glenn

Thanks for some interesting ideas. A little caveat - okay, a big one - I have no culinary background. My restaurant experience was back of the house. I used to have an experienced cook who was very imaginative, but that didn't work out. My present cook is more of a line cook - while he's very good at following instructions, it ends there. I never planned on serving anything other than grilled cheese (which I think I'm capable) but I've had to expand out of necessity. So, I'm going by recipes I see in books and on the net. And from suggestions here. The recipe I'm using simply consists of onions, celery, mayo, lemon and branston pickles. I need to keep it simple because of our limited resources (manpower, storage and equipment.) Since Malawry brought up the tuna, I'm wondering if I'm using an appropriate tuna... bumble bee solid white in water. I get this wholesale at a fairly decent price. [btw, tomorrow's tuna melt special is with brandy infused manchego - that could be a tough one since manchego is not a great melting cheese.]

Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a thread devoted to this earth-shattering topic. We're introducing this to our menu this week and I was curious to see what people's likes and dislikes are. Admitedly, our tuna salad is nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact we're using good quality tuna (solid white in water.) What I'm hoping will distinguish it is the bread [thick sliced quality pain de mie (white) or multigrain], the variety of cheeses offered (12) and the method of cooking - on a panini press. We served it as a special all last week with horseradish havarti cheese and it was a big hit. Comments, suggestions, ideas?

Here's Chow Magazine's list of 5 of the best US independent roasters. [i don't see the article online.] Intellegentsia Gimme Coffee Counter Culture Flying Goat Blue Bottle I was sorry to see my roaster of choice not listed, Terroir, though it was nice to see a discussion on purchasing direct as opposed to purchasing from a broker. On a related note, I'm curious to see how much y'all are willing to pay for coffee. I was selling Terroir's coffee retail but I stopped because customers weren't willing to pay the price - starting at $10 for 12 ounces. (I still serve it by the cup in my cafe.) I know Intellegentsia, one of the largest of the independents, sells their coffee for even more.

We serve a small side of homemade pasta salad with our sandwiches. A customer asked if she could substitute french fries. I apologetically replied that she couldn't. She was visibly upset but seemed to let it go as I took her partner's order. But she couldn't let go... "why can't I substitute, potatoes are cheaper than pasta?!" [we use an expensive frozen fry which is fried in an incredibly expensive ventless fryer.]

It starts deteriorating after about 30 minutes. Personally, I like to let it sit for 5 minutes for it cool off. I don't like it when it's too gooey. Although they're not optimal after 30 minutes, they're still quite edible. We've brought platters to various events where they sit for several hours and we still get compliments.

My day off and time for research. There's a company called Delivery Stream that offers such a service. I honestly don't know how they get restaurants to sign up though. The charge to the restaurant is 30%! I can't imagine any restaurant paying that. Some may mark up their prices for delivery (I don't know), but that wouldn't be good business. And they also charge the customer $4.95.

Eric, I forgot to ask... how big will your burger be? Have you thought about the bun? Anything special about it? What kind of ketchup... Heinz or the like? What kind of mustard, or is it homemade? Homemade relish?

I simply don't have the facilities for one more machine or to store one more item. It came to a point where I had to eliminate a few cheeses from our menu due to lack of space. I'm amazed that we're able to put out what we do with the limited space we have. If it wasn't for that, I'd go with fresh fries in a heartbeat. It was simply a matter of priorities, like, do I get a waffle machine and do giant waffles or do I do fresh fries? I even had to rip out a couple of sinks (with the health department's blessing) to make room so 2 people could sort of move around. But I digress. And, like Holly said, fresh fries does take a commitment. [Wishful thinking - Melt II will have a huge kitchen! ]

I really debated (mostly with myself) about the whole fry thing. Like Owen said, it's an important facet and, in my opinion, can increase business that my place and a place like yours might not get otherwise. I swear, some people come to melt specifically for the fries and everything else is secondary. In the end, I decided it wasn't practical to go with fresh potatoes. Everything else is top notch - we change the oil probably too often, use a good oil, not to mention our fry machine cost an arm and a leg. However, the frozen fries we buy (simplex) are expensive and the profit margin isn't nearly as good as it would be with fresh potatoes. If I recall my calculations, the profit margin is close to 3 times more with real potatoes. (I'm not including the cost of the machine.) That's another aspect you might wanna consider.

