As you may or may not have heard, Club XIX is getting a new menu in the coming days. I can imagine that this practice is getting a little old by now with several menu changes in the past year prior to the arrival of myself and Landscapes Golf Group.
Our members have voiced their feelings about the current offerings and it is apparent that a menu change is necessary. The current menu, while simple and easy to read, has no real visual appeal to set the tone for what's next. We all know how disappointing it was to be handed the current notebook of a menu only to open it and find a single page menu with options on the front and back. The immediate reaction is "that's it?" First impressions are everything.
Some of our members dissatisfaction with the menu, in my opinion, can be attributed to the menu itself more so than poor food experiences. The menu surprisingly has quite a few options in comparison to other menus around town. One of the standards across the industry is that a menu be comprised of between 30 and 40 items depending on kitchen size and capacities.
On that note, it's obvious that the kitchen has had their fair share of inconsistencies in the past year. One of the things we have been working on in the creation of the new menu is finding menu items that are both repeatable and consistently good tasting. If any of you have cooked, you know how difficult it can be to recreate certain items time after time. You also know that some recipes are home runs every time. We are swinging for those home runs. We want a product mix that can offer members a great deal of variety without having to bring in 100 different single use items that are only used in one dish.
Pricing is another point of contention and certainly one we are addressing with caution. While our current menu is adequately priced for what folks are getting, the "admin fee" and tax thrown on top of the base price makes a once reasonable menu item look like an expensive sandwich or salad. Do the same thing to a steak or main entrée and it looks even worse. While I am not sure at the moment if the "admin fee" will disappear entirely, our friends at Landscapes are evaluating the numbers with a fine toothed comb to come up with a solution for this problem.
I certainly hope there is some excitement building amongst our membership and Club XIX. I know our staff is chomping at the bit to begin circulating the new menus and getting feedback. Once we start the new menu, it is our hope that the membership will start spreading the word of our improvements. Word of mouth marketing is our greatest opportunity to build our business and without member support of the club, we do not exist.
I invite you to come up for a visit in the coming weeks. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the changes we are making. While nothing is perfect at the moment, know that it is getting better all the time and will be fun to watch. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. At the very least, I enjoy getting to know more and more members.
