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How to Make the Most of Restaurant Business

How to Run a Profitable Restaurant Business during the Slow Season

The restaurant business, like any other industry, is prone to fluctuations in demand and supply. As a restaurant owner, you can only hope to fill your dining area with customers throughout the day, every day. However, the economy is not always prospering, and people are not always ready to splurge on dining out. Seasonal changes, healthy eating habits, holidays, etc, are some of the reasons that affect traffic in a restaurant. The Covid-19 pandemic has made things even worse.

Tips to Make the Most of Restaurant Business During the Slow Season

So how can you prepare your restaurant for the slow season in these testing and uncertain times? Read on to know how to make the most of your restaurant business during the slow season:

1. Update Restaurant Layout

Have you been postponing that much-needed renovation of your kitchen? Perhaps the restaurant tables or dining area requires a change in its layout or design? Moreover, since the Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized outdoor dining, your guests would prefer to sit on outdoor tables and chairs amidst nature.

restaurant-layout

If it’s possible to add outdoor dining somewhere, the slow season may be time to consider it if you can afford it.. If you update your restaurant layout during the slow season, you won’t incur a significant loss in revenues. Consider adding outdoor furniture in your backyard, garage, front yard, or parking lot to elevate their dining experience.So, once the business resumes and customers pour in, you are ready to welcome them with a fresh setup and vigor.

2. Respond to Online Reviews:

Ever wondered that improper customer experiences are affecting your restaurant’s brand image and denting its revenue? The restaurant business, being a service industry, thrives on customer satisfaction and trust. In the world of social media, bad reviews spread out like wildfire. On a busy day, managing and running your restaurant tends to take a toll, and restaurant owners, quite often, just haven’t had the time to properly manage customer feedback on social media.

Response to Customer Reviews

You can utilize this time to read and respond to the online reviews left by your customers. It takes maturity, diplomacy, and courage to take criticism and admit the concerns rose in the negative reviews. Addressing the customer’s grievances shows your commitment and willingness to improve your restaurant’s brand image.  Most customers will feel positive about an owner and restaurant that responds to their reviews.

3. Trim Excess Burden of the Restaurant:

As a business owner, you must manage the finances and prioritize what matters. Here are places to consider cutting back spending.

  • Cut Working Hours:

Although you would want to operate consistently and timely to miss out on any customer, a lull in business might compel you to change the operating hours. For example, you might want to open only during evenings or weekends to optimize the operating cost. In such cases, make sure that you update the timings on your website and inform your customers.

  • Cost-Cutting:

Analyze your finances and find ways to reduce spending towards operation and material costs. For example, if your business has shifted to mostly carryout, you can cut down the inventory of liquors and spend less. Additionally, it makes sense to prepare separate budgets for the slow season to limit your spending.

4. Form Partnership with Local Business:

Collaborating with local business owners can lead to a lifelong relationship built on mutual trust and advantage. Partnering with local businesses allows you to develop a strategy that benefits the entire locality and community. For example, by partnering with local manufacturers of commercial-grade restaurant furniture, you can get discounts and generate business for them as well.

Farm-to-Table

Similarly, by buying ingredients from local producers, you can implement the farm-to-table concept in your restaurant.  As you get the fresh produce straight from farms, your customers feel more confident about the dishes. Additionally, this approach creates trust between the farmer, restaurant, and its customers.

5. Update the Food Menu

The slow season also allows you to update the food and beverage menus. With reduced footfall, you can analyze the orders and take off the dishes and drinks your customers don’t prefer. Similarly, you can identify high-cost items that seldom generate sufficient profits. As people are becoming more aware and conscious of their eating habits, you can include vegetarian options in your menu.

Restaurant Menu

Vegetarian dishes, when compared with their meat-based counterparts, take less time to prepare, don’t require much inventory, and are cost-effective. More importantly, including vegetarian dishes broadens your target segment as you can cater to more customers. With vegetarianism and veganism becoming popular, fashionable, and cheaper, you can adopt them and stay ahead of your competitors.

6. Engage Customers with Live Events

Live events continue to be one of the old-school yet effective means of attracting customers during slow seasons or weekdays. The type of event you select depends on your restaurant type and target customers. For example, if yours is a family restaurant, you can consider karaoke nights or themed parties. Similarly, live musical concerts or DJ nights are popular among youths.

Engage Customers with Live Events

Alternately, if most of your restaurant’s target customers are sports enthusiasts, you can set up a projector and host live screenings of matches. Stand-up comedy show or competition is another fun way to engage with your guests.  Think of inventive ways to add outdoor social distanced events.

7. Exclusive offers for Weekdays Only

Exclusive offers for Weekdays Only

Running promotional campaigns or discount offers on weekdays is an effective way to cover your operational costs. By encouraging and incentivizing your customers to dine during weekdays, you generate additional revenue for your restaurant. You can either update the price of menu items or offer meal and drink combos for weekdays.

