Friday, August 28, 2009

Burtons Grill: Off The Menu

"If we have it…we will make it has always been the Burtons Grill Mantra,” said Kevin Harron, CEO of Burtons Grill, an upscale casual restaurant with locations throughout New England and Virginia. “When we dreamed up our restaurant concept years ago my partners and I believed that flexibility was the single most important aspect for success. In an overbuilt and intensely competitive industry you need to do everything possible to accommodate your customers and that includes making them what they want even if it is not on the menu,” continued Harron.

Each of Burtons Grill’s five-locations boasts regional concepts and fare, encourages customers to modify preparation, substitute ingredients and even encourages an “Off Menu” approach to serving the customer using ingredients in-house.

I guess the customer gets to be the Chef in a way if they want,” said Culinary Director Denise Baron. “If a customer comes to one of the restaurants and they see we have ingredients and they want to play chef and have me to create something off menu for them, I see it as a challenge, and am more than happy to do it. Yes, I love cooking, and so does my entire staff. But more than cooking itself, I like to cook for people. Sometimes I feel as Chefs we get so caught up in pleasing our peers and trying to garner attention for our art; that we forget the most basic premise of what we do which is to feed people,” said Baron.

Customers can visit Burtons Grill in: Boston, MA, Andover, MA, Hingham, MA, South Windsor, CT or Virginia Beach, VA and “create their own dinners” or order off their extensive Standard, Gluten Free or Vegetarian menus.

I really enjoy this concept, and have seen it work well at a couple other restaurants. The customer can always find something they want to eat, and have it prepared exactly as they desire. Is that not the essence of customer service?

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