You can be busy all day, have a packed bar on the weekend, and still look at the numbers wondering where the money went. Food costs creep up. Labor feels impossible to control. Prep never quite matches demand. And the systems you put in place years ago somehow feel like they aren’t helpful anymore.
That’s the reality behind many restaurant operational mistakes. They don’t look like bad decisions in the moment. They look like habits. Shortcuts. “Good enough for now” processes that quietly turn into issues over time.
For a clearer picture of what’s actually holding many back bar and grill restaurants, we sat down with Nick Florek, Head of Back of House, who works closely with operators navigating these exact challenges.
According to Nick, many of the most damaging issues in back-of-house performance aren’t about what you aren’t doing, but what you keep doing long past the point where it makes sense.
If any of the following apply to you, you’re not alone. They’re some of the most common restaurant failures in the category.
One of the most persistent common restaurant failures starts at the top with not treating the bar and grill like a business first.
From day one, you need visibility into sales, food costs, and labor. Passion and great food aren’t enough if the numbers don’t work.
As Nick explains, “From day one, you need to have a business owner mindset. This means internalizing the importance of tracking sales data and the core cost data on food and labor.”
The idea that “if you build it, they will come” is not a successful business plan. And even if guests do show up, that doesn’t guarantee profitability.
Many bar and grill owners open with imperfect systems and plan to clean things up once the business stabilizes. This is normal, but you’ll want to have a mindset of getting core operational and financial processes in place as soon as possible. Doing it later usually comes with pain.
Many new operators start with a bar and grill concept, and there’s a lot to try and fail at. This makes having structured operations and finances even more critical.
Nick notes, “It’s difficult to have to go back and right the ship later — change menus to be more profitable or raise prices on popular items — without causing a negative customer impact.”
The longer you wait to address margins and pricing, the harder it becomes.
Copying and pasting the same schedule week after week is one of the most overlooked mistakes bar and grill restaurants make, especially as demand fluctuates.
Nick calls this “‘rinse and repeat’ staffing, where you just go through motions of copying and pasting schedules indefinitely into the future.”
While this might work for small, stable operations with consistent traffic, it’s far more common for a bar and grill to have to deal with holidays, promotions, weather swings, and online ordering spikes.
Even modest planning — looking a month or quarter ahead to plan for holidays, promotions, and change marketing — can dramatically improve labor efficiency.
Kitchen burnout doesn’t usually come from one bad night. It builds when teams are constantly reacting instead of preparing.
“A lack of understanding patterns and planning beyond the near term — two or three weeks —is a major cause of burnout,” Nick says. “Data is important.”
Without backup plans, every unexpected rush becomes a crisis. Using sales trends and forecasting lets you, to the best of your ability, provide your staff with something rare in hospitality — predictability and stability.
Throwing more people at busy shifts feels like the fastest solution, but it’s often the most expensive one.
Nick explains that “Adding bodies, while it will be necessary on many occasions, can be a short-term or reactionary response.”
His advice for a long-term, smarter alternative is to identify why those shifts are busy and adjust operations. Try encouraging pre-orders, adjusting prep, or using technology to smooth demand rather than staffing up.
Fan favorites don’t automatically equal profitable favorites. One of the most damaging restaurant operational mistakes is refusing to revisit the menu.
As Nick puts it, “Doing what you know and being resistant to change or experimentation” can quietly erode margins, especially when ingredient prices fluctuate.
He suggests limited-time offers or rotating menu items, which allow you to test new ideas without overhauling the entire menu. He says, “If you can do this with a lens of using ingredients you have on hand or order already, it will be easier to manage.”
Many bar and grill operations still prep and track inventory the same way they did five years ago. The difference now? Margins are tighter, and expectations are higher.
“Repetition and consistency used to be the name of the game, “ Nick says. “But with the predictive AI-enabled tools available now, you can dial in prep needs in a much more specific way.”
Disorganization, unlabeled items, unclear processes, and manual tracking create daily friction in the kitchen and increase waste. Modern POS (point of sale), inventory, and forecasting tools help eliminate guesswork and reduce preventable losses.
One of the most damaging beliefs in back-of-house management is that staff won’t stay long enough to justify the training.
Nick challenges that assumption directly. “Investing time in training and equipping kitchen staff may actually be the key to retaining staff,” he says.
When people feel supported, prepared, and valued, they’re more likely to stick around and perform better while they do.
When prep and ordering aren’t matched to real demand, food waste piles up fast. Weekdays, weekends, game nights, and promotions all happen differently, yet many bar and grill kitchens prep as if every shift looks the same.
Nick says this is where he sees the most preventable loss. He says, “Matchingprep and ordering to expected demand, including spikes and other shifts in demand” is critical to controlling food costs.
Without forecasting, you end up throwing away food or scrambling to catch up, both of which chip away at already-thin margins.
Avoiding restaurant software may feel like a smart way to save money, but it often creates bigger restaurant operational mistakes in the long run. Nick sees many operators hesitate to invest in systems because they view them only as an added expense.
He says, “People think, ‘Why pay a couple of hundred dollars a month for software when you can track inventory with pen and paper?’” The problem, he explains, is that “while this may make sense for small operations, it’s not sustainable for a growing business.”
Manual tracking costs more than it appears. It devours time, increases inaccuracies, and makes it harder to spot problems early. In the long run, that hesitation to invest in useful software becomes one of the most common and costly restaurant failures.
If there’s one habit that underpins nearly all common restaurant failures, it’s refusing to evolve.
Nick sums it up plainly: “Thinking, ‘Well, we’ve always done it this way, and it’s worked, so why should I change’ is just a recipe for eventually falling behind and running into financial issues.”
The most successful bar and grill operators aren’t the ones doing everything — they’re the ones willing to stop doing what no longer serves them.
If these bar and grill mistakes feel familiar, you’re not alone — and you don’t have to solve them by trial and error. Many restaurant operational mistakes boil down to visibility, planning, and having the right systems in place.
A consultation with a Back of House expert can help you pinpoint where margins are leaking, where processes are breaking down, and what to change first to avoid common restaurant failures.
Schedule a consultation to receive clear, actionable guidance on running a more profitable, efficient bar and grill.