Iron Bru › Forums › Blast Furnace › Doxxing goat going? › Reply To: Doxxing goat going?
Footy food has to address its biggest single challenge. You have two fairly short windows to serve 90% of your product. From about 14:30 until just before kick off then again at half time with about 5 minutes either side.
During these times you want your staff passing out food and drinks, taking payment and moving on. Maybe having one adding food options (peas, gravy, onions etc.) and maybe another pouring drinks.
Cooking stuff and messing about with multi options is bad news for vendors and punters alike.
Menu for hot food should be no more than 5 or 6 and only things that can be batch prepared and ready to rock for the 2 peaks. No expensive catering equipment needed to keep things warm and edible for 30 minutes. Soft drinks and beer in plastic bottles. The club are surely missing out on an earner not selling beer while they can.
The few times I have had decent footy food it invariably follows these principles and the vast majority of times has been done in partnership with businesses that know how to do event food.
This comment is an excellent assessment of the problems of catering for the masses in a short time span, it’s an age old problem suffered by all football clubs, more so, by well attended games.
There is however a way to ease the problems a little for the customer and the caterer….it can take a little time to introduce and be accepted by the fans (home fans) but it does work eventually.
MK is 100% correct with his comments about the timescale, staff, and preparation that I did wonder if he had a catering background, but more probably just can see the obvious, that other people seem to not take on board when having to queue for slow served food?…
I have not solved the entire problem here at Ilkeston, let me make that very clear, but I have managed to speed up the service and serve food that gets very good feedback(on our and their social media after games) every week from away fans, ….the most common comment being ‘ that’s the best burger I have had all season…and the cheapest!)…
Before I explain how, I would like to make clear that our fan base is nowhere as large as yours, but I do open the food outlets accordingly, so it CAN be replicated to a larger crowd.
To those still reading here goes…(hoping my old sparring partner Deeryme is still with us?)….
First of all (as MK rightly said) You cannot be offering a large selection of food to the masses in a short window, it is too time consuming while they make their mind up, and time consuming with the staff switching over to different things every minute…big problem, and the main problem me thinks..
I have solved this problem, simple idea but not yet seen at any other football ground yet?….
I offer a very varied menu, Pies, cornish Pasties, sausage rolls, hot peas, chips with curry sauce, cheese, and peas, cheese/bacon burgers, bacon and sausage rolls/cobs/barm cakes or whatever you call them, chicken fillets with lettuce cheese and mayo, filled rolls (ham/cheese)… plus tea/ coffee/ hot chocolate/ Bovril… and too many cold drinks to mention…. oh.. and I forgot to mention cheesy hot dogs… so a big menu don’t you agree?…
How could I offer so much at a busy period like half time?…. well I don’t!
I have educated our fans over time that they can have all this (if it is not sold out) at any time between when I open at 1pm until 15 mins before half time, and until 15 mins after half time, for the period in-between they can have…. cheese burgers, or cheeseburgers,or CHEESE BURGERS!…no other food goes over my counter, we prep an awful lot on the grills and the queue moves very fast, most people get their burger before they get their change or the card machine pings “transaction successful “….. when the queue dies down it’s back to the full menu.
The food goes out at the correct temperature, the staff are totally focused on one thing, the fans get fed quickly….oh and by the way, Ilkeston has a five star food rating (Erewash borough Council) if any one cares to check…when I asked why we were getting 5 stars ?… the woman said because we don’t do six… only joking…
This system spreads the eating time of the fans and increases the kitchen takings, fans come early to fill up knowing they will get good food at very fair prices, so they don’t go elsewhere on the way… I think?