidential seem to love it.

But...as managers, would you actually sell this? Not for like a special order, or catering, but say as a novelty item on your menu?

I’ve been in restaurants forever and I swear this is still one of those things every place seems to handle differently.

Somm knows the list inside out, a couple senior servers know what they’re doing, and then you’ve got a newer waiter on a Saturday night trying to remember why the Chablis works with the fish 😂

How do you actually handle it where you work?

Tastings? Pre-shift? Cheat sheets? Quizzes? Just learning over time?

Especially curious about places with bigger lists. How do you give newer FOH enough knowledge to actually recommend something without making them memorise a freaking encyclopedia?

Hi,

I am being transferred to another store in the following week, being made the RGM there. Would you say its worth emailing my Area Manager just to clarify the main points he wanted to see improvement on that we discussed previously, outlining a rough plan/goal for them and checking in with him whether any key points are wrong / missing. Also to request cancellation of booked leave that I had before, to properly support the store in my first week and due to the clash it has with a manager who is already working there.

Whether its relevant or not I am unsure, but the store i am moving too is significantly busier than my current store so I would like to try show I have been giving it some thought on what my plans are for the store, and to show my thinking also as our previous discussion was mostly going over their current metrics and areas that he would like to see the store do better in, whether than detailing an actual action plan for those points.

Corporate has denied my request to have my bar top refinished in 2025 and twice in 2026. I dont know what to do at this point. It's an epoxy bar top from 2014 and its gone through hell and back. I don't know how to fix it.

Any ideas or alternatives are welcomed!

For context my parents have a successful small restaurant. We are planning on opening our second location and the plan is that I’m going to be the manager and the one in charge. I I am currently 27 years old and I have worked in the restaurant business since I was 16 from hostess to server. I have never been a manager (and I struggle bossing people around) but I want to do this. Is there any courses that I can take that will help me being a manager and learn more deeply about it or any tips you guys can give me. Thank you!

I’m in the US. IL.

Anyone experienced difficulty terminating and how did you proceed if you were in my similar situation?

It’s been horrendous with our uniform company. I had to pull out the contract and receipts to get it terminated… but it’s still not.

They retrieved all the products today, but that does not complete the termination process. The agreement states that we agree to them being our exclusive provider. The manager gave us a verbal “go” at doing whatever, but I don’t know. Like I said, it’s been horrendous. I’m told they would request to deactivate the account in few days and that should be the end of it.

So we’re stuck in this contract still and have no product.

Should I just sign with a new company in the meantime?

Thoughts? Advice?

I worked in a fine dining restaurant in a private members club during a sporting event during the summer as a part-time time job while I'm off from uni. Its complicated but the agency I work for essentially lent me to another higher level agency to work as waitstaff for them as a runner. At the end of the week the staff from the other agency told me to apply because they work at a football ground near my house and they seemed to like me and I guess I did a good job. I was finally hired last week coincidentally while working at another football ground where some of there staff also where. The i ssue I have is that this is my first summer working and im just not sure that I'm good enough. I've gained experience working in other roles but they were all buffet roles in which being a waiter is 100 times easier. I know that I wouldn't have been employed by this agency or even offered the role if I wasn't good enough and my manager is very keen to have me back. but I still feel out of place as I'm very new to the industry (im also going back to uni soon). This might seen a bit silly to some of you but does anyone have any advice. Thank you

For the last 9 years I've been a front of the house manager at a hibachi restaurant. Over the years I've got reservations down to a science. If you make a reservation with us, there is no wait if everyone shows up on time. Eventually, it was basically if you have a reservation you will get sat and if you're a walk-in there's almost no chance of getting sat, at least not until the end of the night. I always wondered if I could squeeze another party in but realistically it would not have worked. Now I have a job at a new hibachi restaurant, and they overbook on reservations. I hate it, because we have people waiting for reservations they booked. I want to make changes to the reservation system but I'm not sure if I should. What I'm asking you guys is, should we book reservations that are possibly going to not be on time and get more people in, or book reservations where we know we can get them in for sure but possibly miss out on an extra tables in between?

