Mary King

Many farmers markets require their food vendors to have insurance to protect the vendor—and the market itself—from claims and losses related to accidents, injuries, or damages that happen during the course of a market.  If you are a larger business, like a restaurant or a food truck, you likely already have business insurance that meets […]

Catering businesses are easy to start from your home or a commercial kitchen, so it’s easy to skip steps in setting up your business. When you are focused on creating menus and signing up clients, it can be easy to overlook the need for catering insurance. Catering insurance covers your catering business for several outcomes, […]

A restaurant website is a valuable marketing and promotional tool for new and established restaurants alike. Creating a website for your restaurant can boost visibility via search engine optimization and give you another way to attract new customers. If you’re feeling stuck designing your restaurant website, sometimes all you need is a little real-world inspiration […]

Food trucks are energetic food businesses with a reputation for catching fire with local foodies. Food trucks, however, can also literally catch on fire. So, food truck insurance is a must for any new food truck business. Food truck insurance policies need to address the general liability any small business needs, plus cover food operations […]

The sun hasn’t risen but you’re hard at work. The roaster is going and the first pots are getting ready to start brewing the special roast your coffee shop is famous for. But you can’t shake the nagging feeling about the customer who complained yesterday that the coffee was too hot and burned his tongue.  […]

There has never been a better time to start a food truck business; in fact, the number of food trucks grew by almost 10% from 2022 to 20231. If you’re looking for a money-making business idea, a food truck is a great one. Successful food trucks can bring in more than $500,000 per year, with […]

A restaurant manager job description outlines the duties and responsibilities of a restaurant manager’s role. Your restaurant manager job description is the foundation for advertising the job when you’re ready to hire a new restaurant manager and becomes the formal description of the job when you extend a job offer to the right candidate. Download […]

Effective bar marketing attracts new customers and builds brand loyalty by relying on a unique bar concept, raising brand awareness, and implementing fun promotions. I’ll walk you through the steps of marketing a bar and include a list of 15 bar marketing ideas to help your business grow. 1. Define Your Target Market Your target […]

Tip out is the term restaurant workers use to describe the act of distributing tips from one tipped employee to another. Tipping out is a necessary part of restaurant operations because only some tipped workers can process payments and, thereby, collect the physical tips. In a tip-out arrangement, servers and bartenders collect the tips and […]

A line cook job description will vary by the kitchen station you need the line cook to work. It should also include the general tasks that you expect all cooks to perform, like stocking and cleaning their station, completing assigned prep work, following food safety guidelines, and maintaining a safe work environment. Your line cook […]

Restaurant metrics (also called key performance indicators or KPIs) are calculations that show how your business is performing. Most restaurant owners and managers have their own ideas of which metrics are actually the most important KPIs to track. Here, I’ve created a pretty exhaustive list of 30 common restaurant metrics so you can pick what […]

Opening a coffee shop is a great way to combine the strengths of a food service and a retail business. Six to 12 months and a $50,000 to $300,000 budget are all it takes to start a coffee shop in most locations. We’ll walk you through the steps you need to take to open an […]