Q&A with Nate McGinnis, assistant general manager, CoastAL Orange Beach, and Chef Christopher Dickens, corporate executive chef for Island Entertainment, Orange Beach, Ala.
Island Entertainment is a hospitality management company developing and optimizing concepts in the food and beverage, entertainment, marina and watersports, and retail markets across the Southeast. It manages a portfolio of outlets spanning from fine dining to entertainment venues. This includes CoastAL Orange Beach, one of its 11 restaurants and the only beachfront restaurant in Orange Beach, Ala.
Coastal Orange Beach’s main kitchen’s hot line and prep line are almost entirely RATIONAL equipment, including the iCombi Pro, iVario Pro, and iHexagon lines.
Here, Nate McGinnis. assistant general manager of CoastAL Orange Beach, and Christopher Dickens, corporate executive chef, Island Entertainment, discuss their use and the benefits of RATIONAL equipment.
Chef Christopher Dickens, corporate executive chef, Island Entertainment, Orange Beach, Ala.
What makes your cooking unique?
Christopher Dickens: With 1,200-plus seats at CoastAL Orange Beach, we really had to think, how are we going to pull this off? It's a monumental task. The labor market is tough because of all our seasonal employees, and then there's the consistency factor. So we made a conscious decision to really think outside of the box. Our partnership with RATIONAL to bring something that I saw in print work back in 2016 was a platform called Tomorrow's Kitchen. And I really started obsessing over that for several years. Our ownership and leadership teams got behind it with RATIONAL reps, and we haven't looked back since.
How many meals are served at CoastAL per day or per week?
CD: When we are in the heat of the season, on average, we see somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 covers a day in an a la carte setting. About 90% of our menu is prepared using RATIONAL equipment.
CoastAL Orange Beach’s line of RATIONAL equipment
When and how did you learn about RATIONAL?
CD: I had worked with RATIONAL multiple times over the decades, and it's their commitment to quality, the ease of use on the units and their durability that really drew me to them.
Nate McGinnis: I had never heard of RATIONAL before I came to the CoastAL concept. Chef Chris was the driving force of this brand and product and painted a beautiful picture of what it could entail and offer. We love new technology; we love things that can make us better and more efficient. I was blown away once we started doing menu tests and using the equipment before we opened to the public.
From an operations perspective, what difference does RATIONAL equipment provide?
NM: The biggest thing is speed and consistency. When you're in a concept that's this massive, especially in your main six months of the season, that's a huge load on a kitchen that most places don't get to see. And being able to stay fast and efficient, while being consistent at the exact same time, has been gold for us. Equipment that I've personally used and experienced in the past couldn't keep up with the type of volume that RATIONAL has.
If you had to name the top three main benefits for using RATIONAL, what would those be?
CD: The first one is consistency. Every product, every time. I'm not worried about one person grilling a steak a little over or one person grilling one under or one person undercooking or overcooking fish.
The second one is the tremendous savings from a labor standpoint. We were able to have a massive reduction, almost 25%, to our labor because of the way the units are set up. That's been absolutely amazing because we can do more with a lot less. Having less labor means we can pay our staff more.
The third thing that really stands out with RATIONAL equipment is we're only limited by our imaginations. If we can dream it, the RATIONAL equipment can do it. It has absolutely surpassed our expectations in every aspect.
How has RATIONAL equipment changed your operation?
CD: We’d previously have a person manning a char grill, another working the flat top and a third employee over a range, we had three pieces of equipment that required constant supervision. With the RATIONAL units, we were able to pare down labor to one staff member. It's reduced our labor footprint tremendously.
Is RATIONAL worth the investment? And what is the cost benefit?
CD: The return on investment was exponential and extremely fast. We’ve seen a reduction in labor costs since it makes the staff’s life easier as well as waste by not overcooking product. When customers come back, that product they had that they fell in love with is going to be consistent every single time. That's what made the investment in RATIONAL worth it for us, and it's paid tremendous dividends.
NM: It’s 100% worth the investment. We’re able to produce a product faster with cost savings.
How does RATIONAL contribute to the future of equipment?
CD: I truly believe that this technology is the way of the future. RATIONAL is committed to giving back, not only advancing kitchens through technology, but also helping to educate the next generation of chefs. And we just couldn't be prouder to be a partner with such an amazing organization.
NM: We know that we're training people on the best equipment that we can offer that's going to provide the speed and consistency that we need to be successful.
Are you planning on introducing more RATIONAL equipment to other operations?
NM: I think ultimately, yes, that would be the goal. As we continue to grow all of our concepts in this area and continue to be successful, I definitely think we can take the success we've had from CoastAL and apply it to our sister concepts. RATIONAL has had a tremendous impact on our operations from day one. They've helped us achieve much success
