From year one, Our Daily Bread has tried to make the most of holiday celebrations. The first year we tried to do something for EVERY holiday on the calender. After three years, we are finally to the point that our more popular holiday celebrations have a consistent followings and we've been able to eliminated the less popular ones.
Holidays that we have an exceptionally good turnout for include . . .
*Mother's Day Brunch
*Easter Brunch
*Our Annual Anniversary Events
*Valentine's Day Dinner
*Christmas Teas
*Holiday Takeout Meals
Holidays on which we have eliminated special menus/hours include . . .
*New Year's Eve Dinner
*Cinco de Mayo
*Memorial Day
*Labor Day
*4th of July
Holiday's that get one more year to make the team and avoid being cut . . .
*Father's Day
*Easter Dinner
*Mother's Day Dinner
This year's holiday day celebrations of note are our Easter and Mother's Day Brunch Buffets! Easter surpassed all exceptions when we pasted 250 and did 274 for the first time. Mother's Day is the biggest grossing holiday of the year for most restaurants. Ours is no exception. While we know Mother's Day we be just a bit more, we were not prepared for the actuality of doing 350 for Mother's Day Brunch! It was a beautiful day, so outside seating was available. While the dining room may have had empty tables at times, if the weather had not been quite so nice, we would have not had an empty table in the house for five hours! I believe the only way to increase numbers from this point on is to expand our hours yet again. This year we opened an hour earlier at 9am. Next year's brunch may run until 3pm.
I will post a few pictures in the next few days, but just know that the buffets were beautiful. Our regular Sunday Brunch buffets are a delightful treat, but we truly pull out all the stops for these larger Holiday Brunch Buffets. Displays include three-tiered ice bowls, cascading fruit displays and chocolate fondue, an omelet station, a staffed carving station, and more.
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Valentine Mayhem
Like every other restaurant in the USA, this holiday is one our biggest nights of the year. Baring special events, this IS our biggest grossing night of the year mainly due to customer volume and higher overall ticket prices. After months of slower dinner business, it was quite a shock to serve over 130 people in a single night!
This very busy night was proceeded by our first wedding! We've hosted several wedding receptions in the past year, including my own. And while there may have been people married at the ODB in the past, this was the first wedding WE have hosted. It was a small wedding of about 40 that fit perfectly in our banquet room. I plan to post a full length article at my wedding blog once I receive the pictures from the bride and groom at www.oregonweddings.blogspot.com. Anyway, back to Valentine's Day dinner service . . .
The menu for the night consisted of many of our customer favorites like Prime Rib and Scampi, but also include a few entrees available just for the night like the romantic classics Lobster and Chateaubriand - roasted tenderloin for two. Along with specialty desserts, I always include a few select food and wine pairings. or as I like to call them, "Lover's Pairings." I don't think we sold a single package, but they sure are fun to do.
While we do put on considerably more staff for an event of this magnitude, we still weren't quite prepared for the multiple rushes we experienced that night. For events of this size, we open up seating in the chapel and our banquet room as well as the main dining room. Since a high percentage of reservations are for two, we are able to double our seating capacity with 14 tables placed in those two additional dining areas. Atmosphere varied considerably from dining area to dining area. The upstairs with its larger tables of 3 and 4 had a very boisterous feel to it. The chapel has an intimate feel while the banquet room is always a struggle to change into an intimate atmosphere. While a beautiful dining area for groups, the banquet room is a little too open for smaller tables. Using trellises and partitions, I was able to create private spaces around our smaller tables.
Mayhem didn't quite hit until 7:15 when we filled every table in the house for the second time that night. At this point, we started running out of things. Food, plates, silverware, etc. . . New tables were coming faster than servers could keep up and dinner tickets poured into the kitchen. Unlike your normal dinner hour, these dinner tickets - aside from the sheer number of them - were more complex than normal. On this special night, most of the tables splurged on appetizers and dessert in addition to an entree, salad and beverage service of some kind. It was more of what we call a 'full service' dinner. More thinking and time is required for this kind of service.
Its always disappointing to us when we can't provide 100% excellent service. Unfortunately, sheer numbers prevented 100% excellent service and seriously crunched the kitchen. We have our areas to work on, but we're gearing up for the next big events at the restaurant while learning from our mistakes. All-in-all, a successful night.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Our Blue Plate Special - Dinner and a Show - March 7th and 8th
St. Patrick's Day on March 17th
This very busy night was proceeded by our first wedding! We've hosted several wedding receptions in the past year, including my own. And while there may have been people married at the ODB in the past, this was the first wedding WE have hosted. It was a small wedding of about 40 that fit perfectly in our banquet room. I plan to post a full length article at my wedding blog once I receive the pictures from the bride and groom at www.oregonweddings.blogspot.com. Anyway, back to Valentine's Day dinner service . . .
