Why Greatness Feels Rare Now

I've been in this industry a long time, long enough to know what great looks like, and long enough to feel the ache when I don't see it anymore. A few weeks ago, I took a road trip down to Santa Fe and walked into a restaurant and felt it all over again. I need to talk about it today because what they're doing is not complicated. It's not expensive. It is simply intentional. And by the end of this episode, I'm going to give you a playbook of exactly what that looks like because every single one of your guests deserves to feel what I felt that night. Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, where we coach independent multi-unit restaurant operators to build systems that drive profitability and reclaim time so they can scale with confidence and spend their time and energy where they want to, not where they have to. I'm your host, Kristen Marvin, restaurant coach and author of Multi-unit Mastery. If you are an independent restaurant owner managing multiple locations, you know the chaos that comes with growth. Inconsistent execution across your restaurants. Managers who won't take ownership. Constantly answering questions your team should already know the answers to. You're stuck in your current role when you want to be playing a bigger strategic role as you scale. You don't have the right leaders in place, or you keep losing them. And you're not sure how to find great people and actually keep them around. We work with passionate independent restaurant owners who found success with their first few locations and are ready to scale strategically. Our clients aren't looking to just survive expansion. They want to thrive through it. They're committed to developing strong leaders and creating exceptional guest experiences. Through the independent restaurant framework that we teach in multi-unit mastery, we coach independent restaurant groups to move from chaos to confidence by focusing on three pillars: people, process, and profit. You can grab a gifted copy of the book at irfbook.com. On this show, we bring you real coaching conversations, leadership strategies, and the frameworks that you need to lead like a CEO instead of operating like a worn-out manager. And here's the thing: coaching has changed our clients' businesses and can change yours too. If you've never experienced what it's like to have someone in your corner who actually gets the restaurant world, we'd love to connect. We offer one-on-one and group coaching. Head to kristenmarvin.com slash contact for a complimentary coaching session and let's talk about what's possible for your restaurant group.

The Phone Call Sets The Tone

Let's talk about the experience before you even walk in the door. Market Steer Steakhouse in Santa Fe is one of our clients at Columbine Hospitality. And I will be honest with you, there is something really special about working with a restaurant behind the scenes for a long time, long time, and then finally getting to walk through the front door and experience everything in person live. We knew this place was good. We knew the team was phenomenal. We knew there was a lot of intention behind the scenes. But what I didn't know was how it was going to stop me in my tracks. The experience started before I even got there. I needed to call and change my reservation. I invited a friend and they weren't able to join me. That's cool. I tried to do it on open table and for some reason I couldn't figure it out. Probably user error on my end. I was going from a party of two to party of one, and I thought I'll just sit at the bar because I feel guilty if I'm a party of one and taking up a two-top because I know that that's valuable real estate. I called the restaurant, I spoke to the host, and she answered the phone with something that I all really want you to hear. I felt bad. I said, Hey, I'm a one, I'll sit at the bar. And she said, you know what, Kristen? We're gonna hold that table in the dining room for you. And when you get here, we'll see what's open at the bar and we can make the decision then. That's it. That was the whole thing. She gave me flexibility, she gave me options. I love options. I've always been a big fan of giving people options when I was in operations. We do that a lot with our clients around everything. She gave me warmth. She made me feel like whatever I needed was going to be just fine. And that calmed my anxiety of feeling like I was going to go into that restaurant and take up too much space. It was extraordinary. And the experience hadn't even started yet. I want you to think about what your team is saying when somebody calls. Do you know? When's the last time that you've listened when somebody's answered the phone? When's the last time that you've called the restaurant with a number that wasn't yours to inquire about a reservation or ask a question about the menu and just hear what your team is saying? Not what you hope that they're saying, but what they're actually saying. That phone interaction is the first impression your restaurant makes on a guest who has already decided to come see you. If you're using tech, you're using AI, you better be calling in frequently to test that system out because I tell you, I have had some really great experiences with AI recently, and I've had god-awful experiences where I am stuck in a loop and I cannot reach a human, and that is so frustrating. And guess what? I will never go to that business. I'm not a big fan of scripts when it comes to tables, but I think some sort of script on the phone is important. At least frame it for them so that they know common questions that are asked, common answers and responses that they can provide. Role play this with your team, train it. It's it's something that takes a lot of practice and uh it's a skill that somebody needs to develop on your team. I guarantee you, right now, somewhere on your team, someone has answered the phone and they are winging it, and that is not what you want.

