Bill Chait's Tips For The Aspiring Restauranteur

They call him the most important non-chef in the Los Angeles area... Here are few words of advice from the man behind the scenes of LA's biggest and best restaurants.

A restaurant is a performance and the Chef is the star

LA Eater / Via la.eater.com

In order to have a successful restaurant, you need to know how to utilize a chef. As a restauranteur, your job is to enable the chef to tell his story through food. Bill said it himself "the chef is an expression of a language and a story, the story being the chef's cuisine, the chef's experiences and the chef's soul. [The story] gives a restaurant a positioning that cannot be supplanted by any other restaurant."

Two words: Authenticity and Integrity

LA Times / Via latimes.com

The days of Swanson TV Dinners from Vons are over. People today want to know where their food is coming from. They want authenticity and integrity and they're willing to pay for it. How do you do this? Support local and moral business and use fresh and quality ingredients. Petty Cash Taqueria sources Non GMO corn from Mexico to make their blue corn tortillas. GMO? Non-GMO? People care. It is a restaurant's duty to participate in these conversations and debates. As a restauranteur, you must implement and standby your own beliefs and values in food consumption and policy. Don't like the mistreatment of ducks to make Foie Gras? Don't serve it. Lead by example.

Social Media is your life support

Republique LA Instagram / Via @RepubliqueLA

Many people in the restaurant business view social media as a place to take food pictures and plug them into Facebook, then Instagram, then Twitter. Conversely, Bill urges that we understand that Instagram should be utilized to cohesively tell a story. Bill describes it as "a way for us to broadcast directly to the people that we're really interested in visual things and what these things represent in the greater scheme of our restaurants." Through Instagram you can garner interest, attract eyes, and make a compelling image of the restaurant.

"Corporations are people" - Restaurants are too

The Chicago Tribune / Via chicagotribune.com

People relate to restaurants like they do with other people. If something ever goes wrong with a customer, communicate with them: send them an e-mail, a Facebook message, whatever it may be, but add a personal touch. This type of consumer engagement also displays authenticity and integrity.

"Part of what I have learned [when I've encountered problems with the public] is that you've got to go out head on and talk to people and really get people to understand the truth, mano a mano. You can't send press releases and stuff like that. It becomes very impersonal."

Without passion, there's nothing

Via blog.getcopilot.com

The single most important thing is to work with people who are passionate. "Businesses run with people, they don't run alone. To make your business work you really have to understand that because the person working inside the business becomes really valuable in projecting the brand." Bartenders are dressed like chefs now; they love everything about mixology: the cocktails, the spirits, the ice, the glasses, everything. These are the kinds of people you want working in your restaurant, both in house and behind the scenes.