Anyone wanna give me feedback on a menu I'm working on?

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My branding irons are manual ones that you put in coals or hit with a torch, electric would be the ticket for you.

A good tip for tip jars is to start each day with some seed money, and show off some $5s and $10s. But don't let it get too full or tips might decrease.
 
Sorry do not mean to hijack this post , but just had to answer thirdeye

That is just way too cool, I love that. I am all about the western theme. So i really love the iron
David
My living room walls
View attachment 508127 View attachment 508128
That is our state logo. The bucking bronc was modeled after Steamboat a real horse. It's on our license plates, everything at the University of Wyoming (The Wyoming Cowboys), tee shirts, golf shirts, caps, jackets, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, etc.
 
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There is nothing wrong with going Top Quality and Hand Made. My point is...You are by yourself. People Standing in the Heat, Cold or Rain, are not going to hang around long while you make food that takes too much time to make.
If Waffle and Straight Cut cook at the same rate and cost the same to make...Waffle are Fancier and have at it. Verify that your menu items, say, 2 Brunch Burgers, 2 Fries and 2 Sodas, can be out the window in less than 10 to 15 minutes...JJ
 
There is nothing wrong with going Top Quality and Hand Made. My point is...You are by yourself. People Standing in the Heat, Cold or Rain, are not going to hang around long while you make food that takes too much time to make.
If Waffle and Straight Cut cook at the same rate and cost the same to make...Waffle are Fancier and have at it. Verify that your menu items, say, 2 Brunch Burgers, 2 Fries and 2 Sodas, can be out the window in less than 10 to 15 minutes...JJ

You make good points,
Menu - I would eliminate the '+' sign and just stay with $4 or $6 in the Combo section. The + makes it look messy. JMTC

Have you costed out your menu and done an analysis to determine what amount of sales are necessary to actually generate profit? This needs to include a waste/spoilage expectation.

I haven't factored in waste/spoilage as I'd need a month or 2 of doing it to wrap my head around that. I have made a spreadsheet with costs for everything. And have all my menu items added and can set the price and caculate profit. And since I'm pretty meh at math I made it so I can see how adding 1 item to a burger that I sell 100 a week will the profit. When I make burgers at home I'm not concerned about the cost because I'm making 3, 4, maybe 6 and that's it. But even a smaller big scale will be way different if the cost per burger's .75 more. The spoilage point's a good one, it will affect the %. Though I plan to try to be safe and downsize and risk sell out early than to have to throw away a bunch of stuff. I'll still have to toss some stuff but I could minimize it somewhat. The unused fries are fine putting back in the freezer and will last for months. But I won't freeze leftover meat, or at least not freeze it and reuse it for burgers I sell.

I wouldn't want to throw it out either though. There's a decent size homeless camp down the street, they don't mess with people or beg for money. The ones I speak to from time to time are nice, so if I had a couple lb of meat left over I could grill them up some burgers. Or repurpose it at home, but it will all still be money spent I'm not making money on which is not good for business.

I know I'm underestimating how much work this will be, I think a saving grace for me, the super popular food trucks in LA, OC & SD will routinely have people standing in line for an hour to get food like it's nothing. It's become like some sort of social gathering event where the people seem to really enjoy standing around talking and waiting forever for some Korean short rib tacos or something. Not saying mine will be that good, but there's a possibility. I went to LA a few years ago to eat at a fast-food spot called Howling Ray's, the line was a little close to 3 hours. This is how it is was every weekend, so waiting was the only option I had to try it. During the week it was 1.5-2 hours. It might have changed since, but I know it was in the 2 hours range for the entire year I was looking into it. And I'm a 70 minute drive so it was an all afternoon event just to get a sandwich lol. It's crazy how many people will stand in line for 3+ hours to get a chicken sandwich.
 
Sounds like you've started to get your head around the details which is a good thing. You might want to consider running scenarios that address the effect on profitability based upon different %ages of waste/spoilage. In a rather unsophisticated approach that could be as simple as varying your food cost from what should be 30% or less and seeing what happens when it increases. This would require building a spreadsheet that contains all financial aspects of the business including sales, operating expenses and overhead. If it's just you then maybe no labor costs but in a real since your time value is more than $0/hr. PS: Don't forget taxes...
 
