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Louisianans love food. In some places people eat to live, in Louisiana people live to eat. Home fare is often restaurant class, so when Louisianans go out to eat they expect quality. Food is a celebration and must be hearty, flavorful and seasoned. For over 33 years the Evangeline Steakhouse has been at the core of the Lafayette restaurant community. In a city with over 500 restaurants and a population of 120,000 not many restaurants make the grade. The Evangeline Steakhouse has been in service over 33 years. As a renowned steakhouse also specializing in seafood and pasta dishes, the Evangeline Steakhouse seats 350 and is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. As Certified Executive Chef and Manager, William Menard has been running the Evangeline Steakhouse for 23 years. When asked what's the talk of the house he mentions his seafood platter: fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried frog leg, stuffed crab, stuffed bell pepper, shrimp jambalaya, salad, and french fries. He also highlights his medal winning Turtle Cheesecake, which is cheesecake dipped in caramel, rolled in pecans and then dipped in chocolate. "This area has sprouted some of the top chefs in the nation," said Chef Menard. "In 1992 the US Culinary Olympic Team came to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where we taught them Cajun cooking. They won the gold medal that year with some of the recipes we contributed. Also, every year we are invited to Washington DC to cook up genuine Mardi Gras fare." Spending time with customers and developing new menu ideas is key to Chef Menard, however he found he was spending too much time buried in paperwork. He sought out ChefTec to help mainly with inventory control, purchasing and ordering. He bought the program based on the 60 day money-back guarantee. When he got the program up and running he did a test by manually taking inventory and creating orders and then doing it with ChefTec and ChefTec PDA for Physical Inventory Taking. The results... he saved $300! "I figured I had nothing to lose: if the program didn't work, then I would return it. I was shocked to see the immediate savings, " said Chef Menard. "Not only does it save me money, but it saves me 5 to 6 hours of paperwork per week! I used to dread physical inventory taking, but now I look forward to it because it only takes 15 minutes." Chef Menard touts ordering based on par levels. By not over ordering delivery is faster, there are less pieces to count, less to put away, less waste, and less clutter. He admits to being a little nervous at first by not placing such large orders for fear he would have a shortage, but he says that has never been a problem. "ChefTec really works! Instead of being buried behind a desk I have more time to spend in the kitchen and with my customers… and I save money too! This is a great program.” (Thanks for the kind words Chef - next time I'm in Lafayette I'll stop in for that Turtle Cheesecake) The Evangeline Steakhouse is located at: |