Lisa Hunt
Student ID: 00146-00191
Campus Phone number/cell phone: 219.406.7234
Levy Restaurants
At Lincoln Park Zoo • 2001 N. Clark Street • Chicago, IL60614
Part I: Background of the Organization:
The first part of training I received from Levy Restaurants was, “Creating Legends,” which all team members must accomplish before beginning work. This is their orientation program that identifies Levy Restaurant’s background, visions, and values. It also gives detail about hourly team members’ positions, the development and training programs, the benefits they offer to their family members, and the policies/guidelines they have established to help each team member succeed as part of their company.
Levy Restaurants got started in 1978 when Larry Levy and his brother, Mark, decided to try something beyond their real estate and insurance backgrounds and began a business to invest in D.B. Kaplan’s Delicatessen in Chicago’s landmark Water Tower Place. After a disappointing first six months they asked for help… from their mother, Eadie. As a team they discovered their passion to learn about the thousands of details that deliver a truly memorable experience to each and every guest and they defined what is today known as “The Levy Difference.” This is the vision that guides Levy as a family of passionate restaurateurs to create great restaurant experiences, wherever their innovative approaches might take them.
Today Levy Restaurants is an industry-leading food organization that has a well respected reputation for its network of internationally acclaimed restaurants; a full range of consulting services; as well asthe leading market share of premium foodservice operations at sports and entertainment facilities. Levy Restaurants has also been recognized as one of America’s fastest growing companies in its industry, with one of the most diverse portfolios including: arenas, sports stadiums, racetracks, convention centers, zoos, and music festivals in every major market.
The growth of their organization began in September 2000 when Levy Restaurants entered into a partnership with Compass Group North America. Compass Group is a division of UK-based Compass Group PLC, the world’s largest foodservice company with operations in more than 90 countries. During my summer internship with Levy Restaurants we were informed that Larry Levy and his business partner, Andy Lansing, have completely merged with Compass Group and are now retired.
The structure of Levy Restaurants at Lincoln Park Zoo is overseen by the Regional Director of Operations, Simon Wheeler, Director of Operations, Ubert Berrum, and Executive Chef, Rodolfo Mariano.
Followed by:
General Manager of Concessions, Jorge Perez,
Senior manager, Robert Poindexter,
Park manager, Belen Castillo,
Great Hall sales manager, Bambi Rogers,
Manager, Frank Aranda,
Café Brauer manager, Socorro Ashley,
Sous chef, Gregg Levy, and
Maintenance engineer, Eduardo Garcia.
However, Levy Restaurants uses an inverted pyramid to depict that great hospitality comes from guests being number one, and they are the most valued people in their business.
As I have stated earlier, Levy Restaurant’s vision is, “The Levy Difference.” Which includes their three values that inspired “The Levy Difference,” family, passionate, and restaurateurs. Following these three values it is clear what the company’s culture truly tries to accomplish. I was fortunate that during my internship I was able to see both employees and managers demonstrate many of these values throughout the summer. A brief example from each of the Levy values includes: Family, Jorge Perez was always “quick to share a smile and a laugh” with me and other team members everyday as we did our walk-through of the park by playing trivia games, telling jokes, or encouraging others; Passionate, Belen Castillo was an “innovative thinker” as she is constructing a new orientation program for team
members called “Passport”; Restaurateurs, Ubert Berrum truly knew “it’s about
the food, and the thousand details that surround it” by continually pointing out the
little things in the park that made a big difference to a customer’s experience.
The clientele for Levy Restaurants at the Lincoln Park Zoo has a wide range from school children to upscale wedding guests. Everyday we would have a wide range of guests due to number of school/camp buses arriving, regular customers from around the area, any catering events throughout the park, upscale events in the Great Hall, and any Chicago land activities held at or by the Zoo. Because Levy Restaurants is operating from a zoo, it also has unique concerns. Last year 9 animals died which brought bad publicity and a lack of animals to attract guests. This also gave The Brookfield’s Zoo, our competition, a better advantage that year. However, looking at the history of the last 4 years, it shows the dip in revenue because of this animal crisis but also that sales are exceeding this year.