8. Focus on Delivery Orders and Take out:

Focus on Delivery Orders and Take out

Take out of food items is a quick and cost-effective way of increasing sales. As the people are reluctant to dine-out during the slow season, you can focus on food delivery and takeout. You can set up a mobile app or website that offers special delivery discounts to your customers. Alternately, you can collaborate with third-party food-delivery apps and incentive your customers with discounts.

Conclusion:

Surviving during the slow season requires you to analyze your entire restaurant business and its operation. Sure, it poses new changes for your business and can be arduous or even frustrating at times. But, it also presents an opportunity to re-invent your business and adapt.

This article gives you some practical tips on preparing your restaurant business for the slow season and making the most of it. Hopefully, by learning from these tips, you can keep your restaurant going even during unfavorable times.

laminate table tops

4 Important Reasons to Buy Laminate Restaurant Tables

It can be perplexing for owners to choose the right type of restaurant table tops for their dining spaces. Tables are available in a wide variety of styles and options, so selecting the right one can be quite overwhelming. However, you can sift through all the noise to find the best table tops that are versatile, affordable, and attractive. Laminate tables come with many features that can create the desired ambiance in varied layouts and spaces. Laminate tables come in a variety of colors and styles that can mimic the look of wood or stone, for example. These tabletops do not require costly maintenance, and they are resistant to the elements including cutlery, beverages, and food.

If your restaurant has a high volume of traffic, laminate can be a great option for you. Laminate tabletops resist variations of temperature and pressure. They are available in a wide range of styles and patterns to suit the layout of your restaurant. Here are just a few reasons that laminate is a preferred choice for restaurant tables.

commercial restaurant tables

No Costly Maintenance:

You can minimize the downtime in your restaurant by opting to buy laminate restaurant tables. They are easy to clean and maintain. You can wipe clean them to remove the grime and dust particles. Maintaining perfect hygiene on all surfaces in commercial kitchens and dining rooms, especially the dining tables and cooking surfaces, is imperative. Laminate is a great option to suit these requirements as it is easy to clean and sanitize.

Designed for the Lifetime:

In a restaurant, tables undergo a lot of wear and tear, and if they aren’t manufactured to be durable, they get damaged earlier than their expected lifespan costing more in the long run. Laminated furniture is more resistant to stains and heat that can damage the surface of some other materials. Their sustainability has been proven in tests conducted on the table tops. This material has a water-resistant surface.  It is difficult for water or cleaning products to seep into laminate tops, thus preventing rotting or severe damage.

table tops for restaurant

Affordability in Prices:

If you want to get the maximum bang for your buck, you ought to buy laminate restaurant tables because they are highly affordable when compared to other materials like solid wood and granite. There are laminate finishes designed to look like stone such as quartz or granite, and wood.  Purchasing some less expensive laminates along with some stone or wood tables as highlight tables, can help stretch your restaurant table budget.  There are also budget friendly laminate options in every size and color, so there’s to be a laminate option for any restaurant that wants them.

Variety of Style Options:

Whether you need more options in colors, textures, or shades, laminate tables offer all that you need to decorate your restaurant. They can enhance the beauty of any space with their effortless charm. These tables bring the desired elegance to the layout with refreshing shades including Flamingo, Black, and Lapis Blue just to name a few.  The variety of edge styles, such as wood edge, self-edge, or t-mold means it will be easy to achieve the look you want in your unique dining space. You can choose the best color that suits the theme and interiors of your restaurant.

restaurant table tops

In the selection of laminate table tops, their smooth and decorative edges make a lot of difference. They enhance customer experiences by creating clean looks. For all these reasons, you should check out the selection of laminate tables available before deciding on your perfect restaurant table top.

Restaurant Chairs

4 Questions about Your Customers to Know their Requirement for Restaurant Furniture

The dream of opening a restaurant is getting closer to becoming a reality. How much will your customer’s spend for a meal? How many customers will be seated in the dining area? What types of customers will be seated at your tables and chairs? Will your guests enjoy casual dining or experience fine dining?

4 Questions about Your Customers to Know their Requirement for Restaurant Furniture

The answers to these questions are valuable in helping you choose the right tables, bases, barstools and chairs for your restaurant.

