David Clark, Executive Sous Chef of Army Navy Country Club, explores options to modernize menus while balancing the “untouchable dishes.”
I am very lucky in my career to have worked at three great clubs and to have visited serval others around the country. In each one of those operations, there has always been a dish (or two) on the menu that the chefs have been instructed not to touch. These dishes can vary from a local special, in my case a Maryland crab cake, to a club’s classic that triggers nostalgia for the membership, or a dish that was made by a former, beloved chef.
All of our colleagues tell the same story. It goes something along the lines of “the GM says I can’t change this dish,” or “one member demands that we have it on the menu even though that member only uses the club once a month.” Yet, as noted in publications like this one and in anecdotes from our peers, we know our memberships are changing. There is a new, younger generation of members with different life experiences and preferences. And so our operations must evolve to meet changing expectations. To add to this tension, the restaurant scenes in our communities are evolving. They’ve become more diverse with a variety of cuisines and experiences for our membership to visit. So, are we doing our clubs any favors by keeping these legacy dishes around or are we actually hurting them by leaving these “classics” on our menus?
To be clear, our job is to make each member happy and I take that very seriously. But most of the time, we simply accept or assume that these dishes are actually what the members are looking for. In many cases, these “untouchables” don’t align with current culinary trends and take up valuable real estate on our menus. They date our operation and most of the members, especially our newer members, won’t ever order them.
So, what do we do about these items? One tactic that has worked for me is to simply remove the dish from the menu, but keep everything to make it on hand. This way you can quickly prepare the dish should a member request it, but still build menus that reflect current trends and preferences. Another option is to update these favorites. Who say chicken salad in a pineapple boat can’t be modern and even exciting? (I’m not sure how this would work yet, but it could be fun to come up with!) It’s also a good idea to get the membership involved. Clubs can conduct focus groups or surveys to gather input and feedback and then update menus in response to the data. This gives chefs an opportunity to explain the benefits of potential changes and build support from the start.
There certainly are risks to removing legacy dishes from a menu and I recognize that for some chefs, it just may not be an option. Still, we can push our teams to be forward-thinking and try to bring new and exciting dining experiences to our members. We can build excitement with membership (as well as drive revenue) by providing new and unique options that rival restaurants. This will help our operations to become known as “Dining Clubs” in addition to Golf, Tennis, or other recreational operations.
I’d love to know how other Chefs have handled this challenge – please share ideas so we can all continue to evolve our operations while continuing to delight our members.
