The fixed-menu session restaurant case plans a 32-seat U.S. restaurant with five included courses and two evening sittings. Its Base forecast covers January 2027 through December 2031, with March 2027 opening. All prices, attendance rates, and time budgets below are selected 2027 assumptions, not measured industry averages.
Do both sittings fit the evening?
The calendar must accommodate complete sittings before seats can become bookings. Two sittings, each with 150 dining minutes and 15 reset minutes, require 330 minutes: 2 × (150 + 15). They fit within the selected six-hour, 360-minute service window, leaving 30 minutes of schedule headroom.
The course sequence also has to fit inside each sitting. Five courses at 25 minutes use 125 of the 150 dining minutes. Those 25 remaining minutes are timing allowance; they do not create another set of covers. A schedule that cannot fit its courses or reset period is invalid in this case, even when a seat-hour calculation suggests spare capacity.
What limits a synchronized course release?
The booking ceiling is the whole-number minimum of seats, installed kitchen output, plating release capacity, and funded kitchen and dining-service time. The same course must reach the whole sitting within its release window. Daily production capacity therefore cannot substitute for the ability to plate one course promptly.
| Resource | Case rule | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Dining seats | 32 covers | Paid and complimentary bookings share the room. |
| Installed kitchen | 40 covers per course | Each included course must fit this limit. |
| Plating release | 3 positions × 12 minutes ÷ 1 minute per plate = 36 covers | More daily kitchen hours do not enlarge this release window. |
| Paid kitchen time | 5 courses × (3 preparation + 1 plating minute) = 20 minutes per accepted menu | Each sitting receives an equal share of available productive kitchen time. |
| Paid dining-service time | 12 hands-on minutes per accepted menu | Labor minutes cover coordinated service and clearing; they are not dining duration. |
The labor allocation matters when the early sitting is quiet and the late sitting is busy. This model does not move unused early-session labor into the late session. Paid and complimentary requests share each sitting’s available bookings proportionally, and both allocations round down. Remaining fractional capacity stays unused.
How do accepted bookings become paid covers?
Attendance is applied after booking allocation. The case multiplies accepted paid bookings by 96% and rounds down within each sitting. Complimentary guests are assumed to attend fully. The following isolated example starts with 24 accepted paid bookings and one accepted complimentary booking; it illustrates the downstream rules, not a recalculated monthly forecast.
| Stage | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Menus prepared | 24 paid bookings + 1 complimentary booking | 25 complete menus |
| Paid guests served | 24 × 96%, rounded down | 23 paid covers |
| All guests served | 23 paid + 1 complimentary | 24 guests; 1 prepared menu unserved |
| Earned menu revenue | 23 × $125 | $2,875 |
| Optional pairings | 23 × 35%, rounded down | 8 pairings, using 40 beverage minutes |
| Earned pairing revenue | 8 × $35 | $280 |
| Combined earned revenue | $2,875 + $280 | $3,155 before business costs |
The five courses earn one $125 menu price, and the eight pairing buyers are already among the 23 paid diners. Neither courses nor pairings create additional guests. The example also shows the effect of rounding: 23 ÷ 24 is 95.83% realized paid attendance, slightly below the 96% input.
What does a no-show cost after preparation?
The selected edible ingredient basket totals $26 per menu: $4 + $6 + $10 + $1 + $5. Dividing by the 90% usable preparation yield gives $28.8889 of raw ingredients per prepared menu. The illustrative sitting therefore consumes $722.22 of raw menu ingredients for all 25 accepted bookings, including the complimentary and no-show menus.
That total already contains the no-show menu’s ingredients. Its $26 edible portion can be identified as no-show waste, but adding it again would double-count cost. Preparation loss and unserved prepared food describe different stages. The eight sold pairings add $64 of ingredients, while 24 served guests add $36 of table consumables; payroll and fixed expenses remain separate.
Which reservation policies would change the forecast?
This case collects after service and uses two receivable days to approximate settlement. It has no prepaid ticket, deposit, cancellation fee, or no-show charge. A booking therefore provides neither earned sales nor advance cash merely because it was accepted. Introducing a different policy requires matching the collection, refund, and revenue timing to that policy.
Review actual reservation demand, course release trials, attendance, and paid staffing before relying on this ceiling. The workbook also allocates annual ingredient and other expense shares across months; annual costs reconcile, but monthly margins are not an exact sitting-level purchasing ledger. Use the assumptions guide to record changes alongside the fixed-menu model.
