Opening Soon is a weekly show about the journey of opening a restaurant featuring conversations with some of the world’s greatest chefs, restaurateurs and the vendors that help take their business from an idea to opening soon. Opening Soon is hosted by the founders of Tilit NYC, Jenny Goodman and Alex McCrery, who bring their unique perspective as hospitality industry insiders and many questions as the former proprietors of a now shuttered restaurant. Each week we'll extract the strongest takeaways from our guest interview so that if you don't get the chance to listen you can still get the drop.
1. Treat your vendors like partners. The dealers and people behind the goods you buy are excited to work with you. You may also need to go back to them for new goods or service issues. Make sure you treat them as the partner they can be, rather than just a sales vehicle.
2. Focus on your strengths. When possible leave the shipping, warehousing and logistics to a distributor like M. Tucker. This can free your time up to focus on the food, your team and any other in house needs.
3. Learn who will be servicing your equipment. Make sure you have found local technichians that know, understand and are willing to respond to your calls for service and repair.
4. Vet the equipment. When it comes to something you haven't worked with, ask your equipment partner to recommend a nearby client so you can go see the machine in use. You can ask them questions and get feedback on pros and cons of the item.
5. Lease items that are more prone to breakage. While leasing equipment will always increase your total spend, cash may not always be an option. Consider leasing warewashing equipment and ice machines. They're both prone to service issues and a lease should have a repair or replacement guarantee so you're not left stranded on a pricey breakdown.
