How to prepare your restaurant for spring: 7 unique ideas

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Spring is the perfect time for restaurant owners to blow away the cobwebs and take a look at their restaurant operations from a whole new perspective. Whether it’s a bit of spring cleaning or a grand reopening with a remodeled outdoor dining experience, knowing how to prepare your restaurant for spring in advance could help put your eatery on the map.

The spring holidays are a symbolic season of fresh starts and new beginnings. Use the following strategies to prepare your restaurant for spring so you can improve customer experience and create a more positive atmosphere for you and your staff. Included are some classic time-tested methods and why they work as well as more modern niche ideas too.

How to prepare your restaurant for spring

Improve your restaurant’s functionality this spring by trying out one or more of these methods on how to prepare your restaurant for spring.

Social media

The restaurant industry is more dynamic than it has ever been. The internet is brimming with inspiration and ideas to motivate you to make changes. Likewise, more restaurant owners than ever are taking to social media to promote their business and make online sales. This means more competition for your business, so learning to sell your brand is essential if you want to grow.

Start with the basics, make sure you have all your socials covered. Think about Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms your customer base uses. Double-check that all of your information is correct on business review websites such as Yelp. This will help to drive foot traffic to your door.

Don’t forget about the traditional advertising methods as well, such as email marketing. Anything you can think of that will build a long and lasting relationship with your diners can work wonders for your revenue.

Outdoor dining

As the winter months dwindle away, diners begin to venture outside again thanks to the warmer weather. An outdoor seating area can become free advertising for your business. Every smiling face that people see in your outdoor areas is free advertising for your restaurant.

If you’re unsure you can offer outdoor space, get in touch with your local authority about adding seating to the sidewalk. Does your restaurant have a parking lot? You could sacrifice a couple of spaces for a brand new outdoor eating area. Think about awnings or umbrellas for when the springtime brings unpredictable weather.

Takeout

Thanks to food delivery services, takeout’s reputation has changed. Takeout used to be something that restaurants had to take charge of themselves, and some restaurant owners didn’t want to be branded as a “takeout joint.” Now, even New York fine dining comes in takeout form.

During the pandemic, online ordering became a skill that most people used to replace the excitement of indoor dining. Some customers have never looked back, so don’t miss out on this demographic of diners.

If you already offer takeout, try mixing it up a little. Find new ways to make your menu items look and taste great in takeout form. Make sure that your brand is represented on the packaging and contains all the information your diners need to make their next order too.

Don’t be intimidated by your meals either, takeout packaging can handle way more than burgers and fries. With the right containers you can put anything in takeout during the Easter season from stew to a crispy asparagus salad. You can even include dinners with small side dishes such as olive oil, shaved parmesan, vinaigrette, and dijon mustard, as long as you have the correct containers.

Spring cleaning

Since the pandemic, an Ecolab post-COVID-19 vaccine consumer research study showed that 95% of customers want as much, if not more pandemic-style cleaning where they eat.

You can improve the customer experience by making sure staff are always maintaining the cleanliness of your restaurant. Prove that you go the extra mile by showing your pre-opening cleaning practices on your social media pages. Having an open kitchen is the ultimate way to show that cleanliness stretches from front-of-house to back-of-house.

As part of your spring cleaning routine, remember to provide automatic hand sanitizer machines at the entrance to your restaurant. Train your staff so that they are ready to answer any questions your customers may have so they can feel safe while they eat.

Dinner ideas

There’s nothing more natural for a restaurant owner to do than revise a tired dinner menu. Speak to your diners and take note of what people are ordering. You can start making cuts, additions, and modifications from that point forward.

Try branching out your spring dinner menu by adding a new cuisine. You can make weeknights more exciting with fresh Italian dishes, for instance. There are thousands of pasta recipes to try, and you can always put your own spin on traditional ideas.

Do you try to market towards the brunch crowd? Try adding a new light experimental appetizer, get a feta pasta salad, and try goat cheese instead.

Nothing impresses diners more than the word “homemade.” Try making your own pesto or ice cream in-house using locally sourced ingredients.

Restaurant branding

If you want to reinvent your restaurant, start by making changes to your branding during the build-up to spring. It may surprise you to know that you can make pivotal modifications to your branding without any outside help.

If you do feel that you need outside professional help to update your brand personality, you can partner with an agency or find independent designers on websites like Fiverr and Upwork. Professionals skilled in branding can help you with such services as redesigning your menus, building a new website, improving your online presence, and much more.

Sustainability

Spring is similar to the new year in that it’s a time when people feel motivated to make positive ethical changes in their lives. Sustainability is a trending issue, which is great for the environment and for the foodservice industry.

Running a restaurant requires resources that stretch far beyond the four walls you work so hard to protect. It’s extremely likely that your furnishings, equipment, and even food is sourced from around the world. This all equates to a fairly large carbon footprint.

Making positive changes to your restaurant’s sustainability works perfectly when you marry it up with your social media presence and brand personality. Let the world know what you’re doing, and you will gain your customer’s trust while inviting in a new demographic of diners.

There are so many things you can try. Think about your waste by joining local recycling programs. Change your menu by adding more vegan entrees, or even strive to give a vegan alternative to every dish. Source your food locally; you’ll reduce carbon emissions while helping local businesses, all while serving up fresher dishes.

You can add spring vegetables to your menu from a local farmer’s market. Think about sourcing fresh herbs and veggies such as local leeks, artichokes, arugula, fennel, spring greens, zucchini, chard, spring peas, radishes, scallions, rhubarb, and many more.

POS system

Making new changes before the spring season could cause business to pick up significantly. A good way to deal with a sudden onslaught of hungry diners is to install a point of sale (POS) system.

A POS system can allow your diners to check in by themselves using a tablet (best placed next to your automatic hand sanitizer). This system frees up a member of your FOH staff and can reduce waiting times for diners. Some POS systems let you manage tables and can even provide seamless integration, letting table orders appear instantly in the kitchen.

The POS system can even free up a maître d’ to be more customer-focused, allowing them to move freely around your restaurant.

Know how to prepare your restaurant for spring

A new season gives you time to reflect on your business. Knowing how to prepare your restaurant for spring gives you a good reason to look at your business with a fresh set of eyes.

There are many valuable ways to prepare your restaurant for spring. Update your social media and your brand personality, and don’t be shy to try it yourself or get some outside help. Take your cleaning to the next level, and update your takeout game. Add outdoor dining if you can, and make sure your joint is good for the environment. Update your menus with new ideas for spring such as fresh salad recipes.

Lastly, get on top of your FOH management by using Yelp Guest Manager. This smart software helps you to manage tables, handles reservations, allows diners to check themselves in during busy times, and much more. Restaurants that start using Guest Manager experience up to 2X the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.*

Try a demo today to see what Yelp can do to get your restaurant operations spruced up for the next season.