1. Intro
Restaurant “Lolek” is located in green field area (in pretty central place of Warsaw) Pola Mokotowskie. This is a beloved area for taking a walk with nice places to sit and relax. It serves as a Restaurant and a Pub. Ca. 500 people can be accommodated at once. It has 2 big areas (indoor and outdoor). Outdoor can be used also during a light winter because it is heated. The concept of the restaurant is very interesting. We will try to present it on the following pages. 2. Identity (What is the proposition? How does it ‘speak’ that statement – outside or inside? How standard/unique is this service business?)
The restaurant offers 2 propositions at a different point time of the day in order to maximize the number of clients. Because of the location before evening it concentrates on families with children / pets, friends taking a walk, sportsmen (it does not have dedicated place for bicycles but owns a bike rental place), people enjoying various outdoor activities and those who want to have lunch taking break during the walk. The restaurant offers animation for children, there is a kinder play ground, even pets are welcome (e.g. offering water for pets), parking place is close to the restaurant.
In the evening and during the weekend it changes the profile providing service for friends meeting for party, bigger groups, people who like live music and socializing with friends because live music is played. The restaurant due to its size attracts also companies willing to organize a party for their employees but also football fans who like watching the games and is equipped with many screens around the restaurant where the games can be followed.
So the variety of customers are attracted at different times during the day and during the week. That makes the restaurant very often full, especially during the weekend
The place from inside and outside looks like a place to relax and provides the atmosphere of being on holidays out of the city. This can be observed on the picture on the left.
The service it very much standardized. The offer is quite limited – only around 20 dishes in total. The customer can choose from a menu prepared in the kitchen or order some food from the grill outside (like meat, sausage, potato etc.). A limited offer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks completes the offer.
3. The customer pathway through the system.
Self service area for side dishes
Self service area for side dishes
The place is designed in a way that makes the consumer already hungry at the entry to the restaurant or even people not intending to enter it. The reason for it is a big grill outside located just behind the entrance on the way to the main part of the restaurant. The grill is not covered thus the smell goes around in the air and attracts people passing by even if they did not plan to come in. Even if the customer is not very much hungry he/she is exposed to the smell of freshly grilled meat/ sausage etc. So even if he/she enters the restaurant building he/she is tempted to trial of grilled dishes. Above you can see the plan of the restaurant and the possible pathways from entrance to indoor bar & outdoor bars, from indoor bar to tables outside – every time the consumer passes by the grill place.
Lolek is a self-service place so customer has to go to the bars (there are more than one), pay and take e.g. drinks and come again for food.
The restaurant has established many places to order food and drinks – thus not many queues can be observed.
We could spot to 2 main flows of food operation for the customer: a) Order food prepared in the kitchen behind the bar – customer is given a pager (see picture on the right) that flashes and gives a sound when food is ready to be taken by the customer (make to order), customer approaches the bar, the person at the bar shouts the order number and the dish is given. b) Order food prepared on the outside grill – w/o pager – paper bill is used as authorization for taking the food. The company makes possible to pay for grill food at any bar issuing the bill as authorization paper. The grill master makes production to stock (of small stocks) because it takes time to grill the food – the make to order method would force the customer to wait longer. After taking the meat / sashlik / oscypek cheese (type of regional cheese) from the grill the customer can freely customize side-dishes (like salads (3 types), bread (2 types), pickles, souse, horse radish) that are free to be taken (shown on the right).
With regards to the regular service experience and service contact, the restaurant tries to limit it to 2-3 contacts (ordering food & picking drink; picking up the food ; cleaning). 4. Service system design
The restaurant is very spacious. It can fit 500 people at the same time. There are many places to sit inside but also outside with the foldable roof covering big number of the seats. The tables are organized in rows with benches so that strangers can seat next to each other enabling the restaurant to accommodate more clients at the same time.
The employees can be split into 5 groups: 1) service behind the bar; 2) service in the kitchen ; 3) service at the grill place ; 4) cleaning people ; 5) animators.
Skills / Performance: Cleaning of tables is done very effectively by waiters who collect garbage to big baskets as it is shown on the picture on the left. It is fast and efficient.
As when other roles are concerned like grill master the person needs to be able to grill many pieces of meat at the same time. On the other side animators need to be able to establish very good contact with children and buy their time and smile.
Additionally it is possible to make reservation of the tables. It enables people to organize meeting with larger number of friends.
There are enough bars (3) to order so that the customer does not wait too long in the queue to order food or get a drink. Also the indoor kitchen has a high capacity –when ordered the food was ready within 4 minutes. As so many people are attracted by the grill, the customer can spend some time waiting for the grilled food if it was not prepared upfront.
5. Problems that could arise / Suggestions for improvements / Productivity / Performance / Value for the customer
What can go wrong that could impact the operation: bad weather limits the number of customers because people do not go for walk nor do the sport. Also queuing of hungry people for grill food may impact badly other customers. Other problems which can occur: too many guest who cannot be seated; bad supply planning (especially during the weekend); not enough toilets; somebody can be bitten by the dog; hygienic matters (dogs & people together); free access of all people to the side dishes.
The value generation for the customer is ensured by the following process design and flows: fast service; freshly made food; fast cleaning; animators take care about children; customers can access with pets ( while being on the walk); possibility of customization (I can take side dishes myself); meet with bigger group of friends; grill because not everybody can do it himself in the town; green area around (good for walking, sport activities); live music during some evenings (mainly during weekends) ; spending time with other football supporters.
How does the restaurant make the profit: Below some points that highlight the business model that is concentrated on rather mass customer: High quantities – economies of scale; selected menu / short list of meals; very limited choice of side dishes for free; constant inflow of customers during the day and evening (due to the offer); fast service; savings on waiters serving customers; constant grill food; drinks are priced over an average price; additional customers attracted due to Menu in English and English speaking personnel.
What can be improved: we observed that the restaurant would need improvement especially for the high traffic days. Improvement suggestions are as follows: Better manage the stock of meat on the grill – avoid queues or to install an additional grill for peak times – avoid permanent queues; transparent glass over the side dishes to protect food from people coughing; better access to tables – now the pathways are pretty narrow; refilling side dishes more regularly.
