The Daily Closing Checklist: Setting Up Your Restaurant for a Successful Tomorrow

It is 10:45 on a Wednesday evening and I am walking back into the kitchen after completing a walk-through of the dining room. I had visited with the guests at the tables and those remaining at the bar. Our evening was almost over. We close at 11 p.m. and I have been preparing for the past 30 minutes. I have closed this restaurant and others too many times to count over my long career, but on this night I find myself stopping to think of what I should be doing next.

Was it something one of the guests mentioned that got my mind off track? Or was it the phone call I just had with an employee calling in to check tomorrow's schedule? In any event, there I was wondering what stage of the preclose process I had been in, so I instinctively reached for my daily closing checklist conveniently located on a clipboard hanging in the office to get me back on track.