Food that’s as classy and tasty as it is convenient can really help take-out revenues take off.
Even when members and guests don’t have time for a leisurely restaurant meal, they still crave good cooking. And many clubs and resorts are finding ways to satisfy those cravings— and increase their food and beverage business— by expanding to-go options beyond the traditional burgers, hot dogs and chicken fingers. As a result, they’re seeing revenues from take-out really take off.
Don E. Samara, Jr., Executive Chef at Oak Tree Country Club in Edmond, Okla., not only offers meals-to-go to members, he uses every opportunity to actively promote his family friendly, on-the-run options. One easy and effective way to tempt their taste buds is to pop copies of his current menu into members’ monthly statements.Two months ago, Samara also initiated an office lunch catering service for members, and added a reminder of this new service in the club’s monthly newsletter.
“We’ll prepare and deliver anything from California wraps to full-course meals,” Samara explains. “We’ll even come to their offices and prepare a Caesar salad bowl, right in front of them. [These orders] can be applied to the members’ monthly food minimum, and they’re a great way to raise staff morale [at a member’s company].”
Oak Tree members can also request valet delivery of their take-out meals. All they have to do is call ahead, and the food will be brought right to their cars as they pull up to the clubhouse entrance.
At dinnertime, home-style Italian specialties such as chicken piccata and veal marsala are among the most popular dishes for dine-in and take-out at Oak Tree, says Samara. For extra-rich flavor in his chicken piccata, he adds a generous helping of crimini mushrooms, and to stabilize the usually delicate sauce for home transport, he mixes in a tablespoon of crème fraiche. (For the veal marsala, he substitutes a little dry marsala wine demi-glace as the stabilizer.)
Members have also become hooked on Samara’s Thursday evening fish menus, featuring sea-dwelling specialties flown in fresh from Hawaii. To make sure that members don’t miss a forkful of Pacific perfection (including parrot fish, which must be caught with a spear, at waters 100-feet-plus deep), Samara will package the Thursday fish du jour and its accompaniments— which may be a pineapple relish, steamed veggies and rice, or roasted new potatoes with a touch of olive oil—for take-out.
Fresh New Zealand salmon makes it to Oak Tree members’ homes as an entrée or atop a Caesar salad just as moist and fresh as if it had been cooked a la minute, thanks to a simple, yet tasty marinade of extra virgin olive oil, finely ground black pepper, garlic pulverized with salt, and lemon zest (“never lemon juice, because it will ’cook’ the fish like a ceviche,” Samara cautions). After soaking up the flavors for anywhere from a couple of hours to overnight, Samara sears the fish on a flattop set at medium heat for about three-and-a-half minutes per side for an eight ounce filet.
On weekends at Oak Tree, hearty pots of soups and chilis simmer away, offering members a snack to savor while relaxing in the club’s grill or to grab for a quick meal to go. Samara’s repertoire includes somewhere between 20 to 25 ladle-worthy flavors, including butter bean and sausage soup, white grape gazpacho, and vegetarian chili. During the summer, he fires up the outdoor grills and sizzles sausages for grinders piled with red or jalapeno peppers (the latter is a favorite of Tiger Woods, he says), cheese, and red sauce. Gimmes at Gimmie’s Innovative soups and chilis are also among the most popular to-go specialties served up by Don Gallagher, Executive Chef at Gimmie’s Sports Bar at Groff ’s Farm Golf Club in Mount Joy, Pa. Located in the heart of agricultural Lancaster County’s Amish region, Gallagher makes good use of fresh seasonal produce in recipes such as toasted corn and sweet pepper or chilled peach bisques, and soup selections such as fresh blueberry, “fire and ice” (cucumber and jalapeno), and sweet/spicy pumpkin and jalapeno. The bounty of watercress that grows on the property’s pond becomes the basis for a creamy soup that’s another seasonal favorite.
Cold weather brings a big call for clam or ham and cheese chowder and Gallagher’s head-to-toewarming chilis. Chocolate is the “secret ingredient” in his Aztec chili, while a tangy barbecue sauce, cumin and a kickin’ combo of jalapenos and chipotles sets off his Texas Bar-B-Q version. Other colorful renditions include chili verde (green), white with chicken and beans, and black bean with chicken.
Gimmie’s is receiving an increasing number of calls from members placing take-out orders from the club’s 17th hole, Gallagher reports. He’ll happily wrap up anything on the regular menu, from quesadillas to daily specials that might be anything from a pan seared beef tenderloin Napoleon (stacked with caramelized onions and shallots and black pepper demi-glace) to chicken penne carbonara bake (a pasta, ham and cream sauce combination topped with a bubbling blend of mozzarella, parmesan and provolone cheeses). A variation of the second dish substitutes sausage and pepperoni for the ham, red sauce for the cream sauce, a flavorful saute of peppers and onions, and a topping of mozzarella.
