The start to this decade was a fraught time for the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, many businesses closed, and those that didn’t took a real knock to their operational capacities. Some managed to alternate by delivering their food through specialized delivery apps, but despite that, business was hardly as functional as it could have been.
As such, hospitality businesses, including restaurants most of all, learned the value of diversifying revenue streams. Of course, running a restaurant is hard enough without ten different side hustles going on, but if you can, a little attention paid to additional capabilities could pay off in the long term. That’s not to say everything has to be geared towards another pandemic, but rather curating the full extent of what your business could achieve. That sounds great in theory. Let’s consider what it may mean in practice:
Contribute To Local Food Markets
Food markets are often a celebration of the culture in your local area, and you’re unlikely to be the only stall there. That being said, you may have the chance to sell a good deal of produce here, be those specialty cheeses sourced by your cheese expert, street food as a conversion of your menu, or even preserves and other delights you’ve been working on.
All of this can be wonderful. Sure, the chances of you making enough revenue to cover several slow weekends might not be possible depending on the turnout or the capacity you have, but you can certainly spread the word of your restaurant, connect with the local community, raise interest in your produce, and show just how skilled you are. For restaurants that act as essential connections in the local tapestry, this can be invaluable, and lead to further revenue. You may even earn a respectable amount, and help offload older stock you need to sell.
Implement Online Ordering and Delivery
Many restaurants in the current year, even top-end restaurants, are now welcoming delivery apps. Just make certain that you know what you’re getting into. A continual revolving door for drivers and having to convert your menu into takeout boxes is not always applicable to restaurants. In that case, you might offer some of your shop items, such as preserves and other items we discussed above. Perhaps you sell excellent kimchi or stock that comes from your cooking, given how much you go through in a week. It can all count.
Online ordering allows you to keep selling your side inventory and limit just how much you have to rotate during the week, also limiting outreach. If you can, try to offer a separate entrance for food delivery workers and implement an area where they can easily pick up deliverables without interfering in the comfort of your guests. You might also keep the opening hours limited to before your main evening service, to prevent intensive demand on your kitchen.
Hampers and Gift Boxes Add Magical Charm
There’s something special about designing packages intended to be received as gifts. Hampers are perfect for that. They could involve samples of cheeses, charcuterie meats that can be stored safely, even sample bottles of some of the wines or liquor you serve in-restaurant with meals. You could even implement additional treats like Nive beef, or even smaller candles from the store on your street, providing them a cut of all hamper sales.
Of course, these are just examples. Depending on the kind of restaurant you run, the goodies may be themed differently. A vegan restaurant, for example, is unlikely to contain meat. Consider the cuisine you serve and how to best demonstrate the beautiful character of your restaurant. As such, you share a little of your identity with those who come to enjoy it. You could also theme these gift boxes or hampers around events, such as an end-of-year festive box.
Host Cooking Classes Or Workshops
A cooking class or workshop outside of the kitchen, like a cocktail making session with your bar staff, can be perfect for parties or people just looking to have a good time and learn more about your restaurant. Sure, it might not be the easiest thing to throw together and does require a little effort to perfect, but doing so can be inspiring work if you give it time.
This is especially because exclusivity may mean that the ticket prices for such sessions will be worthwhile for your business. For example, having a session during your slowest day of the week to teach willing guests how to fillet fish and then serving them a seafood lunch could be ideal. Again, you can manage this depending on the style of your restaurant and its particular cuisine.
Photo by Life Of Pix
Sell Branded Merchandise
Finally, you may find a great deal of joy in creating and selling branded merchandise. T-shirts that proudly display your logo and important dates (almost like a band and its gig outfits), printed caps, mugs, pens, and whatever you can create at high quality without seeming as cheap or disposable can be a great idea. You can even include some of these items in your hampers.
Of course, depending on what restaurant you run, you can also lean into different products. If you have some great relationships with local craft beer bars, you might sell mini-casks, or even bottles of the good stuff. You might also sell appropriately-designed tokens in line with your theme, such as seashell necklaces if you run a beachfront restaurant. It’s a simple approach to take, but can be a nice side gift shop that generates a little revenue and helps add up your takings on the slower evenings, which all restaurants have.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily increase revenue streams for your restaurant. While it’s not an exhaustive list, it should give you an idea of how to extent your repertoire outside of solely the bar or the kitchen.
Each one of these tidbits isn’t a huge amount of work that takes you away from the conventional running of your business, securing that rare win-win in the hospitality world. We wish you the best in your efforts.
