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Vino Volo Offers Food on the Fly
Profile
Vino Volo is an airport-based bar and retail hybrid offering a welcome change from the typical transit lounge counter service offering. It has been successful in creating an opportunity for travelers to enjoy wine and food pairings in a comfortable, and relatively luxurious dining environment where fast food was typically the only choice.
The menu is designed for wine pairing and relies on fresh, premium and refined flavors and quality ingredients while maintaining relatively competitive prices. The spirit of the menu aspires to fine dining, while remaining approachable and is intended to complement featured wines that are sold in flights, by the glass, or by the bottle.
Challenge
Due to unique security challenges, as well as limited space for storage and a staff unaccustomed to food preparation, Vino Volo built a relationship with and relied heavily on an outside catering company to supply nearly all the food, both pre-prepared and bulk ingredients, for each of its locations.
This presented two main challenges:
High Ingredient Costs – Cost of goods sold was unsustainable due to having to pay a premium for the value-added food preparation service and for incorporating outside receiving fees
Product Quality Inconsistencies - Outsourcing both preparation of the food and receiving made quality assurance challenging and was affecting the final product
Solution
After assessing the capabilities of the in-store operations along with the responsibilities of the caterers, The Culinary Edge determined that in-house menu item assembly and finishing could deliver the freshness and consistency that Vino Volo was searching for in a manageable way with their current level of available staff.
Through a combination of focused product sourcing, improved purchasing and receiving processes and recipe updates The Culinary Edge was able to enhance and improve on existing menu items while allowing for greater simple in-store food assembly. This enabled Vino Volo locations to take more prep in house while improving the guest experience and offering.
Results
Through menu item engineering, standardization of sourcing, strategic ingredient substitution, and improved product handling, preparation and finishing techniques, Vino Volo has been able to realize an incredible 12% reduction in food cost, and an increase in guest satisfaction without any increase in labor costs. They have been able to realize the 12% cost reduction straight to the bottom line. After a successful trial period, Vino Volo is now launching a plan for rolling the new platform system-wide.