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By Easter you should have everything prepared for the summer season and if on top of that when Easter arrives, it’s warm and sunny, which is usually the case, you’ll be ready for the increased volume of trade that Easter, like any school holiday brings.One of the things that’s just so nice about living and working on the Costa del Sol, is that when the sun shines, which is most of the time, people are so happy and smiling and when your customers are like that, it’s so lovely to work with them and you don’t need any reminding why you left the UK or wherever to come here.
If I may just slip back into talking about work again; here are some of the things that you should have been working on during the winter months in readiness for the increased trade level that starts at Easter:
- Repaint or replace advertising boards.
- New plastic covered menus to start the new season.
- Redecoration of the premises where required.
- New uniforms aprons etc. (With your logo on if possible.)
- Replace or repair any terrace furniture, which is looking tired.
- Replace any damaged parts of your awning.
- Replace anything in the kitchen that is looking old or is getting unreliable.
- Spring-clean every nook and cranny of your premises.
Good luck for the new season and don’t forget to start building your tan now ready for July and August when you’ll be in the pool a lot!
You will need an efficiently laid out kitchen, which is equipped with the machinery you will need to enable you to produce all the items on your menu quickly.I have seen plenty of kitchens that are really badly laid out so that the chef has to walk backwards and forwards all the time whilst working and of course this means that it takes longer to get orders out so, you sell less food and take less money.
My suggestion is that you develop a clear idea of what you are going to have on you menu and then give a lot of thought to how the kitchen will need to be both equipped and laid out. You’ll need to take into account:
- Where you want food fridges, freezers to be.
- Where you want to store vegetables, dried pasta etc.
- Location of bottle fridges if they are to be in the kitchen.
- Location of sink and dishwasher, plus space for d/washer baskets.
- Location of hob, grille, deep fryer, food warmers and oven.
- Location of microwave oven.
- Plate storage area.
Our business sells a lot of food, so we need all the stuff listed above in our kitchen, and the layout has been honed and improved over many years, until now we have a kitchen that is really easy to work in. However if you are not planning to offer a lot of food then you will be able to live without much of the above equipment and your kitchen design will become a much simpler job.
Try to find a bar which is kitchen-wise more or less as you want it, but if you can’t then be prepared to re-model to suit your needs. The money you invest will pay you back many times over.