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There are no food trucks allowed in my city, and all the pop up food carts I've seen are Mexican. If there are burger ones I haven't seen or heard about them. I know this is YMMV depending on where in the country you are. But I'm working on figuring out prices and am interested in feedback. At least in So Cal, a medium single Whopper combo's $10 plus tax. Carl's (Hardees) is no cheaper. Not sure about MCD's because I don't eat it. No tax, or it's just included in the prices so everything stays even.

My question is, would you pay this:

Double Smash burger with 2 slices of cheese and special sauce on a toasted Brioche Bun - $7.
Combos, regular fry & 16oz soda $11, large fry & 32oz soda $13.

Loaded Smash, above with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles & onions. $8
regular combo $12, large $14

Luther Smashdross, 2 patties , 2 slices of cheese, 2 strips of bacon on a toasted Krispy Kreme Doughnut $9
regular combo $13, large $15

Get Smashed for Breakfast, 2 patties, 2 slices of cheese, 2 strips of bacon, cage free over easy egg, crispy hash browns, sauce & Mikes Hot Honey drizzle on the egg. $11
regular combo, $15, large $17

I calculated how much things would cost at the supermarket. Doubtful I'd ever do enough business in a day to warrant driving 30 miles to a Restaurant Depot to buy in bulk.

$3.22 to make a 2 patty burger.
2.19 for meat
.70 for bun
.31 for cheese
.5 for sauce

Adding an extra patty + a slice of cheese would cost $1.25. I was thinking of charging $2.50 for an extra patty + slice of cheese but I want to keep all the amounts even dollars. So $2 for an extra patty whether they want cheese or not. Right now I have it at $4 to add regular fries and a 16oz drink and $6 for 32oz drink and large fries. I don't know but that sounds like it might be too high.

I'm thinking $17 for the large breakfast burger combo is too much for something like this from a street vendor. I'd happily pay it if it was good, but I'm not most people I know. What would be anyone here's price range be? I caculated $23 for the 4 patty breakfast burger with large drink and large fry, would anyone pay that? I haven't figured out the actual amount of the fries, but it will be a lot closer to an order from Five Guys than a large from the fast food chains. My regular will be a bit larger than large from MCD's or wherever. And they'll be cooked in a mixture of Peanut oil and Beef Shortening. I've been reading up on the shortening they sell at Smart & Final. It's almost identical, with BHT and a foaming retardant added. The only Tallow that's available in my area's $16 for an 11oz jar so that's a no go. And I want to keep what I use local so I can get more without having to deal with shipping and waiting.
 
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It's late and I'm just talking to myself, I thought about it and feel MEH about offering a bunch of drinks. I can't afford quality syrups and don't want to offer sub par stuff just to make money.
I can get an ice cooler and fill it with bottles of Mexican Coke, not much profit there compared to fountain, but Mexican Coke's like perfection. And I'll probably get a 5 gallon insulated drink dispenser and make 5 gallons of Chef John's Lemonade. Which is one of the greatest things I've ever tasted. Of course, like everything else I want to do it's a really involved process, especially considering it's to make a drink.

zest lemons with veggie peeler, put the zest in bowl, cover with sugar and let sit overnight.

Boil water, turn off heat and put peels/sugar from bowl into pot stirring until the sugar dissolves.

pour thru a strainer back into bowl and let cool to room temp.

Take lemons you zested and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Then pour into a pitcher and put in fridge until chilled.


If you like Lemonade you need to try this recipe, Google Chef John's State Fair Lemonade, there's a video and a written recipe. Yeah it's pretty overinvolved to make Lemonade but it's SO GOOD. And I can work on making the lemonade while I'm paraboiling the waffle fries. At this rate I'll be waking up at 6AM to have enough time to have everything ready by 7:30PM lol. Also plan to use Sonics ice, because who doesn't love their ice? $2 for a 10lb bag's a great deal, especially considering pellet ice makers cost an insane amount of money.
 
It's late and I'm just talking to myself, I thought about it and feel MEH about offering a bunch of drinks. I can't afford quality syrups and don't want to offer sub par stuff just to make money.
I can get an ice cooler and fill it with bottles of Mexican Coke, not much profit there compared to fountain, but Mexican Coke's like perfection.
 
