To help ease Sunday-night summer stress on its clubhouse kitchen, Sharon Heights G&CC turned its Turn Shack into a popular Smokehouse Grill featuring signature smoked entrees.
For Michael Nakahara, Assistant General Manager/Executive Chef at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club, Menlo Park, Calif., having a popular venue can be a double- edged sword—especially when summer’s good weather and leisurely pace can bring big waves of impromptu dining decisions. This can be especially problematic for a kitchen like Nakahara’s, where everything is prepared a la minute.
So when Sharon Heights began to have as many as 120 walk-ins on summer Sunday nights, on top of a full slate of reservations, Nakahara needed to redirect the crowds. “We’re fortunate to have this ‘problem,’ but when the amount of business starts to affect our ability to serve the highest-quality fare, something needs to change,” he says. “When we would get too slammed, we would regrettably have to turn members away.
Instead of losing that potential revenue, Sharon Heights, which did $4.4 million in total F&B last year, created a new, casual outdoor dining option for Sunday nights in the summer that cost little to create while alleviating the stress on the clubhouse kitchen and supporting the club’s family-golf program.
THE GOAL:Sharon Heights G&CC needed to reduce walk-in traffic to its dining room on Sunday summer nights, while also providing a new casual, outdoor dining option.
THE PLAN: Using a cold-smoking technique and a mesquite grill, the club piggybacked an outdoor barbecue concept onto regular service at its Turn Shack on Sundays, serving grapewood-smoked meats, fish and poultry, along with traditional sides.
THE PAYOFF: The Smokehouse Grill increased Turn Shack sales by 13% and helped to relieve stress put on the kitchen by walk-in traffic. It also boosted to-go sales and helped to support the familygolf program, drawing in members who don’t typically dine at the club on Sunday nights.
Thus, the Smokehouse Grill was born at the club’s Turn Shack, featuring signature grapevine-smoked entrees, finished on a mesquite grill, that can be served either at outdoor tables, poolside, or to-go.
“Our Turn Shack is pretty well-equipped,” says Nakahara. “But the bulk of the prep for the grill can be done in advance of service, which makes it an easy operation to run, without the need for additional staffing.”
To prepare for the new Sunday offer, Nakahara cold-smoked chicken, salmon and two portioned salads with chardonnay grapevines in the club’s kitchen the day before, and put it all in a speed rack wrapped with plastic wrap. He also cold-smoked brisket, baby back ribs and a house-made Wagyu burger with cabernet grapevines in a similar fashion.
Doing most of the cooking this way, during service Nakahara could simply finish and rewarm items as they were ordered, while grilling ears of organic corn and other vegetables. “Since everything was cooked, all I had to do was warm it on the grill, add our house-made barbecue sauce, and plate it,” he says.
Club chefs’ frequent trips to nearby wine regions yielded a supply of discarded grapevines that could be used to bring a distinctive smoked grapewood flavor to Grill specialties.
The Smokehouse menu, while simple and succinct, was clearly displayed on a board at the Turn Shack, and members were encouraged to pick and choose the sides they wanted. Much like the proteins, sides were also pre-prepared in the clubhouse; they included honey-lime coleslaw, buttermilk mashed potatoes, homemade baked beans with bacon, green apples and molasses, grilled vegetables, steak-cut fries tossed with smoked sea salt, and sliced garden tomatoes.
“We also offered four different pies [apple, mixed berry, banana cream and chocolate cream] as well as three different flavors of ice cream [vanilla, chocolate and strawberry],” says Nakahara. “And we kept the price points low, which really appealed to families.” (Proteins and portioned salads were $8.95, sides were $1.95 and desserts were $4.95.)
“It was hugely popular with members, either to dine at the club or as a take-out option,” says Nakahara. “Nearly 50% of our business at the Grill was take-out.”
The Smokehouse Grill not only increased Turn Shack sales by 13%, it drew in 8% of members who didn’t normally dine at the club on Sunday nights. Nakahara will expand on its success this year, adding pizza and a make-your-own sundae bar.
