At Sign of the Dove in New York City, customers made the same comments and asked the same questions again and again. "Someday I’d love to see the kitchen," they would hint. "Can I see the wine cellar?" they would plead. So finally, one of the owners, Henny Santo, decided to let them have a look.

A few years ago, in the restaurant’s holiday mailer, Santo announced three experimental backstage tours, expecting to fill only two — if she was lucky. Much to her surprise, all 120 tour spots were booked within the week, and there were 450 people on the waiting list. "Shocked? You could have picked me up off my chair where I was slumped," she remembers.

And the tours — at Sign of the Dove on Third Avenue and the other restaurants housed in a facility on 60th Street (Arizona 206, Arizona Cafe, Contrapunto and Yellowfingers) — continue to be overwhelmingly popular. "Not only do [customers] keep coming, we have had people come as many as three times on the tour," says Santo. "Coming twice is not unusual at all. They have such a good time, they have to bring someone else."

Santo is just one of a growing number of restaurateurs who are taking customers on special tours behind the scenes to reveal how their restaurants really run, and customers are clamoring to book passage. Offering an insider's look at your restaurant can boost business by showing customers firsthand how much care your staff takes in everything from arranging flowers to preparing safe, mouth-watering food. And once you impress the tour-takers, they are likely to spread the word to friends and colleagues.

The tour stops here

Tom Devine, president of Charlie T. Enterprises in Sugar Land, Texas, owns three McDonald's restaurants. He has been inviting his customers to visit the back of the house at his flagship store since it opened in 1988. "It's a fun way to show off what we do behind the counter," he says.

As he "shows off" his operation, however, he also educates his customers — especially the adults. "You would be amazed how many folks have misconceptions about what we do," he says. His tours are the chance to correct those misunderstandings. "I get quite a bit of feedback from the adults, who after leaving the restaurant have a greater respect for what we do, and amazingly, are a little more tolerant when they have to wait a little longer, etc.," he explains.

Tours are nothing new at large hotels that do a lot of convention and meeting business — it's part of standard sales strategy. But at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye Brook, New York, some kitchen tours have a slightly different twist. Although the apprentice program is currently on hiatus, it took customers into the hotel's busy restaurant kitchen not only to see it but to work in it as well, one-on-one, up close and personal, with one of the hotel's chefs, most of whom were trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. "It was a great experience. It gave the guest a perspective on what really goes on," says Tom Petrillo, former assistant food-and-beverage director for the hotel.

When the "tours of duty" were first introduced about two years ago, the available spots got eaten up so quickly that a waiting list sprang up almost immediately.

Tasty itineraries

The Rye Town Hilton's Apprentice for a Day "tour" typically began around 8 a.m., when the participant first met with the chef, and lasted the entire day. "Sometimes the guest just didn't want to leave," says Petrillo. During the course of the day, the apprentice worked side by side with the chef, prepping, plating and even preparing simple sauces and marinades. "It was great because the guest got to rotate through the entire kitchen," notes Petrillo.

The specific itinerary for each day was determined by the kitchen's schedule and the guest's personal interests. For example, on the day when a wine dinner was scheduled, more time would be spent on wine; or if the guest had an interest in marinades, then that would receive special attention. "It was an active class," says Petrillo. "The chef catered to the individual person's needs."

At Sign of the Dove, the tours aren't quite as hands-on or personal — each tour group includes about 40 people — but it covers a lot more than just the kitchen. As the tour begins, guests are treated "as if they are something being delivered," says Santo. She makes them start outside — even in freezing weather — and the first stop is receiving. Then they move into the restaurant, meet the steward, and check out the foodservice scales and walk-in refrigerator — equipment that is quite mundane to foodservice folks but fascinates customers. The tour then proceeds to the kitchen, where customers meet the butcher and the chef, who does a cooking demonstration of a dish from the lunch menu.

By this point, "they've been received, they've been butchered, they've been cooked," says Santo, so she leads her tourists upstairs to the private dining rooms to rest while she regales them with silly and scandalous stories from the restaurant's past. At that point, the group is also visited by one of the Dove's own florists, who gives a short presentation on choosing and caring for flowers, and the front- and back-of-the-house managers, who explain their jobs. "Most people have no idea that [the back-of-the-house manager] buys everything from toilet paper to wine," says Santo. From the private rooms, guests climb one more flight of stairs to view the floral studio and another flight to the offices, then it's all the way back down to the wine cellar for a session with the sommelier and a taste or two of selected wines.

