Below are general SOPs and guidelines for menu planning + costing at Common House, understanding that each location (and CDC) will differ on dish selection and style

Menus

Menu planning schedule

Common House operates on a seasonal schedule: Fall, Winter, Spring + Summer

Please reference this Menu Engineering document when planning a new menu or seasonal dishes to consider metrics and language.

Below is the correct format to submit a written recipe to the Comms team for menu design:

SECTION HEADER
Item Title (Price)
Item description (all lowercase) | dietary marks

Item Title (Price)
Item description (all lowercase) | dietary marks

Item Title (Price)
Item description (all lowercase) | dietary marks

Within each season, the following menus are required:

  • Breakfast

  • Brunch

  • Lunch

  • Dinner

  • All Day Snacks/Dishes 

  • Pastry 

  • Banquet Menus 

  • Programming Menus + Collaborations 

  • Wine Dinners 

  • Grab and Go 

Charlottesville Menus
Richmond Menus
Chattanooga Menus

Recipe writing + uploading

New recipes should be saved within your house’s google drive folder for all chefs to access. Tastings of all new menus + recipes will be given at the start of the season to CH leadership for edits/feedback.

All new menu items will need recipes written. Our recipes are written by weight, not volume. Even liquid should be written in grams. This is the most effective way to achieve consistency.

Once recipes are written, they will need to be costed in Craftable. Use your sous chefs to help you!

Be intentional about using allergens. If we are careless with these ingredients, we limit the number of guests that can enjoy our exceptional cuisine. 

  • Dairy: only use if a dairy product is being featured

  • Wheat: use wheat sparingly, ideally if it’s already being featured

  • Nuts: nuts are a terrific source of fat and crunch, but they must always be labeled on the menu

  • Meat: meat products should only be used in dishes that are featuring meat 

    1. No stocks in vegetarian soups

    2. No gelatin in vegetarian desserts

    3. No bacon/pork fat in otherwise vegetarian food

Recipe costing SOP

Recipe costing is an incredibly important part of the CDC job here at Common House. In general, the average food cost percentage of all a la carte menu items should be 28%.

All recipe and menu item costing should be completed in Foodager before new menu is released.

Here’s a basic example. Say that you want to measure your ideal food cost for a fettuccine alfredo dish on your menu. You pay $7 for the ingredients ($3 for the pasta and $4 for the sauce), and sell the dish for $18.

5 ÷ 18 = .277

Multiply by 100 = 28%

This means that your ideal recipe cost is 28% of the total revenue, which translates to 72% profit.

Recipe Costing Template
Full Menu Food Costing Template (seasonally)

Descriptions + allergen charts

Weekly specials

Weekly specials are utilized to use up a product and/or drive more food revenue for a specific day or week that’s been tagged as ‘slow’. CDCs will work closely with the GM and Director of Operations to approve + integrate weekly specials into the culinary rhythm.