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dominic@fordmcdonaldconsultancy.com
Practical guidance drawn from delivering restaurant, food hall and food retail projects. These are the questions that decide whether a venture opens well and trades profitably — written for operators, retailers and hotel teams rather than for other consultants.
Footfall, dwell time and the layout decisions that decide whether a food hall becomes a destination or a corridor. Covers zoning, seating ratios, concession mix and the service-speed maths that has to work at peak.
Dish-level contribution, the cost of complexity, and how to change a menu in the order that returns money fastest. Includes the four-quadrant view of popularity against margin.
Workflow, equipment specification, extraction and the back-of-house decisions that set a kitchen's throughput ceiling long before service begins — and why throughput, not floor area, is the real constraint.
How to build a range by category, price architecture and margin, when own-label is worth developing, and how supplier negotiation and fixture planning turn a range into sales.
Recruitment, training, trials, licensing, systems and handover — sequenced so the site opens staffed, briefed and ready, rather than staffed on paper and learning in public.
Every one of these guides comes from work we have delivered for clients including InterContinental Hotels Group, la Rinascente, Tsvetnoy Central Market, Jumeirah, Park Plaza Hotels and The Savoy. If you would rather we simply did the work, see our service lines or tell us about the project.
You may also find the frequently asked questions, the case studies and our list of recommended resources useful.