A New Restaurant

After my last post, Meagan wrote to ask me how often you should clean your restaurant.  Well, that kind of depends on what part you are talking about.  It’s kind of like asking, “How often should you clean your house?”

There are many parts that are going to need cleaned daily, or even several times during the course of the day.  Floors need to be kept clean, trash needs to be taken out, seats need to be wiped down, coolers need to be tidied and swept.

If you are talking about things that aren’t used daily, it could be a weekly task.  Unless you have some very sloppy diners, you pobably won’t need to wash the walls on a daily basis, but you will need to have them on a regular cleaning schedule.  The same with decorations, windows, etc.  Schedule the cleaning, then check to make sure the person assigened to do te job signs off on it when they are done.  If you wait until you notice the dirt, it’s probably gone too long.

Keeping your operation clean isn’t that difficult if you plan for it, and keep up with it on a daily basis.  Make your people responsible for their part.  Servers and bussers can be given cleaning tasks as part of their side work.  Cooks and dishwashers should be assigned parts of the kitchen that are to be cleaned.

The key is planning, and holding your staff accountable.  Make cleaning schedules, and require the people to sign the schedule when they have completed the task.  If you have a problem with cleaning, the schedule will tell you who was responsible.

The s ay cleanliness is next to godliness.  That may be a bit extreme, but it is a critical part of running a successful restaurant.It may be the difference between a regular customer, and a one time visitor that will be spending their money at your competitors restaurant in the future.