Old School Ways, New School Tools
This US Foods, customer went through the US Foods Menu Profit Pro™ program – and lived to tell the story.
When BARBARA and JOHN PACIOTTI, owners of The Coffee Station, a 43-year-strong, family-owned breakfast and lunch spot with locations in Morton and Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, decided to analyze and engineer their menu, they leaned into using Menu Profit Pro™, part of US Foods® CHECK© Business Tools, available exclusively from US Foods for US Foods customers. John tells us all:
Q: You’re a local institution – why do this now?
A: I’m like a dinosaur when it comes to the tech stuff. Everyone’s been trying to get me to digitize my menu and order online forever. I knew the menu costing would be a lot of work, but I wanted to see it and judge myself on how well I had done. We’ve done a pretty good job with our price and our cost; otherwise, we wouldn’t still be in business. But we wanted to take things to the next level. We had a meeting at our house to get away from the restaurant, and our sales rep literally took a day with us. We entered every single ingredient into the program – even for pancakes, we had to calculate the mix, the milk, the eggs – even butter pats, takeout containers, napkins, condiments. After we input everything into the program, our [US Foods Restaurant Operations Consultant] created a graph for us, and it forced us to see these numbers. You can’t argue with them at that point.
Q: What were the biggest surprises?
A: You think you’re selling a lot of something – and then you actually look at it, and you’re selling one item a month. We took off about four items. We had a green sandwich – it was an Italian roll with fresh broccoli or spinach, sharp provolone, maybe roasted peppers. I was shocked to see it wasn’t moving. And our “Chicken DiJohn” sandwich – which I personally loved because it was named after my dad – we weren’t selling enough of it, either. We only had one customer who ordered it. The servers were like, “Oh no, what are we gonna tell him?!” But we couldn’t carry all this product for just one person, so we had the servers help him order something similar. We’re not trying to mess up anyone’s day. We’re just not going to carry six different greens for one sandwich nobody’s ordering.
Q: How has the menu costing and redesign helped?
A: We had an old-school menu, but when we worked with the US Foods menu designer, she made visual tweaks – like putting a bubble around the chicken pasta soup – our highest profit item – and using a different color, so your eyes are drawn to it. It’s amazing what a difference that makes. There’s a whole art to it. Because of this program, now we can scroll down the inventory list, see our food cost and update our stock price on items any time we want. There’s always going to be some items at a higher percentage. But now we can get a real good picture whenever we need it.
Q: You’ve mentioned being ‘old-school.’ How did you adapt to this process?
A: I’ll be honest – I don’t like ordering online. I like talking to my rep. But once we got going, I saw the value. My wife and daughter entered everything, and when I compared our POS numbers to what the program showed, I was proud of how close I’d been. The [Menu Profit Pro™] tool gave us a formula and the ability to see everything instantly. It’s right at our fingertips now.
Q: What’s changed for you day-to-day?
A: We can scroll through our inventory, check our food costs and update prices any time. It helps keep us on track. It also made us more aware of waste. For example, we order pepper packets every week, and I’ll catch staff grabbing handfuls of salt and pepper. You have to stay on top of those little things – they add up. The program keeps us accountable. You can’t hide from the numbers.
Q: If other operators asked for your advice on menu redesign, what would you tell them?
A: Put everything into the system – every ingredient, every paper good, every condiment. Once you see it all laid out, you’ll know what’s making money and what’s not. Work with your team, too. We showed our staff the results, so they could understand why some items came off or why prices changed. When they see the numbers, it clicks.
Q: What was the biggest takeaway from this experience?
A: Clarity. We’ve always run a tight ship, but now it’s not a guess. We have the numbers, and we can make decisions confidently. It’s helped us keep the business strong and focused.
Learn more about US Foods’ Menu Profit Pro™ or click to: contact your local US Foods Restaurant Operations Consultant.
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