The Club + Resort Chef Association is opening online forums to all registered users as we navigate these uncharted waters.
As chefs, it is not unusual to walk in the clubhouse in the morning and see an empty dining room. But when you walk out of the kitchen at 6:00 pm and the dining room is still empty it’s a bit surreal. Will empty dining rooms ever be full again? Will member dining ever return to what it once was? Should it? These are among the many questions we’re all considering right now.
Right now, the club industry is laser focused on the health and safety of our families, staff and members. Fortunately, we have found myriad ways to continue to serve members with to-go, carryout, delivery, marketplace ideas, food trucks and more. It’s fascinating how quickly clubs have been able to pivot operations. To-go orders went from a quiet convenience to our primary source of service. A club that typically services 80-100 members on a Thursday night is now seeing numbers twice that on any given night. Some are even expanding hours of operation in response to the increase in demand.
Clubs have become the primary choice for members because of the comfort and familiarity we can provide. The logistics of our kitchens may have switched from plating to packaging, but our food and our ability to serve our members will get both us and them through this storm.
Still questions remain, especially around banquet and events. Are events at your club being rescheduled? Are you hoping to make up lost revenue later in the year? Are you seeing members lower capacity for upcoming booked business? It’s hard to predict what will happen, but we need to be prepared for the general population to return to some semblance of normalcy at some point. Pools will open. Patios will be hosed off and dining rooms will be full again. Between then and here, we must communicate with staff we plan to bring back and prioritize how we will reengage with “normal” business.
We want to ease some fears and uncertainty by providing a platform for club chefs to voice ideas, challenges and solutions as they apply to our niche market by opening our forums to all club chefs to read, discuss, answer and post. You do not have to be a paid member of the association in order to participate. Check the forums out here. Use the forums as a specialized resource during this challenging time. When you get in there, you’ll see that Club + Resort Chef’s Editor, Joanna DeChellis, has seeded some questions to get conversations flowing. Answer as many as you’d like and please feel free to also add your own. This forum is for you and for our industry. Share ideas. Talk with one another. Upload your menus and troubleshoot your problems.
During a time when you’re doing everything you can to be there for your members, we’re trying hard to do everything we can to be there for you, too.
