Phoenix Balances Your Options

The Phoenix Restaurant on NUI Maynooth’s North Campus is part of the Compass Group global food service company and, as such, has  the advantage of being able to avail of the services of Compass’ very own dieticians. These dieticians make a  positive contribution at the Phoenix with their most significant impact being the role they play in promoting health, wellness and nutrition.

Nutritional labelling plays a big part in the Phoenix’s strategy as it continues to roll out their healthy eating framework ‘Balanced Choices’, providing healthy food choices across the various menu offerings. This gives their consumers the nutritional information that they need to make informed choices.

This year, Compass also launched a new healthy eating programme, ‘Whole+Sum’. This innovative programme enables consumers to select a healthy and balanced meal by adding together calorie controlled food options to the value of 600 calories or less per meal. ‘Whole+Sum’ reflects consumer trends by combining popular world cuisine flavour profiles and comfort foods, with enough variety that adds to people’s enjoyment on their visit to the ‘Whole+Sum’ station every day.

As a demonstration of their commitment to the initiative, Phoenix constantly strive to improve the nutritional labelling at their Restaurant, including the introduction of calorie counts and improving knowledge and awareness of the benefits of a balanced nutritional diet. The Phoenix will also strive to reduce the levels of salt and artificial trans fats in the food they serve each day.

So all of the above is good news for those who may feel that they have over indulged during the Christmas break, as a carefully planned out daily calorie intake combined with the right balance of foods should get them back on track and NO it does not mean you don’t have to exercise as well!

Filtering out Naughty Words from your Facebook Business Page

While the Phoenix Restaurant Facebook Business Page offers a convenient way for the restaurant’s management (General Manager Linda Brophy and Assistant Manager Anna Szyszkowska) to advertise the latest menus and in-store promotions, it also provides a forum where customers can post feedback on their experiences at the restaurant.

This functionality has allowed the business to receive first-hand feedback from the customers. However, the management at Phoenix have been careful to ensure that any potential criticism on the Facebook Wall remains civil and that the use of offensive language is avoided.

By allowing customers to sound off, you give your company a unique opportunity to take corrective action, but if you run a Facebook Page for a family-friendly brand, you have the absolute right to keep out foul-mouthed contributors who cloak their criticisms in profanity-laden remarks.

Fortunately in early 2011 Facebook released a moderation blocklist; a functionality that allows page administrators to set parameters around certain keywords – automatically marking posts containing these words as spam and placing them in the hidden posts filter where only administrators can view the content.

Administrators can tailor the list of banned words according to their own specifications from the Manage Permissions tab of the Page admin interface. While many may view the use of this tool as a form of customer censorship, it is important to note that Team Social Media has only chosen to filter a select number of highly inappropriate words that we believe should never form a part of any legitimate criticism.

To avoid the accusation that your company is running away from negative criticism it is probably best practice to include the warning “the use of inappropriate language will not be tolerated” somewhere on the landing page of your Facebook site.

Food Safety / Hygiene at Phoenix Restaurant

One major concern of those operating a busy restaurant environment is to ensure that none of their customers fall ill after consuming one of their food offerings. Such news is likely to negatively impact a restaurant’s overall trade and in many cases lead to long-term reputational damage.

With this in mind, safeguarding the highest of hygiene standards is undoubtedly the number one operational priority at Phoenix Restaurant  Taking all reasonable preventative steps to ensure that food prepared and distributed by the Phoenix meets the highest safety standards is a wholly collaborative process, with each staff member adhering to a strict code of hygienic practice in their day-to-day operations.

Like all food businesses operating in the Republic of Ireland,  Compass Group (operators of Phoenix Restaurant) is required by law to have a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point). This simple system enables the Phoenix to comprehensively assess each step in the food manufacture process (also known as Critical Control Points CCPs) for potential food safety

From the moment deliveries arrive at the back door, the Phoenix engages in a number of practical steps to ensure their food is stored and prepared to the highest of standards. These mandatory measures include:hazards and introduce practices and procedures that eliminate or reduce the risk of these hazards becoming dangerous.

