How to Train Staff to Handle an 86'd Item Gracefully

I've been in this business thirty years. I've opened more than twenty concepts. And the 86 situation is one of those small things that operators ignore until it becomes a pattern. The guest who got the awkward stall doesn't write a scathing review about the food. They write about the service feeling off. They say the staff seemed unprepared. And they're right.

Here's what actually goes wrong. Most servers know the menu. They've read the descriptions, they can tell you what's in the sauce, they know the allergens. But nobody ever trained them what to recommend instead when a dish disappears. So when the 86 comes in mid-service, they fall back on nothing. They say "I don't know, everything else is great." That's not a pivot. That's a shrug with words.

The fix is stupidly simple, and it costs you nothing except the ten minutes at pre-shift to do it right.

Before service, when you're running through the specials or reviewing the floor, you should also be running through the substitutions. For every item that's likely to 86 that night, your staff needs a ready answer. Not just "the salmon is also good." A real, specific bridge. "If someone was excited about the short rib and we're out, the lamb shank is the move. Same braise, same depth, it eats the same way. If they're not big on lamb, the seared duck breast is the second call." Now the server has something to actually say.

That's the thing about a confident pivot. It doesn't sound like a consolation prize. It sounds like insider knowledge. "We just sold the last one, but honestly let me tell you what I'd order instead." The guest hears that and they feel taken care of. They feel like their server is on their side. That's a totally different interaction than the awkward stall.

The reason this doesn't happen in most restaurants is that training tends to be about the menu that exists, not the menu that's in motion. You train your staff on what's there. You don't train them on the gaps. So when a gap opens up, they're improvising from scratch, every time, every server doing it differently.

The substitution game also exposes a deeper issue. A lot of servers don't actually know why one dish is similar to another. They know the names and the prices. They don't know that two dishes share a flavor profile, or that one is actually a lighter version of what the guest originally wanted. That's a menu knowledge problem. And menu knowledge, real menu knowledge, is what separates a server who can sell from a server who just takes orders.

I built a platform to solve this exact problem at scale, and even at my own places we don't skip the human work. At Black Barrel Tavern, when we're prepping for a night with a limited run item, the manager's job at pre-shift isn't just to announce the specials. It's to announce the specials and then immediately name the fallback. It becomes a two-part routine. This is what we have. This is what you say if we run out. Repetition. Every pre-shift. Until it's automatic.

Now let me tell you what actually makes this stick. The servers who are genuinely good at the 86 pivot are the ones who've tasted the substitutes and have a real opinion. They're not reciting a script. They're saying what they'd actually eat. That authentic conviction is what the guest hears. So if you're going to train the substitutions, you have to give your staff the tastings to back them up. Put the two dishes side by side at a staff meal. Talk about what they share. Talk about who they're for. Let the team develop an actual preference, not a corporate answer.

The other thing worth saying: how your staff delivers the 86 matters as much as what they say. Tone is everything. "We're actually out of that, I'm so sorry" lands differently than "We just sold the last one, which means I get to tell you about what I'd actually order tonight." Same information. Completely different energy. Train the delivery, not just the words.

You can quiz your staff on this stuff. Walk through scenarios. What's the 86 substitute for the bone-in ribeye? What do you say to a guest who specifically asked about the lobster bisque at the door and it's gone by 8pm? Make them think through it out loud. The awkward silence in training is better than the awkward silence at a table.

Getting 86'd items right is a small thing that says everything about how much care you put into service. The guests don't see the inventory sheet. They see the person standing at their table. Train that person to be ready for the moment the menu changes, because it always does.

Have a great day! — Terry Psaltakis
Your AI Restaurant Guy

For more on putting this into practice, see how ShiftTrained approaches wine training.