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[mattm]

Welcome to another episode of Menu Make-Over! Today's menu is from Josh at Front Page News in Atlanta.

Link to Website: Front Page News

Link to Menu: FPN Menu

Layout: Front Page News uses a Double and a Half Menu Cover. This is like a double menu with a half wide tab on the right side. The tab can't be overlooked and is a good place for specials or drinks.

Josh has asked the Restaurant Community to review his menu and make suggestions. Please get involved and make your suggestions. Your suggestions might not fit what Josh is trying to accomplish, but others may take them for their menus.

[mattm]

Josh, your outside area really brings New Orleans to Atlanta. I have a sister that lives outside of Athens, so the next time I am in your area I will check it out.

My first impression on your menu is that it is easy to read. I like how you have placed the prices, this will encourage people to read the descriptions and not just search prices.

The biggest issue that I have with your menu is that the diner is not encouraged to order any particular dish. The only items with attention-getters are the Sweetwater fish items. I assume Sweetwater helps pay for your menu printing. You should develop a symbol to direct people to your specialty (and hopefully higher profit) items.

The next thing I notice is that your Entrees are hidden on the bottom of the second page. The way your menu is currently laid out, with the salads on top of the second page, encourages people looking for an Entrée to go back to the first page and order from the grill. Also, the box around the “Classic Salads” pulls the eye away from the signature Salads. The Greek Salad gets a lot more draw than I would assume you want.

For the next step, we need to know:
1. What is the order of importance of your menu groups (Entrée, Salad, Signature salad, Grill, etc.)?
2. Within each group what are the three most important dishes?
3. What items on the menu are really not worth having?

[Menu Designer]

I googled Front Page News in Atlanta and this is what it told me…..
Your food is mediocre, but you have good service. You are a sports bar with a creole cuisine. Great place for drinking and watching sports. Great rewards program. Parking is a perk. These comments came from Yelp! People said these things about your restaurant.

Now this is what I’m saying. Take your POS system and do a item usage report. I’m sure you know that this tells you what you sell the most of. Go even further and do one per lunch hours and then per dinner hours and late night hours and brunch hours. Remove the dead stuff. Acknowledge what your customers are hungry for and improve those items and bury the rest.

Do you have recipes? Do you have photographs of the food plated? Is the food consistent? Do you do a line check at the beginning of the shift? Make sure newbie’s to the kitchen use these tools.

Yelp also said you have “big portions”. Are people sharing or splitting plating it? Cut back a bit and you will stop wasting and improve on the food cost as well.

Have you check out your garbage cans recently. At the end of the shift take a big plastic bag and pour your trash on it and see what you are throwing away. Surprising what you may find.

I would layout the menu somewhat differently. You have a lot of items. If you only have 1 menu I would break it into lunch menu and dinner menu. Give KNG a little more business, but seriously it will create a better flow. Perhaps run your most popular Entrées as lunch specials. You may be able to have a lunch portions vs a dinner portions as some of the chains are doing a ½ half size salad for a buck or two less. This is a money maker.
Place your high profit items in star spots, change the layout slightly. Entrees are getting lost at the bottom they need to be at the top. Your layout is okay, standard 2 column…I like to think outside the columns sometimes. I makes thing interesting.

Thank you for letting me comment. I hope I am way off base. I have never been to your restaurant, but your business looks like a winner, very fun and inviting place to frequent. May much success be yours. Good luck with that menu!
Donna