Hit 20,000 covers last month and it caught me off guard

I have been tracking our dinner counts since I took over the pass at a small bistro in Portland back in March. Last month we hit 20,000 total covers for the year, which sounds like a lot but it sneaks up on you. The part that surprised me was not the number itself, it was seeing how our ticket times creeped up by 4 minutes on average compared to the first 5,000 covers. We got busier, sure, but the real issue was we stopped refining our prep between rushes. I pulled the log and realized we were plating the same 12 dishes but making small mistakes on garnishes and sauces that added up. Now I am doing a 10 minute lineup check every night before service starts. Has anyone else tracked their cumulative covers and found a tipping point where quality slipped without anyone noticing?

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angelarivera1mo ago

Nodded along reading this like I was at a therapist appointment for my kitchen, then realized my own ticket times probably went up 4 minutes just from me staring at the wall thinking about it. That lineup check sounds smarter than my current system of just winging it and hoping the expo gods are nice that night, lol.

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