Some restaurants never change. And for some, that is a good thing. But even tried and true restaurant concepts need refreshing over time.
For most, a particular restaurant concept probably will not last forever.
Some reasons a restaurant concept might lose popularity and need to be refreshed include: demographic shifts around your locations, shifts in popularity of menu items, fashion trends or your interior design just starts looking old and tired.
COVID gave some restaurateurs an opportunity to reassess their concepts. Should outdoor dining be expanded? Should carry-out service be enhanced? Should you consider delivery?
Some restaurant owners keep their units fresh by changing concepts after six or eight years. However, this is a costly undertaking. Other restaurant owners use different methods to retain customers.
1. Present a Limited Menu That Changes Frequently. Some restaurants are limiting their menus to five to eight appetizers and five to ten entrées supplemented by several appetizer and entrée specials. (This change is facilitated by the restaurant’s ability to print its own menus.) Restaurants who use this method frequently maintain less inventory, experience less waste, and have a better quality at less cost (because the restaurant can take advantage of seasonal price fluctuations and not include out-of-season items on the menu). If the restaurant uses menu engineering techniques, it can keep the most profitable and popular items on the menu at all times.
2. Combine Two or More Concepts Under the Same Roof. Some restaurants have two separate concepts [in some cases that have peak hours at different times of the day (e.g. a combination donut shop and pizza parlor)] under the same roof. The restaurant might use separate signage for the two concepts and might divide the facility into two, with separate counters and a shared eating space. Alternatively, a traditional restaurant might add menu items from another concept. Many non-ethnic restaurants have nachos or egg rolls on the menu. Some pizza parlors make a Mexican pizza.
3. Add Adkins, Healthy, Low Carb Diets to the Menu. Almost all of the chains and independents have added some form of healthy menu items. Fast food restaurants are focusing on adding salads to their menus to encourage health conscious patrons to return.
4. Focus on Holiday or Special-event Take-out. Fine dining restaurants generally are not considered to be “take-out” places. However, many fine dining restaurants are fulfilling their patrons’ desire for high quality food on holidays by selling components of a meal. (e.g. pies at Thanksgiving and special cookie packages at Christmas) or complete dinners (e.g. turkey dinners with all the trimmings at Thanksgiving) that can be taken home and served to family or guests.
5. Provide Outside Catering for Small Office Parties, Sporting Events, Meetings, or Companies with Employees Who Cannot Leave the Premises at Lunch. Some restaurants that experience smaller lunch crowd than dinner have enough idle capacity to provide catering. They might offer a range of services, from merely preparing the food, to delivering the food and setting up the event, to staffing the event. Some employers do not allow their highly compensated workers to leave the premises at lunch (e.g. stock traders), yet want to maintain morale. They might contract with a particular restaurant to provide daily lunches for all employees.
6. Create Package Meals. European restaurants traditionally provide a fixed price menu. Many U.S. restaurants are adding fixed price menus that include an appetizer, salad, entrée, and dessert – generally for a very reasonable price.
7. Improve Frequent Dining Programs. Many restaurants have added frequent dining programs to encourage repeat traffic. In the past, those programs generally were paper based. New programs are computer-based. When filling out the documentation for a computer based frequent dining program, the restaurant typically can send targeted emails detailing menu changes and holiday hours, providing special coupons, or just reminding customers to come in.
8. Use Mid-market Concept. As traditional fast food restaurants have shown signs of waning in popularity, some restaurants have begun providing a mid-priced, mid-service alternative. The menus in these restaurants include more variety than a typical fast food restaurant, and might use higher quality, more exotic ingredients. The restaurant premises might look more like a casual dining operation, and include a limited selection wine bar and special condiments. Although table service generally is not provided, the furniture and fixtures typically are a step up from traditional fast food outlets.
