This beer pub in Williamsville, New York became profitable in its second year of business with support from Craftable’s inventory management and food cost insights.
The Problem
When Jim Nau opened Ration Ales, a hybrid QSR/FSR beer pub in Williamsville, New York, he knew that managing costs would be crucial to success. Having owned and operated restaurants in the past—and with finance training as an actuary—Jim was well aware of the importance of controlling expenses, particularly in the challenging first year of operations. He had prior experience using Craftable and wanted to implement it from the start, but the chaos of opening a new establishment made it difficult to focus on proper implementation.
“We ran a 72% prime cost in our first year,” Jim recalls. “Absolutely terrible. Now, some of that is just from opening a restaurant: you’re overstaffing, you’re trying to figure out the menu, you don’t know par levels, everything else like that. But it was still awful.”
Without a proper inventory management system in place, Jim and his team struggled to keep track of their stock, leading to purchasing inefficiencies, waste, and those sky-high prime costs. The lack of accurate data made it impossible to identify how to lower those costs.
The Solution
After a successful first year, Jim was able to focus on a full implementation of Craftable to help turn things around. He knew that getting a handle on inventory was the first step to understanding and controlling costs, so after all inventory was uploaded into Foodager, Jim worked closely with his new chef to set up a new SOP for counts.
The user-friendly interface of Craftable made it easy for Jim’s chef to understand and use the system effectively. “The beauty of Craftable is that it’s not only one of the best systems, but it’s also easy to use,” says Jim. This ease of use was crucial in ensuring the chef’s adoption of the system—along with accurate data entry.
“I gave him a ritual and a routine,” Jim explains. The goal was to first perfect the art of counting, and then go over results to find areas for improvement and further efficiency. “If inventory takes two and a half hours, how do we get that down to an hour and a half?” he says.
One key feature that Jim found particularly useful was Foodager’s flag for impossible scenarios, like negative consumption. “Stuff doesn’t just grow on shelves,” Jim laughs. This helped him quickly identify and correct errors in the chef’s inventory, ensuring the data—and ingredients on hand—were accurate.
By making inventory counts a regular, efficient routine, Jim was finally able to establish a solid foundation for cost control to start bringing prime costs down.
The Impact
Jim started to dig into costs using Foodager’s comprehensive reports. He could now analyze food costs, identify variances, and make data-driven decisions to optimize his operations. The data also helped Jim train out bad habits from his back-of-house staff. By clearly showing the impact of over-portioning or excessive purchasing on the bottom line, he was armed with information to have conversations with his staff about the importance of adhering to standards and efficient inventory management.
One variance that stood out was beer cheese. With Foodager, Jim quickly identified that the amount of beer cheese sold did not match what was left in his inventory. He took a look at what was happening in the kitchen: “Sometimes I saw the cup really full, and sometimes I saw it normal,” he says. The intended portion size was only 3 ounces, but it was being served in a 4.25-ounce aluminum cup. All it took was putting a three-ounce ladle in the beer cheese to fix the variance and start serving correct portions.
Similarly, Jim used Foodager to optimize celery purchases for wing nights. “We do chicken wings two nights a week,” he explains. “But we were buying a case of celery for the side, and after wing night, we’re throwing half that case out.” By adjusting Ration Ale’s weekly celery purchase to match actual usage, they were able to reduce waste and lower costs—even though they were paying slightly more per unit.
Foodager’s days-on-hand reporting also became a powerful tool for Jim to reduce tied-up capital. “I want to see anything with days on hand more than, say, two weeks. I want to look at it and I want to understand, are we using it in a regular menu item? If we’re not, it’s not going to change,” Jim explains. This allowed him to identify slow-moving inventory and take action, whether by creating specials to use up ingredients or adjusting purchasing patterns.
The Outcome
Craftable’s impact was dramatic for Ration Ales. “We went from running that 72% prime cost to about 60.5%. We moved that needle 12%,” says Jim. “We went from losing money the first year to being solidly profitable the second year. Which I think is very hard to do in any restaurant right now.” Jim largely attributes this turnaround to the improved cost control and inventory management enabled by Craftable.
Implementing the solution didn’t just help with profitability—it helped with time, too. Instead of spending hours poring over spreadsheets or manually tracking inventory, Jim can quickly review key reports on the go and focus on strategic decisions.
The success at Ration Ales demonstrates the power of combining a robust system like Craftable with disciplined implementation and consistent use. By providing accurate, actionable data, Craftable has enabled Jim and his team to make informed decisions, reduce waste, control costs, and ultimately, run a profitable restaurant.
