As we move forward to improve our lodge operations and the service that the members get from the dining room it requires a joint effort on both parts. The board hired a chef based on some key words, consistency, quality,food cost control, waste management, increase business sales and inventory control. We formed some questions around those topics as well as our normal questions on making sure they can fit into an Elk's Lodge, however normal that can be. Based off the questions we put together we hired Mark Egan, who is doing what the board is asking of him. Last week I inquired about how many reservations we had for a Friday night dinner and the answer was 4 reservations, this was early afternoon on a Friday. I was a little surprised from the response as I have noticed a pretty good increase in members participating in the Friday and Saturday dinners. I came in early the same evening to find that in just a matter of a few hours our reservations went from 4 to around 50, hmmmmm...I am thinking if I was the chef at that time, I would have snuck out the back door. Mark did not sneak out the back door, he did the best he could with what he had in front of him. It is hard to go from 4 reservations to almost 50 reservations and think that everyone will get what is on the menu. When the board is directing inventory control to the chef that means not much inventory on hand, with that, we have to do our best as members to make reservations early in the week for our Friday and Saturday dinner hours so that we can help make the dining room a better experience for everyone. If you have the time please call and actually talk with Mary or Mark and make your reservation. As the food quality continues to go up so does the amount of members who participate in the dining room, the quality of food is there we need to help with the consistency.
Thank you ~Troy Ceballos, Esteemed Leading Knight