Hold on a sec... first the math adds to 3.25 (assuming you meant .05 for the sauce). General menu pricing formula is: food cost per serving / ideal food cost percentage. Actual food cost per serving calculation is: (Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Ending Inventory) / Total sales. The actual ending inventory should be after anything was discarded. Ideally the breakdown should be 1/3 food, 1/3 overhead & 1/3 labor. So once you run the business, will the actual food cost be $3.25 vs just the costing done above? This is a TBD at this point. As far as menu pricing: $3.25 / .33 = $9.84 would be the calculated menu price. $7 is way too low. Given your situation may not be in the norm, it will become even more important to understand the true overhead (like thirdeye thirdeye mentioned) and labor. As mentioned earlier your time really should not be considered free. Suggest using minimum wage/hour times ALL the hours you spent for the day which will include procurement, prep, service and clean up.
 
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One question... as far as what your time is worth / labor cost, what are you doing with your time otherwise? Retired? I know you're talking only being open for business 3 nights but if it takes you away from other jobs then it's important, if it takes away from time sitting on your butt watching TV then not so much.

Ryan
 
Really liking your menu from a customer standpoint. Also reasonable prices.

Have to agree with Chef Jimmy and everything he stated.

Also, would be cool if you had the ability to do a special burger each week. I always enjoy when places do that kind of thing.
 
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Really liking your menu from a customer standpoint. Also reasonable prices.

Have to agree with Chef Jimmy and everything he stated.

Also, would be cool if you had the ability to do a special burger each week. I always enjoy when places do that kind of thing.

A secret burger of the week would be excellent, all I'd need is to have a few different toppings or ingrediants. And thanks for the complement on the menu and pricing, tho as somebody here mentioned I think I do need to bump them up some. $9 for a double burger from a fresh ground 50/25/25 blend of Sirlon/Tri-Tip & Short Rib would still be a decent deal imho. I just checked and a Double Wopper with cheese is $7.49 out here, and this would be a good step up quality wise from that. I dunno tho so I have to do some forcasting with the numbers to see where I could potentially sit in 6 months. The taco stand there now makes a killing, but the majority of their sales are $2 tacos. Getting people to spend $9 on a single item when they could get almost 5 tacos is very different. The only thing I could really do for $2 would be a slider or small fry. Both might be good ideas, and something like 4 sliders and a fry for $10. I don't think I've ever seen a double cheese smash slider but it sounds pretty good to me.
 
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50/25/25 blend of Sirlon/Tri-Tip & Short Rib would still be a decent deal imho.

Just Curious. Why this Blend? You have 2 Cuts from the Sirloin, so no flavor gain but could be costly. Tri-Tip, has one flavor profile. Check on Sirloin FLAP meat, same area and flavor,but usualy cheaper as it is not cut for a Steak or Roast and gets Ground. Short Rib another beef flavor. Why not add a Third Beef Flavor? Chuck or Brisket would be a good choice and Cheaper than any of the others. Lower Food Cost, without sacrificing Flavor, is Money in Your Pocket!...JJ
 
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Not sure if anyone else mentioned it but it looks like your left and right margins aren't equal. The Combos Sides Buns looks like it is in a text box that is off kilter a bit.
 
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Just Curious. Why this Blend? You have 2 Cuts from the Sirloin, so no flavor gain but could be costly. Tri-Tip, has one flavor profile. Check on Sirloin FLAP meat, same area and flavor,but usualy cheaper as it is not cut for a Steak or Roast and gets Ground. Short Rib another beef flavor. Why not add a Third Beef Flavor? Chuck or Brisket would be a good choice and Cheaper than any of the others. Lower Food Cost, without sacrificing Flavor, is Money in Your Pocket!...JJ

I got the ratio from a Youtuber I use to watch, it's been years but if I remember right he said it's because sirloin's leaner than the short rib, so you get more flavor but a bit less fat. I definitely don't know any better, I tried what he suggested and it came out good. I've tried other blends. At least at my Ralphs Sirlion's one of the cheaper cuts, I'll have to look into using others.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned it but it looks like your left and right margins aren't equal. The Combos Sides Buns looks like it is in a text box that is off kilter a bit.

Oh yes, it needs lots of fixes on spacing and margin. I was trying to work out what it says before I dialed in the layout. I made like 20 changes yesterday alone, so if I had spent an hour making it look right, it would have all went out the window.

Of course there's probably an easy way to do that once and just make a few small modifications and it will look right again. But I'm not a graphic designer so I'm pretty much winging it here. My last step will probably be to send it to an actual dersigner so it can be proofed and finished correctly. I think I did alright on my own, but I still need help lol
 
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