Finally, the group enters the main dining room where lunch is served at group tables. One seat at each table is reserved for a staff member so that tour attendees can ask more questions. "We try to have one staff member sit at each table, then we switch tables with each course," Santo explains.

The tours of the 60th Street facility focus more on the cooking demonstrations, says Santo, simply "because there is less space to cover." The group splits up and visits each of the restaurants in shifts. For example, one group will start at Italian-inspired Contrapunto to see where the pasta is made while the other half gets a demonstration at Yellowfingers or Arizona 206. Then they'll switch, and then continue to the other two restaurants. "You end up with three or four cooking demonstrations, but you only get them in groups of 15," notes Santo. The tour group reconvenes in Arizona 206, where lunch is served. Each course is made by one of the chefs that demonstrated for the group.

Although Devine's restaurant is much smaller than Sign of the Dove, he, too, includes every aspect, from dry goods to dessert. Tour-takers start in the stockroom, where the restaurant keeps dry products like Happy Meal toys and paper wraps for the sandwiches. As the tour continues to the "Crew Room" employee lounge, Devine explains how important it is to pamper "internal customers" (employees) as well as "external" paying customers. The lounge is decorated just like the regular dining room and is equipped with a TV and a VCR, as well as a large bulletin board where safety information, work schedules and special-event notices are posted.

The next stop is the drink factory. "Many people don't realize that this is the most important machine in the restaurant," says Devine. "We explain that literally, this machine runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If this machine isn't running, then imagine what happens to the carbonated water at rest. I liken it to when you open your can of Coke at home, take a drink, put it back into your fridge and leave it until tomorrow. It becomes flat, and that ain't no fun!"

Next, the tour moves from drink bubbles to soap bubbles — the wash area where dishes are cleaned and sanitized. Devine shows the group how they do dishes at McDonald's, emphasizing washing, rinsing and sanitizing, and uses this stop to discuss the sanitation policies of the restaurant, such as separate sinks for mopping and washing dishes and maintaining proper temperatures in the freezer and refrigerator. "Usually we see the grown-ups just fall over themselves about how very strict we are when it comes to cleanliness of the restaurant," he says. This part of the tour ends as the kids get to walk into the freezer and refrigerator — a highlight for many tour-takers.

As the tour passes through the kitchen, customers can watch their hamburgers being made, and if the restaurant isn't too busy and the tour isn't too big, Devine might even let participants make their own burgers. The tour doesn't linger long in the kitchen, though. "We move them through the kitchen pretty quickly, for the sake of time and safety," says Devine.

When the tour pulls into the final stop, the drive-thru, visitors get to wear a spare headset and listen to the customers ordering. "This is pretty cool for them, when they get to push the buttons and talk with the customers and to their friends at the other end of the restaurant," says Devine.

After the tour, each kid gets a balloon, and most tour-takers stay for lunch to enjoy the hamburgers they saw being prepared earlier. Participants also get to make their own ice-cream cones for dessert, which Devine calls "the best part of the experience."

Typical tour-takers

Since McDonald's is a favorite spot for pint-size patrons, most of Devine's tourists are children, between the ages of 4 and 7, from day schools, and Brownie and Cub Scout troops. "Not too many younger ones, they are too active," says Devine. "It's hard to keep their attention, and they just don't understand what's happening."

But Devine warns potential restaurateur/tour operators not to write off the older members of the community. "Tours don't always have to be for kids. Adults like to know what's happening also, so include the adults with your tour. Ask them questions on how things work in their kitchens; see what compares and doesn't," he suggests.

Although young children aren't allowed on her restaurants' tours, Santo still sees a wide age range among her tour customers, from teenagers with their parents to retirees. There is no "typical" tourist, she says. "You look around the dining room, and they are every age, every ethnic background." Although most of her tourists come from the greater New York area, Santo does get a few out-of-towners, too. Some customers even plan trips to the Big Apple around the restaurants' tour dates.

