t many dining establishments, the uniforms leave something to be desired. Even in Perth, employees are often expected to mix and match uniform tops and bottoms from various retail outlets. While for example the dictum “white shirt and black pants” would appear to promote uniformity, in reality it promotes subtle differences in uniforms between employees.

If twenty different fine dining servers and bartenders purchase “uniforms” from twenty different retail outlets, they will not all look the same. Even a colour such as black has various and subtle differences in shades; the more employees you have, and the more places they go to buy their uniforms, the greater chance that the uniforms will not all look the same.

In the “back end of the house,” there’s often little or nothing in the way of a uniform or dress code. Employees often wear whatever they want and slap an apron, or maybe a chef’s coat, over their own clothing. While dining patrons don’t often see what goes on behind the scenes in a restaurant kitchen, they still see kitchen employees who sometimes have to walk out of the kitchen and into the dining room.

In the food and beverage industry, it is even more important that a staff look clean and professional than in any other customer-driven place of business. People’s tastes change at the drop of the hat, and this year’s “hot” gathering place can be next year’s vacant building.

One of the quickest ways to cause a mass exodus of business from a restaurant or a pub is to appear unclean or unsanitary. Whether it is fair or not, customers judge the cleanliness of a restaurant, not only by the appearance of the restaurant itself, but also by the appearance of its employees.

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to any problems that this public mindset may cause: standard employee uniforms. We carry plenty of different uniforms for different occasions and uses, and we can assemble the perfect hospitality uniform for your restaurant. While we always work on an individual, case by case basis, we would like to offer some general suggestions for putting together the perfect hospitality uniform.

For a casual restaurant or pub, this is easy. We would recommend a polo shirt, khaki slacks, a hat, and an apron. For fine dining, we recommend a white dress shirt, black dress pants, a black vest, and a tie. An apron can be substituted for a vest if a restaurant wants to promote an environment of fine dining with a touch of casual.

For the “back end of the house,” whether casual dining, fine dining, or in between, we recommend a simple ensemble of chef’s trouser, a polo shirt, an apron, and a hat for cooks and other kitchen employees, and, of course, a chef’s coat for a chef, sous chef, or kitchen manager.

We carry an extensive line of dress shirts, polo shirts, dress slacks, and chef’s trousers, and all may be personalised with your company’s name or logo. In fine dining establishments, we recommend an understated company name or logo, if any, over the shirt pocket, but we do not recommend a name or logo on any of the other garments.

In casual establishments, however, we recommend as much embroidery as you feel comfortable for your employees’ uniforms. A polo shirt can be embroidered or silk screened, preferably above the chest pocket. It is not important to have a logo on the slacks, but the apron is a great place to have a company name or a company logo.

The hat can seem frivolous at first, but it has many purposes. First and foremost, casual dining employees seem to have longer hair, because many more seem to be female, especially in establishments where attractive women are part of the company theme. The hat provides a barrier between the employees’ hair and the food. This allows customers to feel confident that they will not find hair in their food.

In casual dining establishments, a hat can enhance a casual theme. The colour of the hat can also match the company’s theme and company colours. Hats are also the best way to display the company logo. They are the part of the uniform that the customer will see first when looking straight at the employee’s face.

Hats and shirts can also be sold as a promotional product on a retail basis in casual dining establishments. These provide an extra source of revenue. Customers pay you for a product, put it on, walk out the door, and give your company free advertising. Could it be any better than that?

Call 08 9248 6300 today; let’s assemble your establishment’s perfect hospitality uniform.