Eric, can I say again I love your logo AND name?! I'm glad to hear things are proceeding well. It sounds like you're doing everything right. The french fry thing - I agree with Holly. Do it right from the onset and use fresh potatoes. As you know, we don't, although our frozen fries are close enough to the real thing that it's hard to tell the difference. But we only do frozen out of necessity. We just don't have the time or facilities to do it any other way. If I had my druthers, we'd be doing real fries, regular and sweet potato. Can you tell me more about the Martin dog roll? How much, how big, where do you get it? Flash fry? - how long is it fried for? [how long is a ripper fried?] Holly, I'm not familiar with buttering the bun. Is there a way to do it if it's grilled. I really don't have the means to steam the bun. Btw, we use Best's foot-long Syd dog.

Joanne, if vouchers eventually = real $$$, I accept your gracious offer. Many thanks!

Unfortunately, the Newport farmers' market does not attract a lot of traffic. The most popular of the downtown markets is the one at Hamilton Park. However, the traffic is sporadic... it's never crowded but seems to attract a steady flow of people. And by now, they all know about Melt ). Yeah, it was called something like that. I had terrible personal experiences with them though, like taking up to 2 hours to deliver and being very unaccomodating. That's primarily why I never pursued it. I did just do a search though, and it looks like they're out of business. We do that regularly, though it seems I have to tell the kids where to go and I certainly don't know every complex in downtown. We have hit Dixon Mills several times. [the biggest pain in the neck are the Newport apartments. the only way to get in there is by having a delivery. Forget about befriending the doormen - even though one might be willing to leave a stack of menus by the desk, the next one that comes along throws it out.] And since I do the delivering, I'm the one going to all 25 or so floors handing out menus. Like I have the time OR energy for this stuff! )] I'm glad to hear about your positive experiences with seamlessweb - I fired them a month ago for completely bastardizing my menu, but they called last week to get my business back and I agreed. thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks, Marsha. I never thought of a costume... well, I did, but sort of figured that would be no different than what all the chicken places of the world do. I never thought of doing something original like you.

I've been trying to get info on that. I know there used to be a service - I even ordered out from them. I've done the area happenings and continue to do so and it's been great publicity as well as a good means to get involved with the communtiy. I've given away sandwiches at farmers' markets several times, movie night at the park, charitable events, political events, etc. This fits in with my original concept of being a community place as opposed to the likes of the chains.

azlee, PM sent to you. That's a very vague mysterious post. Although I am always (I think) diplomatic in matters concerning Melt, my feelings stand about GS. I have been told before by certain people within the organization that they can help only to be passed off to the bureaucratic maze. Forgive my cynicism. I have detailed the reasons in my PM.

