When brunch is done right, brunch can be booming. At the right spots, Sunday brunch pulls in massive crowds.
Want your restaurant to be one of those spots? Here are 6 ways to run a successful brunch.
Get the menu right. Depending on what best suits your restaurant, there are many different ways to roll out your brunch menu. Because brunch encompasses two meals, the options for your menu are particularly extensive. This is why many restaurants choose to have buffets, providing a wide range of breakfast and lunch foods available to the customer’s choosing. Of course, buffets aren’t the answer for every restaurant. A well constructed brunch menu can be just as, if not more successful. In addition, a pre-fixe menu including all-inclusive deals can prove quite popular.
Buffet tricks. If you do opt to hold a brunch buffet, there’s a few things to keep in mind if you’d like to maintain profitability. Obviously, one of the more important aspects of a profitable buffet is balancing the quality and price of the food on offer. For a premium brunch buffet specifically, the food needs to be high quality. At the same time, it shouldn’t be so expensive that you’re breaking the bank. Whatever you decide, here’s a few tricks to keep it profitable.
- Cheaper items at the beginning of the buffet. Salads first?
- More expensive items toward the end. Keep the steak less visible.
- Use smaller plates. People tend to take more than they’ll end up eating so providing a smaller plate limits the potential waste.
Don’t forget the drinks. A killer drink menu is a core component of any brunch worth its salt. Bloody marys, mimosas, bellinis, and more help form the backbone of a strong brunch. Make sure you’ve designed a quality menu that’s packed with specialty beverages. Be sure to include an unlimited option. Who doesn’t love bottomless mimosas? For inspiration, here’s a list of popular brunch cocktails, courtesy of Food & Wine.
Nail the ambiance. Brunch, by its very nature, is a fairly unique meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are had each day by the average person. Brunch, on the other hand, is typically reserved for occasions. Therefore, the ambiance of your restaurant needs to reflect that. Everything from the music to the lighting to the decorations should be finely tuned to match the direction you’ve decided to take your brunch. Inject a dose of liveliness into your restaurant.
Holiday brunches. Holidays offer a good source of revenue for your brunch business. Make sure you capitalize on them by letting your customers know you’re taking holiday brunch reservations in advance. Let them know you’ve put together an Easter special, for example. According to OpenTable, Mother’s Day is the most popular brunch day of the entire year.
Attentive service. As I mentioned, there’s an energy to brunch that customers expect. Frequent, active, and attentive service is a necessary component of the brunch atmosphere. Additionally, try to keep things tidy and clean around your restaurant. If you want to maintain a popular brunch spot, you’ll have a reputation to uphold.
Promote With CoGoBuzz
CoGoBuzz, our fully-featured marketing service, digitally promotes your restaurant directly to customers’ mobile devices. Want to start raising awareness of your brunch? Do it with CoGoBuzz!
Our advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions engage customers both in-store and out. Through WiFi, CoGoBuzz displays an interactive landing page on your customers’ mobile devices when they login to the HotSpot. Promote your Sunday Brunch, specials, and more! With our SMS service, you can send automated text messages at specific times, reminding them to make reservations for brunch this weekend.
On top of all that, we produce full customer profiles and integrate them with your favorite marketing list. CoGoBuzz features digital text-based loyalty programs, and more! Check out the rest of our website to learn more.
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What’s brunch like in your restaurant? Let us know in the comments!