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Before (leaking) vs after (engineered).
Anonymized, but structurally real. This is what the diagnostic found — and what we engineered in its place. Run the deltas against your own P&L.
Prime cost drift, recovered in 90 days
No unit-level visibility. Theoretical-vs-actual food variance was masking portioning and waste drift; mid-week labor was scheduled to a weekend pattern.
Par and prep discipline rebuilt around the data, plus demand-based mid-week scheduling. Variance closed from 4.8 to under 1 point.
Labor model rebuilt for the wage floor — service intact
Margin compression from the incoming wage floor, absorbed through overtime rather than scheduling. SPLH ran well below benchmark on soft shifts.
Demand-based scheduling tied to POS sales-per-labor-hour benchmarks, resetting the model for the new cost base without touching service standards.
Beverage program repriced around pour cost
Pouring on instinct, not spec. Six points of variance between recipe and actual pour, and a long tail of SKUs that never moved.
Menu engineering, supplier renegotiation, and spec-driven pour controls repositioned the program around its highest-margin SKUs.
The numbers don’t round up.
Your P&L has a number like this in it too.
The only question is which line item it’s hiding in. A free diagnostic call is where we start looking.
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Operational intelligence for best-in-class hospitality.
Margin optimization and recovery specialist for independent restaurant groups, hotels and high-volume bars.
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Diagnostics-first hospitality consulting · San Diego, CA