The menu for the night consisted of many of our customer favorites like Prime Rib and Scampi, but also include a few entrees available just for the night like the romantic classics Lobster and Chateaubriand - roasted tenderloin for two. Along with specialty desserts, I always include a few select food and wine pairings. or as I like to call them, "Lover's Pairings." I don't think we sold a single package, but they sure are fun to do.
While we do put on considerably more staff for an event of this magnitude, we still weren't quite prepared for the multiple rushes we experienced that night. For events of this size, we open up seating in the chapel and our banquet room as well as the main dining room. Since a high percentage of reservations are for two, we are able to double our seating capacity with 14 tables placed in those two additional dining areas. Atmosphere varied considerably from dining area to dining area. The upstairs with its larger tables of 3 and 4 had a very boisterous feel to it. The chapel has an intimate feel while the banquet room is always a struggle to change into an intimate atmosphere. While a beautiful dining area for groups, the banquet room is a little too open for smaller tables. Using trellises and partitions, I was able to create private spaces around our smaller tables.
Mayhem didn't quite hit until 7:15 when we filled every table in the house for the second time that night. At this point, we started running out of things. Food, plates, silverware, etc. . . New tables were coming faster than servers could keep up and dinner tickets poured into the kitchen. Unlike your normal dinner hour, these dinner tickets - aside from the sheer number of them - were more complex than normal. On this special night, most of the tables splurged on appetizers and dessert in addition to an entree, salad and beverage service of some kind. It was more of what we call a 'full service' dinner. More thinking and time is required for this kind of service.
Its always disappointing to us when we can't provide 100% excellent service. Unfortunately, sheer numbers prevented 100% excellent service and seriously crunched the kitchen. We have our areas to work on, but we're gearing up for the next big events at the restaurant while learning from our mistakes. All-in-all, a successful night.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Our Blue Plate Special - Dinner and a Show - March 7th and 8th
St. Patrick's Day on March 17th
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Blizzards, Holidays, and Customers
YES, the recent snow showers and icy roads have had their effect on our business.
In general, the month of December is a slower month for us at the ODB as far as regular Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner anyway. Since we are not located anywhere near a mall or shopping center, regular traffic tends to head to Eugene for a combination of shopping and eating. Instead, we rely on the addition of holiday parties to pick up the slack in our business. Well, we had TWO of those private Christmas parties cancel in ONE DAY as a result of weather complications! Even while we understand that driving from Eugene and Junction City to Veneta could be treacherous, it's hard to feel good about the situation.
Listening to other restaurant, retail, and lodging people I found that we were all in similar circumstances. The weather kept everyone home. In tourist areas that relied on incoming hotel guests to frequent the local businesses, I saw a much greater effect on those business than we experienced. All along the Oregon Coast, small town restaurants and gift shops that relied on holiday tourist stays at the local inns and hotels were sadly disappointed by the numerous cancellation that came through due to weather. I know there are areas of the country that have snow on the ground for a good four months of the year, but that's not us. One inch and the school buses stop running. Five inches and we don't leave the house unless we have to. I bet states like Maine or Wisconsin laugh when they hear about the closures and effect of the weather on our local economy. What can I say? We're Oregonians!
In general, the month of December is a slower month for us at the ODB as far as regular Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner anyway. Since we are not located anywhere near a mall or shopping center, regular traffic tends to head to Eugene for a combination of shopping and eating. Instead, we rely on the addition of holiday parties to pick up the slack in our business. Well, we had TWO of those private Christmas parties cancel in ONE DAY as a result of weather complications! Even while we understand that driving from Eugene and Junction City to Veneta could be treacherous, it's hard to feel good about the situation.
Listening to other restaurant, retail, and lodging people I found that we were all in similar circumstances. The weather kept everyone home. In tourist areas that relied on incoming hotel guests to frequent the local businesses, I saw a much greater effect on those business than we experienced. All along the Oregon Coast, small town restaurants and gift shops that relied on holiday tourist stays at the local inns and hotels were sadly disappointed by the numerous cancellation that came through due to weather. I know there are areas of the country that have snow on the ground for a good four months of the year, but that's not us. One inch and the school buses stop running. Five inches and we don't leave the house unless we have to. I bet states like Maine or Wisconsin laugh when they hear about the closures and effect of the weather on our local economy. What can I say? We're Oregonians!
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