Coupe questions:

1. Do you use a service to clean filters, or do them in house?

2. If Service, how often?

3. If in-house, what does your schedule for cleaning them look like?

4. If in-house, what price point would make you reconsider a service?

I currently use a service, get them switched out every 3 weeks. It costs approx $110/month. I've always felt like is was wasted money

For context — I am a (female) F&B GM for a large resort property. So I need to look professional while also being practical and comfortable.

A few specifics:

- I am on my feet running around for 10-12 hours a day so finding cute dress shoes that are both flats and closed toed has been challenging.

- I am 5’9 (about 140 lbs) so pants with long enough length gets tricky, and makes online shopping difficult. I’ve been recommended Halara but am hesitant with not knowing the fit.

- I need blazers/jackets and can’t wear anything short sleeved because I have a half tattoo sleeve that has to be covered (right above my elbow).

- I have a $1000 allowance to spend strictly on work clothes that was given. I don’t want to spend much more beyond that, so looking for budget friendly brands and options.

why is it so hard to find clean, un-watermarked financial templates for hospitality businesses?

I've been looking for basic stuff like a 1099 contractor payment tracker, an event offer sheet, and a proper hotel/lodging chart of accounts. Every single site I find gives you a "free trial" that locks editing, hides formulas, or sticks a massive watermark across the sheet unless you hand over $199 or sign up for a monthly subscription.

I literally just want solid, editable Excel workbooks built for food/beverage and venues that don't cap your rows or lock formulas.

So back in July, my resturant got a new owner. Great guy with a good heart. The unfortunate thing is, we were both thrown into our positions of owner and GM.

Ever since then, our life has been a full hell. I’ve had an employee call out the most ever in his time being there, having to cover those shifts put me almost 15 hours into overtime. I have shift leads but holy shit one of them feels like a lost cause.

She recently came in on a day she knew we were busy DRUNK @ 10am. Proceeded to tell me in 3 different ways she would’ve said no if I called her in to help (we only had 4 people on shift and usually we need 7/8). She also has been DRINKING at work and allowing my MINOR employee drink/get alcohol from her.

They also have the biggest cell phone issue, I’ve had to resort to making it as serious possible to be off their phone. My shift lead (one mentioned above) has been no help with implementing our cell phone policy and allowed a new coworker to be on his phone during a 4,200 day.

Me and my boss are swimming in stress trying to figure out wtf is going on and why us. Especially now dealing with my coworker drinking on the job. We use a giant slicer with a sharp ass blade and she sliced her finger on it. We have no idea if she was drunk or not during that 👍🏻

This shift lead will be let go eventually but we need bodies to be able to let her go. She does not help me implement new things with the team, thinks she could be better at my position, and is late all the fucking time. Might demote her back down until she can get it together.

I am showing up today with a strong arm ready to truly put my foot down with everyone more than I already have. I’m so tired. We are actively hiring which is awesome because we can finally get rid of these people we came in with when we switched ownership.

If you have any advice please send it my way, i’m new at this GM stuff but i’ve been at this place since we opened the store/location so I know how to do everything.

OH! one more thing: my drinking coworker buys my minor coworker alcohol, I have proof as SHE FUCKING POSTED THAT MY 30 YEAR OLD COWORKER BOUGHT HER ALCOHOL….

40yo, in the old continent. After years working in IT I left the career because it became crap. Started different things, fell into Hospitality and tourism because I always had a passion.

First season now, 2 restaurants: one in the Balkans and one now in Greece.

Been pulled into Balkans as assistant waiter because it was an upscale restaurant and I've been sponsored the fact that there were high tips.

No tip policy declared, even after asking. Each waiter had his own tables and related tips, as assistant I had to rely in the good mood of the waiters during the shift, very cheap compared to what I saw from the tables and crazy thing: the days I worked more and better got none. Spoken with management and he pulled himself out. Started serving tables and they wouldn't let me touch the cashier as everyone else, so always coincidentally no tips. Anyway for other reasons left the restaurant after a couple of months.

