Taming The Two-Headed Food and Beverage Beast
Food and beverage at clubs is being pulled in two directions. Members are seeking both convenience and a memorable dining experience. Very often these member expectations are not being met at many clubs.
The very real demands of these two seemingly competing values are further exaggerated in a club’s dining program as the dining program succeeds. The more members that come to the club, the more strain on the back of the house and food production area. These increases push the back of the house to grow or be redesigned. It often is the case that members want to come all at once. These peak hour meals place demands not only on the back of house facilities, but simultaneously on the methods of communication between the service staff and kitchen. The front of the house needs to satisfy the rapidly increasing member expectations for service response times. Club members may dislike the philosophy of technology filling the gap for staff productivity, but food and beverage nationwide is undergoing a re-balancing of automation compared with personal engagement. There are new tools that can be integrated into your food and beverage facilities by McMahon professionals that understand how to improve those facilities at your club.
Simply put, the club kitchens of yesterday are grossly underperforming. Don’t try to hobble together an improvement project piecemeal. We at McMahon can help with a comprehensive Food and Beverage facilities update to arm your club and staff with the weapons they need to slaughter and serve up this two-headed beast of convenience and memorable dining to your members. Learn about the success story of how Legends Golf and Country Club in Fort Myers, FL tamed their two-headed beast in an upcoming edition of The McMahon Report®.
About Bill McMahon, Sr. AIA, OAA
Bill is a strategic, financial and architectural planning consultant to clubs throughout North America. He established McMahon Group in 1983 as an affiliate of the family architectural firm his grandfather founded in 1906. Over the ensuing years, the firm has expanded its club consulting services beyond clubhouse improvement planning to a full range of services for all aspects of private club challenges. To date, the firm has assisted more than 2,000 private clubs across the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. McMahon Group provides a unique approach to developing club facility projects first establishing design and financial feasibility so membership approval is achieved. Thereafter final design and construction firms are selected to build the member approved project.
Mr. McMahon is unique among club consultants in providing an integrated strategic, financial and architectural approach to solving club problems. His personal involvement with his own clubs in St. Louis (serving in the roles of president, board member and committee member) has allowed him to bring unparalleled experience to each client. Mr. McMahon’s club memberships have included Bellerive Country Club (St. Louis), Racquet Club Ladue (St. Louis), University Club of St. Louis, Spring Lake Yacht Club (Michigan) and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.
Mr. McMahon is a graduate of Washington University School of Architecture in St. Louis and holds architecture licenses in 44 U.S. states and in Ontario, Canada. He is a featured author in industry publications and a featured speaker at the annual conferences of the Club Managers Association of America, the Canadian Society of Club Managers, the National Club Association and the Hospitality, Financial and Technology Professionals. He serves as a visiting lecturer at continuing education sessions offered by regional CMAA chapters and at Michigan State University. Bill is a co-author of McMahon Club Trends®, the comprehensive research reports on strategic issues facing private clubs published with the National Club Association. He is also founder of the Excellence in Club Management Award.
Mr. McMahon is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and the National Club Association. He is a former president of the Missouri Council of Architects, AIA and has served on various charitable boards in the St. Louis area.
