Hospitality glossary · Service and operations
A standard operating procedure, or SOP, is a written description of how one specific task is done correctly every time — opening the bar, receiving a delivery, handling an allergen order.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
SOPs earn their keep where consistency meets risk: food safety, cash handling, cellar work, and anything a new starter is asked to do in their first week. A usable one is short, lives where the job is actually done rather than in a folder, and names the person who owns it.
Writing them for an auditor instead of for the person doing the job at seven on a Friday. A forty-page manual in the office is a document; a laminated card on the section is a procedure.
Questions
Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.
A standard operating procedure, or SOP, is a written description of how one specific task is done correctly every time — opening the bar, receiving a delivery, handling an allergen order. SOPs earn their keep where consistency meets risk: food safety, cash handling, cellar work, and anything a new starter is asked to do in their first week. A usable one is short, lives where the job is actually done rather than in a folder, and names the person who owns it.
Writing them for an auditor instead of for the person doing the job at seven on a Friday. A forty-page manual in the office is a document; a laminated card on the section is a procedure.
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