1. Checking the delivery vehicle for cleanliness and temperature control.
2. Probing all delivered food to ensure it has been stored at the correct temperature.
3. Labelling all delivered food before putting it in the appropriate fridge, freezer or store room.
4. Checking cooking food to ensure that it has reached the required cooking temperature.
5. Storing prepared food in accordance with HACCP guidelines and ensuring the temperature is checked throughout the delivery service. If something is found to have gone above or below the legal temperature it is immediately discarded to prevent contamination.
6. Taking samples of all the food cooked on site and freezing it so it can best tested following a suspected food poisoning incident.

All the aforementioned information is carefully catalogued and kept on record for a minimum of six months. This provides the Phoenix with full accountability for everything that has been cooked on site.

By complying with the latest food safety regulations, Phoenix Restaurant has demonstrated its commitment to earning an enhanced reputation as an establishment where food is produced in a hygienic environment and is safe for consumption.

In August 2012, Compass Group Ireland (the parent company of The Phoenix) was awarded the prestigious HSE Silver Standard award – an honour given to companies that have demonstrated a high level of performance underpinned by management systems that deliver consistent improvement in standards of excellence.

Passing the required internal and ISOQAR audits needed to attain this coveted accreditation serves as a concrete reminder of the company’s longstanding commitment to the health and welfare of its loyal customers.

Joyville at Phoenix – Free Chocolate!

Joyville, the hugely popular Cadburys promotion is arriving at the Phoenix Restaurant tomorrow Friday 12^th October – on board their  Fleet of quirky, retro Joyville vehicles!

A team of 8 Joyvillians will disembark from the fleet, including:

Brand Ambassadors, Actors, Stilt Walkers, Uni-Cyclists, Jugglers & Musicians playing brass instruments (tuba & trumpet), handing out Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and encouraging consumers to share a square and multiply the joy!

So why not come along and visit Linda and her staff at the Phoenix Restaurant, have some fun and did I mention Free chocolate????  Shhhhhh….. 

More information on Joyville promotions is available at this video link: 

Compass Group PLC

The Phoenix Restaurant @ NUI Maynooth is owned and operated by Compass Group PLC – one of the largest contract food service companies in the world.

Headquartered in the UK, Compass has operations in more than 50 countries worldwide and employs some 470,000 people as of 2012. With an impressive 90 of the Fortune 100 companies listed as their clients, Compass has established itself as a world-class provider of quality breakfasts, lunches and dinners to a diverse array of customers, including office workers, college students, senior living communities, sports enthusiasts and even employees of remote mining camps and offshore facilities.

Compass’ operations are not simply limited to the provision of tasty and affordable meals; their ultimate goal is to meet the dietary requirements of their customers on a case-by-case basis. For example, their corporate based services are aimed at “refreshing tired minds and refueling the productivity of people at work” while their educational based services are aimed at “helping boost the concentration of young minds at school and college”. It is this unique emphasis on meeting the specific nutritional needs of their diverse customer base that has helped distinguish Compass from it closest competitors.

While Compass may serve approximately 4 billion customers per annum, the wide variety of food offerings available in the Phoenix Restaurant (ranging from a full Irish breakfast to Italian style pizzas) are emblematic of the company’s desire to provide students with as much choice as possible. With tailor-made menus created by award-winning chefs and ingredients sourced directly from suppliers, it is little wonder that more and more organizations are choosing to outsource their food services to Compass.

Given Compass’ proven record of meeting the highest health, safety and environmental standards, it also comes as little surprise that more and more organizations are now depending on the company to provide a range of support services such as cleaning, logistics and transport, security and building maintenance.

Despite the global economic downturn, Compass Group’s long-term objective of delivering value for its shareholders and customers looks certain to continue through the growth-focused development of their existing expertise within the food industry and the expansion of their international support service capabilities.