Enhancing Quality Service by Complying with Business Laws:
The Case of La Barca Ristorante Italiano
Summary
La Barca is a thirty-year-old Italian restaurant located in Lower Marsh. It offers quality service by offering genuine Italian food and hospitality as well as by complying with national legal standards. The restaurant complies with various legal standards on health and safety for its staff and customers, labour legislations and the necessary health and safety permits.
Introduction
La Barca is a restaurant established thirty years ago offering the best of Italian food and hospitality. The restaurant is located at Lower Marsh just behind the Waterloo Station, making the restaurant environment traditional and even old-fashioned. The restaurant is located strategically near National Theatre, Old Vic Theatre, Royal Festival and the Yong Vic. Its location attracts not only the theatre crowd but also business and working people due to its proximity to the Waterloo Station. La Barca Ristorante Italiano has been serving customers for nearly thirty years. (2006)
Health and Safety of Staff and Customers
La Barca employs thirty-five employees. The restaurant complies with legal standards for health and safety of its employees by upgrading its kitchen equipment and organizing the kitchen structure to prevent accidents and training its staff on the safe use of equipment. The entire restaurant is also well ventilated, especially the kitchen to provide a good working environment for its staff. Apart from this, management also apply shifting to offer continued service to customers but providing the staff with break periods. To ensure health and safety for staff and customers, the restaurant was organized to be accident proof. Signs are placed in strategic areas to inform customers of the location of the restrooms and warn customers of low ceiling or wet floor.
Food Health and Safety
La Barca takes pride on offering genuine experience of Italian cuisine and hospitality so that it imports food products not locally grown in the UK from Italy. It ensures food quality of its raw materials by contracting with renowned food growers. Prior to storage, the food products are sorted and inspected. Food is also stored appropriately according to temperature requirements ( 2006). Due to the large pool of customers, the restaurant almost always empties its storage giving it no problems with stale food. In food preparations, the chef and assistants change into their standard cooking attire with hairnets and gloves when necessary.
Licensing
La Barca Ristorante Italiano is a duly license and registered business establishment. The restaurant owner is a taxpayer in terms of personal income and business operations. The owner also obtains and renews its permit from the Health Department and Fire Marshal as well as for use and occupancy of the business premises. Thus, the restaurant submits to regular inspections from the concerned departments to comply with business laws and provide food and service at par with national standards.
Employer’s Obligations
The owner/manager of La Barca is conscious of labour legislations such as the Employment Rights Act 1996, Employment Act 2002 and the Employment Relations Act 2004 particularly provisions on wage and benefits, working hours and guidelines for dismissal ( 2001) so that the owner meets these standards. However, the business values of the restaurant goes beyond the legal framework because the owner recognizes that its staff is its initial customers so that satisfaction starts with them to cause a chain of satisfaction from the staff transmitted to customer service/relations.
Evaluation of Findings
La Barca Ristorante Italiano is all about balance. In general, its owner/manager tries to balance legal demands of operating a restaurant with rational business interests so that the restaurant complies with all legal requirements and standards in order to continue operating as a restaurant. In terms of organizational structure, the owner tries to balance the motivation of its staff with the financial perspective of the business. In relation to its customers, the restaurant provides both great genuine Italian food and hospitality without sacrificing the health and safety of its staff and customers. The result is a well-balanced holistic business attributed with the persistence of the restaurant and the growth of its pool of regular customers.
Recommendations
Since its establishment, the restaurant saw the introduction of a number of specialty restaurants in its immediate vicinity due to the development of the area as a tourist destination, art and theatre haven and a business thoroughfare. La Barca can use compliance with legal standards as a competitive advantage by enhancing the different aspects of its service delivery, such as providing the option for customer participation in food preparation by letting customers choose from a display of fresh ingredients or give customers a view of the kitchen and the process of food preparation so customers develop a good impression of the health and safety considerations given by the restaurant staff in food preparation and delivery.
Bibliography
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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