Design With A Story Behind It

I want to talk about another piece of this experience, which was the minute I walked in the door and learned that there was a story behind the room. So when I walked into the restaurant, I was immediately greeted by the hostess who offered me a pillow for my lumbar when I sat down at the table. I haven't had something like that happen to me in a very long time. It was a really small moment, but it was a big signal that this team understood what was happening with the design elements of their restaurant, understood the level of comfort for their guest, and went above and beyond to purchase something that needed storage, that needed cleaning, that needed attention, and that needed to be incorporated in the training process. And that execution was flawless. Then I sat down and the owner came, one of the owners came over to greet me in person. Again, known all three owners, we've worked on them for a while, but hadn't met them in person, so it was super special. And she took me on a tour of the restaurant. Now, Market Steer was built two years ago, but walking through that restaurant with the owner, you would think that every single decision had been made yesterday because the intention behind it was so alive. She told me about the leather straps on the back of the bar seats that symbolized one of the other partners' years of being a roper and symbolized a saddle. The memorabilia placed throughout the restaurant tied to the one of the owner's histories as a roper. The wine room was has so much intention and organization and thoughtfulness as to you know the entire team needing to go in there and pull whatever they needed to pull. The photography was one of the last things that they chose in the restaurant, but was something that I could purchase if I wanted to, which was just so awesome. How cool to have a piece of a restaurant that you had such a wonderful experience in where you could buy a piece of the photography and take it home with you. The psalm station was I haven't I have not been in a restaurant and seen a psalm station in the dining room in many, many years. It was beautiful, it was thoughtful, it was elegant, it was so simple, it didn't stand out like this screaming thing that was, you know, calling attention. It would just blended in so naturally and so elegantly, and it just really showcased all their elegant, wonderful stem wear that they had. They had, I've never seen this before, you guys, they had skylights put in the ceiling of the prep area so that the team working back there could have natural light during their shift. I mean, this level of intentionality and thoughtfulness absolutely blew my mind. I've been in so many restaurants and I'm continuing to be amazed at how you can innovate design in order to enhance the experience of your teams and your guests. Every single thing had a why. To the linen closet, to where the employee bathrooms were, and why. I mean, every single thing had a why. I haven't been told a story like that since I worked at the Broadmoor almost 20 years ago. And what I want you to understand, by the time I sat down and opened that menu, I wasn't just a guest, I was connected. I was invested. I cared about that place. I'd already cared about the people from afar, but I cared about every single aspect of it. And that happened before I even took a single bite. Can your team tell the story of your restaurant? Not an elevator pitch. Here's the menu, here's what we expect, here's the specials tonight, here's the year we opened, the real story, why things that are the way that they are, what the design choices meant, whose idea was it? What does it represent? Because if you can tell that story to one guest, that one guest will tell 10 more. Intention in your physical space is not just an aesthetic choice, it's a hospitality tool.

