Every single senior living community claims to have restaurant but is it really?
This past week I interviewed David Koelling, the founder and president of Strategic Dining Services, a Senior Housing Forum partner, to talk about the what creating restaurant style dining in senior living really means.
Restaurant Style Dining, Senior Living
It is a remarkable thing.
I took a look at a dozen senior living company webpages and every single one says they offer “Restaurant Style Dining”. What it seems to mean is that residents sit at a table and are offered some level of choice, then someone brings them the food they ordered. The question David asked is this: Are you really creating a restaurant experience or more of a cafeteria experience where someone else does the walking?
What Really Happens . . .
Back in the kitchen the cook/chef looks at the day’s menu and the crew goes to work preparing big batches of food. Because it is the same crowd every day, they have a fair idea as to which things will be most popular and which less so. By meal time the food is pretty much ready to be served in trays on a steam table, on large trays in the refrigerator and on the counter. As residents come in they are provided a menu that is a list of choices.
Off that list they pick a main course and two or three sides. Is this how it really works when you go out to eat at a nice restaurant? In reality, what many senior living communities have created is a dining experience that is much more like a cafeteria than a restaurant. How healthy is it for your residents to choose some meat, fish or poultry and a bunch of starchy, high carb sides? It also means that they mostly end up with just a plate of food rather than a true dining experience, no matter what the website photos look like.
Real Restaurant Style Meals
Even though there are special meal considerations for seniors, it is possible to create, each day, each meal, a restaurant experience for your residents. While not the norm, I am seeing senior communities where the senior living dining service becomes a neighborhood favorite restaurant. It fundamentally about moving from a pre-planned menu to a made-to order mentality.
It Starts with the Menu
It starts with the menu that the resident sees, because the menu frames the mentality of the kitchen staff. David provided two before and after sample menus, that you can download.
The big difference is that, in the “before menus” residents are offered a series of choices but in the “after menu” they are offered a series of experiences. This does not mean that the guest cannot ask for a substitute as would be true in any fine restaurant, but rather that the chef created a dining experience for the joy of the patrons.
What It Costs
David and I spent a lot of time talking about costs which includes two areas: food costs and staff costs. Most operators using a traditional approach might assume that this customized, made-to-order process would be much more expenses, in both raw food and staffing costs. In fact, studies show that the made-to-order approach saves in both categories. While your staff will have to work differently to pull this off, which will include periods where the workload is more intense, they will have a lot more fun. Next month we will finish up this story by talking in more detail about costs, and culture behind the swinging kitchen door.
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This sounds great! What’s the average cost differential to the current plans? How many communities are on board with Strategic Dining Services?
-Tal
Thanks for including the sample before-and-after menus, Steve. I like the idea of roasted cauliflower as a side, and roasted peaches instead of canned. If the kitchen combined really fresh ingredients and cooked-to-order preparation, the meal would look, smell, and taste more appetizing, as well as being more nutritious. I’m wondering about the seared flounder, though, since I think of searing as mostly used with thick fish like salmon, which are then served very, very rare in the middle — not something I would do for elderly residents.
I’d have to agree that providing a cook-to-order dining experience is NOT necessarily more expensive but it does require an investment in the the support systems and training to get it off the ground. Both front of house and back of house staff need to be trained on delivering a different service. A move to “any-time” dining or multiple seatings will help to relieve the crush of all residents showing up at once which, for larger communities makes cook-to-order a big challenge.
It also helps to have the systems in place to support the service levels you desire. Offering a “true” restaurant style dining experience and maintaining service levels means using a Point of Sale (POS) system to enter and fire orders back to the kitchen. Not only does this create efficiencies but also provides vital reporting data about your operation from service times to best/worst sellers, traffic counts and most importantly, capture of meal counts and charges. You might think I am biased given that I sell POS for senor living communities but as the shift to more restaurant style dining is happening, we’re seeing a huge uptick in sales as operators discover the hard way that delivering more choice and better service cannot be achieved using old, manual processes. The proof is in the eating.
Great topic! Creating extraordinary dining experiences for residents and guests is critical and can be done! At our flagship property, The Gatesworth in St. Louis, we have three fully operating restaurants. Our Executive Chef, Brian Hardy, is the St. Louis Chef de Cuisine’s Chef of the Year two years running. We have a fully apprentice certified kitchen where we butcher our own meat, bake deserts and cook from scratch with fresh ingredients. Our three unique restaurants have fully priced ala carte menus. They are open continuously from 7:00 am until 7:30 pm. We also have a liquor license and three beautifully appointed private dining venues. Our Chefs will also prepare and serve a meal of your choosing in your residence or send you out to a family members home with fully prepared meals or deserts so you won’t have to come empty handed. We measure dining success at The Gatesworth by resident satisfaction and – yes significant revenue to the bottom line. The proof is in the eating so contact me if you would like to check it out for yourself.
Hello Tal,
There is really no change…the alignment and logistics change and many times small increase in cost as you transition and the team adjusts. After that, the expectation in food savings normally off-sets any potential increase in labor.
Thank you for asking the question!
Strategic currently partners with 34 communities.
David Koelling/Strategic Dining Services
Thank you for your comment MaryAnn.
The flounder is seared, cooled, then finished off in batches. This gives the fish a beautiful presentation and flavor.
I hope that answers your question.
RonnDa Peters/Strategic Dining Services
Good points Kevin.
A POS system is an important tool for tracking and efficiency.
Training for the kitchen staff and servers, empowerment and systems are the keys for reaching your goal of creating a restaurant style dining experience.
Great article! Our community offers anytime dining (7am-7pm) and everything is made from scratch and cooked to order. Yes the cost is higher for us, but it more than pays for itself in resident retention.
We are in the process of creating a more restaurant style of dining. Our staffing currently is at the level of a typical cafeteria style of dining. Every actual menu type restaurant I have looked at as a model has dramatically more kitchen and wait staff on shift during meal service times. Where can I see a model in place which doesn’t require significantly more staff?
Thanks for the article.
I would need to know more about your “cafeteria” set up in order to help you with a comparison. But I understand you will be cooking for the same number of residents therefore the kitchen staffing should probably remain the same even though schedules and occasionally certain individuals may have to change.
On the service side, if you are working in a true cafeteria arrangement where residents get their own food, then yes an investment in additional serves will be required.