What jumps out most strikingly is how food-and-beverage has gone in our business from once having to “eat in the kitchen” to now being given preferred seating in just about every club.
“Volume” is an antiquated term (its origin can be traced to the days when pieces of parchment were rolled up into scrolls) that’s still used to designate publishing cycles. In the case of monthly magazines like C&RB, we start a new “volume” with each new calendar year—and as you’ll notice from the Table of Contents of the January 2015 issue, we’re now starting Volume 11.
The official 10th anniversary of C&RB will be celebrated with our April issue later this year. But this annual changing of our “volume”—along with our cover feature on how The Trump Organization made a significant shift in the vision for its flagship property in Bedminster, N.J., since it also came on the scene about ten years ago—has sparked some early reflection on the sea changes we’ve seen in the club business since “rolling out” our first issue.
What jumps out most strikingly is how food-and-beverage has gone from having to “eat in the kitchen” (if you’ll excuse a bad analogy) to now being given preferred seating in just about every club.
In one of his earliest columns in C&RB’s first year in 2005, our Founding Publisher, Bill Donohue, triggered a torrent of indignant, that-would-never-work responses after he suggested that clubs should do away with food minimums, which he famously called nothing more than “a tax on bad food.” Today, though, it’s a pretty safe bet that when I ask a General Manager or an Executive Chef if their club has minimums, they’ll either say they’ve already eliminated or reduced them, or are at least trying to (or wishing they could) get rid of them.
Surveys by the leading club consulting organizations now consistently provide empirical data that dining has become a more important influence than golf in membership decisions—not only for those making their initial decisions on whether to join a club, and then on which club to join, but also for existing members as they choose how often to use their privileges, and whether to renew them.
We’ve seen our own statistical proof of this transformation through the ever-climbing registration numbers for our annual Chef to Chef Conference, which look certain to increase for a seventh straight year with our Savannah, Ga., gathering this March (as of this writing, signups were several weeks ahead of the record pace for last year’s Conference in San Antonio).
Echoing how F&B has grown and emerged as an important companion amenity, even at golf-driven properties like Trump National-Bedminster, it’s also telling that the keynote address at the Chef to Chef Conference in Savannah will be given by Jim James, CCM, Augusta National Golf Club’s Senior Director, Club and Hospitality Operations.
And James’ topic, “Building Your Brand by Driving Excellence,” speaks to another important theme that’s been driven home over the past ten years for every club operation, no matter how many great “volumes” may mark its history. Even the “masters” have learned, through the tumult of this latest era, that no management team can ever close the book on self-improvement.
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