Hey Harry, what's a EGS? Anyhow, sorry, but I guess I overlooked your previous post. Or maybe I wasn't ready to concentrate on delivery at the time. As you've noticed, I am now ready. I'm listening! I implemented a regular drawing.... win a free lunch by giving us your fax number. I have these forms everywhere - in the restaurant and inserted in all takeout bags. I have another drawing, not original but a proven winner - give us your business card and win something or other. There's a caveat on the fishbowl that email addresses and fax numbers may be used for in-house promotion giving the customer a choice. I'm a late bloomer, but I recently started talking up the fax/delivery thing to in-house customers and, as result, I now have the mayor's office, local police precinct and some other local places on my fax list. Delivery service? Hah! That would be me. Hiring a kid on a bike sounds easy enough.... until you try it. The main reason it doesn't work for me is I don't have enough delivery business to motivate anyone to make themselves available a good part of the day and I can't afford to pay more a guarantee. [i did this when i started out and soon realized i would go broke very quickly if i continued in this vein.] I have a skeletal staff and I'm the only one with a car, let alone the only one who drives. For a number of deliveries, a bike would not be practical, i.e., large orders, especially when there's more than one at a time and/or the delivery is on the other side of downtown. For the moment, doing the deliveries myself hasn't been a huge problem, though I've had to turn down a few. Besides, do you have any idea how difficult it is to get someone reliable to deliver? I've been there. I've talked to several businesses in town about this including a couple of pizza places... they all say the same thing. Oftentimes the owner is forced to go on deliveries or turning down the business - either option is obviously problematic. Anyhow, long time no see. We do deliver, ya know. )

Sorry, I appreciate your help. I didn't mean to let out my pent up frustrations on you ). My goal is to get the business of the small and medium-size companies on the waterfront. The fortune 500 companies and the larger ones, though, are a tough nut to crack. For the most part they have their own corporate cafeterias (GS has a great upscale cafeteria and they already have businesses they do catering with which is generally approved by their home office, or at least that's the way I understand it.) Anyway, it's been an extremely frustrating experience and one which I am trying to forget. I do get orders from individuals from the big companies and that's my target. I also didn't mean to offend anyone who works for these companies. It's the corporate structure and bureaucracy that's so frustrating, not any single individual.

nugent, you're too much! As soon as I saw that post I knew it was the ticket, just like when you came up with the name melt. I'm gonna have to give you stock in the company, not that it's worth anything. Between yours and Evie's slogans, I'm sure I can come up with a winning combo. I called up THE JC starving artist, the same one who did my chalkboard menu in the shape of a piece of bread and he's looking forward to working on the project. Super idea! Evie, I am looking into getting a cart to give out samples. I should've done it long ago. You have to have a special license for that - I got one when I was having trouble finding a space and considered operating out of a truck. mention, I'm not convinced of the effectiveness of mailing out coupons with a service such as ValPak. If I recall, it's fairly expensive, too much for my budget. I was approached about this soon after I opened my business. azlee, you hit a nerve just by mentioning Goldman Sachs. I probably shouldn't single them out because all the major corporations on the waterfront are no different; but I had fairly extensive dealings with them, none pleasant. Those dealings included negotiating for a space in their lobby and finally being turned down because I was a startup company. But that's another story. As far as I can tell and from what I was told by GS, they don't have a list of local restaurants they endorse or do business with. I was referred to an independent nyc company by GS, seamlessweb, an internet ordering service that several restaurants in JC participate in. The companies set up corporate accounts with seamlessweb and employees who work overtime or through their lunch hour (etc. etc.) are allowed to use the service. Seamlessweb is another story that I won't go into. Suffice to say, I had nothing but problems in my dealings with them and finally stopped. As far as that big order with Fatburger, I am aware of it - from what I was told, they were offered a huge discount by FB. Anyways, it's just one big corporation supporting another. I've said it before and I really don't care if I offend anyone from GS or Merrill Lynch etc. etc., but they have no interest in supporting local businesses. JC subsidized these companies by giving away the farm so to speak through abatements and now they're laughing all the way to the bank. This is a huge issue here in JC and I'm far from the only person to feel this way. okay, off my soapbox.

