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Every cook, at least every serious cook, seems to want to work in one of those exceptional finedining or cutting-edge experimental operations that are depicted in shows like Chefs Table or The Bear. There will likely be a person or small crew focused on stocks, soups, and sauces.
From salted egg yolks and chili crunch fusions to mushroom-infused teas and freeze-dried fruit powder garnishes, Kimpton’s in-house experts share the standout ingredients, menu items and techniques that will come to the table in 2025.
at the Italian casual-dining chain as its investments in affordability and Uber delivery paid off. 20, 2025 Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Consumers are finding value in casual-dining brands like Olive Garden. Same-store sales at the Italian casual-dining chain spiked 6.9% By Joe Guszkowski on Jun.
This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features rewriting the rules of seasonal marketing, snack wrap traffic driver, GLP-1 use impact on F&B, and restaurant marketing challenges.
Understanding your target market is the foundation of making smart decisions for your menu, pricing, and overall guest experience. Without a well-defined target market, restaurants risk wasting resources on strategies that dont connect and menu offerings that dont selltrying to appeal to everyone, but standing out to no one.
When used strategically, customer data can help you personalize marketing, streamline operations, and create a better dining experience for your guests. Thats why 44% of restaurants are investing in restaurant technology tools to improve their business analyticsbecause customer data works. You can increase revenue.
When going through the ordering process, diners want three things: Speed Ease Clarity Your menu categories have more to do with delivering on those expectations than you might think. A well-organized menu—whether it’s a physical menu or an online menu—guides guests quickly to what they’re craving.
More recently, as chefs have been working up seasonalmenus to highlight local specialties and homegrown bars have been remixing native spirits, Sri Lanka drew millions of tourists in 2024 , announcing the islands comeback on the global stage after a few years of economic uncertainty.
Every restaurant owner should know their food cost percentage—it’s one of the clearest indicators of whether your restaurant is running effectively or if you’re missing opportunities to optimize your business. It helps you make smarter decisions about menu prices, promotions, and sourcing. Weekly is ideal.
A spike in food costs, a drop in sales volume, or one slow season can wipe out months of hard work. If your restaurant profit margins arent healthy, it doesnt matter how busy you areyoull always be playing catch-up. That includes the ingredients and packaging for your menu items, but not things like rent and payroll.
A well-crafted email can remind a past guest to stop by again, encourage reservations for a new seasonalmenu, or even boost online orders with a limited-time discount. A well-timed email with a special offer, new menu item, or exclusive promotion can be the nudge they need to place another order. Ask your existing customers.
Once you have your CLV, you can then use it to guide your marketing budget, set realistic revenue goals, and prioritize the guests who drive your business. You’re not just hoping people come back, you’re building systems that retain customers and increase your repeat business.
This doesnt mean cutting corners and sacrificing the customer experience; its about knowing where your money is going, spotting leaks early, and fine-tuning whats already working. Create specials that use the raw materials you already have in-house or seasonal ingredients you can buy at the best market price.
So much data is generated at every point within a restaurant, whether fast casual or finedining. Foot traffic or heat mapping, menu item engagement, or consumer demographics by time of day. The question now becomes – how to make sense of that data and use it to elevate the dining experience.
The research found that businesses worldwide – particularly restaurants – intend to experiment more in 2025, especially with customer retention programs like loyalty, as they face the triple challenge of sustained high inflation, shrinking consumer wallets and the need to raise prices across the board.
But actually knowing how to use social media marketing to grow their business is where restaurant owners get stuck. It’s these small actions that create real relationships and get people talking about your restaurant. Start with a small ad spend and test what works before scaling. Where do you start?
Every day, youre juggling staff, food quality, inventory, customer service, purchasing, and moreall while trying to cultivate a dining experience that wows your customers enough to keep them coming back. Ignoring compliance can lead to fines, bad press, or even shutdownsso having clear protocols in place is mandatory.
Because of this perception, many restaurant owners feel like running an influencer marketing campaign is a risky gamble: you give away free or heavily discounted food, cross your fingers, and then hope for a post that drives new business. Here’s how to track your influencer campaign to help your business grow.
Introducing new menu items is more than just adding dishes to your offerings—it’s about crafting an experience that captivates your guests and keeps them coming back for more. A well-planned new menu launch not only boosts customer engagement but also reinforces your restaurant’s brand identity.
Restaurants can now use customer data to enhance restaurant menu design, creating smarter menus that increase profits and improve the dining experience. Spot Best-Sellers : Focus on the 16% of menu items that drive 80% of sales. Improved Efficiency Trim menus and reduce food waste. Ready to learn how?
From the rise of AI to the increasing popularity of experiential dining, businesses are adapting creatively to meet new consumer demands. Hospitality businesses that were exposed to reduced consumer discretionary spending, higher operational costs and increased costs of servicing debt were most likely to be at risk.
Led by business and life partners Silver and Cherry Iocovozzi, the Filipinx restaurant has garnered many accolades: It was a 2023 James Beard finalist for Best New Restaurant, one of Bon Appetit s 2023 Best New Restaurants, and in 2024, was named a USA Today Restaurant of the Year. Since opening in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2022, Neng Jr.s
In this post, we’ll explore five essential POS features designed to reduce wait times and deliver faster, more efficient dining experiences. This eliminates the hassle of waiting in lines or for servers to take orders, tackling one of the most common delays in dining experiences. times faster than traditional methods.
