The Resource Library for Independent Restaurants
Welcome to your one-stop resource for everything you need to manage and grow your restaurant. Our library includes:
- Curated books, whitepapers, and guides tailored to independent restaurateurs.
- Checklists and best practices across every area of restaurant management.
- Exclusive resources created by Tables of Content to help you thrive.
Explore content organized by the core challenges and opportunities of running a restaurant, including:
- Back Office
- Kitchen
- Bar
- Labor
- Controllable Costs
- Guest Services
- Look & Feel
- Sales & Marketing
- Maintenance & Compliance
- Business Development
New resources are regularly added to ensure you always have fresh insights and up-to-date guidance at your fingertips.
Looking for downloadable tools to help your business? Visit our Tools Page.
Books & Papers, Etc.
Recommended Books
This one-stop guide to opening a restaurant from an accountant-turned-restaurateur shows aspiring proprietors how to succeed in the crucial first year and beyond.
Ninety percent of all restaurants fail, and those that succeed happened upon that mysterious X factor, right? Wrong! A man of many hats—money-guy, restaurant owner, and restaurant consultant—Roger Fields shows how a restaurant can survive its first year and keep diners coming back for years. Featuring real-life start-up stories (including many of the author’s own), this comprehensive how-to walks readers through the logistics of opening a restaurant: concept, location, menu, ambiance, staff, and, most important, profit. Updated to address current trends such as food trucks and to tackle online opportunities (and pitfalls!) including Groupon, Yelp, and Twitter, Restaurant Success by the Numbers remains a critical resource for navigating the food industry. Opening a restaurant isn’t easy, but this realistic dreamer’s guide helps set the table for lasting success.
If you are thinking about, or anywhere in the process of, opening a restaurant, this guide will be invaluable to you. The author embarked on a career as a restaurateur in middle age, with no prior restaurant experience and not much capital. Within four years he opened three original and quirky restaurants, each of which has become a thriving success. In this book he draws upon his experiences as a restaurateur, as well as nearly 30 years spent negotiating commercial real estate leases and sales, and a decade teaching real estate investment analysis and decision making to show you how to:
•Accurately estimate the amount of capital required for your first restaurant (it’s probably less than you think) and how to raise it.
•Select your restaurant’s ideal location and negotiate the optimal real estate lease or purchase for it.
•Develop a creative, winning restaurant concept that is a natural extension of yourself and a perfect match for your customers.
•Market – using low-cost, guerilla-style techniques – staff, source supplies for, grow, and continually refine your first restaurant.
•Identify all the things that could doom your restaurant and avoid them.
However, this book is not for everyone. It completely lacks fluff, hype, and “just believe in yourself” rah-rah encouragement. If that is what you are looking for, you won’t find it here. What this book does offer is a solid framework for beginning with what is often a vague idea and proceeding, step by step, to research, plan, evaluate, open, and operate a very successful first restaurant. If you are serious about opening your dream restaurant, this is the book for you.
Restaurants and bars typically produce low profit margins, so they need a strong accounting system to help identify ways to improve those profits. In the Accounting for Restaurants and Bars manual, we cover all aspects of the necessary accounting systems, as well as the controls needed to keep fraud in check. Materials include the accounting for inventory, fixed assets, leases, revenues, expenses, and payroll, as well as a discussion of how to close the books and produce performance metrics.
As competition for customers is constantly increasing, contemporary restaurants must distinguish themselves by offering consistent, high-quality service. Service and hospitality can mean different things to different foodservice operations, and this book addresses the service needs of a wide range of dining establishments, from casual and outdoor dining to upscale restaurants and catering operations. Chapters cover everything from training and hiring staff, preparation for service, front-door hospitality to money handling, styles of modern table service, front-of-the-house safety and sanitation, serving diners with special needs, and service challengeswhat to do when things go wrong.
Remarkable Service is the most comprehensive guide to service and hospitality on the market, and this new edition includes the most up-to-date information available on serving customers in the contemporary restaurant world.
The “Experts” are lying to you.
A real, raw and relevant look at the reality of Restaurant Marketing in today’s noisy online world. Learn why social media marketing has lost its effectiveness over the years and how content marketing can give you a simple, much-needed edge. Master the Fishbowl vs. the Ocean concept and start increasing guest counts where the NEW customers are – Google, Tripadvisor and Yelp. NOT social media. Do not listen to the “one size fits all” social media people who put their own best interests ahead of your restaurant’s success. Learn from my decade of corporate Restaurant Marketing experience and my knowledge gained by simply ASKING the public how they decide where to eat and drink instead of guessing.