Item / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005Revenue / 3,805,612 / 4,385,014 / 4,984,515 / 4,453,662
Ebitdar / 1,241,023 / 1,592,151 / 1,914,891 / 1,509,547
Ebit / 202,940 / 222,334 / 245,335 / 227,003
Year to Date- Ending June 2006
Item / YTD / BGT / VAR
Revenue / 1,885,155 / 1,929,350 / -44,195
Ebitdar / 536,037 / 587,310 / -51,273
Ebit / 74,953 / 75,846 / -893
Fiscal Budget 2006-2007
Item / BGT / ’06 Projection / VAR
Revenue / 4,700,000 / 4,636,227 / +24,315
Ebitdar / 1,785,789 / 1,702,366 / +83,423
Ebit / 236,660 / 233,109 / +3,551
Part II: Management, Training and Employee Information
The training and development that I received from Levy Restaurants began the first day of my employment by reading and watching their Creating Legends program that Levy gives as their orientation program for all team members. This gave me the premise of the Levy operation, which is given to all employees, but I additionally went to their “Burst” program for all intern managers at Ravinia Music Festival on May 15th-17th.
I was able to meet the other Levy Restaurant intern managers working at different Chicago area venues, along with Levy Restaurant’s regional and home office team members. We began our training session by discussing “What does Levy Differnce style of service look like?” This section gave a close overview of the Creating Legends, but the main objective was to learn how to manage moments of truth. We watched a video to discover an eye for detail, learned Levy’s difference between ordinary vs. extraordinary, and found information in an NRA survey on why guests return to a specific dining establishment.
The second and third portion of our training included interviewing skills and how to fill out an I-9. We went step-by-step on how to look over an application and how to use this as a tool for interviewing. Then we were informed on how to complete an I-9. During this section of the training I didn’t think it was going to pertain to me because the Zoo had already done its hiring for the season and wasn’t doing a job fair like the other venues. However, I felt very honored when I was able later in the season to interview employees and even hire some of them!
The fourth part of our training, progressive coaching, was very critical in learning how to become a Levy manager. The progressive coaching sequence is 1. counseling 2. verbal warning 3. written warning 4. written warning with schedule change 5. suspension 6. termination. Within this training session we learned the do’s and don’ts when progressive coaching an employee, along with standing in front of the group to do role play situations. We also were instructed on how to properly fill out an Employee Disciplinary Report Form, which is used in each step of the coaching sequence, recorded in the employee’s file, and sent into Levy Restaurant’s home office. This part of the training I found most useful, not only because it gave me different scenarios to help relate to during the summer, but because I never would have guessed how many times I had to progressive coach someone over the summer or even need to terminate someone!
The fifth section of our training process was about sexual harassment. Here we learned 1. what constitutes sexual harassment 2. how we prevent sexual harassment 3. how we deal with sexual harassment. During this training we had a pre-test, went over different harassment stories, and learned their three step approach to handling a sexual harassment situation (1. thank you 2. separate 3. call human resources).
Our training sessions then finished with the Claims Reporting Procedures. Learning everything from team member injury procedure, drug and alcohol testing, accident review, food borne illness incidents, and emergency telephone numbers, just to name a few.
When I was hired I wasn’t clear on the duties that were being asked of me other than, “you will be a manager for the park operations.” After taking this “Burst” orientation program, I was better able to understand some roles that I would be undertaking throughout my internship as a manager.
I thought this quality and quantity of orientation training was just the perfect beginning to an internship filled with more experience and life lessons than I had ever imagined! I think the first hurdle in becoming a successful manager was that I over came the fact that not every employee is going to like me. Followed by the experience to hire someone and fire someone all in one day, which both werecareer techniques I never imagined myself doing during this internship.
The first two weeks I was assigned with different managers to receive my
hands-on training at the Zoo. I was glad that I got the chance to work with each manager because I think they all had such a unique way of managing their employees; so I believe this gave me the perfect training to create my own way of managing with a hint of influence from each manager. For a brief example: Jorge Perez would socialize and ask employees to complete tasks in a relaxed manner; while on the other hand, Belen Castillo was very detail oriented, focused on work operations and tasks at all times, and enforced more rules to try and teach our employees how to be “more professional.”
Part III: Specific Job Information
The basic areas of operation that I was exposed to were: food court, administration, concessions, and vending carts. Each which were a part of my daily activities, but I spent more time in some areas compared to the others. Also because I had the opportunity to work at the Zoo, I love saying that I received some knowledge on the zoo animals!
