10 Cool Warming Winter Drinks
Let us share the recipes of 10 winter drinks to keep you warm. Tested by the team of Aaron Allen & Associates. Read more »
Let us share the recipes of 10 winter drinks to keep you warm. Tested by the team of Aaron Allen & Associates. Read more »
So much of what happens in a restaurant is creative. All cooks like to think of themselves as artistes. It is, after all, called the culinary arts. But when it comes to the menu, that’s where science kicks in. In fact, too much creativity on a menu can have negative consequences. Read more »
A good restaurant menu design is key to any restaurant’s marketing plan. It expresses your eatery’s personality, focuses your overall operations, promotes profitability, establishes your budget, and keeps your brand fresh in your customer’s mind.
One of the perks of my profession is getting to experience first-hand some of the best restaurants in the world. Each year I visit 300+ restaurants and gain insights while on culinary explorations ranging from street carts in Thailand to world-class dining in Dubai. I’ve been meaning to start sharing some of the photos of unique restaurant design, marketing and menu ideas witnessed along the way but there is just so much of it I haven’t known where to start. Rather than delay it any longer, I figured I’d just pick a few random shots to start the ball rolling. Hope you enjoy these and that they give you inspiration. Read more »
PART FIVE: TOP 50 MENU ENGINEERING & DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The single most important marketing collateral a restaurant possesses is its menu. One of the surest ways to effectively and measurably increase sales, profits, and guest satisfaction scores in a manner that is both quick and sustainable is to roll out a new menu. The menu should function as a tour guide and prove to be the best salesperson in your company. Menu engineering and design is the perfect marriage of both the science and art of successful restauranting. If you look at any lauded and successful restaurant turnaround, you’ll see signs of the CEO focusing on the inside and working outward; and find more specifically that a new menu was at the heart of the brand renaissance. Read more »
All too many restaurant menus are designed and printed at the local all night copy joint. If you pay in peanuts expect to get monkeys. For the average restaurant, just a redesign of their menu incorporating some basic menu engineering techniques can boost monthly net profits by $1,000 per million in revenue – that’s without huge price hikes and massive menu overhauls. Read more »
Guests won’t try every item on the menu, but every guest uses the menu. The restaurant menu is the single most important marketing collateral you have (website is second). It’s amazing how much can be spent on design and decor for new restaurants but then the menu is often just a blip if at all identified in the new restaurant opening budget. Your menu is your best salesperson and should function as a tour guide for all of your customers. Whether you serve 5,000 customers per week or 5,000,000 per day there is no one talking to more of your guests than your menu. Read more »
There are more demands on the human attention span than ever. Prescriptions for attention deficit medicine are ballooning. Could it be that we’re just being inundated with too much to keep track of and it’s not that attention is waning but that demands on it are increasing? The definition of the word “restaurant” is derived from Latin for “restore”. Yes, we go to restaurants to feel restored, not just fill our bellies. That said, some customers actually appreciate having fewer choices than more choices. Read more »
Everyone that goes to Harvard is smart but still a top 10% and bottom 10%. Meaning, of all the really smart kids that go to Harvard, there are still a top 10% that’s smartest of the smart and a bottom 10% that’s at the bottom of the pecking order. Likewise, no matter how good your menu is there will still be a top 10% that produce the sales and profits and a bottom 10% that don’t carry their weight. At least twice per year, you should go through a complete menu engineering and design process and weed out those bottom 10%. Read more »
How many menus should you produce? Great question. It’s not an exact science, but there are some rules of thumb and planning considerations. One rule of thumb for printed menus which are reused (i.e. in vinyl slip covers, hard bound menu covers, etc) is to produce 1.5 times the number of seats you have (this is cutting it close and conservative). Read more »
