
The Surprise Restaurant Manager
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Narrated by:
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Fabio Viviani
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Ken McGarrie
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By:
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Ken McGarrie
About this listen
Surprise - you’re in charge now! Steady money and new opportunities awaited as you moved up from server or bartender to front-of-house manager. But too often, restaurant management find themselves leading with minimal training, a ton of responsibilities, and no clue how to improve. You’ve run the Friday night rush, you’ve juggled expectations of staff and guests - but have you figured out how to improve while keeping the restaurant profitable?
In The Surprise Restaurant Manager, learn from Ken McGarrie, a restaurant operator who has helped launched dozens of successful restaurants, as he gives you the tools to master the unexpected challenges managers face every day. Get help on the fly with real-life examples, straightforward strategies, and expert insight to better leadership. This is your guide to restaurant industry success beyond basic food knowledge and inventory counts.
You’ll learn:
- How to locate quality candidates and interview effectively, including eight signs you shouldn’t extend an offer - from subtle clues to outright red flags.
- Tips on ways to support your staff during challenging situations and how to use genuine suggestions to develop more effective hospitality skills.
- Common communication mistakes that guarantee FOH turnover and increase work stress - and how to avoid them.
- Proven steps to upgrade your table touch and salvage every negative guest experience, including guaranteed methods to improve your restaurant’s online reviews.
- How to embrace blunt criticism, work effectively with strong personalities, and avoid professional burnout.
Success as a restaurant manager is a constant quest to level up your game and your team - without sacrificing your sanity along the way. Get The Surprise Restaurant Manager now for the advice you needed - before you got the keys!
©2021 Ken McGarrie (P)2021 Korgen HospitalityListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"The ideal DIY instruction guide and manual for anyone having to assume the duties of a restaurant manager with little or no previous experience, The Surprise Restaurant Manager is impressively comprehensive and exceptionally 'user friendly' in both organization and presentation." (Midwest Book Review)
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Overall
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Author and world-renowned restaurant coach Donald Burns brings his straightforward advice on how to get the restaurant you want. His knowledge in running a restaurant not only comes from his technical skills, but also his nearly four decades of real-life restaurant experience as a restaurateur and working with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Your Restaurant STILL Sucks! is not your usual guide on how to run a restaurant. Instead, it will challenge you to rethink the way you look at how you run your restaurant. This book is for those who want a better restaurant and a better life.
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Performance
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People don’t open restaurants just because they want to start a business. People open restaurants because they are building a dream. You can create the restaurant of your dreams. You can also be profitable, pay your vendors, your staff, and yourself, and savor the joys of hospitality without stress and uncertainty.
-
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-
The New Restaurant Manager
- How to Get Ahead, Avoid Rookie Mistakes, and Still Have a Life
- By: John Self
- Narrated by: John Self
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New Restaurant Manager is for new managers who want to avoid the mistakes that most beginning managers make. This refreshing how-to guide is written in a practical, down-to-earth style, like having coffee with your mentor.
-
-
Great book
- By Maria Dzhugdanova on 07-03-23
By: John Self
-
How to Rock Restaurant Management
- 5 Ingredients to Leading a Successful Team
- By: Katelyn Silva
- Narrated by: Megan Hudgins
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this straightforward and tips-filled audiobook, Katelyn Silva presents her approach and strategies for not only building a team, but leading them effectively to have smoother shifts, happier guests and team members, and, ultimately, more money. How to Rock Restaurant Management will equip you with all the tools you need to build a team of all-stars that become your secret weapon to success in your management career.
-
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Great read for any level of management
- By Hasani Jahi Washington on 05-22-24
By: Katelyn Silva
-
Restaurant Success by the Numbers, Second Edition
- A Money-Guy's Guide to Opening the Next New Hot Spot
- By: Roger Fields
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A one-stop start-up guide from an accountant-turned-restaurateur. Ninety percent of all restaurants fail, and those that succeed happened upon that mysterious X factor, right? Wrong! A man of many hats - money-guy, restaurant owner, and restaurant consultant - Roger Fields shows how a restaurant can survive its first year and keep diners coming back for years. Featuring real-life start-up stories (including many of the author's own), this comprehensive how-to walks listeners through the logistics of opening a restaurant: concept, location, menu, staff, and, most important, profit.
-
-
Everything mentioned I learned as I ran restaurant
- By steve on 01-24-19
By: Roger Fields
-
Your Restaurant Sucks!
- Embrace the Suck. Unleash Your Restaurant. Become Outstanding
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the horrific failure rates of restaurants, how can you ensure yours will not only survive but grow and thrive? If your restaurant sucks, it is because you suck at running it; 100 percent. Donald Burns, author of Your Restaurant Sucks has created a methodology and mindset honed from his Special Operations training in the US Air Force. As a Pararescueman, his training developed a keen sense of purposeful and fast decision making. In the military, he learned the phrase, "embrace the suck".
-
-
A must for restaurants!
