Graduation dinner ideas for restaurants: Menus & marketing
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Graduation is a major milestone for many. Whether it’s a college graduation or high school graduation, it’s a day the graduate will (hopefully) remember forever. If you want to make sure graduates and their families have a memorable day, you’ll want to think about what a graduation dinner (or meal in general) at your restaurant can look like.
The celebration can happen at any time of the day, including at brunch, and at any kind of restaurant, from fine dining to a cantina and anything in between.
In typical schools and universities, graduation usually happens in May or June. So, you can get ahead of the curve with marketing a solid graduation celebration to grads and their families in early spring.
In addition to making for an excellent dining experience, you’ll want to make the special occasion more than just a meal. So let’s look at ways to make grads feel special.
Graduation dinner menu options
For a graduation celebration, you’ll likely be dealing with a large group. Often, whole extended families come out to celebrate a graduation, though smaller celebrations certainly happen. However, since big groups are the norm, you’ll want to tailor your menu to that idea.
Prix fixe and buffet options
It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a new American restaurant, a French or Italian restaurant, a steakhouse, a bistro, a brasserie, or anything else. Sticking to the time-tested prix fixe menu is a winner. This set-menu solution of appetizers, mains, and desserts will work well for handling large groups. There’s a fixed per-person price, the kitchen can be more prepared, and the food decision is easier for everyone in the group. Plus, your servers don’t have to try so hard to upsell every course and can just focus on delivering the predetermined options.
To buffet or not to buffet is the real question, and it really comes down to how many people are expected. Since graduation celebrations are usually planned well in advance, customers will usually make a booking so you’ll know how many people to expect. If you have a private dining room or other event space, it’s the perfect time to use it.
It would be smart to offer your guests either a limited prix-fixe style menu or a buffet and let them choose. This prevents backup in the back-of-house, including inventory management issues, and confusion in the front-of-house (FOH).
Crowd-pleasing food ideas
So what would graduation party food ideas look like? Since a graduation dinner party is a major event, some customers may want to go high-class. In this case, look to quality cuts of meat or seafood (think prime rib or top-notch seafood), vegetarian and vegan options, and a wide variety of sides and appetizers to satisfy multiple demands and nibble needs. Desserts like chocolate lava cake, cheesecake, or fruit tarts can help make for the best graduation party.
For more relaxed events, for which you may wisely offer a buffet, look to finger food, well-known party appetizers, and plenty of other snacks. Sliders, a DIY taco bar, BBQ platters, buffalo chicken wings, crispy nachos, mozzarella sticks, guacamole, meatballs, potato salad, pasta salad, artichoke dip, and other crowd-pleasers are the way forward. The goal is to please as many people as possible.
A grill station with hot dogs, jalapeno poppers, kebab skewers, and other crowd-pleasing foods can make life easy for both your customers and your staff.
Desserts don’t always need to be complicated, either: It’s hard to beat fresh chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, or ice cream, for example.
Let guests get their crunch on with fresh veggie platters like celery and carrots with blue cheese or sour cream and serve fresh, chilled fruit like watermelon.
Large group drink ideas
If you’re hosting a college graduation party, there’s a strong chance customers will appreciate a cocktail bar. Have your bar staff ready to make cocktails or large party-friendly drinks like pitchers of margaritas.
In some cases, customers will request an open bar. Your best bet in such a case is beer or wine, since they’re both commonly requested and require little labor on the part of your staff. Got a solid wine list? Make a wine bar with tastings and get the word out about your enology knowledge.
Of course, you’ll want to make sure there are non-alcoholic options available as well, especially if your guests are planning a high school grad party. Mocktails are your friend in this situation, since they give the same fancy-forward flavor of cocktails without the sauce.
Organizing a graduation dinner
What do you do when you have a large party? First, you’ll want to listen to what the hosts want. They may want special touches such as photos, decorations, or entertainment like a live band or DJ. They may also want to show a slideshow for their beloved graduate, showing their growth over the years.
Whatever the case, get as specific as possible when you’re talking to people making a booking to make their night special. Be sure to offer at minimum microphones and a PA system so that attendees can make toasts and speeches.
Some groups may want to have a private or semi-private event. As mentioned above, if you have a private dining area, this is the perfect time to use it. Some events may be so large they’ll want to book your whole restaurant in advance. What you decide to go with will be largely up to you and your capacity, but bear in mind graduation dinners can be a big sales night for restaurants.
Offering extra services for customers like hiring a photographer, videographer, or live music is a wise choice. This should be optional—but finding businesses to work with can be a valuable partnership moving forward.
Another celebration option is to offer a theme. Here, we’d offer a bit of caution, as not every guest may be on board with your theme. We highly recommend discussing options with your guests as they’ll likely have at least some idea of what they want—and then you practice flexibility. Something as simple as napkins in the school colors could be the perfect touch.
Advertising graduation dinner celebrations
You’ll want to get ahead of the curve and start with marketing across all platforms as soon as you can to catch the graduation rush. That means posting regularly on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Yelp to let diners know that yes, indeed, you are prepared to handle a graduation dinner.
Since, as we mentioned above, many graduation celebrations end up with large parties, you should insist that groups over a certain size (depending on your capacity and location) book in advance. You can offer discounts for booking early as well to encourage swift action. For example, if you’re offering a per-person or prix fixe menu, offering a 10% discount for those who book before a certain date can help lock in customers early.
If there are any entrees or specialties your restaurant is known for, advertise them with photos or short videos. Whether it’s Thai papaya salad, Mediterranean or Mexican specialties, Greek style taverna dining, or anything else that makes you unique, let diners know about it in your advertising. The goal here is to reach customers who don’t already know you.
Make your front-of-house a highlight
Amid the hustle and bustle of a grad party at a restaurant, exemplary FOH service can help you stand out. It starts the moment the customer finds you online and continues through the booking all the way to the end of the meal.
Make guests’ lives as simple as possible by being easy to find, easy to book, and having excellent customer service. Letting people make bookings with a few simple clicks is a great start. Two-way communication with customers about their reservation is another good bonus. Then add up accurate wait times and smooth customer interaction, and you’ve more than done your part for your customers.
The tool that ticks all those boxes and many more is Yelp Guest Manager. In addition to Yelp Guest Manager customers having a no-show rate below 10%*, the platform really helps with reach. We get your restaurant in front of customers while they’re searching. For reference, Yelp reaches 9x more consumers online than OpenTable.**
Want to see how Guest Manager can help you successfully navigate busy nights? Reach out to us for a free demo and we’ll get the conversation started. And hey, if you’re worried about the learning curve with a new tool, don’t be—you’ll have a dedicated onboarding manager on call for the whole time you’re getting started.