What if the dish your guests love most, the one your servers recommend and your kitchen cranks out all night, is quietly costing you thousands of dollars a year? In this episode of “The Restaurant Prosperity Formula” podcast, I take on menu engineering that actually moves profit, starting with the mistake I see independent restaurant owners make over and over: confusing popularity with profitability. You'll hear how my CFO and restaurant coach Steve Eller broke through what he believed was a price ceiling on his burgers, what a menu review for Timbers Bar and Grill in Michigan revealed about the items it was featuring, and why I sometimes recommend trimming a sprawling menu down to 20 to 25 focused items. I also walk through the four classic menu engineering categories, explain why food cost percentage and contribution margin tell you two different things, and share how far above ideal food cost I typically see kitchens run, from no controls all the way up to rockstar chefs. You'll also learn why lowering food cost is really two jobs, not one, and the simple five-item exercise I want you to start this week.

👍 Book a Restaurant Systems Check Call: https://dsp.coach/try-systems-check

👥 Sponsor – Service with Style: www.servicewithstyle.com/dsp

📗 Get a Free Food Cost Report: https://dsp.coach/food-cost-report

🖥️ Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: https://www.davidscottpeters.com/coaching/

Your labor percentage came in at 20% last week, and everybody's celebrating. But what if your managers had nothing to do with it? In Episode 161 of “The Restaurant Prosperity Formula” podcast, I explain why labor percentage is a scoreboard, not a steering wheel, and why restaurant owners who manage by that single number end up coaching the wrong things. You'll learn why a great labor percentage can hide sloppy management and a bad one can hide a manager who did everything right. I also cover how to turn a percentage target into a daily labor budget your managers can actually use, which numbers to review every day, how small time clock habits quietly drain your profits and how to build managers who can control labor without calling you for permission.

👍 Book a Profit Finder Call ­– https://dsp.coach/podcast-ryan-call

Sponsor – Service with Style: www.servicewithstyle.com/dsp

🖥️ Get My Latest Training Video: https://dsp.coach/training-opt-in

Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: https://www.davidscottpeters.com/restaurant-transformation-coaching

An empty spot on next Friday's schedule is scary. The wrong person filling it is worse. In episode 160 of "The Restaurant Prosperity Formula" podcast, I explain why I'd rather be short-staffed than keep the wrong employee on my team, even though I know how painful a hole in the schedule can be for an independent restaurant owner. You'll hear about the hidden costs of a bad restaurant employee that never show up on your P&L, why a talented employee with bad behavior can be the most dangerous person in your building, and how tolerating poor performance affects your best people and your managers. I also share a simple three-word framework, know, can, choose, that helps you figure out whether you're facing a training problem, a role problem or a choice, so you can make the call with confidence.

👍 Book a Profit Finder Call ­– https://dsp.coach/podcast-ryan-call

Sponsor – Service with Style: www.servicewithstyle.com/dsp

🖥️ Get My Latest Training Video: https://dsp.coach/training-opt-in

Visit my website for more information about my restaurant coaching program: https://www.davidscottpeters.com/restaurant-transformation-coaching