1. How much will your customers spend?

Why does it matter how much your customers will spend on food and drinks at your restaurant? Because the amount of money you can expect to receive for the typical meal you provide for your customers can determine the types of tables you need and can afford. There are many types of tables to choose from at many different price points. Reversible laminate table tops can be very economical choices. Padded table tops are also an economical choice and can be dressed up with the addition of inexpensive napkins and/or tablecloths.

laminate restaurant table set

T-mold laminates tops, self edge laminate tops and wood edge tops are also economical, come in many color choices and are durable and easy to maintain. If your customers will be spending more per meal, you can probably afford to spend a little more on other restaurant table options, such as granite, butcher block and solid oak. Granite tables always look great, and can be used indoors or outdoors. Butcher block tables and solid oak tables are custom made, and can be stained to match your décor. They can be ordered in custom sizes and thicknesses, and the stained wood adds a sense of warmth to any setting.

2. How many customers can be comfortably seated in your dining area?

Why is it important to know how many customers will be seated in the dining area? Seating can impact the satisfaction of your guests. Guests do not like being too crowded, and if they are comfortably seated, they are more likely to return. The wait staff needs enough room to properly serve your guests. Do you need tables that will seat two people or four people? The most popular size table for two people is a 24” x 30”. For four people, a 36” x 36” top is the most popular size. Seating in a bar area is slightly different. While a 24” x 30” table top is still the popular size for two people, a 36” round table is preferred in bars or pubs for seating four. A 30” x 48” table top is the preferred table top size for a booth.

3. What types of customers will be seated at your tables?

The type of customers that will be seated at your tables can impact the style and/or size of table base you need to support the restaurant table top. Of course, a base must support the weight of the table top, but it also must support what is placed on the table top. A restaurant that features multiple courses, and uses large stoneware dinner plates, multiple pieces of real glassware, and the full array of utensils will need a sturdier base than one using plastic food baskets and plastic utensils.

outdoor restaurant bases and tables

The correct base must be used with the correct size table top to prevent tipping over. A wobbly table is very irritating to a guest trying to enjoy a meal. The standard is 30” tall for a dining height base, and 42” tall for a bar height base. There are many styles of bases at different price points. The style of base can impact customer’s comfort if not properly matched to the table top style and size. If a base is too large, it can be in the way of customer’s legs. If the base is too small, it can cause the tables too wobble which is always irritating to customers. It could even cause the table to fall over, which would be very dangerous.

4. What customers will be sitting in your chairs?

Once again, knowing your clientele is very important. Chairs and barstools in a sport’s bar will receive much rougher treatment than those in a fine dining establishment. It is important to know the weight limit for the chairs and barstools you plan to use. The typical weight limit is usually 250-300 pounds. Some metal restaurant chairs and barstools are more durable than wooden ones and are perfect for use in casual restaurants. They can withstand more abuse than wood. Metal chairs and barstools are also easier to clean and maintain than wood ones. Alternatively, wood chairs and barstools add a touch of warmth and class to a dining area and are available in many different comfortable seat and back styles.

As you can see, knowing your potential customers and the type of restaurant is invaluable when you begin researching commercial furniture.

restaurant chairs

3 D’s on Restaurant Chairs Every Restaurant Owner Should Know

When looking at a catalog or online for just the right chair for your restaurant, pictures of potential chairs are great. However, there is much more to know than can be determined just by looking at a picture.

3 D’s of Restaurant Chairs

Below are the three D’s regarding restaurant chairs to consider for business owners before purchasing chairs for their restaurant.

1. Design

The first of the 3d’s is design, which is how the chair looks to the customer. There are many available chair styles, from country to contemporary. The design of the chair will be a very prominent feature since so many of the same model chairs are used in a restaurant. Planning is important to get the right feel. For example, many bars and restaurants will use wood from the floors to the ceiling. In this case, a molded chair manufactured or accented with resin or fabric may not be appropriate.

Restaurant Chairs styles

A wood chair might be a better fit. Many bars and restaurants that use a lot of wood in their décor tend to not as contemporary. A solid wood chair with back slats would be very appropriate for these establishments. Some restaurants that have a more formal design will use a low back upholstered chair to match the colors of the restaurant. The design tip here is doing not pick a chair just because it looks great by itself; instead consider the whole design of the restaurant.

2. Dimensions

Dimensions are critical to know about restaurant chairs for several reasons. Seat height is important because if a chair’s seat is not high enough, customers may feel that their chin is resting on the table top, or that the restaurant table top is uncomfortably short. Restaurant chairs need to be about 18” in height from the floor to the top of the seat. If the seat height is even an inch taller or shorter than 18”, it will affect the comfort of the customer. The seat may look all right in a picture, but if it doesn’t fit the target customer, the chair is not right for the application.

restaurant tables and chairs

In general, younger people tend to accept smaller chairs without a problem, while older people seem to like wider seating. Seat width should be about 15” to 18”, with 18” being the front width of the seat. The last important dimension is the overall height because when looking at one chair the height may seem appropriate. However, when looking at 75 chairs in a dining area, the look can look overwhelming or too crowded if the chair is too tall and too many chair backs are showing. An overall chair height of 32” – 34” is usually appropriate to be comfortable for the customers, and to fit into the overall design of the tables, restaurant chairs and dining area.

