Waitersfriend

My name is Mark Wilson. I have worked in some of the most exclusive hotels in the world. I have worked as a professional barista in flourishing artistic communities. I have worked on yachts and secluded islands. I have set-up award winning restaurants and street-side cafes. I have also done almost everything in between as far as food and beverage venues go. I am a hospitality slut.

I, with my friends at Waitersfriend feel that I want to share my experiences.

So here goes;

If I were to try to find a pillar of belief in my philosophy on hospitality, as in one principle that all other principles are affected by, it would be this;

If your version of hospitality is not profitable, then your version of hospitality will not exist for long.

Some of the best chefs and front of house staff I have ever known have either gone belly up in their own restaurant ventures or never even contemplated owning a place of their own, due to the risks involved.  The statistics alone are enough to suggest that running or owning a successful restaurant or any other kind of food & beverage outlet is in many cases nothing more than an illusion.  An illusion that has sucked the money out of many men and women across the globe.

This is what feeds my belief that we should first & foremost run a business. Percentages, landed unit costs, wages, overheads, maintenance, payroll tax, gst, and on and on.  I could bore you to death with the “Business” of restaurants.  However, if you cannot run a business or understand business then DO NOT OPEN A RESTAURANT!! Even if you can understand business it is statistically safer not to open a restaurant!!

I will always base my reasoning on the need to successfully run and manage the business.

Now we can touch on the OTHER things that can keep you involved in our industry;

passion (psychological problems),

commitment (loneliness),

a love of fine & various foods (gluttony),

a relationship with wine (alcoholism),

and a respect for different tastes & cultures (the relentless search for something better).

Without these things your version of hospitality will always remain a business and never really capture the heart and soul of what hospitality, and restaurants in particular, are really made of.

I have seen some amazing things in my time in this industry. Through my blog I hope to share with you some of the wonderful and some of the tragic. This industry is littered with excess & loss, success & failure, highs & lows, sex & relationships, drugs & alcohol.

It is within this landscape that I manage my business.

More manager support…