Menus That Reduce Guest Stress

I'm going to talk about the menus because I'm a stickler for menus and I talk about this a lot with my friends and colleagues these days. The menus at Market Steer were leather bound, they were pristine, and they were stunning. There wasn't a scratch, there wasn't a fingerprint, there wasn't a winery, there wasn't a sticky spot anywhere. And there were only a couple menus. I can't remember if there were two or three. I know I got a wine list. I had the food menu, and I can't remember. I think the cocktail list might have been smaller and separate, but it wasn't four or five menus that I've been seeing a lot in restaurants. That's very confusing to me. It's it's it's stressful when somebody throws down four or cup menus. I don't even know where to start, you guys. I get that there's specials. I get maybe you're doing restaurant week. I get that there's a regular menu, I get that there's a wine list, I get there's a cocktail menu, but please, for the love of God, make it easy on your guests. Don't make me burn a ton more calories. I burn enough calories when I want to on the gym or on the hiking trail or whatever. I'm not trying to do that in your restaurant. So please cut us a fucking break. I've been out to eat a lot lately, and I cannot tell you how many times I have watched servers and staff even get confused about how many menus they're supposed to pick up, or how many dirty menus I've seen sat down on tables, or they're laminated, or the edges are ripped, or there's the font is smudged, or oh, I'm sorry, I just gave you a menu that's out of date. Keep this part of your experience clean, simple for your team and for your guests. I love that Market Steer kept it simple. They were they kept it clean. The items on the menu had stories. The horseradish caramel that was created by accident, the rub that was used, that used a grandmother's recipe, these things were unique, they were specific, and they were memorable. And it's interesting because looking at the menu online, and I didn't even mention their website, which was so easy to navigate and so enticing, and everything looked delicious. Um, the menu on the website matched the menu that I was presented, which is a huge deal for me, going into the restaurant. But every single item had a story behind it. And I had asked the server for more detail. Or no, I didn't ask. I actually listened to her talk to the table next to me and describe a handful of items. And I thought, my God, if she wasn't well trained, she could go on and on and on about everything on the menu, and that would be extremely overwhelming. She was poised and trained to highlight specific, just a handful of specific items, and she didn't go through the entire description of the item. She named two or three things, which I think is really, really important. So, again, this is a good thing to talk about during lineup. How are we describing this dish? How do we want to be describing this dish? When you hear a team member of yours describe a dish, is that exciting to you? Is it enticing? Is it boring? Think about and listen to the verbiage that you are using in your restaurants, your team is using in your restaurants. There's so much nuance in what we do every single day. I don't care if you're selling hamburgers or you're selling foie gras. It's so important to choose our words really, really carefully. And again, to just tell that story because we know it connects us with our guests. So look at your menus today, right now, after this episode. Are they clean? Are they current? Are they overwhelming? Do people on the floor know the story behind at least two or three items on the menu? Start small. This doesn't have to be a major overhaul. Because a menu is not just a list of what you sell, it's the first physical conversation your restaurant has with your guest, both online and in person. Look at your menu descriptions online. Are they enticing enough for people? Here's what I want to spend a little time on because this is the stuff that I think gets lost the fastest when restaurants get busy and the teams get