Take-Out Takes Flight Golfers on the 17th hole at Barrington Golf Club in Aurora, Ohio know they can have a tasty takeout meal waiting for them at the end of a round, too. And they also already know what’s inseason, because Executive Chef Brad Gambrell e-mails his latest lunch and dinner menus to each member every four weeks. He also posts the menus on an enclosed bulletin board at the 17th hole, as a reminder.
Two of Gambrell’s most-requested take-out selections are French-fried crawfish with housemade barbecue and chipotle dipping sauces, and “Steak Flight” (his take-off on wine-tasting flights), featuring three skewers of char-grilled Angus beef bites with horseradish sour cream, Mandarin barbecue and chili garlic sauces.
Saturdays and Sundays are family dining evenings, with a special menu of “comfort foods” such as meat loaf and pork chops, available for eat-in or take-out. Gambrell will also deliver meals from this weekend menu to residents in the Barrington residential community who are within a six-to-10-mile radius of the club. Since introducing these family dining options, the club has increased its weekend dinner sales by “at least 20%,” Gambrell says.
“We tried delivery on other days, but it didn’t work as well,” he notes. “Weekends seem to be prime time for dining at home with the family.”
Any night of the week, members can have any à la carte item from the regular menu prepared for carryout. Examples of upscale, made-to-order meals that are now made ready for pick-up at a member’s convenience include grilled pork chop with sweet potato spaetzel, collard greens and club-made applesauce; chicken involtini (a sautéed breast roulade with sundried tomato, shiitake mushrooms, garlic and sauce au naturel); and saffron linguini with heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, Chardonnay and olive oil. The take-out option is particularly popular on badweather days, when members seem to want to get home from work and settle in with a good meal, says Gambrell.
Boyne-Again Sales
At the Country Club at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs, Mich., Executive Chef Chris Bryant has been focusing on making upgrades a la “cart”—sandwich cart, that is. Since his crew began baking three types of bread onpremise two years ago (white, wheat, and light rye topped artisan-style with grains and seeds), “sandwich sales have really turned around,” Bryant says. While straightforward classics such as turkey, ham and cheese, and roast beef subs sell well, signature specialties such as ahi tuna wrap and smoked chicken wrap with dried cherries and stone-ground mustard do even better.
Adding salads to the cart offerings has also sparked a lot of interest. A particular favorite is the traditional Cobb Salad with scratch-made dressing. Right-from-the-oven oatmeal, chocolate chip and macadamia white chocolate cookies have created a major snack sensation. The five-inch-round treats sell like hotcakes, Bryant reports. Sixteen-ounce cups of fresh fruit, such as summer Michigan cherries, also provide portable satisfaction.
The recent addition of a sports bar at the resort has helped to boost take-out food sales, Bryant notes. “In addition to viewing the club as a leisure dining destination, members now stop in more frequently for casual cocktails and appetizers; while they’re here, they’ll often order a more substantial meal from the menu to take home,” he says.
As membership at Oakhurst Golf and Country Club in Clarkston, Mich. has increased, so has the call for carry-out cuisine, says Executive Chef Tom Omara. During the summer months, takeout at the club averages somewhere between 5 and 10% of food sales. In fall and winter—with kids back in school and parents constantly running them to after-school activities— that number jumps to about 30%.
Omara’s offerings include about 15 different signature sandwiches (including hazelnut whitefish on sourdough with cranberry vinaigrette) and seven kinds of salads (including warm, grilled tenderloin with roasted red peppers, marinated portabella mushrooms, and balsamic vinegar). The ever-changing array of elaborate entrees might range from stuffed quail with pine nuts, apricot glaze, dried cherries and coconut froth, to fettuccini jambalaya with chicken, peppers, onions, tomatoes, andouille sausage, Cajun seasonings and pepper jack cheese.
And how can multi-faceted dishes like these arrive looking plated-pretty? Omara credits the miracle of black plastic containers with snap-on clear lids.
Summing It Up
• Clubs are not only expanding what they offer on take-out menus, they’re also taking meals tomembers, through services such as office lunch catering and valet delivery.
• Posting menus at courses’ final holes is helping to generate calls for meals that members want to pick up after finishing their rounds.
• Weekends and bad-weather periods also offer good opportunities to promote take-out and delivery menus and services.
• Private clubs need to bear in mind that take-out food and beverage sales—even to members—are classified as “nontraditional business” and therefore subject to IRS limitations.
Takeout Has Limits As clubs seek to boost take-out revenues, they should bear in mind that take-out food and beverage sales at private 501 (c) 7 clubs are classified as “nontraditional business” or “non-exempt activities” under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code 7.25.7.6.2. For clubs in this classification, no more than 35 percent of gross receipts, including investment income, can come from sources outside the membership, and within that 35 percent no more than 15 percent of gross receipts can be derived from nonmember use of club facilities—a definition that includes sales of take-out orders to members. According to the IRS, clubs that exceed these income limitations jeopardize their exempt status.
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