Restaurant Reality : A Manager's Guide

"Every meaningful phase of restaurant management is discussed in Restaurant Reality." --Thad Eure, Jr. Former president National Restaurant Association This inspirational and entertaining guide for managers, staff, educators, and students provides uniquely candid and practical insight into the restaurant industry. Filled with informative and often amusing anecdotes from the author's own experience, Restaurant Reality offers current and prospective restaurant professionals a variety of career-enhancing tips, techniques, and cautionary tales. Packed with illustrations and examples, this guide examines the industry from multiple perspectives, including those of owner, regional vice-president, franchisor, franchisee, district manager, manager trainer, and corporate manager. This multifaceted analysis enables readers to see how managers at each level of responsibility respond to given situations, using their own operational approaches within the context of common business goals. The book also explores those management styles and attitudes that foster more effective decision making. Restaurant Reality provides readers with the inside story on
* buying and selling a restaurant
* surviving the pitfalls of opening day
* motivating employees
* selecting a menu
* dealing with equipment breakdowns
* handling visits from health inspectors
and much more. The result is a compendium of real-world advice on the restaurant industry that gives professionals and students a stronger grasp of the opportunities and risks inherent in he industry--and a better chance of long-term career success.

Michael M. Lefever, Ph.D., is currently the Associate Dean of the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. Dr. Lefever has more than 20 years of food service experience: as District Manager for a national fast-food chain, Regional Vice-President of a full-service chain, owner-operator of three successful restaurants, and as the creator of industry seminars and workshops. Dr. Lefever has a degree in psychology, and works as a volunteer psychotherapist for the State of Texas.