The marketing status quo of today is shockingly flawed which is costing your business money. Living a lifetime in the trenches from dishwasher to corporate marketing director and everything in between, I’ve learned a few things about human nature and why we have to adapt and pivot instead of refusing to evolve.
THIS is how to improve guest counts and run a successful bar or restaurant.
Today’s “Restaurant Marketing Expert” is running increasingly low on the “Expert” part. Now more than ever, large corporate restaurant marketing teams rely on expensive social media campaigns and flashy-looking visual presentations. All of which will be seen by an decreasing number of potential customers. These marketing departments often can’t differentiate between what works for them personally, and what will make your restaurant succeed. The marketing approach for a nightclub with a younger demographic is totally different for a casual restaurant or for fine dining. Yet we all still use this generic “plug-and-play” social media marketing approach used over and over in the most hilariously misused way possible.
Restaurant Marketing and Marketing Strategies in general have come a long way since the internet was invented. What worked a decade ago is laughable today. What worked last year is probably pretty worthless today. If your business is in a tourist-heavy environment yet your marketing approach is based in social media and not SEO (Search engine optimization) then I can promise you, your money is being wasted. Can your customers find you from Facebook if they haven’t ever heard of you? Can they see your clever Instagram posts if they have no idea you exist? Tourists and people looking to make a “right here, right now” purchase primarily use 3 online tools – Google, Tripadvisor and Yelp.
Stop throwing money away on insane Restaurant Marketing Campaigns geared toward an audience you don’t even have!
In this book, I cut out all of the noise and BS of traditional Restaurant Marketing approaches and narrow it down to what works. To what we can measure and prove. To what actually brings in a positive ROI and helps improve your business and grow your guest counts. Take it from a former employee and Corporate Marketing Director who was forced to implement ridiculous Restaurant Marketing campaigns with zero accountability and zero proven success rates. I’m well versed in what doesn’t work and I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted in the name of Restaurant Promotions over the years. Don’t make these same mistakes and keep your money where it belongs – in your bank account.
This book is an extremely easy read and digest. I don’t try to sound psudo-educated by deliberately talking over someone’s head like some stuffy board-room sales-pitch. I’m only concerned about one thing – to bring more customers into your restaurant or bar. I cut out the nonsense and overthought ideas and make implementing your own Restaurant Marketing Strategy so easy that anyone can do it. No fancy degree or college intern needed.
They are the owners who are consistently increasing revenue every month, expanding their business, and opening additional locations in new cities regularly. They are the business leaders who challenge the status quo, who adopt and adapt to new and every-changing technology, and who refuse to be average.
And what’s amazing is…
They are doing all of this without overworking, breaking the bank on marketing gimmicks, or taking out business loans There’s so much out there on the topic of restaurant growth techniques that it can be quite overwhelming…
Misfit Marketing For Restaurants is a book for those who want more out of their restaurant and are looking to make a dent in the food and beverage universe. After servicing over 250 restaurant concepts across the globe and helping these businesses to acquire guests through their digital marketing strategies, Brett Linkletter and Jace Kovacevich, founders of Misfit Media, have gained unparalleled insight in the restaurant marketing space. They have been named “Top Performing Local Business Agency” by Manychat, have received 2 published Facebook(™) Business case studies, and have become wildly famous for their unique approach to guest acquisition and retention through what they call “Omnichannel Chat Marketing”.
To be a true “Misfit” means to do things differently; Brett and Jace embrace this concept to their core. After reading this book, you will learn the framework of developing a digital marketing machine that will not only help your restaurant acquire guests but will also keep them coming back.
You will also learn:
- How to generate consistent, trackable, predictable revenue every month from social media, regardless of your following.
- Key tools and metrics used to measure how much guests spend per visit down to the dollar.
- 8 real-life case studies of restaurants executing these strategies and seeing extraordinary success.
Whether you are a restaurant owner who is struggling to see results from your marketing strategy or you are already seeing success but are looking to take your business further and expand, this book will provide you with the know-how knowledge and extensive toolset to elevate your growth!
The vast majority of restaurants have insufficient content strategies to fully leverage social media to their advantage.
In order to thrive in a saturated industry, it’s crucial to build a stand out brand across social media. If you are a restaurant owner and constantly wondering “what should I post on social media?” You are facing the tough world of social media that’s an absolute must in the competitive food industry. Owning a restaurant is one job and constantly thinking of creative and engaging content to post on social media is an entirely different job.
This completely comprehensive guide includes:
A year’s worth of creative social media ideas specifically tailored to restaurant owners
Strategic explanations that dive into why these specific pieces of content are beneficial
Brand building techniques built into our unique content ideas that will help you establish a strong online presence as a restaurant.
