The August checklist before the snowbirds land

Every October, the Treasure Coast changes. The snowbirds land, covers double, and the restaurants that spent August preparing glide through season while everyone else drowns in tickets. Here is the checklist I run with operators before the rush.

1. Staff now, not in October

The biggest mistake I see: trying to hire when you are already slammed. August is quiet — that is the gift. Hire the extra hands now, train them while the dining room is forgiving, and cross-train your core team on the stations that break first under pressure. A cook trained in August is confident in January. A cook hired in December is a liability through Valentine’s Day.

2. Fix your pars and your backup vendors

Pull your ordering guides and ask: which items ran out last season? Raise pars on your top 20 sellers now, while distributors have stock and lead times are normal. And line up a backup for the two or three ingredients your menu cannot live without — the place that 86’d its signature dish for a week last January still hears about it in reviews.

3. Stress-test three systems

• Reservations and the waitlist. Walk through a slammed Friday on paper. Who owns the door? What is the quote when you are at 45 minutes? Where does the waitlist live?
• Ticket times at volume. Run one mock rush — full board, timed. If appetizers cannot fire in 12 minutes with a full rail, you want to find out now, not mid-season.
• Prep and station setup. Are pars, labels, and station checklists written down, or living in one person’s head? Season exposes every undocumented system.

4. Tune the menu before the crowds

Your slowest sellers are about to cost you twice as much in waste and confusion. 86 the dogs now. Move your high-margin crowd-pleasers where eyes land first. And cost every special before it goes on the board — season volume turns a $1 costing error into real money fast.