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Opening a restaurant and launching your new venture is the most nerve racking time for any restauratant owner. It isn’t the hardest time, although it may feel that way. We’ve found that the general public are very forgiving and every new restaurant, bar or hotel has a honeymoon period.
It is a critical time nevertheless because it’s a great time to build bridges for later. A lot of the intense work is over so it is a time to think about marketing and about your presentation for the restaurant opening.
You’ve found the money, decorated the restaurant, decided on the menu, trained the staff, now you’re ready for the opening of the restaurant. There are basically two different strategies for opening a restaurant; the soft launch and the hard launch.
Using a soft launch for opening a restaurant, you open with a small amount of marketing activity, saving the big push for a few weeks after the initial opening when the staff are fully trained and competent, the stock levels are right so you don’t run out of anything and any other teething problems are resolved. Many chains use a dry run like this often ending with a party once everything is perfect.
The hard launch of opening a restaurant means you create a buzz about the new restaurant from the moment you open and hit the ground running. Before opening a restaurant it’s still a good idea to have a couple of days of ‘dress rehearsals’. This is when the restaurant opens to friends and family of staff, suppliers etc but anyone eating does not pay for the food, just their drink, although be prepared to fully comp some bills.
Tables are required to order different items to one another so the kitchen staff get the experience of cooking all the menu items on a busy night.
At the end of the meal all guests are required to fill out a questionnaire and encourage to give honest opinions of the food and service. Not only is this a great way of training staff and sorting out teething problems but the sale of drink should cover the majority of the cost of the food. Goodwill and favourable word of mouth will also be created.
A hard opening for a restaurant means a full suite of press reviews, direct marketing, joint ventures, public relations and perhaps advertising to turn the launch into an event. You must budget for a hard opening and you need to prepare as lavish a selection of food and drink for the party as possible.
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