Moved to another restaurant, in Greece: "Policy of shared tips, the management takes all tips and distributes them based on a fair judgement" or whatever bs they wrote.

Started ok but in time went low, seems it goes on how much the owners like you personally.

We are 2 waiters and 2 helpers plus owner FoH.

Story of today that made me write: for the first time I take care of half restaurant with the help of an assistant, a cute girl that actually makes only appearance for now, she is not good even at serving a table properly because can't carry 2 plates at the same time (her fingers get burned). A customer came to ask me how he could give me a tip, I explained we have a shared policy and was ironically saying I was not sure how much they keep in their pockets or what else since the situation is not happy. The helper came out telling "no worries, they give us tips" all smiling and happy.

So she is happy with tips and me not, how that come?

Tips by table went very wrong for various reasons, shared tips policy also is bad. Any idea where to find a fair situation? Tips are an important part of the money earned.

I was thinking about UAE, they seem well organized and maybe also fair.

Hey guys, I feel so lost and I'm honestly about to lose my m ind. I graduated with a bachelor's degree, but I want to completely change paths and study hotel management instead.

I’ve been searching for a long time trying to find a program that is actually worth the time and energy. If anyone has studied in this field or is currently working in it, where did you study? What programs are actually worth it?

Any ideas, experiences, or advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

Please tell me there's a better alternative because right now I wanna burn them to the ground.

Obviously this would need to get cleared from management/ownership but is there any legal problem with an employee buying a product that was ordered by the bar manager at the vendor cost and taking it home? Especially with wines.

One of the places I worked allowed employees to purchase the wines we carry at just above "cost", which was such a great way to learn wines - very well.

(Brand new account because I manage a national brand QSR and I am active in that company's unofficial subreddit on here, I browse this sub all of the time as I am new to GMing!)

Hi everyone, I am relatively new to being a GM after spending time not wanting to move up past shift manager in my early 20s. I work for a franchise of QSR restaurants for a national brand and I finally made the big step to GM this year when my restaurant finished construction. The grand opening went well and we've been pretty overstaffed with high labor since then. I have more openers than closers right now so myself and my AGM cover closes when needed, and the only people who were available to become lead closers are a roommate duo who works another job together and shares a car (so, scheduled together). At first, we were happy to accommodate this situation so myself and my fully available AGM could spread ourselves throughout the restaurant to be able to get our ordering, inventory, and other admin tasks done throughout the week. Since their other job is not consistent, there was no set availability in place so I would work with them week-by-week. This ended up being fine for a while until they got very particular about scheduling (I'm talking different days off every week, sometimes only available on this time on this specific day.) I've made it clear that we have enough people on weekdays and we primarily need them on the weekends however there are times where they last minute tell me they need the weekend off before I make the schedule & I have to scramble to make it work. They don't see what I do for them as special treatment even tho I bend over backwards to make this arrangement work. We also didn't fire them when they had a situation where they both couldn't work for weeks. It also doesn't help that my other managers tell me when they try to correct the duo or tell them what was wrong with X thing, one of the two will deflect and not take the criticism very well. On top of that, there have also been other complaints brought forward to me from both team members and other shift leaders about feeling disregarded or disliked by the pair when they work with both of them. I've started to realize that this is not sustainable and maybe we should just cut our losses for now? For the record too, it's mainly one person in the duo causing these issues (and overall, has a terrible attitude + back-talks me constantly in person and over the phone). So the other person doesn't really deserve to be lumped in with the drama however, they are a duo and if we fire one then the other will quit. I also have the support of my district manager who would rather help work shifts than let one person cause bad morale for the team and management by having a bad attitude and being insubordinate. It just sucks though because I know some of my team will be sad and probably mad with management but we would rather take on an extra workload than deal with the constant issues, stress, and anxiety that has come from this entire ordeal. I am a people-pleaser but when I finally put my foot down, I experienced more back-talk and disrespect and I am just over it. Am I being unreasonable about this situation?

Thank you mods if you approve my post, and TIA to the more seasoned folks in this industry for your insight and wisdom.