By The Numbers
By Joanna DeChellis, Contributing Editor
Brackett’s Crossing’s chefs and wait staff have reached a happy
coexistence, thanks to a new plate-delivery system.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith have invited a few close friends to Brackett’s Crossing Country Club, Lakeville, Minn., to celebrate their anniversary with them. Mrs. Smith wants the salmon, medium-rare, hold the asparagus and substitute broccolini. Her husband wants the steak, rare, with mashed potatoes. Mrs. Jones wants the cobb salad but hold the egg, bacon and blue cheese. Mr. Jones wants the black & bleu salad with a side of fries and ranch dressing.
THE GOAL: Brackett’s Crossing CC wanted to become more organized and confident in how its food runners deliver food to larger tables.
THE PLAN: The staff developed a magnetic numbering system, using stick-on magnets with colored numbers attached to plate covers, to help staff identify which dish goes to which guest.
THE PAYOFF: The staff likes the system and understands it better, and the members are impressed with how confidently the food is delivered to their table.
The waitress tries to get everyone’s exact requests so she can enter them correctly into the POS system. With a number of other large parties also awaiting orders with similar special requests, the kitchen at Brackett’s Crossing is a flurry of activity, with plated dish after plated dish landing in the window, ready to be served.
A strip magnet on the line (arrow, right) holds numbers that correspond to seat numbers and are placed on covers when orders are ready.
After a short time, the dishes for everyone in the Smith party make their way to the expeditor. But which dish goes to which diner? And how many dishes must the expeditor still wait on before a food runner can start serving? Without a solid system in place, chaos—and cold food—ensues.
“Like most clubs, we have many large groups that come to the restaurant to dine,” says Michael Bohnert, Assistant General Manager at Brackett’s Crossing. “We use plate covers and food runners to help expedite, but the staff was always confused as they delivered the food to tables, not knowing which dish went to which diner.
“After countless scrubbings of dry-erase marker on the plate covers, to try and identify what went to whom, we came up with the idea of placing magnetic numbers on the covers that coincide with the [diners’] seat numbers,” Bohnert reports.
Now, waiters ring in the order associated with a specific seat and fire it to the kitchen, where there is a separate stack of 20 lids with stick-on magnets on the outside. A strip magnet on the line holds the magnets, which are numbered accordingly, so the expeditor can clearly see which dishes are ready—and, more importantly, which aren’t.
- Takeout service is generally seen as having the most appeal for members and guests who aren’t inclined to cook for themselves. But The Kansas City Country Club, Mission Hiills, Kan., developed a to-go niche for in-home cooking as well, offering freshly made vegetable, chicken and demiglace stocks that can be ordered from the club.
- For a Dr. Seuss-themed Family New Year’s Eve celebration at Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase, Md., the F&B staff came up with a new option for Shirley Temples by filling plastic cups with blue cotton candy and adding labels that said, “For a Tasty Delight, fill me with Sprite.” The fizzy concoction proved so popular, it’s now offered at many of the club’s family events—and has also spawned an adult “cotton candy cosmo” version, using vodka and cranberry juice.
“Once food starts to come up in the window, the lids are placed on the plates with the corresponding seat numbers,” explains Bohnert. “As more orders come up, the expeditor can look at the numbers and know instantly what seat numbers are left to come up, as well as when to start running the food.”
As a result of the new numbering system, Bohnert reports, Brackett’s Crossing is much more efficient when serving larger parties, and members are impressed that the food runners are able to set plates down quickly and properly.
“We have an 11-page menu where members can get anything, anywhere, anytime,” says Bohnert. “If someone wants breakfast at night, we accommodate them. General modifiers are normal, too, plus we offer just about all plates in large and small [portions]. It’s critical that we get the right dish to the right person, and this system has helped us do that.
“The system is so simple and straightforward,” he adds. “But that’s the beauty of it. It’s just a magnet with a washer and a round sticker, but it’s made such a positive impact on our front-of-house service standards.” So much so, in fact, that the club is thinking of adding another set of numbers for the restaurant service line to use in the near future.
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