I’m taking our dinner board from 24 to 12 dishes next month to keep tickets in the 8–10 minute range and pull labor under 18%, with three core preps cross-utilized across proteins to protect quality. If you’ve done a similar trim, how did you redistribute prep so sauté doesn’t choke, and did you reformat pricing or sections to maintain perceived choice?
Make sauté a pure 2‑minute finisher: par-sear/sous‑vide proteins, hold hot starch in the steam well, push sauces to pantry/plancha, and schedule a 60–90 min swing to float when the board spikes — it’s Tetris for pans. For perceived choice, group into “Choose a base + protein” with one high-price anchor and a weekly Board feature; just watch allergen cross-contact with those ‘three core preps.’ What’s your peak curve so we can time the swing without dead air?
I kept sauté from choking by moving all veg/starch to a tiny plancha station and enforcing a “one-pan finish” on proteins, with veg held in the combi on perforated pans to stay dry; small caveat: use a neutral high-smoke fat so the plancha doesn’t gum up — do you have a spare zone to dedicate?