The Art Of Timing Table Touches

tired. I want to talk about the art of the table. The server at Market Steer was extraordinary. And what made her extraordinary was not just what she knew, it was what she chose to share. She had 50 stories she could have told. She picked three. She delivered them with grace, with timing, with joy. It never felt like a presentation. It felt like a conversation. The checkbacks were thoughtful on the table. The courses were paced. Room was made on the table with care. None of it felt rushed, none of it felt mechanical. It was elegant. There was an elegant dance to the experience. Here's the thing that I see go wrong most often in restaurants right now. Teams know, some teams know, but they're supposed to check back on tables and I love it. I love it. A lot of times I go out and nobody even says, hey, how are you? What's going on? How was everything or whatever? So when somebody actually approaches the table, I'm so grateful and I want to know everything about them. I want to know their name, I want to know how long they worked there, I want to know where they worked before. They probably think I'm a crazy person because I've just immediately invested in them. But they've been told to get back to the table and make sure they're happy, and they do it sometimes, but they do it on their own timeline and not the guests. There is an art to interrupting a guest. And we, I'm not seeing that trained a lot these days. What I am seeing is that someone walks up to them to the table, bless their heart, in the middle of a conversation, in the middle of a moment. I could be crying, I could be screaming, I could be laughing, whatever, and they just blurt out, how's everything tasting? without reading a single cue. Now, Danny Meyer taught me something years ago. Uh, I believe I pulled it from setting the table, or I believe, or I learned it from my mentor who used to work for Danny. I can't really remember. But taught me something that I come back to consistently. If your guests are looking at each other or they're looking at the center of the table, they're in a good place. You don't have to interrupt that, right? Like let them be. When you do need to approach, try this. Walk up gently and just move something on the table. Move a salt shaker over, move a menu off to the side a little bit. Don't you don't need to pull something away from them like their wine glass or their water glass, but but pull something, flowers on the table, whatever it could be. Pick up a piece of trash, a straw wrapper, whatever. A quiet physical gesture that signals your presence without bulldozing into their moment. The dining room at Market Steer also had, which I love this. We at a restaurant I worked at, we used to have leaves on all the tables, and it was a fucking game changer for us for reservations and flexibility every single night. I'll tell you what, that it taught her team to be so adaptable, it was awesome. So the dining room at Market Steer, table, full white tablecloths, every single two-top and every single four top was fitted with leaves so they could expand to four tops and six tops when needed. It was genius. It was flexible, it was thoughtful. It's the kind of operational decision that makes a Friday night feel effortless instead of frantic. How many times have you had a four-top camp and you need that for a two-top two-top turn, or vice versa? You have a two-top that's camping and you need that four top, you can just simply move over to another two-top, boom, pop the leaves up, you're good to go. Two things to bring to your pre-shift this week. First, when are your servers going to the table and why? Not because they need to, because it's the right moment for the guest. Second, when what are they saying when they get there? Practice it. Role play the approach. It sounds small and it's not small. And we used to love role-playing with our teams during pre-shift because every single time somebody would say, I'm I would say to them, How are you describing this dish? What's your favorite thing on the menu to describe? What wine would you pair with that? What cocktail would you pair with that? When you heard them talking about something that they were passionate about, I guarantee you a newer server in the room or server that had been there for a while that had their own spiel would pull a moment of insight or a nugget of wisdom from that person and start incorporating that into their own spiel. And it was awesome. It keeps things fresh and fun and provides a different perspective for new teammates from a training perspective and teammates that have been there for a while that just need a little bit of maybe re-inspiration every once in a while.

The Goodbye Guests Remember

I want to tell you about the end of my night because this is the part that really got me. So I went in expecting to eat by myself, right? A solo diner, quiet night. I was just going to kind of unplug and fully enjoy the experience and probably order way too much food. That's totally fine. They have a bacon showdown, I think they call it on the menu, which is an order of pork bacon and beef bacon. I was already prepared to order that to take home with me for breakfast the next day. What I didn't expect to happen was that the owner sat down and had dinner with me. I cannot overstate what that did to the experience. I heard every course come to life, not just through the server's eyes, but through the eyes of the people who built this place. Every dish had a new layer of meaning. It was warm, generous, and completely unexpected. The team said thank you on the way out the door. Now I I know this is very small, but for those of you that are listening to this right now, if you're not paying attention to that, when you walk out the door of any place that you go out to eat, start thinking about it and looking at it. Because that is the thing that completely sets the experience hard for me. When teams are genuine, when it's not a reflexive over-the-shoulder thanks, have a good night, a real thank you. It's special, it stopped me in my tracks. I turned around, it surprised me. And that should not be a surprise to us. But it is. None of what I just described is magic. None of it requires a massive budget or a five-star hotel training program. What it does require is people who care, leadership that models it, and a team that's been given the tools and the language to show up that way every single shift.

