Fiori Italian Restaurant
Preparing a team to open a restaurant
Restaurant openings are compressed and unforgiving. Menus are still evolving, systems aren’t fully built, and a newly assembled team is expected to deliver from day one. Fiori needed needed a training structure that could build confidence, alignment, and consistency under real pressure. In partnership with Grandchamp Hospitality.
The challenge
Fiori intended to offer upscale hospitality in a market where most staff had never worked in formal dining, and most guests had never encountered it. The training program had to do two things at once: build the technical skills and confidence for staff to deliver a elevated experience, and prepare them to guide guests through something unfamiliar without making anyone feel out of place. Closing that gap meant building systems and confidence at the same time, on a compressed timeline, while everything around it was still taking shape.
What we built & ran
A structured framework moving from foundational knowledge to live execution - daily schedules with clear objectives, service simulations, and a friends and family service to pressure-test the systems before opening.
Two-week training program
Steps of service documentation, expo guidelines, and communication standards between front and back of house, built to create consistency not just during training, but through the transition into live service.
Service systems
Rather than treating service tracks separately, training focused on how they function together in real time, including wine and bar education integrated into service flow, not treated as separate knowledge.
FOH, BOH, and bar alignment
Reference materials for staff to carry forward after opening so the standards built during training didn’t disappear once the doors opened.
Supporting materials
The result
Fiori opened with a team that knew not just what to do, but how to work together. Service was consistent across shifts. Communication between front and back of house was clear. Staff headed into opening with confidence rather than improvisation.
A year and a half later, that foundation is still showing up. Recent guest reviews cite service consistently: individual servers named for being attentive, knowledgeable, and present without hovering. The standards built during training didn't fade after opening, they became the baseline.
In partnership with Grandchamp Hospitality · Service systems · On-site execution · Opening support