TJ Garrish, Executive Chef of L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton, shares how the club has shifted its a la carte menu into a carry-out menu.
Here at L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton (Towson, Md.), we are trying our beset to adapt to these crazy times. Right after the news broke about the coronavirus and all the closures, the management team here began evaluating how we might be of the most value to our membership. Every day since, we have changed and evolved with the latest updates. Through it all and to our core, we are staying true to the club’s mission: We are family and we must take care of one another and our members.
These are the questions we continue to ask one another:
- What is best for the members?
- How can we continue to provide quality food, while social distancing to keep our members safe?
The answers to these questions ultimately culminated with a new carryout strategy that would give our membership an ongoing dining option.
We first decided to reevaluate our a la carte menu and focus on the ingredients we currently have in stock, as well items we are able to execute in a timely manner with limited staffing. We went back to basics, focusing on simple food done right.
Our new carryout menu looks similar to our a la carte, but to a lesser degree. (View L’Hirondelle Club’s carryout menu here.) We’re offering simply prepared fish with a lemon butter sauce, Maryland crab cakes, a NY Strip, burgers and a kids’ menu items with sides. All these dishes we had been offering during normal service under our “Classics” and “Kids Menu” sections, so the members are familiar with them, but now we’re packing them up for carry-out which is providing both comfort and familiarity.
We have also begun running specials, just like we would normally do during normal service. This week, we offered crab cakes for $15 each, which helped us drive more cover counts. We also began running family meal packs, starting with a meatloaf that served 4-6. We will continue to change the family meal packs daily, to keep members engaged. We are evaluating daily, how we can better serve our members, planning a delivery process, as well as assembling pizza packs that can be made at home to provide fun and entertainment.
Our cover counts as well as revenue have stayed the same with a few weeks prior. We are trending slightly higher than last year in terms of sales for a la carte. I attributed that to our pricing and the team’s ability to continue to deliver quality meals in a new forma. When we began our carryout menu, our purveyors had product that needed to be moved, so they lowered their prices. Jumbo Lump Crab meat was $12/lb, salmon was on sale at $6/lb and halibut was on sale for $12/lb. This allowed us to lower prices for the time being, which helped us greatly. But we can’t rest. We must continue to change and evolve to keep succeeding with our carryout program.
Running this new carryout menu has greatly reduced staff in the kitchen. It’s now only me and the two sous chefs. The only front of the house staff currently working is the assistant general manager and dining room manager. This is good for the club because we are able to reduce our overhead. But it’s bad for our hourly employees. The hardest thing has been telling staff that we do not need them to come in. We are still trying to do anything and everything we can. We encouraged them to use their sick time and vacation time to try to wait this out. Doing this has bought us some time to get creative with keeping staff onboard.
At this time, we haven’t laid anyone off. They are still getting paid and receiving their benefits in the hopes that we can get through this crisis in a timely manner. We are trying in every way possible to hold on to our staff. If an employee needs food or anything, we as a club, will go above and beyond to help them. But again, as we move through these troubling times we have to continue to evaluate. (My thinking that if the sales are reflecting the same revenue we may be able to bring back some staff with reduced hours.)
These are hard times, but we must not forget to be there for our members and our staff. This pandemic has created struggles for everyone. I think clubs are in a much better position than restaurants. We’re uniquely positioned to continue to serve our customers in new and unique ways. For example, we had some product that was going to go bad with the new carryout menu. We decided to donate it to a local restaurant that has been hosting industry nights, providing meals for anyone in foodservice who needs help. Helping them help out culinary community cost us nothing and we’re humbled to be able to help in some small way.
This is a time unlike any we’ve ever experienced. Yet we continue to provide for our members in new an helpful ways. As chefs, we are constantly faced with tough situations. A line cook who walked out, a member who brought a guest with a severe food allergy, a broken down piece of equipment or an order that didn’t arrive on time. We rebound and we often do some of our best work in tough and stressful situations. Keep going, chefs. We’ve got this.
