Legal Sea Foods, Kona Grill and More Ride the Compeat Wave to Reduce Costs

Compeat Advantage is a back office and accounting software solution for the restaurant industry and also provides solutions for commissary and payroll. Although there are several software providers to choose from, many high profile seafood restaurants and seafood restaurant chains have selected Compeat as their restaurant management and accounting software solution.

Seafood restaurants utilizing Compeat software are: TAO Restaurants, Legal Sea Foods, Ivar's Seafood, Kona Grill, TS Restaurants, Acme Oyster House, Southernmost Restaurant Group, Antoine's Restaurant, Galatoire's Restaurant, Union Oyster House, Fleet Landing Restaurant, Live Bait Restaurant, Merriman's, Gumbo Shop, Fiddler's Crab House, Sambuca Restaurants, and Really Nice Restaurants.

The major reasons these seafood restaurant operators are using Compeat is to reduce their costs, increase their controls, improve their insight, and to take advantage of Compeat's fully integrated back office and accounting solution. Using Compeat's single application for both back office and accounting eliminates the need to use and integrate two different software products and also ensures both systems stay in perfect balance.

Acme Oyster House has been serving up quality New Orleans classic cuisine for over 100 years. As one of Compeat's original customers, Acme still relies on Compeat Advantage to bring efficiency and effectiveness to the operational and financial areas of their company. "Since inception, we have trimmed many percentage points off of our food costs thanks to Compeat. The program has paid for itself ten times over," says Sheri Baker, chief financial officer for Acme Management Group.

Ivar's namesake chowders and sauces keep locals in the Pacific Northwest and visitors from around the world coming back for more. The company has grown since 1938 to include 3 full-service restaurants, 30 quick-service "Seafood Bars," a 10-unit premium hamburger outlet, a USDA-certified production facility, and 6 concessions at Seattle's Safeco Arena. "We had little idea where costs were controllable and where they were not. We needed a new approach and Compeat was the clear choice," says Scott Kingdon, IT director for Ivar's. "Ivar's elected to implement Compeat one year ago and the results are nothing short of astounding," says Carrie Schneider, sports division director for Ivar's.

TAO Restaurants and Nightclubs relies on Compeat to increase their control and improve their efficiencies in 7 of their locations. The TAO Las Vegas Restaurant and Nightclub was recently ranked as the Number 1 highest-grossing independent restaurant by Restaurants & Institutions. "Compeat has become very important in our day to day operational tasks, including recipe maintenance, managing food preparation, and compiling profit and loss statements. I especially like how all information is in "real-time" and in one common database so managers are able to see and react to any issues immediately," says John Watson, information technology director for TAO.

Southernmost Restaurant Group features some of the finest Seafood dining in Florida and owns four signature restaurants in the Key West Area. They also operate a central fish house where they cut fish delivered directly from boats and distribute the filleted product to each of their restaurants. Compeat's portioning capability dramatically increased SRG's control over seafood cutting and Compeat's commissary capability automated their distribution process. "The complete revamp of our seafood distribution system saved endless hours of computer input and inevitable errors," said Theresa Rothaus, director of operations for Southernmost. Since implementing Compeat, Southernmost has seen a food and beverage cost savings of 2% - 3%.

Kona Grill restaurants offer freshly prepared food, personalized service, and contemporary ambiance that creates an exceptional, yet affordable, dining experience. Since implementing Compeat in 2008, Kona Grill managers enjoy the ability to identify exactly where inventory variances are occurring. "Through Compeat we now have excellent control of our inventory," claims Michelle Caraig, cost of goods accountant for Kona Grill. Kona also claims to have gained an increase in profit that averages $15,833 per restaurant per year via Compeat.

For over 160 years, Antoine's Restaurant's excellent French-Creole cuisine, service, and atmosphere have combined to create an unmatched dining experience for both locals and visitors to New Orleans. Antoine's decided to convert to Compeat in 2001 and could not be more pleased. "I love the integration with our POS, the automatic updating of cost changes from the accounts payable system into our recipe files, and the flexibility of the accounts receivable system to accommodate our numerous house accounts," says Charles Daroca, CFO/COO of Antoine's Restaurant.

Really Nice Restaurants LLC is a Chicago area restaurant group comprised of Nick's Fishmarket and The Clubhouse. Both fine restaurants are famous for serving the freshest seafood, premium dry-aged steaks, and finest award-winning wines along with weekly special events that keep Chicago patrons coming back for more. Really Nice Restaurants utilizes Compeat's back office, accounting, and payroll products to increase their control and improve their insight into operations. "Compeat allows us to effectively track the life cycle of everything we purchase and produce in our restaurants. Its functionality has greatly improved our ability to manage all cost categories," says Scott Suckow, president of Really Nice Restaurants.