- By William on 10-07-21
By: Donald Burns
-
Your Restaurant STILL Sucks!
- Stop Playing Small. Get What You Want. Become a Badass.
- By: Donald Burns
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author and world-renowned restaurant coach Donald Burns brings his straightforward advice on how to get the restaurant you want. His knowledge in running a restaurant not only comes from his technical skills, but also his nearly four decades of real-life restaurant experience as a restaurateur and working with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Your Restaurant STILL Sucks! is not your usual guide on how to run a restaurant. Instead, it will challenge you to rethink the way you look at how you run your restaurant. This book is for those who want a better restaurant and a better life.
-
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Best book ever
- By Carlos Ortiz on 01-24-22
By: Donald Burns
What listeners say about The Surprise Restaurant Manager
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- steve
- 03-10-22
Not surprised! Great read “listen”!
This book is truly a must read for every level of manager.
Ken’s experience, perspective, business acumen and overall philosophy is modern, accessible and “easy” to put into practice. (You’ll have to put in the effort)
For the learned manager, this book has the potential to remind you of things you already know, but maybe haven’t given much thought to recently, or gives you a fresh perspective altogether, and that’s where it shines!
Lastly, the generosity of Chapter 25 (you’ll have to listen to find out what I mean) is pure gold - a literal wealth of information available for the upcoming, soon to be, or practiced manager.
Highly recommend this book!
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- Shane K.
- 05-08-24
PRETTY GOOD
Overall it was an enjoyable title with some interesting insights. The closing of the book is a pretty big let down though. Many of his do's and don'ts are pretty silly or out right ridiculous. Yeah as an industry person I tip well, I try not to come in at closing, and yes I usually do not send food back. But there are limits to that.
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- Clownbaby
- 05-27-21
An absolute must listen
I cannot believe how much great information is packed into this one book. If you are about to become a restaurant manager for the first time, or you have been a manager for a short while, or you have been a manager for over 20 years, I still recommend listening to this book. There are plenty of restaurant managers out there that have so much experience and think they’re too good to listen to this book and that’s one of the biggest problems with their managerial style. You will learn so much about how to speak to your employees the right way how to support your employees so they will work harder for you and in turn make your guests happier. From information on how to run the interview process and how to sift out the bad potential employees, to keeping your staff happy and avoiding more and more turnover. It’s a lesson on how to keep your staff less robotic and more sincere when recommending dishes or interacting with guests. The online review chapter of the book is probably worth about three times what the book cost alone. No tricks, no games, just a clear honest plan to resolve the issue and not lose the guest. Having a work life balance is so vital to being happier and not feeling burnt out. Not making your managers do any of the work from home I think would make a huge impact on there appreciation for the job. I also enjoyed the fact that he listens to his employees and lets them make suggestions on what they can do to make the restaurant better. The hourly staff knows more about what’s going on in the restaurant than managers do because they are on the front lines. I am already through my second time listening to this because I wanted it to become second nature. Please do yourself a favor and listen to this book and do so immediately.
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- Jasmin Norton
- 07-09-22
great for first time managers!!!!
also useful for new restaurant owners and servers to know what a manner should be doing. it's always useful to understand both sides.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-30-22
great information
I thought this was very well written and easy to understand. loved it and am buying a hard copy so that I can take it to work with me and share with others
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-03-21
Very helpful
Really honest book from someone in the industry. I appreciate the small chapters and throughout reviews.
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- antonius h van vuurden
- 08-29-24
A must have for managers
Lots of practical tips and guidance! As a general manager this bought has helped me so much. Even as a gm I have learned new things. Everything he says is spot on and made me laugh multiple times of the accuracy. I was doing things wrong and will now be applying the correct way. Thank you for writing this. Not many people can do a book like this as it can only be written by someone with the experience! Will definitely be rereading!
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- ronny ponte
- 10-13-22
great read definitely would recommend
love the book breaks it down to
very easy to read chapters explains the more complicated math part of just costing out and makes it much more simpler it makes you take a step back and look at how your restaurant is ran and what you need to change and spot out the red flags immediately in case you didn't see them already but definitely a good read I will read it again and I will recommend it to my friends and industry thank you Ken so much for writing it you're awesome
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- Anonymous User
- 06-30-21
A must read for anyone that manages a restaurant
Ken McGarrie has done an amazing job at writing this must have “bible” for any manager in the restaurant industry.
I would highly recommend this book whether you have been in restaurant management for years or just getting started.
Ken gives you a breakdown of just about everything that can or will happen while managing and what to do when it does.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-24-24
Clear, concise, complete!
I’ve been in the industry for almost 40 years. I have worked corporate, independent and am an owner. I have trained 100s of folks, and even started my own book.
Never have I read someone else’s thoughts that mirrored so much of my own. This book takes a person through all aspects of managing the front of the house, with a little admin thrown in.
Brilliantly written and laid out.
I wish I had this available when I came up in ranks.
Well done, Sir.
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