3. Durability

Durability is very important when purchasing restaurant chairs. Proper construction of chairs is important as it determines the chairs’ durability, so that they may last for many years. Seeing a chair in a picture that looks sturdy may be a false impression. On wood chairs a compressed mortise and tenon joint is superior construction, followed by tight fitting leg joints that use a nail or screw to secure stretchers into the leg.

metal chairs

An example of a weak wood chairs are those that are finished first as pieces, and then assembled, causing the glue to not stick to the stretchers. After a year or so, these chairs tend to fall apart. When considering metal chairs, look for welded joints, as opposed to metal chairs that are assembled with a nut and bolt. Vibration from moving a metal chair around can loosen the nut and bolt causing the chair to fail. It is best to stick with welded joints for metal chairs.

Conclusion

Two chairs may look similar from two different vendors, but they may not have the same design, dimensions and durability. Using these 3 Ds, and knowing asking the right basic questions to ask, you can find the perfect chair that will last for years.

3 Components of Quality in Wood Restaurant Chairs

Shopping for high-quality wood restaurant chairs can be seriously confusing. It is important to gain some understanding of how to make a good selection before making the final purchase. Wood has been the top-choice for most restaurant owners as it offers a wide assortment of styles, materials and construction techniques. The exceptional durability, unique aesthetic appeal and ease of construction make wood a popular and versatile material for making wood chairs.

Main Components of Quality in Wood Restaurant Chairs

Wood restaurant chairs are a good choice if you want to project a quality image to your customers, but consider keeping the design simple and based on the theme that you are trying to project. Below are some important aspects of buying quality wood chairs for your restaurant or business.

1. Type of Wood

restaurant tables and chairs

Wood chairs for restaurants are made of different types of wood that can be majorly classified as hardwood, softwood, or engineered. The type of wood will help you determine the chair’s life and how it will fare with age. Hardwood comes from deciduous trees, and is known for its quality in furniture. The deciduous trees include all leaf bearing trees such as oak, maple, teak, walnut, cherry and birch. Pine, which is a soft wood, is also used to make quality wood restaurant chairs and furniture, but requires more care since it is more susceptible to scratches and dents than harder woods like oak, and can be much bulkier to make up for the lack of strength. Solid wood has been a common choice for making restaurant chairs. However, the chair backs and aprons can be made out of veneer plywood, or engineered wood for its high durability and strength. Plywood and engineered wood can also eliminate warp age, splitting, expansion, and contraction, making attractive chairs.

2. Construction

The way the parts of the wood chair are joined and sturdiness of the wood chair greatly impacts its construction quality. How the joints are put together determines the durability and appearance of commercial wood chairs. Quality made wooden chairs may have compressed tenon joints where two pieces of wood join for the best type of wood joint. Lower priced chairs may get their lower prices from lack of precise details in the manufacturing process. Joints where two pieces of wood come together are critical for the chair’s longevity.

Restaurant Furniture

What this means to you is that you may get the impression that two chairs look identical except one has a much lower price. Inspect the details before purchasing because the lower price chair construction chairs may only last for one year and then fall apart. To test chairs yourself, put your knee on the seat and with your arms, try and twist the sample. The chair should be silent to show you one part of quality construction. Too much squeaking of the chair may indicate loose chair joints and a red flag that there may be maintenance issues in the near future.

3. Finish

A good finish is very important to enhance the overall quality of the furniture piece. The finishing process involves three steps – sanding, staining, and finishing. Each of these three steps is equally crucial and neglecting any of these steps in the process can seriously affect the overall look and feel of your wood chair. It starts with sanding, wherein the chair is sanded smooth. Check for blotchiness or scratches by looking at the finish through different angles which indicate poor sanding. High quality staining will have evenly applied stain, without any dark sports on the wood surface.

restaurant table tops

A good stain greatly enhances the natural charisma of wood, and adds color and character to the wood. With the right staining, you can make different woods look similar and similar woods look different. Wood chair finishes range from high-gloss to matte. A high quality finish is free from dust, bubbles or rough spots, and is smooth. Good finishing ensures the edges and ends are well-coated, free of finger marks, and the filled cracks and holes are covered with top finish. The chair back and underside should also be finished to reduce future swelling or shrinking.

Conclusion

The main thing for you to know about wood chair finishes is that you need a quality finish so that the oils from customers hands will not break down the finish. You may have seen sticky chairs before or gummy kitchen cabinet doors and that represents a finish that is breaking down. The sticky chair cannot be cleaned, only an expensive re-finish can be done to restore the chair to its original condition. So pick a chair that has oil and chemical resistance top coat finish.