Executive Sous Chef David Clark says that the way forward for Army Navy CC is to provide to-go meals both for daily service as well as for holidays.
The current global health and economic crisis is reshaping almost every aspect of our daily lives. Each of our operations has handled this moment differently, and we all likely have had to completely shut down our normal operations and rethink our business models on the fly. Thanks to our wide networks and the channels we’ve built through Club + Resort Chef and Chef to Chef, we have been able to bounce ideas off one another and share successes and failures to help navigate the current challenges.
Many of our clubs have taken cues from private restaurants and adopted or expanded a To-Go program. It seems that this approach is our collective path forward for the forceable future. Army Navy Country Club (ANCC) has taken a “test and learn” approach with our To-Go program and iterated to meet our members’ needs and the reality of our club’s unique situation. Our membership is more diverse than many clubs because of our large military population. Being located in the heart of the DMV (an affectionate term for the interconnected communities of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia), our members are spread across a wide geographic area, and many have to travel a distance to ANCC for carry out. Very few of our members live in the neighborhoods surrounding the club.
To meet these unique challenges, we needed to do something that our members couldn’t get in their neighborhoods. We knew that our kitchen design and current staffing would not allow us to produce an a la carte service like many other clubs, and that we could not compete with local favorite pizza joints or specialty cuisine like Chinese food. We also knew we needed to create demand and encourage larger-scale ordering to avoid adding leftovers to our already unused inventory. We decided to focus on what we do well: providing delicious family meal experiences.
Our first To-Go menu (view menu here) was family-style BBQ. We were well set up from a logistics standpoint because we have a large smoker, but more importantly, our members love our BBQ. To facilitate more streamlined expediting and maximize resource efficiency, we set up ordering to be based on meals for two – a family could place an unlimited number of two-person meals, and we capped capacity at 100 orders. We did this for two nights and sold out within 45 minutes. This was a great trial run and we learned how to set up the club’s lobby to be a kitchen, what To-Go containers worked for us, how difficult it was to get them, and how well the food would hold. It also taught us that we made the right choice to not compete with local restaurants, and that if we provided affordable food our members loved, they would make the drive to pick it up.
But what about the big Holiday events that most of our operations are known for? Lavish Easter Buffets, over-the-top omelet stations for Mother’s Day Brunch, big BBQ buffets over Memorial Day and the 4th of July? We only have one option at this point: to somehow continue our long history of producing incredible food and experiences for a large number of members and families on each of our major holidays.
For Easter, ANCC adapted the family meal approach for a more special occasion. We did a Chateaubriand (because it would hold well) with a few salads, a chilled soup, two starches, vegetables and dessert that was both adult and (more importantly) kid friendly. Once again, we sold out in the first day. (View our Easter menu here.) ANCC fed 800 members over the course of Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. For us, this was a huge success and our members raved about the food.
So, with Mother’s Day fast approaching, I’m sure many of us are in the same boat: we have to produce, and without distractions like the Easter Bunny, bouncy houses, or Uncle Sam to entertain members, our food is the main—or perhaps only—event.
Our To-Go menu for Mother’s Day Brunch consists of 4 petite beef tenderloin, two salads, three seafood elements for our non-meat eaters, a vegetable and starch, all served hot, but with the ability to be easily reheated. ANCC will offer 120 orders both Saturday and Sunday of Mother’s Day Weekend that each feeds a family of 4. We hope this helps provide a special Mother’s Day experience for our members and bring a bit of joy in a stressful and scary time. (View our Mother’s Day menu here.)
Army Navy’s path forward is To-Go for family meals and special events (view our latest menu here), but by the time you read this, we also will have opened our Grocery Store. Members will be able to place an online order for curbside pickup of a variety of options including toilet paper, vegetables, latex gloves, and 12oz. New York Strips. While we’ve had to rethink many things, the key to our operation’s success during this challenge remains fundamentally the same as it was before – to provide an excellent service or experience our members cannot get anywhere else.
Our next big challenge is Memorial Day. What are all you doing?