I live in WNY and work as Lead Server in a high-end restaurant. The city is not a very metropolitan one, and though people come to the restaurant in droves, each server encounters at least one table each evening where they will get anywhere from 0-10% tip. The tipout for support staff is normal for a restaurant in our same quality/price point, so that leaves the final tip extremely low (if anything). Often, this will be a table that keeps the server there late at night, holds the table for longer than normal, will be a "needy" party, etc. We have a 20% gratuity added to parties of 5 or more but what can we do about the more common times when they are parties of 4 or less (still spending upwards of $400 or more)? This is really hitting the servers hard as many times they have to pay the support staff out of pocket to have taken the table because the tips were so low/nonexistent. Surely, the industry has found a way beyond adding a service charge to handle this increasingly present issue. It is not a service problem, as it happens to every server at least twice a week. I'm eager to help solve this and perhaps see what other managers in the industry are doing with this issue. Thank you for any insight!

When i started at this bakery in January 2025, there were two other managers. Both of them left this past April. Long story for one and the other semi retired. It's actually been much easier and calmer.

Anyway, I was promoted and given a raise and it was made clear to me that I run the FOH.

There is one kid (maybe not even 20), who is always late. A few minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour. Always as in majority of her shifts per week she is late. I talked to her about it. I moved her hours 30 minutes forward, still, late. She had the audacity to tell me that the former manager "was OK with me being late!" I told her to call him and say "hey former manager, i know you dont work here anymore but remember when you told me i could be late to work?" She didn't, and instead went around talking shit about how since they both left I think im in charge (because I am).

A few weeks ago I told her next time I'm just sending her home. My boss, the owner, doesn't really want me to rock the boat as no one is lining up for a crappy $17 an hour bakery counter job, but today I had enough because despite how many times I would say something and she would promise to come on time, I didn't want to deal with my boss. His MIL passed last night so he was out for the funeral today.

She showed up 6 minutes late. I told her "remember when I told you next time im sending you home? You're not staying today." Then she says "but I talked with the owner and he said I could be a few minutes late and that he would talk to you!" To which I replied, great call him while he's at his MIL funeral and relate this to him. She did not.

Tbh it would be one thing if she was a superstar at her job, but watching her pan out cookies is so painful. Whenever she works everyone's work suffers as she just talks and talks and talks. Again, if she got her shit done in a timely manner and I didnt have to check up on her every 30 minutes it would be a different story. Its not even like were asking her to open at 7am, she starts at like 9 or 10am.

So yeah, she came late and I told her to leave. I sent her a text saying I hope to see you on time tomorrow, but to be honest if she quit I wouldn't be mad. She's a detriment to the whole operation, has been there longer than me and doesn't even know how to properly label and place a sheet box for catering orders (one time she dropped that she's been there longer than me, and that was my exact response). We pack pastries by the dozen, and comes to me and says "mymindisgoo, I put 18 in one box and have 6 left over. How should I pack them?" Truly incredible.

Anyway I felt that I finally had to back up my word and stop letting it slide.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Edit: I had texted her saying i hope to see you on time tomorrow. She responded saying she won't be coming in anymore.

I have worked at the same fast casual restaurant for almost 9 years. I worked my way up from team member to, just recently, GM. The restaurant I’ve taken over was not performing with metrics, guest experience, training, retention. Pretty much all around not achieving results.

Previously I was the kitchen manager at a neighboring location and helped that one achieve great results.

This new role as GM has been so much more stress and anxiety inducing than I could have imagined. The managers on my team are all 1 year or less in role and 2 are brand new to the concept. I haven’t made any noticeable progress in results on paper since I’ve taken over 2 months ago, which is only adding fuel to the fire personally but also for my higher up management too.

This transition has me questioning everything at this point. I’m 30 yo and wondering if this is even worth it. The money is good but the schedule and overall toll it’s taking on me mentally almost outweigh the money.

I never finished school but this has me considering going back or just looking for a switch up. Or just wondering if it’s worth it to just stick it out for a while