The Six Part Hospitality Playbook

So let's break it down here. I'm going to give you a playbook. These are the things that I want you to take back to your team this week because your guests are sitting across from the table. Who people from people who have real opportunity to make them feel something. And I think we've forgotten a lot of us just how powerful that is, or we have forgotten to mention it to our teams, especially the ones that are newer in the industry. They're coming into our restaurants every single day. So playbook number one, playbook item number one. The experience starts before they even walk in the door. I want you to think about every single touch point that a guest has with your restaurant before they even sit down. This is a really fun exercise to do with your team, your website, your voicemail, your reservation line, your confirmation email. Every single one of those moments is an opportunity to make someone feel like they are already being taken care of. When I called Market Steer to change my reservation, the person on the other end of that phone didn't just process my request, she gave me options. She used language that felt warm and flexible and human. She made me feel like whatever I needed was going to be just fine. That was trained behavior. That was scripted behavior. And if you're not intentionally training your team on what to say when someone calls, you are leaving that moment up to chance. Don't do that. And when I say scripted behavior, I'm not saying you need to type out for them this is what you should say in all of these instances, but again, role play with them. Have conversations with them. What happens if a guest calls to change their number from two to one? What if they say, go ahead and give up the table? I want to see that the bar instead. How do you handle these things? Co-design the experience with them, the response with them so that it feels natural to them, but that they are prepared to offer response when that request is made. Second, your menu is a first impression. Please treat it like one. Look at your menus right now. Again, these are all great exercises to do with your leadership team. Send them this podcast episode and have them go through the playbook exercise. Look at your menus right now. I mean it. Go look at them. Are they sticky? Are there fingerprints on them? Are there four or five of them dropping at the table at once and overwhelming your guest before they even take a breath? Watch somebody drop the menus at the table and see what the guest response is. They may not even be looking at one of your menus because there's so many. They may be missing an entire component of an offering or a segment or department that you have in your restaurant because it's just too much. A menu is not just a price list. It's the first physical thing that your guest touches and it tells them immediately how much you care. Market Steer had two, like I said, two to three menus: leather-bound, spotless, beautiful. The menu had the same level of intentionality as the decor and the design and the menu and the wine list, there was there was elegance and thoughtfulness into it. Do your menus match your concept? Every item on that menu had a story behind it. You don't have to spend a fortune on menus, but you do have to pay attention to them in every and every single shift. If your host team is not wiping down the menus every single time they come back to the host stand, if you have that time, or at the end of night as in terms of side work and checking them in the morning as part of opening side work, they absolutely should be. Number three, tell the story of your restaurant on purpose. Here's something I want every operator listening to really, really sit with. The owners of Market Steer took me on a tour before I even sat down to eat. And by the time I opened that menu, I wasn't just hungry, I was connected. I understood why the leather was there, what the photography meant, and who was grandmother's recipe was on the rub. That connection made every single bite taste different. Now, I know you can't give every single guest a personal tour. How cool would that be if you could? But your team can carry that story. Every server, every host, give every guest a personal tour by telling the story of your restaurant. They should be able to share those pieces naturally without feeling like a rehearsed speech. Pick two or three details that are uniquely yours and make sure that your whole team knows about them and loves them as much as you do. I guarantee you that there are stories behind the dishes that you have on the menu that maybe you just haven't thought about telling your team yet. So go back and look at your menu and really understand why you're putting things on the menu. It may challenge you too to go, you know what, I have no idea why this is on the menu. Or we put this on the menu because it represents our town. Market steer did that a lot. They had, they wanted to have a feel of Santa Fe, but they also wanted to incorporate some parts of their life outside of Santa Fe to make it feel authentic and organic and genuine. So think about that as you're going through your menu items. Number four, read the root before you approach the table. This one is so simple and it costs absolutely nothing. And yet I see it done wrong consistently. Your team needs to understand that checking on a table is not about when it's convenient for them. It's about when it's right for the guest. And that's a fine balance, I get it, depending on, you know, we've got larger section sizes