The Restaurant Manager's Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation 4th Edition - With Companion CD-ROM

Talk about a seven-course menu!

If you are even remotely considering starting any type of restaurant or food operation, this book isn't dessert, but an absolute necessity, especially when you consider that a recent Ohio study found that a failure rate of between 57 and 61 percent for restaurants in their first year of operation.

It's hard to imagine any topic this book doesn't cover in its 39 extensively researched chapters, whether it's on how to get a sign permit, obtain financing, execute a successful business plan or, my favorite, how to speak "the language of wine."

Don't even think about opening a food place without reading this first. As many doughy thumbs up as a book can get.

Want to open a restaurant? This is certainly THE book you need.
It covers every little detail - from the best skin protecting gloves your prep cooks should use to the type of silverware you should have based on your restaurant's style.
It's like a restaurant bible, I just got mine today when I was about to step out to the gym, and alas, this arrives.

Boy was I tempted to bring it with me and plop it on top of the treadmill while I exercised, but I didn't want to get strange stares hahaha.
Overall, it's an excellent excellent book. All of my questions are being answered. Highly recommended!

This book offers information on starting a restaurant from the ground up. If you have just the idea of starting a restaurant, this book will take you by the hand and guide you through every step of making your idea a reality. My family owned a restaurant and I can not imagine any knowledge I gained from that experience that was not covered in this handbook. The writer goes into great detail about how important it is to pick the right location for your restaurant and match your restaurant's theme to your target market. It covers the all important factor of cleanliness and how it could make or break the success of your business. There are several worksheets in the handbook that would serve as great templates to use in real life work situations, everything from budgeting to how to write an efficient business plan.

Advertising for a small business can be very expensive, but there many great tips in the reading that will help spread the word about your establishment that are absolutely free. There is a section that will give you great ideas on hiring and keeping the best staff available. There is also advice for those who want to open a franchise, instead of going it alone. The instructions on writing a menu should be very helpful in attracting customers into your establishment. There are strategies on forecasting expenses to insure you get the maximum benefit from your cash flow. The author provides great design guidelines to set up your dinning room in order to appeal to your customers. This book would be a great resource for any restaurant owner and would serve anyone in restaurant management well.

The title may be a bit of an understatement - The Restaurant Manager's Handbook goes well beyond the basics of restaurant management, ultimately encompassing the entire scope of owning and running a full-service restaurant. In an industry where, as this book points out, a large percentage of ventures fail, a comprehensive resource like this can prove an invaluable tool for restaurant owners and managers, one that you'll return to again and again.
The Restaurant Manager's Handbook runs a full 1,057 pages, making it a reference tome that covers all the bases - from "pre-owing" business planning and research to active operation and management practices . The guide offers hard-line business advice, but presents it in a way that's easy to read and eminently accessible to the novice restaurateur .
Never written a business plan? It's in there. Don't know the first thing about effective public relations? It's in there. Need the lowdown on menu planning? Yep, that's in there too. Linen service. Music licensing. Kitchen layout. Food preparation safety. Employee relations. Planning to open a bar, not a restaurant? Don't let the title fool you - it's covered.
The guide also includes numerous valuable resources - from reproducible forms (for everything from food facility compliance checklists to acquisition and inventory to cook's lists, and more) to detailed lists of suppliers for everything from flatware to point of sale systems. And if you still need a little encouragement, check out the case studies of successful restaurant ventures with practical advice from those who've been there . . .

this is a solid, almost academic, handbook. it's points you toward the things you need to figure out but you'll still need to get additional information on your local regulations. personnaly, it discouraged me from opening a buisness at this time.