Restaurant owners have had to learn to pivot and adjust their plans throughout their entrepreneurial journey: from jumping through countless zoning and licensing hoops to switching up their menu to accommodate the latest trends. However, COVID-19 has presented a scary, all-encompassing challenge that no one in any industry has faced. The restaurant industry and landscape will likely be permanently altered in some ways by the time this crisis has passed.
Despite a bleak outlook in the short-term, there’s been an impressive response from the restaurant community, with establishments showing ingenuity and innovation in service, marketing, and safety. “Contactless” and “Curb-side” are now forever in the restaurant lexicon, and as we approach a gradual re-opening, owners will navigate the safest way to execute on-premise dining & drinking.
In this post, we will discuss strategies your establishment can implement in an effort to grow revenue, control inventory, market your restaurant, and optimize cash-flow - both now and in a post-COVID world.
5 Creative Restaurant Strategies in the Time of COVID-19
Breakfast & Late-Night Service
One (relatively) small adjustment to make up for lost revenue is to spread out the hours in which you can generate tickets. Even as we approach a gradual re-opening and dine-in service is allowed, safe practices and social distancing will require that occupancy is throttled. Opening earlier and closing later gives you a fighting chance at catching up with the number of people you can seat in a day.
A creative and affordable breakfast menu can be developed without bringing on any additional kitchen SKUs, while simultaneously burning through underutilized proteins and bread. For a late-night menu, pair your 3 most indulgent lunch/dinner options with a beer or cocktail special (many states have adjusted package laws to allow for to-go cocktails) at a discounted rate.
If you don’t currently serve coffee, look for a local roaster or shop and work out a mutually beneficial deal on some high-quality drip and cold brew. Cross-utilize your bar’s cocktail syrups for an iced coffee menu to further set your breakfast selection apart.
A one-stop shop is an extremely valuable proposition for a guest in our current situation, and will be much more common moving forward. By providing high-quality dining options at all hours of the day, you can begin to make up for lost traffic by becoming the always-available option in your neighborhood.
Cross-Utilization Across Food & Bar Menus
The best chefs and kitchen managers reduce costs and control inventory by cross-utilizing ingredients across their menus - but this strategy isn’t limited to the kitchen. As owners will be examining margins closer than ever before, it is crucial to have communication and brainstorming between front- and back-of-house when developing menus moving forward.
Bar syrups, herbs, spices, fruits, and jams can all be utilized in multiple menu items across the kitchen and bar to pare down your inventory and more effectively control cost.
The days of a loosely-ran bar program having its high liquor cost made up for by a meticulous kitchen manager - or vice versa - are over, at least for the time being. There simply won’t be the consistent volume that has allowed some places to operate above water for years with sloppy inventory practices. If you don’t have them already, it’s time to implement simple, efficient systems to keep track of what you have on hand, and practices like cross-utilization to ensure you make the most of it.
Shared Delivery Drivers
For the foreseeable future, carry-out and delivery will likely represent over half of food sales in restaurants. Third-party delivery apps often take a 20-30% cut - and show no signs of budging, beyond some short-term discounts and deferral programs. Giving up 20-30% on 5 to 10 orders a day in the past might have been worth the extra business; however, that percentage on half or more of your orders is simply not sustainable with typical restaurant margins.
Restaurants should consider a shared delivery driver model, teaming up with neighboring eateries. Not only does this save them from the exorbitant commission fees of third-party apps, but they can guarantee their menu is presented the way they intended. A rise in this practice may eventually see substantial changes in the structure of these apps over time.
It should be noted: if you are considering bringing on a delivery driver, consult with your insurance agent first about what coverage may be recommended or required.
Draft Cocktails
If to-go cocktails are allowed in your city, consider dedicating 1 or 2 of your taps to a pre-batched version of your most popular cocktail(s). Typically reserved for high-volume craft cocktail bars, these kegs also allow for ease-of-service when dispensing large quantities (gallon margaritas, anyone?). Moving forward, draft implementation will continue to increase in popularity as a low-touch alternative to time-intensive, multi-bottle cocktail builds.
Low-spoilage, high-acid, or fortified ingredients like cordials, citric acid solutions, soda syrups, and liqueurs can be batched in cocktails and pressurized for long periods of time without degrading flavor. Fresh juices should be reserved for use in kegs that will be depleted within about a week and a half - at which point they will lose most of their bite.
Keep your draft cocktail selection simple and easy-to-market. Anything going on draft should either be an established favorite or a no-brainer extension of your restaurant’s style - 5 gallons at a time isn’t the most efficient way to workshop drink experiments.
Bartering
Bartering is a valuable tool in any business owner’s bag, and using it effectively can keep your restaurant rocking without throttling cash flow. Bartering meals for goods and services can also fill seats and cultivate return customers at a time when occupancy is at an all-time low.
Special events like wine tastings and cooking classes are ideal for barter agreements - and in the time of social distancing, they can be carefully laid out and conducted within proper safety guidelines.
One unfortunate but very important fact to keep in mind during a period of uncertainty is this: Despite being in the middle of a global crisis, all the other typical problems of a restaurant don’t stop happening. Glycol systems freeze over; AC units go out; sinks clog; fruit flies show up. Save cash and try out bartering to stay on top of routine maintenance and cleaning.
CONCLUSION
Restaurants have proven to be, perhaps, the last bastion of normalcy in an unprecedented time. Providing curbside comfort food, cocktail kits, and inclusive remote engagement, restaurants continue to expand what hospitality truly means. As we continue to navigate this crisis, expect further creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation from our industry partners - which will remain around long after the landscape returns to “normal”.
If you would like to implement any of the ideas we discussed in this post at your restaurant or bar and need some guidance, please contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We would love to help your establishment face the future head-on, in any way we can.