Anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant industry knows that it is a feast or famine sort of business. Every successful restaurant has their busy and their slow season.

In order to make up for the lower sales during the off-season, it is not uncommon for restaurants to go lighter when staffing for the summer. But what do you do when a sudden rush comes in? High volume is a blessing from the person behind the checkbook, but behind the line, it can completely derail a previously pleasant dinner shift.

This post is designed to give you three quick tips that will improve your ability to handle sudden influxes of seating.

1. Don't Ditch the Host
Employing someone to work the door can be expensive. That is because, unlike tipped employees, restaurants are typically responsible for paying a full hourly wage. But a good host can work wonders, redirecting surplus guests to the bar, enforcing reservation time with laggers who aren't ready to be seated. They are the best tool available for avoiding an overload of orders.


2. Mix and Match Experience Level
It can be tempting to staff your most experienced employees during the weekend and leave your more inexperienced employees to what are traditionally slower nights. But there are two big flaws with doing that.

First, it deprives your newer employees the chance to learn from their more skilled coworkers and experience the pressure of the more traditionally busy nights. Second, should you happen to experience a particularly busy Tuesday, your b-team is particularly likely to make mistake under pressure.


3. Get the Right Equipment
There are a hundred ways to skin a cat, the expression goes. The same does for most cooking techniques. In fact, a skilled enough cook can accomplish almost anything with the simplest tools and enough time. But when the orders are coming in at lightning speed, the right tool can be a lifesaver.

Tools like commercial meat grinders, commercial dough mixer, dough rolling machines, and meat cutting machines can greatly expedite your cook time, allowing you to handle the high-pressure moments much more effectively.

Keeping on top of trends can help you know what equipment might come in handy. For instance, the fact that meat consumption is projected to increase to over 200 pounds per capita each year is a pretty good indication that a commercial meat grinder might be a good investment.

It is hard to know what any given night will look like at a restaurant -- but isn't that part of the charm of the industry? As long as you set yourself up to handle the peaks and valleys, at least. Equipment like commercial meat grinders and dough sheeters, better staffing, and utilizing your host can give you the peace of mind you need.