“365 Days of Social Media Posts For Restaurant Owners” has received rave reviews:
“This is the social media marketing book that every restaurant needed but didn’t know existed” – Disrupt Magazine
“This book will save you hours of time with your social media marketing” – Seekers Times
“If you understand the power of social media but lack content ideas, there is no better book for you than this.” – About Insider
“365 Days of Social Media Posts For Restaurant Owners” is the solution to never running out of ideas for what to post on your social platforms. This book provides you 365 days of unique content ideas to grow and establish your restaurant’s brand on Facebook and Instagram.
People don’t open restaurants because they just want to start a business. People open restaurants because they are building a dream.
You can create the restaurant of your dreams, be profitable, pay your vendors, your staff, yourself, and savor the joys of hospitality, without the stress and uncertainty.
You don’t have to struggle to make it in the restaurant business. As a matter of fact, that could be the thing holding you back from real success.
In this book, you will:
· Setup a proven cash management system designed for restaurants.
· Build (or rebuild) your business model to maximize profit.
· Dial in all your expenses and find money (with tools!).
· Understand your numbers better than ever before.
· Learn a marketing strategy guaranteed to put “butts in seats”.
“Profit First for Restaurants is a comprehensive view into cashflow management specific to the challenges all restaurant owners face with covering payroll, making profit, and accounting for potential swings in COGS. The book provides real examples of restaurant owners and their journeys.” – Angela Goodman, Founder of Valkyrie Ventures Group LLC & Owner of Famous Toastery (multiple locations)
Kasey Anton has spent her life in restaurants. They are her passion. Over the last 15 years, Kasey has built a business that specializes in helping hundreds of businesses start, grow, and thrive. And it all starts with taking your profit, first.
This series of fifteen books – The Food Service Professional Guide TO Series from the editors of the Food Service Professional magazine are the best and most comprehensive books for serious food service operators available today.
These step-by-step guides on a specific management subject range from finding a great site for your new restaurant to how to train your wait staff and literally everything in between. They are easy and fast-to-read, easy to understand and will take the mystery out of the subject. The information is boiled down to the essence. They are filled to the brim with up to date and pertinent information.
The books cover all the bases, providing clear explanations and helpful, specific information. All titles in the series include the phone numbers and web sites of all companies discussed. What you will not find are wordy explanations, tales of how someone did it better, or a scholarly lecture on the theory.
Every paragraph in each of the books are comprehensive, well researched, engrossing, and just plain fun-to-read, yet are packed with interesting ideas. You will be using your highlighter a lot! The best part aside from the content is they are very moderately priced. The whole series may also be purchased the ISBN number for the series is 0910627266. You are bound to get a great new idea to try on every page if not out of every paragraph. Do not be put off by the low price, these books really do deliver the critical information and eye opening ideas you need to succeed without the fluff so commonly found in more expensive books on the subject. Highly recommended!
Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.
Bars and restaurants need to be assertive. Customers tend not to visit them to satisfy basic appetites for food or drink but for the social opportunities. Their interiors need to occupy the imagination of their customers and to whet the appetite for a return visit. The design that gets the formula right will do as much to prolong the life of the business as the products on offer.
As this book demonstrates, the conventions and mechanics of eating and drinking influence how bars and restaurants are conceived in different regions of the world. Whatever the final result users are in sustained, intimate contact with the elements of the space they inhabit and detailing must be refined enough, and visually rich enough, to withstand prolonged scrutiny.
This book includes a wide range of international projects and for each one there is a descriptive text, colour photographs, floor plans, sections and construction and decorative details. A bonus CD-ROM contains all the drawings as printed in the book, in both EPS and DWG (generic CAD) formats.
Bars and restaurants need to be assertive. Customers tend not to visit them to satisfy basic appetites for food or drink but for the social opportunities. Their interiors need to occupy the imagination of their customers and to whet the appetite for a return visit. The design that gets the formula right will do as much to prolong the life of the business as the products on offer.
As this book demonstrates, the conventions and mechanics of eating and drinking influence how bars and restaurants are conceived in different regions of the world. Whatever the final result users are in sustained, intimate contact with the elements of the space they inhabit and detailing must be refined enough, and visually rich enough, to withstand prolonged scrutiny.
This book includes a wide range of international projects and for each one there is a descriptive text, colour photographs, floor plans, sections and construction and decorative details. A bonus CD-ROM contains all the drawings as printed in the book, in both EPS and DWG (generic CAD) formats.
This student friendly text covers how to plan, design, and purchase equipment for a restaurant, or foodservice facility. Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Foodservice offers the most comprehensive and updated coverage of the latest equipment and design trends to help students acquire the knowledge they need to go into the industry.