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Bigger Guest Checks Now

What haven’t you tried during this prolonged recession to build sales and traffic in your restaurant?

Maybe it’s time to stop checking off deals and start looking at boosting the check itself. While discounting may get more people in the door, it doesn’t always translate into more profit. Plus, it may cheapen your concept in the long run. But once customers are sitting at a table or standing at the bar, there are ways you can get them to spend more.

Profitable partners

You’ve got stunning cocktails, now pair them with unique bar food and… k-ching!
Mixologists are borrowing fresh, seasonal ingredients from the kitchen to craft culinary cocktails that sell for a premium. Now several restaurants are taking the next logical step—suggesting bar food pairings that complement those market-driven drinks and add extra dollars to the tab.

Put desserts on sale
And watch the check explode
Perhaps more than any other menu category, desserts are impulse items—put them on sale, and customers can’t resist.

Click and count
Online ordering is leading some patrons to spend more
Virtual menus may not be as tactile or tantalizing, but it seems they can rack up higher customer tabs than real ones. While the economy many be preventing some people from patronizing restaurants, these same customers are staying home and ordering in.

Share the wealth
When guests try a lot of sharable items, they pay more than for just one entrée
Many restaurants offer appetizer and dessert samplers that are meant to shared by two or more diners.

Care for an appetizer before that appetizer?
At a low price point, snacks can sneak on—and beef up—the tab
Savvy menumakers have found a brand-new category to exploit: snacks, nibbles, tastes and other gently priced tidbits that are easy to execute but distinctive enough to entice diners to order them as kind of a pre-app to the meal.

Excerpted from Restaurant Business, August 2009  

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