FOOD SERVICE AREA

            

In Food & Beverage department of a hotel there are  different areas where food and beverage is served. Apart of main outlets there  are  some ancillary or support sections often not visible to the customer.Food and beverage is an extremely labour intensive department. In a large hotel there are multiple areas where food and beverages are served both to in-house and walk-in guests. Food and beverage service outlets as they are called may be either attached to a hotel or they may independently exist wherein they are called “STAND ALONE” outlets.

Food and beverage service outlets:

·         Speciality restaurants:

·         These restaurants deal in a particular type of cuisine like Italian, Mexican and Chinese. The décor, atmosphere, theme are all typical of the cuisine and the country from where it originates. These restaurants may be attached to hotels or may be of stand-alone variety. The service is usually exclusive silver service and the average cost of dishes is high. The hours of operations are specific and usually such restaurants are open only for lunch and dinner.

·          

·         Multicuisine restaurants

·         : These restaurants deal with more than one cuisine and in smaller hotels they often act as the coffee shop also. They are not as exclusive as speciality restaurants, have a menu, which is usually lesser priced than the speciality restaurant. Most often they open for breakfast and remain open till dinner closing down during the night shift.

·          

·          

·         Bar:

·          These are food and beverage service outlets where the emphasis is on sale of alcoholic beverages. They require special permits and their operation is governed by the state law. They may be attached to hotels or independent outlets. The menu has a large variety of alcoholic beverages like spirits, wine,beer and cocktails which are supplemented with some non alcoholic beverages like juices, soft drinks, soda waters and also some cocktail snacks.

            The types of bars commonly found are:

Ø  Executive bars: These bars are created exclusively as outlets for customers who can have drinks only with a choice of may be tobacco and cocktail snacks. The atmosphere, ambience are all suited to the guest who wish to have a drink with friends or alone.

Ø  Dispense bar: These are bars attached to restaurants. They may be inside a restaurant or located in the back area depending on the type of restaurant and permit taken. Dispense bars provide the guest the choice of having an alcoholic drink with their food .The drink list here might not be as extensive as an executive bar especially in hotels which have both bars in the same premise.

Ø  Pubs: Derived from the English word public house, they most often are places frequented by youngsters. Pubs offer a wide variety of beers, limited cocktails and liquor. Music and dance floor may also be found in most pubs. Pubs however are not open through the night and should not be confused with nightclubs.

Ø  Room service and mini bar: Room service is the food and beverage service outlet in hotels, which provides the facility of serving the guest food and beverage in his room. Service is done on trays or trolleys. In a large hotel, room service is usually extensive and found round the clock. The cost of food in room service is higher and time for service is longer. However it is very useful for long stay, elderly and sick guests who do not wish to go down to the restaurant for having their meal.

Also coming under room service is the mini bar. Most large hotels provide a small refrigerator with miniature spirits, beer and non-alcoholic beverages in the guest room. Also supplied are some packed snacks. The billing, replenishment and maintenance of the mini bar is another function of the room service department which places a mini bar rate card, a bottle opener with glasses on a tray atop the mini bar for guest use.

·         Banquets:

·         Another food and beverage area mostly attached to hotels, these are large halls or spaces suited to cater to large gathering of guests for social or official purposes. Conferences, meeting, seminars, birthday party, marriages etc are all taken up in banqueting area. Banquet terraces, conference halls, meeting rooms all come under banqueting department which may also take up lawns or poolside on special occasions for hosting large parties. A banquet usually caters to large gathering of people within a     limited period of time. The menu is usually decided in advance and the style of service is most often buffet, although sit down service can also be provided on request. A banquet is one of the largest revenue earning section among the food and beverage outlets.

Outdoor catering (ODC) if taken up by a hotel also comes in the purview of banquets department. Here, the hotel provides food and beverage service to a guest at an off premises venue decided by the guest.

·         Coffee shop:

·         This is a concept borrowed from the United States. It offers guests an outlet to grab a quick meal at affordable prices. The decor is informal and brightly lit. Coffee shops are most often open 24 hrs and the type of service is preplated. Most large hotels today provide a breakfast buffet in the coffee shop, which allows the guest to choose his meal and not wait for service. It also takes the pressure off room service, which is otherwise flooded with breakfast orders. Coffee shops have an extensive beverage menu both hot and cold. In larger hotels it is another 24-hour outlet besides room service. Most often coffee shop prices are the least among restaurants in a hotel.

·         Cafeteria:

·         These are food and beverage service outlets found in hotels, hospitals and industrial houses where the staff of the organization are provided food and beverage. They open for limited time during each mealtime. Cafeteria’s usually have counter service. The employees buy coupons/token in advance and are provided wholesome, simple food at subsidised rates in the cafeteria. Most often they have comfortable seating bright light and channel music. The guests are dispensed food from counters where it is displayed. The menu is usually cyclic in nature.

·         Vending machines:

·         These are independent units, which may be placed at airports, railway stations, offices, cafeteria, hotel lounges, poolside etc. They dispense a metered quantity of beverage or a packed unit of food in exchange for a token or a currency. This makes service fast, hygienic, cheap and standardized.

·         Grillroom:

·         This is another type of a restaurant, which specializes, in grilled food. The restaurant is separated from the kitchen by glass partition. The guest can choose his meat to be grilled and watch his food being cooked before it is served to him. This increases eye appeal and provides higher levels of guest satisfaction. Service is mostly preplated or silver service. Grill rooms are usually expensive outlets.

