Banking on Banquets

Building private dining as a revenue source requires special skills

By Scott Hume, Managing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/15/2003

The five Spentzos brothers—Pete, Louis, Gus, Chris and James—opened Hob Nob restaurant in Crystal Lake, Ill., in 1984. Business was good and they expanded the space to accommodate a 400-seat banquet room.

In March, however, the first-generation Greek-American family closed the restaurant, reopening it as an all-banquet operation named D’Andrea Banquets & Conference Center. Customer traffic in the dining room had been decent over the past year, says Pete Spentzos, but the banquet side continued to do very well. The family decided to go where business was strongest. D’Andrea (named for the brothers’ mother, Dina, and father, Andrea) has a total of 1,000 seats in rooms for business meetings, private parties or weddings.

The transformation of Hob Nob is at the extreme end of a trend among restaurant operators seeking to increase private-dining and banquet revenues to compensate for depressed dining-room business. In some ways, serving private parties is easier than regular dining-room foodservice, Spentzos says. An operator knows exactly how many guests are coming and when and usually what they will be served. Staffing needs can be anticipated in advance. No-shows aren’t a problem.

Still, Spentzos cautions restaurateurs against being too cavalier as they seek banquet business. “Somebody just jumping in can have problems,” he says. “[Private dining] is different. You have to learn how to do it right. That takes time.”

A DIFFERENT CUP OF TEA
Ruth’s Chris Steak House committed itself to doing private-dining business three years ago when the Metairie, La.-based chain made it a revenue-enhancing option for those of its 80 res- taurants large enough to accommodate parties of 20 or more. Private dining has been growing annually at double-digit rates since then, the result of careful preparation.

“Before we embarked, we put a plan together. We hired and educated the right people and have invested in building it,” says Deborah Hinson, Ruth’s Chris vice president of marketing and public relations.

In February, Hinson and nine Ruth’s Chris sales managers passed the four-hour Certified Professional Catering Executives (CPCE) exam administered by the National Association of Catering Executives. A certain number of years of experience as well as continuing-education credits earned outside the job site are required before the certification exam can be taken. The company’s plan is that all its sales managers ultimately be CPCE-certified.

“The more educated our group [is], the better they can serve guests and the more opportunity we have to build that business,” she says. “Our goal is to be the first [restaurant chain] where every one on our sales team is certified, so customers are assured a competent, trained group of people is running this portion of Ruth’s Chris. It tells our guests we’re serious about private-dining business. We didn’t just say, ‘Gee, we have a little extra space, let’s try to book parties.’”

Beyond requiring distinct skills in sales and marketing, banquets and private parties require differences in front- and back-of-the-house staffing and in menu planning. At Ruth’s Chris, banquet servers are chosen on merit and experience, with each restaurant having two or three “lead banquet servers.”

“It’s a lot different dropping two plates at a table and dropping 40. It’s a different method of service and not everyone’s cup of tea,” Hinson says. “Some employees take to it well, some would rather work two or four guests at a time. All our waitstaff is trained on private-dining service, as kitchen staff has to be.”

That is especially true when a single kitchen is called on to handle both dining-room and private-dining meals, as is the case at Ruth’s Chris restaurants. An operation easily can be overtaxed without proper training, she says. “People don’t think about what [private dining] does to your kitchen. We’ve learned over time how to manage the reservation book in the dining room so that we don’t have some poor couple in the dining room waiting an hour because their order is behind 40 covers” for a private party.

“Our goal is to have your [private event] experience be exactly the same as if you came with a spouse or a friend. Unfortunately, there are some items on the menu that are a challenge to execute [in quantity], so we don’t offer them for private dining,” Hinson says. “We agreed a long time ago that anything we provide to banquet guests has to be 100% right and just like in the dining room.”

FLEXIBLE MENUS
Ensuring that group-dining experiences are no less enjoyable than restaurant dining also is a goal for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., based in Atlanta. Its locations have the luxury of dedicated kitchens for banquet business. Vice President of Culinary Peter Schoch says the multikitchen setup keeps catering from competing operationally with its restaurants but doesn’t mean standards can be any lower.

“Serving large groups has to be exactly like a restaurant experience,” he says. “We want to avoid the perception that ‘banquet food’ is somehow less innovative or interesting. We want to give clients the best food, to the standards of our restaurants.

“Some dishes are logistically difficult, but we pride ourselves on our abilities. We have served soufflés to 600 people.”

Schoch advises independent restaurateurs to rethink intentions to develop banquet business if operational necessities require too limited a menu or one too different from that offered in the dining room.

Private dining “is restaurant dining, just with more covers,” he says.

At Daniel’s Broiler, Prime Steaks & Chops in Bellevue, Wash., private dining accounted for 30% of the restaurant’s $8.8 million in food and beverage last year. Sheley Daviscourt, corporate sales manager for parent Schwartz Brothers Restaurants, emphasizes the need for flexibility, in menus as well as in staffing, to make banqueting successful.

Daniel’s has a separate banquet kitchen and a group-dining menu that clients are asked to select from, yet they are mindful that guests may have chosen the restaurant for their function because of the dining-room menu. “If customers say they love Daniel’s Prime New York steak, we have to be able to do that,” she says.

“There’s so much trust that has to be built up,” Daviscourt adds. “The client has to have faith in us and [the group sales team] has to have faith that the staff can deliver what we promise. Private-dining sales were up last year and are ahead this year because our clients know they can make one call and tell us what they need. That should be the only call they have to make. That’s how you build relationships.”

LeMont restaurant opened in Pittsburgh in 1960. Its banquet business—which accounted for half its $5.3 million sales in 2002—has been steady while dining-room revenue has declined over the past two years. Owner Ed Dunlap credits the strength and long tenure of relationships between the restaurant and its guests with maintaining sales.

“The first thing we learned is that we had to divide the kitchen in two. We couldn’t run banquets and à la carte at the same time. Then, that staffing has to be flexible so you have people when banquets pick up,” Dunlap says. “But the main thing is to have guests believe you can handle banquets. After 42 years, Pittsburgh knows we can, but it takes time for that confidence to be there.”

A second LeMont location, in West Palm Beach, Fla., has been open three years “and is nowhere near having established that reputation,” he admits. “Banquets are a bigger part of its business each year, but it’s a slow process. When you start, you have to be ready for that.”

The rewards of successfully established banquet credentials can be ample. “Heck, you may have to staff a little extra or make other changes, but we see group dining as an opportunity to have 30 or 40 new people try our restaurant each night,” says Hinson of Ruth’s Chris. “In this economy, and with the competition we face, that’s a pretty good deal.”