Special Report: Taking Weakness Out of Weekdays
Weekends are when restaurants make money; weekdays are when they earn their money. A few proven promotional tactics can build midweek sales.
By Derek Gale, Special to R&I -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/1/2007
Slow Tuesday or Thursday evenings are restaurant commonplaces. Slow Saturdays usually mean it’s time to rethink a concept or turn out the lights.
"As far as weekends, that’s your money time," says Steve Chiappetti, chef-general manager at Chicago restaurant Viand.
"That’s when people go out," Mark Melzer, general manager of Sage Grille in Highwood, Ill., says of the importance of strong weekend business.
Restaurant customer traffic increased 1% for both weekends and weekdays during the 12-month period ending in May 2007, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based The NPD Group. There has never been a level playing field between weekdays and weekends, though.
In a 2004 Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research study on restaurant revenue management, co-author Sheryl Kimes found that restaurant seat occupancy of 50% or more generally was achieved during Saturday lunch and dinner hours, Friday dinner hours and Sunday lunch hours. Check averages are highest on Friday and Saturday evenings and lowest during weekday lunch hours.
If weekends are about meeting demand, weekdays are about creating demand, and operators employ a variety of tactics to fill seats from Monday through Thursday. Happy hours are bar-business draws, but many operators find that weekday wine dinners—often involving wine education or vintner presentations—increase dinner (and not just bar) business. Whatever the approach, the goal is to make weeknights feel special.
Tampa, Fla.-based Outback Steakhouse hails Wednesday as "the new Saturday." The nation’s largest steakhouse chain invites diners to start their weekend early with two "No Worries Wednesday" mixed-grill offerings available only on that day.
Valentino Santa Monica turns adversity to virtue with special Re-Construction Monday dinners during the California restaurant’s remodeling. Through this month, a $100 seven-course tasting menu on Mondays previews dishes that Executive Chef Angelo Auriana will feature at the restaurant’s soon-to-open V-vinbar.
Knowing Your Customers
Tuesdays and Sundays may differ not only in the level of business but also in the types of consumers they attract. Sundays, for example, are big days for families, Viand’s Chiappetti says.
Melzer agrees and says Sage Grille has increased family business on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays with a kids-eat-free dinner promotion. The offer applies Sunday through Thursday, but "we found that especially earlier in the week it helps [to drive business]," Melzer says.
Promotions are key to turning guests into regulars, operators find. "People in the neighborhood come for deals," Chiappetti says. "It’s about appreciation of the customer—you’re giving to get them to appreciate you so they come back."
This two-way appreciation is why Chiappetti runs a lunch promotion almost every weekday. From a box-lunch selection on Mondays to $2 half-pound burgers 10 different ways on Tuesdays and a $10, three-course lunch on Thursdays, Viand aggressively targets locals. So far the strategy is working.
"I started six months ago with lunch promotions, and we’ve more than doubled our lunch covers from last year consistently every month," Chiappetti says. "On burger Tuesdays, even with a $2 burger, the check still is $11 to $13 on average. That’s still pretty good."
Targeting Happy Hour
Another proven way to attract local guests during the week is to offer happy-hour specials. This summer, Shanghai Terrace, the Chinese restaurant at The Peninsula Chicago hotel, featured a "Meet Me at the Pen" promotion that offered guests free hors d’oeuvres on the restaurant’s patio between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
"We like guests to enjoy [our] drinks and get a sample of what we do," says Pradeep Raman, the hotel’s food-and- beverage manager. Raman adds that more than half of those who come for the hors d’oeuvres stay for dinner.
Wine Them to Dine Them
There’s something about Wednesdays. At both Viand and Sage Grille, Wednesday night is half-price wine night.
"That’s been a big success for us," Sage’s Melzer says. "People who normally spend $50 to $60 on a bottle are willing to try those bottles that are $80 to $90. And when they do, they still order a three-course meal."
Melzer says the promotion also helps his business during late-evening hours. Half-price-wine night draws couples who might want to finish a date with a bottle of wine and dessert.
For all the marketing it takes to draw weekday business, weekends seem to take care of themselves.
"Weekends are rock solid—they have been since the day we opened," Melzer says. But for most restaurants, that’s not enough. "Weekdays are what make you money," he notes. "If you want to make a profit, you’ve got to get people in there [during the week]."
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