QUESTION: What is the ONE THING many restaurant and retail locations forget to incorporate into their image? What is the ONE THING they often leave out of the equation?
Let’s explore: Take a look around and you’ll notice that many restaurants, retail locations, coffee shops, etc., spend a lot of money creating their image and providing an inviting atmosphere for their clients, their customers. But, the ONE THING most restaurants & retail locations leave behind, or leave out, is CARRYING THROUGH their image to that all important "front counter" person: the wait staff, the retail staff, the managers, hosts, coffee counter crew and more.
For example, we walk into a Bath & Body Works and sure, the staff are wearing nice, red, functional aprons. But, why so plain? Why so boring? There’s no reason functional has to be plain, or boring!
As the owner of SAUCY-WEAR, I believe it’s important to carry through your image to your staff. And like you, as business owners, we strive to create a favorable first impression and leave a lasting, memorable recollection. And like all of us, as customers, our real and often final experience within a restaurant or retail location is with the staff--your staff, your waiters, your sales people, your clerks.
THE SAUCY-WEAR SEED:
I was born, bred and raised in an Italian Restaurant Family. My Grandmother, "Mama Fontana" owned and operated several Italian Villa's in San Antonio, TX on the Riverwalk and throughout the city. A true entrepreneur, she was the first to open up a restaurant, the Venice Italian Restaurant, on the Riverwalk during the 1968 World's Fair at the Hemisphair Plaza in San Antonio! In terms of aprons for the Venice Italian Restaurant, my grandmother "costumed" waiters and waitresses with cumberbunds, ties, and special corresponding, Italian aprons. They were a smash!
At 93 today, she has had a fabulous career and was loved by many...they called her "Mama Fontana." As a child I was surrounded with the love and warmth of home-cooking and family dinner parties, where no doubt, the music would play, the laughter would ring and occasionally...the wine would pour. My grandmother's favorite pastime? Listening to Elvis Presley. As "legend" would have it, the story even goes that Elvis himself ate at one of our family restaurants--Fontana's on Broadway in the 50's! And he really did!
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