The start to this decade was a fraught time for the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, many businesses closed, and those that didn’t took a real knock to their operational capacities. Some managed to alternate by delivering their food through specialized delivery apps, but despite that, business was hardly as functional as it could have been.
As such, hospitality businesses, including restaurants most of all, learned the value of diversifying revenue streams. Of course, running a restaurant is hard enough without ten different side hustles going on, but if you can, a little attention paid to additional capabilities could pay off in the long term. That’s not to say everything has to be geared towards another pandemic, but rather curating the full extent of what your business could achieve. That sounds great in theory. Let’s consider what it may mean in practice:
Contribute To Local Food Markets
Food markets are often a celebration of the culture in your local area, and you’re unlikely to be the only stall there. That being said, you may have the chance to sell a good deal of produce here, be those specialty cheeses sourced by your cheese expert, street food as a conversion of your menu, or even preserves and other delights you’ve been working on.
All of this can be wonderful. Sure, the chances of you making enough revenue to cover several slow weekends might not be possible depending on the turnout or the capacity you have, but you can certainly spread the word of your restaurant, connect with the local community, raise interest in your produce, and show just how skilled you are. For restaurants that act as essential connections in the local tapestry, this can be invaluable, and lead to further revenue. You may even earn a respectable amount, and help offload older stock you need to sell.
Implement Online Ordering and Delivery
Many restaurants in the current year, even top-end restaurants, are now welcoming delivery apps. Just make certain that you know what you’re getting into. A continual revolving door for drivers and having to convert your menu into takeout boxes is not always applicable to restaurants. In that case, you might offer some of your shop items, such as preserves and other items we discussed above. Perhaps you sell excellent kimchi or stock that comes from your cooking, given how much you go through in a week. It can all count.
Online ordering allows you to keep selling your side inventory and limit just how much you have to rotate during the week, also limiting outreach. If you can, try to offer a separate entrance for food delivery workers and implement an area where they can easily pick up deliverables without interfering in the comfort of your guests. You might also keep the opening hours limited to before your main evening service, to prevent intensive demand on your kitchen.
Hampers and Gift Boxes Add Magical Charm
There’s something special about designing packages intended to be received as gifts. Hampers are perfect for that. They could involve samples of cheeses, charcuterie meats that can be stored safely, even sample bottles of some of the wines or liquor you serve in-restaurant with meals. You could even implement additional treats like Nive beef, or even smaller candles from the store on your street, providing them a cut of all hamper sales.
Of course, these are just examples. Depending on the kind of restaurant you run, the goodies may be themed differently. A vegan restaurant, for example, is unlikely to contain meat. Consider the cuisine you serve and how to best demonstrate the beautiful character of your restaurant. As such, you share a little of your identity with those who come to enjoy it. You could also theme these gift boxes or hampers around events, such as an end-of-year festive box.
Host Cooking Classes Or Workshops
A cooking class or workshop outside of the kitchen, like a cocktail making session with your bar staff, can be perfect for parties or people just looking to have a good time and learn more about your restaurant. Sure, it might not be the easiest thing to throw together and does require a little effort to perfect, but doing so can be inspiring work if you give it time.
This is especially because exclusivity may mean that the ticket prices for such sessions will be worthwhile for your business. For example, having a session during your slowest day of the week to teach willing guests how to fillet fish and then serving them a seafood lunch could be ideal. Again, you can manage this depending on the style of your restaurant and its particular cuisine.
Sell Branded Merchandise
Finally, you may find a great deal of joy in creating and selling branded merchandise. T-shirts that proudly display your logo and important dates (almost like a band and its gig outfits), printed caps, mugs, pens, and whatever you can create at high quality without seeming as cheap or disposable can be a great idea. You can even include some of these items in your hampers.
Of course, depending on what restaurant you run, you can also lean into different products. If you have some great relationships with local craft beer bars, you might sell mini-casks, or even bottles of the good stuff. You might also sell appropriately-designed tokens in line with your theme, such as seashell necklaces if you run a beachfront restaurant. It’s a simple approach to take, but can be a nice side gift shop that generates a little revenue and helps add up your takings on the slower evenings, which all restaurants have.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily increase revenue streams for your restaurant. While it’s not an exhaustive list, it should give you an idea of how to extent your repertoire outside of solely the bar or the kitchen.
Each one of these tidbits isn’t a huge amount of work that takes you away from the conventional running of your business, securing that rare win-win in the hospitality world. We wish you the best in your efforts.
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