·         Nightclub:

·          Normally attached to hotels, nightclubs are outlets open only for members, their bonafide guests and for room guests. Night clubs are open for a limited period usually from evening till late night. A dance floor, live music and dance are usually associated with a nightclub. They require special government permit .The menu is extensive especially the beverages, snacks and cocktail snacks menu.

·         Permit room:

·          These are  beverage outlets attached to hotels in states or regions, which do not allow consumption or sale of alcohol. This is the only area in the hotel allowed to sell alcohol. Special permission has to be sought for a permit room. Alcohol cannot be dispensed in any other area of the hotel in such cases.

·         Coffee bar:

·          A comparatively new concept, it has become popular with the youth. The coffee bar dispenses a variety of coffee both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Alcoholic coffee are also known as “LACED COFFEE”. Light snacks may also be available. Channel music, bright lighting and trendy settings are usually a feature. Most often these are independent outlets though some smaller hotels may have attached coffee bars.

·      Fast food:

·         These outlets are generally not attached to a hotel. They are stand-alone and the more successful fast food outlets are a chain of restaurants by themselves. The most common fast food outlets are the burger joints, the pizza houses etc which are characterized by an unique operation:

Ø  The guests come here for a quick bite.

Ø  The prices are affordable.

Ø  The seating is limited yet trendy and clean.

Ø  The operations have five key areas.

1.    Front of the house (F.O.H)

This is the area where the guests can sit and dine.

            2. Middle of the house (M.O.H)  

This is the console or   nerve center of activity. Here in computerized systems, the billing happens, orders are relayed to the preparation area and within a set time food is served either over the counter or on to the guest table in an extremely standardized manner.          

            3. Back of the house (B.O.H)

This is the preparation or assembly area. Highly sophisticated machines are used to strictly monitor delivery, quality and hygiene.

            4. The take away area:

This area is located close to the MOH, this area is responsible for catering to guests who drive in to carry food home.

            5. The door delivery section:

 Most fast food outlets especially pizza houses specialize in such activity. A special area near the exit or the staff entry is demarcated for the home delivery cycle. Special technology helps deliver fast food which otherwise has very short shelf life to reach customers in fresh, hot and appetizing manner.

Ancillary Departments Attached To The Food And Beverage Service Outlets

Ancillary departments are those sections of the Food and Beverage service department, which directly do not earn any revenue. They are often not visible to the customer and provide support function to the food and beverage outlets. In fact the back up provided by these ancillary sections is crucial for smooth food and beverage service operations. These ancillary sections include:

·         Pantry

·         Food pick up area

·         Food and beverage store

·         Kitchen stewarding

·         Dish wash area

·         Pantry:

·         Pantry is the area between the restaurant and kitchen. Strictly speaking a pantry should consist of the stillroom, the dish wash section and the pick up area. However for better it has been sub classified into the area right behind the restaurant where the  “mis-en place” or preparation for service is carried out. Usually the cleaned crockery, glassware and cutlery are wiped here. There is a bin for collecting dirty linen and enough extra accompaniments; folded napkins etc are kept in the pantry to refill sideboards during service. An ideal pantry should have two doors one for entrance to and another for exit from the restaurant.

·         Food pick up area:

·         This is a counter also known as the “Abouyer’s” desk. The abouyer or the barker is in charge of this area. Waiters hand over guest order to the abouyer who reads out the order loudly to the different kitchen staff for preparation .He also collects these food item and asks the waiter to pick up the food from the pick up counter. The pick up counter has a hot and cold section for placing different types of food .The smooth flow of orders depends to a large extent on the efficiency of the abouyer’s desk.

·         The food and beverage service store:

·          This consists of four parts:

                       a. The linen store

                 b. The plate store

                 c. The silver store

                 d. The commodities store.

The linen store: Spare linen, fresh exchanged linen etc required for the food and beverage service department are stored here.

The plate store: It stores extra stock of crockery and glassware.

The silver store: Here the expensive “EPNS” electroplated nickel silver cutleries are stored. Flatware and hollowware are also stored, but in a separate area as they tend to scratch the softer silver equipments.

The commodities store:

This area stores waters, soft drinks, sauces, stationery, mouth fresheners and all such perishable items which need to be stored for efficient service as the main store closes after certain fixed issue hours. This store has a special enclosure kept under lock and key where buffer alcoholic beverages and tobacco is stored. The commodities store usually gets replenished on a daily basis from the main store and provides back up during late hours and early morning when the main store is closed.

·         Kitchen stewarding:

·         This section is responsible for cleanliness of kitchen, pantry and all the back area under food and beverage service .It is also involved in polishing of silver and steel equipments using special cleaning techniques. The proper stacking of equipment, clearance of waste and garbage, clearing the bottle store (where empty used bottles are dumped) is another function of the kitchen stewarding department.

·         Wash up /dish wash:

·         This in most hotels is another function of the kitchen stewarding department. The dish wash is ideally located close to the restaurant exit whereby the cleared dirties are put on a landing area. Here they are segregated in different racks meant for glassware, crockery and cutlery.

Actual dish wash may be the manual method called the tank method where it is cleaned in three different tanks or basins containing hot water and detergent, mild hot water and the third very hot water.

The dishes are cleaned in cold water and subsequently pass through all the three tanks before they come out sterilized and clean.

In the dish washing machine the entire cleaning process takes place mechanically. Soap water, hot water and hot steam is sprayed on the stacked dirties which move on a conveyer belt.

Dishwashing is one of the most important backup areas whose efficiency directly affects the smoothness of operations inside food and beverage outlets. Without a quick, safe and clean wash cycle it would be difficult for the food and beverage service staff to reuse equipments whereby delay in service and standardized service would not be possible.