By swapping out expensive ingredients for more affordable alternatives, you can optimize your menu and significantly reduce food costs. Whether youre looking to experiment with seasonal produce or make your favorite dishes more cost-effective, ingredient substitutions are a smart way to keep your kitchen running efficiently.
She's designed menus, Instagram ads, and logos for smallbusinesses. Your restaurant menu defines your restaurant. Considering the amount of time you’ve spent on menu engineering , you’d hate for it to go to waste on a poorly designed, confusing menu.
It’s not just your cravings calling the shotsit’s menu psychology at work. The Sweet Spot: Your Menu’s Million-Dollar Real Estate Think of your menu like prime real estate in Manhattanlocation is everything. This data-driven approach ensures every inch of your menu real estate works to boost your bottom line.
From big-city legends to small-town treasures, each offers something special. Each bite balances tender texture and bold seasoning, showcasing true Texas-style craftsmanship. Slow-smoked over pure oak wood, the meats carry a robust smokiness, with a finely tuned balance of peppery seasoning and juicy tenderness.
In today’s fast-paced dining environment, even a few seconds of lag can create a ripple effect that impacts your entire service flow. All of these factors lead to longer lines, irritated customers, and a less efficient dining experience. Outdated menu items or pricing , causing confusion and delays.
Identifying Challenges and Uncovering Opportunities SpotOn unveiled its 2025 Restaurant Business Report , revealing the financial challenges restaurant operators face and the opportunities to strengthen their businesses. On a year-over-year basis, smallbusiness sales (+2.1 Independent operators feel the squeeze the most.
It also zooms in on current challenges faced by owners/operators, menu prices and inflation, and tech/AI implementation. While guests may still be feeling the pain of rising menu prices at restaurants, fewer restaurants said that they raised prices this year compared to last year. Searches are also down eight percent from 2019.
Scott Suchman This year, we found ourselves blissfully forgetting about the world outside the dining room, and settling into meals that felt exciting, confident, and joyful Dining out should be a lot of things — nourishing, thought-provoking, less than a week’s rent — but one that can be easy to forget about is fun.
Restaurants will also explore delivery options beyond costly third-party partnerships, and hike delivery menu prices to make the channel more lucrative as off-premise demand holds steady. Simplified Menus. Menu variety plays a substantial role in every dining experience. Health-Conscious Food Will Dominate Menus.
One such solution has been shrinking restaurant menus. This past year, 60 percent of restaurants reported reducing their menu size , citing a 23 percent drop in the number of items. A smaller menu might limit ordering options but not the ability for restaurants to wow their guests. Advanced Customization On- and Off-Premise.
QSRs Shift Focus from Slow-Paced Dining to Swift, Transactional Experiences Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) are reimagining their dining spaces to prioritize speed, convenience, and personalization over traditional, slow-paced dining experiences. An issue that may arise from this in 2024 is data privacy.
By finding the right balance, you can avoid these pitfalls and ensure your business stays profitable. Train your staff to use ingredients efficiently and plan your menu to minimize waste. Our free restaurant profit margin calculator lets you know whether your business is profitable. Constantino writes.
Long before the restaurant chains of today, decades prior to the birth of finedining, experience dining, and molecular gastronomy, there were neighborhood cafes that were part of small communities across the country. In any case, The Blue Gentian was a busy place. No one ever left the restaurant still hungry.
A Return to Normal The National Restaurant Association released its 2023 State of the Restaurant Industry report, which examines key factors impacting the industry including the current state of the economy, operations, workforce, and food and menu trends to forecast sales and market trends for the year ahead. million by the end of 2023.
As you plan out your concept, location, menu, staffing, and marketing, take a read through the advice left by hundreds of restaurateurs to ensure you’re set up for success in 2020. Educate yourself If there’s one thing to know when opening a new business—especially a new restaurant—it’s that there’s no such thing as “too much research.”
Smart Foodservice operates 70 small-format cash and carry stores across California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Montana that serve small and mid-sized restaurants and other food business customers with a broad assortment of products. (NYSE: APO) (the “Apollo Funds”) for $970 million in cash.
43 percent plan to add an outdoor on-site dining space. "What More than half (55 percent) said they were fed up after five minutes of waiting for food in a drive-thru, and 54 percent were annoyed waiting more than 10 minutes for food while dining at a restaurant. 55 percent plan to add more space for pick-up.
As more restaurants focus their undivided attention on their off-premise offerings and guests adapt their consumption to this new environment, plus some of the government relief measures take effect, some small improvements may lie ahead.” Family dining was another segment that was hit hard, which includes many buffet-based concepts.
The new restaurants — as well as upgrades to existing locations — will adapt the company’s new, modern, and inviting “Fresh Forward” design and meet the needs of today’s consumer with comfortable guest indoor dining spaces as well as numerous delivery and order ahead options, with a strong digital first strategy.
With so many amazing new dining and entertainment experiences emerging around the world, it feels good to be a part of that revolution and to bring something unique back to San Diego.” Hunter also has plans for a robust dining program in partnership with San Diego’s top restaurants and caterers.
Telly Justice and Camille Lindsley are creating a blueprint for finedining’s queer future with their upcoming New York City opening, HAGS The dining room at 163 First Avenue in New York’s East Village is barely big enough to fit two people standing side by side.
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