Sales Boosting
The restaurant industry is notoriously competitive and physically draining; however, sometimes the hard work and financial investment pays off and your restaurant turns into a huge success. If that happens, and if you’re an ambitious and confident business owner, your thoughts might turn to opening a second restaurant based on the belief that doubling locations could mean doubling your success.
There’s no denying that French fries are the most awesome of side dishes and that they’re impossible to resist or to have “just one of.” They’ve been around the United States for about 200 years and, contrary to popular belief, a few fries with ketchup are not fatal. While the combination of carbs, sodium and fat may not be ideal, a few fries on the side won’t destroy a diet forever or add an immediate 10 pounds to your waistline.
Offering wines on tap is one of the hottest food-and-beverage trends right now, and many restaurants and bars are expanding their wine programs with on-tap offerings in a variety of ways. Because technology is always advancing, adding wine-on-tap is a possibility for older, existing restaurants, and even more convenient for brand-new establishments.
In the food-service industry, a restaurant’s atmosphere can run the gamut from high-end and elegant to fast and furious. Chances are, though, that your restaurant’s style is somewhere in between – say, casual and laid back, with an emphasis on good food and good times. For many people, dining out means getting together with friends for a long leisurely meal; for others, though, having a good time means inviting along their loyal pet.
If you own or manage a restaurant, you undoubtedly have to deal with one of the most annoying and disruptive phenomena of the industry: customers who don’t honor their reservations and simply fail to show up with no warning. For restaurants in general, and small establishments in particular, a no-show represents a missed opportunity to seat other guests – or a tableful of other guests – which is a painful blow, particularly if it happens night after night.
Instagram has been around for a while and, from its inception, the photo-based app has been positioned at the center of trends in food and beverages in general, and in the restaurant business in particular. Restaurants are offering rainbow-colored “unicorn foods” with Instagram in mind, and creating fabulous and original spaces, and then waiting for the lines to form after images of their products and menus go viral.
Much has been written – including right here – about why a restaurant’s location is so important to the success of the business. Visibility is the number-one factor in choosing a site for a new restaurant, as being seen is the basis for drop-in business, which is vitally important. For this reason, off-street locations have long been considered undesirable real estate options.
For many people – and many restaurants – food and drinks go together. And when we say “drinks,” we mean alcohol. Restaurants that want to offer a complete dining experience have bars that are stocked with the latest spirits and manned by the most knowledgeable and skilled bartenders. However, word on the culinary street is that there is a trend afoot that might alter the food-drink synergy.
Although you may not realize it – and you may not even know what “it” is – your restaurant can definitely use an expeditor. If you find that the service in your restaurant is sluggish and the kitchen-to-dining process isn’t flowing smoothly, an expeditor can help alleviate the problem and turn your restaurant into the efficient establishment it has the potential to be.
The restaurant business is exciting and fulfilling at best, and volatile and stressful at its worse. Juggling menu offerings, maintenance, budgets, and staff is a job for a wizard – and that’s when things go smoothly. When things go awry and a situation gets out of hand, a restaurant owner has to reach deep in his or her bag of tricks to come up with answers.