If any of you have been down to Lone Pine Tavern so far this term, you are well aware that a summer augmentation of the menu has almost doubled the number of offerings served last spring. This expansion included not only more of Lone Pine's trademark sandwiches, but also a diversification of offerings including salads, personal pizzas, and made to order baked potatoes. Sounds great, right? The only table service establishment in Dartmouth Dining Services (DDS) now has a much-improved menu to go along with its famous cream sodas, beer and wine offerings, and tavern atmosphere. Your options are considerably lessened, though, when you get to ordering and find out from your friendly waiter or waitress that half of the offerings on the menu aren't even in stock.
Granted, I don't have any educational or occupational experience in running food service establishments, but middle school economics tells me that the more customers such an establishment draws, the more times the profit per. item sold will be multiplied, and, thus, the more money the establishment will make. Common sense also indicates that a good way of getting customers to come back to one's establishment is to make sure that items on the menu are in stock when customers order them. Somehow, though, the management of DDS hasn't quite figured out these simple premises, as no less than seven menu items were unavailable last week.
The management of DDS pointed out, with some justification, that the ordering wasn't done because the person transferred to the position of Lone Pine manager had resigned to take a different job just before the term started. Sure, this fact might be a fair target for blame on why the stock hasn't yet caught up with the menu, but it also is indicative of a larger, more overarching problem with the way DDS has run the establishment.
Many of the members of the Classes of 1998, 1999 and 2000 will remember the former manager and forever patron saint of the Tavern, Rey Ritner. Since Ritner left last spring for a job with Catamount Brewery, DDS has consistently dragged its feet in the finding and hiring of a replacement because they knew one Dartmouth student wouldn't let the Tavern fall to ruin in the absence of a full-time manager. So, since last spring (with the semi-exception of part of Spring term when a temporary manager was hired,) the operational responsibilities of the entire Tavern have been left to Larry So '99, to whom DDS gladly handed all of the manager's responsibilities and half of the manager's paycheck. All summer long, DDS management went through the motions of searching for a manager while wringing everything they could out of So. They expected him to make sure that the ordering was done, the staff trained, the cash accounted for and the liquor law complied with, while continually refusing to pay him any more than the highest ranking student employees at any of the other DDS establishments (read: places WITH full-time management.)
Then, this fall, DDS management decided they once again wanted to run things, and proposed that the Lone Pine menu be cut from its summer form back to the bare-bones version in place last spring (note: the Lone Pine menu used to be more extensive even then than now, but the management forced Ritner to cut back in order to "save money.") Are these people professional food service managers, or not?
There are a number of simple steps which can make Lone Pine even better (and yes, DDS, more PROFITABLE) than ever before:
1) Keep the expanded menu and make sure that the necessary ingredients are ordered. Customers like the wide range of choices and, little secret, ALL OF THE FOOD IS MADE OUT OF THE SAME MATERIALS!!!! That's right! All of Lone Pine's sandwiches, salads, and baked potatoes are made from a small collection of ingredients, mixed and matched in different ways.
2) Add another waitstaff shift during the dinner rush (6:30-8:30). The secret of getting the orders in and out as quickly as possible is not having each waiter and waitress cover seven tables of customers (without the benefits of buspeople.)
3) Advertise. Let people know that the Tavern actually exists. Above all, let them know that the Tavern is part of the meal plan. Yes, that's right. Everything but beer and wine are on DBA, not discretionary account.
4) Hire a competent, caring manager as soon as possible. I realize that such people take time to find, but for goodness sake stop dragging your heels and get to it. You had all summer to find someone and you didn't end up relieving poor Larry So until September. It's time that Ritner's permanent replacement and progress at the Lone Pine be set back in motion.
For everyone's information, especially the '01s, Lone Pine is open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday and is located in the basement of Collis Center. It features an excellent table-service menu of sandwiches, nachos, salads, baked potatoes, pizzas, and delectable cream sodas, as well as a wide selection of beer and wine. Live entertainment is featured nightly. The more people who patronize the Tavern, the less reason DDS management will have to make ruinous cuts. Come check it out!