The food court was the first area of the Zoo that I received training on, which was an experience that I won’t forget. My first hands on training was security watch in the Park Place Café food court. I stood at the end of the cash register and monitored the purchase of all goods from the school children and kept an eye on the coolers, free standing chips and candy containers, and the soda machine. I was amazed by how many children at such young ages try to steal. Then trying to stop them on my first day at work was something I didn’t except either! However, throughout the summer I was given other opportunities to manage the food court employees rather than the guests. Due to the large volume the Park Place Café serves daily, I was able to assist when needed to help count cash, use a register, or even get behind the line and help serve.
The main managers for Park Place Café were Lidoin Ugarte and Socorro Ashley, but all managers throughout the summer are scheduled to work there. Park Place Café is the main dining facility which is open from 10am until the ZooPark gates close or weather permitting. Park Place Café is also the only restaurant that stays open year round at the Zoo.
Each food station and cash register station is staffed with a supervisor and additional employees which can change daily due to guest numbers and the weather. Throughout my internship I was able to assist Park Place Café, but I didn’t work there with much consistency or detail to describe every area of the food court.
The other area of operation that I was involved with was administration. The office manager was Lucy Villagram and had additional help from Khylene Howard. This is where I was able to oversee and administer the Company policies daily. A description of experience includes but is not limited to: morning uniform policy checks, daily park scheduling, twice daily safe counts, writing and filing Employee Discipline Report Forms, updating employee files with needed signatures on safety policies, updating the daily ledger, product control sheets, and check-out form, interviewing, and even answering the phone.
The office was a cool temperature haven throughout the summer, but I tried to complete my tasks and be outside with the Park employees as much as possible. Working in the office for opening and closing responsibilities is where I found the great bonding and teamwork between all the Zoo managers. It would never fail that once a week or more a manager would bring breakfast, coffee, or lunch for all the other managers and we spent this time together before separating into our areas of the Park to manage for the day.
The last two areas of exposure were vending carts and concessions, which I will lump together to discuss because these two areas I dealt daily more carefully with and were known as operating the “Park.” Managing the Park included all vending carts needed for the day, due to weather and day of the week, and also included three cafes: Landmark, Big Cats, and Safari. The Park also employed the most team members to handle daily operations which was around 50 team members. Scheduling was done weekly for the park by Belen Castillo, but the daily scheduling assignment sheet either I completed or another manager working the park. The park team members consisted mostly of seasonal high school students but additionally by return employees that had been there for decades. This mix of team members gave us a low turnover rate, but with the occasional voluntary dismissal or termination.
A summarized description of a standard weekday in the park begins with weather outlook for the following day. This gave me a chance to staff adequately and be prepared for the early morning phone calls on rainy or extremely hot days from employees asking if they needed to come into work.
Arriving in the office at 9am, the first priority is to complete the employee assignment sheet, telling each employee what vending cart or what part of the café they will be responsible for. The second priority is to count the safe and verify the daily standard is correct. Following these two priorities, I would type the pre-shift meeting notes, administer the banks for the cafes, organize meal tickets and pouches for change if needed; then before 10am which is when the cafes opened I would hold all pre-shift meetings. The pre-shift meeting for the vending carts was done with all team members around 10:15/ 10:30am so that each cart could be pushed at and ready before 11am.
The afternoon was a combination of checking on all employees throughout the park, dealing with many issues that arrived daily, checking that each vending cart was opened properly and had all their proper supplies, problem solving when machines were malfunctioning, helping with breaks, verifying that each Café received the correct product, checking on Park Place Café or Café Brauer, and monitoring the variety of little things such as signage that adds to each guest’s visit to the Zoo.
Closing operations took place during the weekdays, according to weather, around 5pm which is the time the animal houses close and the Zoo is preparing for the gates to close at 6pm. All registers and cash boxes were sent to the office to be counted, all product not used by the cafes and vending carts were counted on their product control sheets and returned to the office, and closing duties at the cafes began and all vending carts were pushed back into the commissary.
Within the office we worked on our closing operations as a team to stay organized and complete everything efficiently. Counting all banks and entering the product control sheets to verify their numbers matched the product sold was the first hurdle to accomplish. Then we would enter the park data into their check-out format which also included all other daily operations’ numbers. From this information we found if our deposit matched the correct number for the total of all park operations (three cafes and vending carts.) After this we would record the deposit to be made and count the safe to verify that it still contained the correct amount. Another step that had to be completed was to check that all labor was clocked-in and out properly. Having these steps complete we were able to enter our data into the daily ledge and email it to our D.O. and the Levy home office.