Apprentice chefs at the Rye Town Hilton included just about every sort of amateur cook you would expect — and some you wouldn't. Housewives with a penchant for gourmet cooking were frequent visitors, but so were doctors, lawyers and other professionals. "We got corporate executives, accountants, straight on down," says Petrillo, and they all sent back rave reviews. "They always enjoyed it. That's one thing that's certain — even if it wasn't exactly what they thought it would be."

Tours pack a promotional punch

Despite such enthusiastic reviews, these operators say that their tours don't generate much profit. Whatever fees they charge barely cover the cost of the food provided. Santo, for example, charges about $40 for the Sign of the Dove tour, including lunch, taxes and tips — a fee that doesn't come near the cost, considering all the time that staff members contribute. "We don't do this as a money-making proposition," she says, but adds that the promotional payoff is still strong. "I think everyone leaves feeling really connected to the restaurant. They like to think they are getting the inside track."

The Rye Town Hilton charged $125 for its Apprentice for a Day program, which covered not only the one-on-one cooking experience but also a chef's jacket and toque and the meal that the apprentice chef helps to prepare. Petrillo, too, saw a promotional payoff from this program, since patrons who forged a relationship with the kitchen tended to come back often to sample its fare. One husband and wife who took the course spent the past several holidays at the hotel celebrating the season and the cuisine.

Devine's McDonald's tours are free, but they also add up to a big promotional plus for his business. Most of his tourists are kids in the community, and he finds that revealing the action in the back of the house makes them more frequent visitors in the front of the house. He believes that if you get youngsters involved with and interested in the restaurant at an early age, "they will always remember the fun things that happened at McDonald's," becoming loyal patrons and perhaps even employees. "These kids are our future employees. If we can get them now and make McDonald's a fun place to hang out and visit, they are more likely to approach me when they are 16 and ask for a job," he says.

Opening your restaurant to customer tours can please more than patrons — it can also boost employee morale. According to Petrillo, when the Hilton offered the Apprentice for a Day program, it "helped the chefs, too. It kept them motivated." It's important for the chefs to know that customers are interested not only in eating the food but also in how it's prepared. Such master-apprentice relationships boost confidence and let chefs share their wealth of knowledge and skills in new ways. "If you love to cook, you love to teach," says Petrillo. "That's a given."

For Devine's employees, the restaurant tours also provide a healthy helping of respect. "I think educating the consumer is paramount to having the crew and management respected by the consumer, and [giving] tours is one of the ways that we accomplish this," he says. Once customers are familiar with how things really work behind the counter, they are more understanding when the staff shows its "human side."

Selecting sights of interest

Trying to decide what stops to make on a restaurant tour might seem like a daunting task, but these operators say it's easy — just show customers everything.

"There really are no off-limits parts of the restaurant," says Devine. "I believe that if you show off the entire restaurant, then there is a subliminal message that says, 'These guys have nothing to hide.'"

Santo says she denies access only to areas that are difficult to reach or too small to handle the group, like the Dove's floral studios. Although originally on the itinerary, the prep kitchen at the 60th Street facility was dropped because it was just too tight and threw the kitchen off balance. "Seeing people chop lettuce just was not worth it," she says. Santo chooses her main tour stops simply by limiting them to what she thinks people will find interesting.

Timing your tour is almost as important as the stops it includes. Tours at Sign of the Dove and the 60th Street restaurants are held on selected Saturday mornings from 10:00 a.m. to noon (not including lunch) during January, February, March and June. It's no coincidence that those months are some of the restaurants' slowest business times.

Devine usually does one or two McDonald's tours each week. They can be any day of the week, but he, too, prefers to show off his establishment in the mornings, usually between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. "We have found this is the most convenient time for the restaurant, based on volume, and best for the parents, who are trying to maintain a schedule of naps, school studies, etc.," he says.

The Rye Town Hilton, on the other hand, offered its Apprentice for a Day cooking tours when the hotel kitchens were really hopping — preparing for a banquet or special-event dinner, "so that [guest chefs] could see what it was really like in a busy hotel kitchen," says Petrillo. When the kitchens are busy, participants get a true feel for how exciting and challenging the work can be and how important timing and coordination as well as talent are to a successful presentation.

Above all, these restaurateur tour directors say, relax and enjoy yourself as you plan the itinerary for your customers. "The more fun you can make your tour, the more interactive you can make your tour, the more likely you will build your tour business," says Devine. "Don't be afraid to be creative."

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