You've all been so helpful in the past, thank you thank you. Once again, I need some ideas if you don't mind. As mentioned elsewhere, I'm having a problem making much progress picking up delivery business. I came up with an idea for a somewhat different marketing strategy and need help in its execution. Okay, don't laugh or snicker (too much) or call me the sexist pig that I am. The idea is to have a very enthusiastic attractive person (most likely female) wear one of those sandwich signs and walk enthusiastically around the business commercial areas in JC, mainly the waterfront. I want the sign to be unique and somewhat mysterious. Like, simply have one side with my web address and the other saying something like, "grilled cheese better than mom used to make." And my logo would be on either side. The person would hand out business cards instead of menus (we've inundated the area with menus.) The goal is to increase delivery business AND in-store business, particularly from office workers on the waterfront. Right now, the vast majority of the business is from local residents. I need help in the wording of the sign. I'm trying to keep graphics to a minimum since I think that would make it costly. I also want to offer an incentive (like, mention you saw this sign and get 20% off) but don't know the best way to do this. I've already talked to one sign company (Sign Expo in nyc) and haven't gotten costs yet, but I can't afford to spend a fortune on this, like more than a few hundred. Also, any other ideas about the concept would be most appreciated. thanks! [fyi, regarding the other quesiton I posed about a fax service, I'm meeting with a marketing company that specializes in that sort of thing.]

Evie, thanks for the suggestions. But - been there and did it. I actually hired a marketing person for 2 days who called a zillion companies on the waterfront. I got a list of every business in JC from city hall and had the marketing person contact every business in the waterfront area. Yes, he asked for the BIGMOUTH - though I think he used another term ). He was actually very good on the phone... he knew how to schmooze people. He got some positive reactions and we might have gotten some business as a result, but not much. In any event, I'm done with that sort of thing. It's to expensive and not effective. Personally, I find unsolicited email more offensive than unsolicited faxes, but that's me. Rooftop, I don't know how effective running a promotion for fax numbers would be, not to mention it really might look like we're reaching for straws. But it's definitely worth consideration.. thanks.

Tia, you should have mentioned eG... we give a free complimentary small ice cream cup to anyone who sez they saw us here. And we love kids! From the outset, I wanted Melt to be kid-friendly. Unfortunately, it's turned out to be more of an adult place. I guess you can't be everything to everyone. But I wish we had more custoemrs as kids, not just toddlers. In any case, don't ever think twice about bringing your kiddies. I will do whatever I can to accomodate children, i.e., serving half sandwiches or extra small cups of ice cream (with extra sprinkles!)

Thanks for the tips and opinions. I've tried some of the suggestions mentioned and some of them simply don't make economic sense. I think we've explored every avenue in trying to increase our delivery business. Our next step might be to rent a cart and give out samples (with menus) by the waterfront offices. [i have a license to do that.] We've already inundated the area by handing out menus during lunch time several times a week for about 2 months. It's not cheap! Regarding the fax service. I contacted 2 places. One was RFG as suggested here, but they haven't returned several messages. The other one stated that what they were doing was legal since they received the permission of someone at the receiving office. I don't know if there's any truth in that, but that seems to be the justification of these fax services. We did try this service for a couple of days and stopped because of problems we were having in getting them to fax what we wanted. [the guy only wanted to communicate with me by fax, not email or phone - as a result, things never got communicated properly.] Just so ya know the extent I go to... I don't have a delivery person; I'm it, at least on deliveries that require a car. Last night I had a delivery to one of the fortresses, oops, apartment buildings in Newport, a luxury building. I ended up leaving menus on all 25 floors - taking the stairs to each one. Talk about building up a sweat!

thanks, evie! If the truth be know, and I think it is, hardly anything at Melt is original, or at least a product of my imagination. After all, I'm only a fucking accountant ). But I had the sense to "borrow" and ask for ideas from the right people. And a large percentage of those people are right here on eG. thank you thank you.

Did that. At least to the best of my ability. The waterfront offices in JC, which is what I'm targeting, are like a fortress. You can't get past 1st base there. You can't even go upstairs to an office to deliver; they have to come downstairs. Legalities aside, you really would never buy from a place that you got one fax from? That's pretty harsh.

Tangentially related to food and nj. Are there companies that exist that have access to business fax numbers in NJ and then send out broadcast faxes to those numbers? Is that illegal? immoral? I'm looking to send out my daily specials to businesses within my area. Thanks for any info.