than we ever have in these days in this day and age. If you're in the full service model, especially if you're in Denver or other places where labor is extremely expensive, there's a balance between when they're when they have time and when it's convenient for the guest. And that should be telling about how the workload is for each individual person. Is it too much or is it too little? If two people are leaning in towards each other, laughing and clearly in the middle of a moment, that is not a time to walk up and ask how everything is tasting. They're in a good place. Just let them be. And when you do need to approach, again, gently walk up, move something. Like I said, a salt shaker, a flower, um, a menu, a small quiet gesture that lets the table know that you're there without interrupting the conversation. Again, go role play with this with your team. This is a wonderful thing to do during during service. Number five, underpromise and over-deliver every single shift. I want you to think about one moment in the guest experience where you could give them something they didn't expect. It does not have to be expensive. Marcus Deer sent me home with bacon and a sauce that wasn't even on the menu. Just a little something extra, but I'm telling you, I will never forget it. What is your version of that? A little something extra at the end of the meal, a comp that's thoughtful and personal, not just a reaction to a plaint a complaint, a moment where your guest thinks, I didn't see that coming, and it makes them smile. That's the stuff that turns a guest into a regular, and it turns a regular into someone who tells everyone they know. We used to have birthday cards that were blank with our logos on them. And during pre-shift, we would have the staff sign cards, we'd leave the middle blank, and we'd give each person a card. We would challenge them to listen to their tables. If they heard a birthday was coming up, if they heard that somebody was celebrating an anniversary, if they were celebrating somebody's good grades on a report card, whatever it was, the team had a tool on them to fill out and drop at the table. It was a game changer and it cost us hardly anything. I used to overhear people or ask people if they were in from out of town and what they were doing, and hear them say, oh, we might try this restaurant or we might go here and go, you know, go to this museum or go hiking or whatever. I would on a piece of POS receipt write down a lit write down a list of my favorite restaurants in town or my favorite um activities to do and give that to them. Again, it just takes a second to create something thoughtful. It didn't cost anything. Number six, say thank you like you mean it. The last thing I want to leave you with is this. When was the last time a team member said thank you to a guest on the way out the door and actually meant it? Not scripted, robotic, thanks for coming in, not a not a forced, I have to look up from the menus that I'm wiping right now. Oh, thanks so much. A very sincere, genuine, warm, we're so glad you were here today. Market Steers team did this, and I'll be honest with you, it stopped me in my tracks. It I genuinely felt like they were happy and grateful that I was there. And again, this little moment costs nothing but set you apart from so many other restaurants. There are so I used to tell our teams this all the time. There's so much competition around us. We have to go the extra mile to give our guests a reason to choose us over choosing somebody else. I understand why marketseer is always busy. I understand it completely. Because what they've built is not luck. It's a it's not just a great location or beautiful building, although both of these things really, really stand out. It's a thousand small decisions made by people who give a damn. Every shift, every table, every guest. And here's what I know about you because you're listening to this podcast, you give a damn too, or you wouldn't be here. So here's your one thing for this week, just one. Here's my challenge to you. Go back to your restaurant and pick one moment in your guest experience, just one, where you know you can do better. The phone call, the menu, the checkback, the goodbye, pick one. Bring it to your pre-shift, talk about it with your team, do this exercise during one of your ops meetings because excellence is not a renovation project, it's a daily practice. And it starts with one decision to do one thing better than you did yesterday. Thank you for being here. I truly, truly mean that. If this episode if this episode resonated with you, share it with somebody on your team or another operator in your life who needs to hear it. If you haven't been to a restaurant, if you have, I'm sorry, if you have been to a restaurant lately that stopped you in your tracks the way that Margastier stopped me, I want to hear about it. Please share these stories. We need more of these amazing stories in the restaurant world, in the community. We just need more positivity in the world anyway. But I want you to reach out to me. I want to talk to you about the experience. I love geeking out on this stuff. Um, you can find me at ColumbineHospitality.com slash contact. I would also love to know what things you would like to hear about on the show. I'm always looking for new material, and I would love to hear what your biggest challenges and pain points are so that we can take a deep dive into those and provide you even more resources that are going to be helpful. Thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to see you next time.