Tactics To Boost Holiday Sales At Your Restaurant (1/3)

Tactics To Boost Holiday Sales At Your Restaurant Operators of all kinds of establishments, from award winning fine-dining restaurants to neighborhood bars, find that marking a holiday can help business in several ways. Not only can it increase traffic during that holiday, but it can also attract new customers and keep regulars excited about coming back. According to a National Restaurant Association survey, among holidays people go out to eat, the four important holidays-- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day—hold 47%-- almost half the portion of the total number of people dining-out. And the four holidays come one after another nearly within a month. Frequent holidays imply tremendous business. But who gets which holiday’s business and who can laugh to the end of Christmas? It depends. Early Bird Catches the Worm The Dining Room, the fine dining restaurant at the Salish Lodge & Spa, a high-end but traditional inn in Snoqualmie, Washington, starts its campaign a little bit earlier. The Dining Room’s Christmas dinner does not occur on Christmas Day. Instead, the Dining Room offers a seven-course champagne dinner in early December. Its menu features lobster bisque (paired with Heidsieck & Monopole, Diamant Bleu, Brut, Reims, 1989), escalope of wild salmon (with Mumm de Cramant, NV) and traditional stuffed goose (with Deutz Rose, Ay, 1993). The dinner is priced at $150 per person. On that night, a quartet of Christmas carolers, in Dickens-style dress, roam the Dining Room. For New Year’s Eve, the Salish Lodge is open only to people participating in its New Year package. Guests are served champagne upon arrival. There are costumes-- boas, top hats, canes--in their rooms. They come to the Dining Room for a seven-course dinner paired with wine. Later festivities include a martini bar and, of course, champagne at midnight. Work with What You Got Meanwhile, Sea Catch, a fine-dining restaurant in Washington DC’s Georgetown, does not focus on Christmas--”We are a seafood restaurant, after all,” says Gonzalo Lazcano, general manager, “and people don’t associate seafood with Christmas”--nor does the restaurant, usually closed on Sundays, try to stay open and promote itself for Sunday holidays, such as Mother’s Day and Easter. But the restaurant’s romantic setting--it has two working fireplaces--and space--its main private room, with French doors opening into the main dining area, can easily be converted to a dance floor--enable Sea Catch to benefit from Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve, Chef Jeffrey Shively creates a six-course dinner of Champagne-infuse items, such as Champagne oyster bisque with brie cheese. The New Year’s Eve package, priced at $160 per couple, also includes dancing, party favors and a bottle of champagne per couple. In New York City, a restaurant Medi is gearing up to take advantage of its unique location on Christmas. Medi has a grand view of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Medi offers a month-long Christmas package in conjunction with its sister company, the nearby Palace Hotel. The package includes passes to the Rockefeller Center ice rink, a carriage ride after dinner, and small gifts from famous nearby merchants such as Tiffany’s or the toy store FAO Schwarz, as well as dinner at Medi and accommodations at the Palace. Make Your Mark The philosophy is to make the experience at restaurant flawless--and then add bells and whistles for the holidays. Medi works on a signature cocktail to commemorate the Christmas tree. It searches for the perfect give-away glassware, envisioning something that could be used as a Christmas ornament later. For example, a box of chocolates is nice. Medi also gives away heart-shaped Tiffany key chains for Valentine’s Day and houseplants, which first served as centerpieces during the meal, for Mother’s Day.