There's been a lot of turmoil in the restaurant ranks lately. Rare Hospitality (Capital Grille, Longhorn Steakhouse) is being bought by Darden (Red Lobster, Olive Garden). IHOP is buying Applebees. Darden closes it's Smokey Bones BBQ joints. And now, Brinker International has announced that Macaroni Grill is for sale. Obviously, some of you are smarter than the average bear, and can glean from earlier posts that I worked for Macaroni Grill (Linguine Bistro). Since I never signed a secrecy pact, I will give my impression on where they went wrong, and where they can get it back.
When I first started at Mac Grill, they made all of their sauces from scratch. All of them. That was one thing that seperated them from Olive Garden. It was a genuine pain in the ass, though worth it. I still remember boiling over a whole steam kettle of Garlic Cream sauce while in training. (Not my finest moment, and quite a mess!) There were two things, mostly, that put the kibosh on scratch cooking. One, labor cost, the other consistency. Labor costs were a crappy reason, really, but that's what we were told. The real labor cost was having a Kitchen Manager to make sure the sauces were made correctly. Once they got frozen bags o'sauce, they could get rid of the Kitchen Manager position. As far as consistency, with no "chef", all the worker bees in the kitchen wouldn't make the sauces to the recipe without someone to watch over them. They're reasoning was to kill two birds with one stone. What they did was to kill a concept.
Next, when the old CEO left for greener pastures, they hired a person with no idea of what she should do. They hired the discarded head of YUM Brands ( Taco Bell, KFC). Yeah, that's the ticket! Can you say lowered food standards? The Chairman of Chalupas running things, what could go wrong? Everything! Management perks being amongst the first things to go. Stock options? Only for GMs and above. Bonuses? Now there were maximum amounts you could earn. Evaluations and raises? Now tied to Guest Surveys and Year-over-year guest counts. And now only once a year and not every six months. Can you say "Exodus"? Before I left, I found out my original GM and Area Director had defected to another concept.
During all of these changes, it came down from on "high", that many things that were a part of the culture of MG were being shown the door. Forget the opera singers. No more ringing of the bell for 86's. No more clapping when someone dropped a plate or tray. Now, they were, indeed, "mainstream" (read: Olive Garden clone).
Anyone who has ever been in the restaurant business knows that "It's the food, stupid!". That should be step one. I almost had a stroke last week when I went to the neighboring Publix supermarket and saw Macaroni Grill Entrees in the refrigerated section. Oh...My...God... Now they're TGIF, offering their restaurant food to anyone in the grocery store! Why even go to the restaurant now? No reason that I can think of.
Any corporation thinking of buying Macaroni Grill ( and Phil Romano is supposedly thinking of it), should go back to what made it a success back in 1986. Good, made-from-scratch food. Quirky, but fun service. Down to Earth atmosphere ( when I saw the new Pensacola store, all I could think of was "Who put the Fine Dining Restaurant in the Macaroni Grill space?). I've spoken to employees at the Pensacola store, and they say that people coming from the mall walk in the door, and then turn around and walk out because it looks too upscale. It worked once when it was the anti-Olive Garden. And it could again. Just sayin'.
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Insider info! Gotta luv it :) "Fresh" does not mean the bag was just opened :)
Ex-EXRM, as I said before, I spent almost 16 years at Macaroni Grill before I left to take over a restaurant here in town. People asked me for years why MG went downhill and I swear I almost told them VERBATIM your post. I remeber as a 16 year dishwasher/morning prep monkey when they even made the pastas in house. It really broke my heart when sauces started coming in bags, etc. I would love for PR to buy it and restore it to what it used to be. I wonder how many of the same people we know??????
As always, thanks for making me smile after 2 13 hour days in a row!!!!!
Thanks for the comment, Voodoo76. Back in my "gung-ho" period, I bought Phil Romano's book, "Food for Thought". Macaroni Grill was a labor of love for him, and I'm sure it killed him to see what it bacame. I would love to see him take it back under his wing.
By the way, where are you writing from? We just might know some of the same people.
Forgive my ignorance, but what is "ringing of the bell for 86's" ?
Sorry, that's a trade secret ;) If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya!
exrm, Louisville, KY.
When I can't sleep at night, I simply start "counting managers" instead of sheep... :-)
I couldn't agree more. I was a manager/gm for almost 13 years with Mac. Not only did they turn it into a cookie cutter italian restaurant, but Brinker spent millions of dollars generated by Mac to help fund advertisement for Chili's. If you want to become Olive Garden, you'd better have a commercial or two to advertise your CYOP. Which they told us was staying on the menu because "no one else can execute it like us". As much as I hated that dish, if that's what you're claiming as your "signature", you'd better bring more than a Sunday paper coupon and a menu insert.
Interesting to know.
Well, i also work at the MG. I am a server that only works saturdsys. I opened the store I'm at and have been here for about three years. What's funny is...when you talk about fresh sauce, ringing the bell, clapping...that's what we were taught when they opened the story. What was that italian word they taught us that meant going above and beyond guest expectations??? I was just thinking that so much has changed, yet no one has sat us down to tell us that we don't do any of these things anymore.
Now they started this gold, silver, bronze silver thing where they rate us. It's so commercialized. I heard the sale went through...who bought it???
As far as I know, no one stupid enough or with enough money to buy it has come forward. The "top management" has driven it into the ground and have no idea how to resurrect it. That's what you get when you hire KFC management to run a "real" restaurant.
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