Mother’s Day brunch prep guide for restaurants
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Taking your mom to a restaurant on Mother’s Day has become the norm for many families. This is due to years of clever incentives and promotions that restaurant owners have come up with to get the whole family on board for this traditional celebration of motherhood.
Even if you are an eatery that usually opens midday or in the evenings, serving up a Mother’s Day brunch is a great opportunity to promote an earlier than usual opening time. This could fill your restaurant with happy and hungry families and even invite a new demographic or give you a chance to rebrand your restaurant.
In 2023, searches for “Mother’s Day brunch” were up by 664% in March vs. the previous month. Diners are clearly on the hunt for a spot to celebrate their moms over pancakes, eggs benedict, and mimosas, and your restaurant could be the answer.
By the end of this article you’ll hopefully be convinced enough to serve up Mother’s Day brunch ideas of your own creation.
But Mother’s Day brunch recipes are only part of the puzzle. Nailing service, ambiance, and other little touches that make the special day what it is will help you provide the best Mother’s Day brunch possible.
Ambiance and little touches
Getting the ambiance right will help make for memorable and photographable moments. For customers, these can turn into cherished memories. They can also turn into free advertising for your business via social media posts, for moms and their families who want to show off their happy day.
Working with a local florist to arrange floral decorations for tables can help provide the ambiance you’re looking for. And since we consistently recommend partnering with other local businesses, make sure you give the florist full credit on the tables or the menu. Give the florist’s business card with the bill offering a discount and you may be able to wrangle a discount with the florist yourself. This is a win-win scenario for local businesses.
Add little bonuses like ensuring a special Mother’s Day gift for mothers and grandmothers. This doesn’t have to be extravagant, since you don’t want to bankrupt yourself, but it does need to be thoughtful. You could go the extra mile with the florist and give each mom a flower. Or you could lean into your own sales by giving mothers a gift card for future purchases.
Another way to make moms feel special is either major discounts for mothers, free desserts, or anything else that makes her feel taken care of.
Staffing considerations
Mother’s Day is going to be a busy day, both for your omelet station and for your servers. Since Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants, you’ll need all hands on deck to ensure the rosé flows and the buttery brioche is briskly brought. Make sure you or your manager schedule plenty of front-of-house (FOH) employees for that day, since you’re (hopefully) going to need them.
Do a little retraining with your servers to encourage them to:
- Have a keen eye for empty drinks
- Focus on upselling beverages, appetizers, and desserts
- Pay extra attention to the mothers and grandmothers in a group
Your back-of-house (BOH) will likely be busy, so making a limited menu that’s unique for Mother’s Day can help limit inventory orders as well as streamline kitchen operations. Keeping menu choices small can help prevent inventory spoilage, which is just money thrown down the drain. Let your chefs get creative with unique dishes and market them well in advance of Mother’s Day to get customers to commit early to your establishment.
And, like with your FOH, you’ll want to have all hands on deck, so schedule extra employees for this day. Take a test run with any unique or new menu items to make sure they hit the mark and so your chefs have enough time to make tweaks and figure out how to get dishes out as quickly as possible.
Seating preparations
Since Mother’s Day is often a family affair, you may want to rearrange seating as well. Consider offering larger-than-average seating options designed to accommodate entire families.
Since many families book reservations for Mother’s Day brunch in advance, you should have a good idea of how many people to expect. What’s more, you should have a good idea of what group sizes should look like. So, arranging tables in advance to accommodate these groups is a must.
Consider seating arrangements as well: Families will want to be able to speak with each other, so aiming for table arrangements that are as circular as possible will allow for more conversation and not leave people stuck speaking with people that are only to their immediate left, right, or across the table.
If you have tables that can be moved to fit together, like square tables, that’s a great start. If your tables are stationary, consider renting extra tables that can be arranged for group settings.
Of course, some Mother’s Day brunch groups will be small. So, having a variety of table sizes will give groups of all sizes the seating arrangements they need to ensure the best possible customer experience.
If you have an outdoor area like a patio, rooftop, or garden, that area could be great to seat large groups. The open space will also help customers experience the warm weather usually expected on Mother’s Day.
Know your customers
To best serve your customers, you’ll want to know what they want. If you’ve been open for a while, you should have a good idea of your target demographic. Study the age, average spend, most popular dishes, income level, and more for your customers.
Use tactics like restaurant forecasting to see what happened last Mother’s Day and learn what you can do to improve sales. Didn’t get full bookings? Advertise earlier and perhaps use more visuals like photos and videos in your advertising.
If you’re a new restaurant, you may not have the longitudinal data to work with restaurant forecasting. That’s OK—you’ve likely been paying attention to what kind of people come to your restaurant, which is often largely dependent on what your local area looks like demographically. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine what they want to give their mothers—and what they’re willing to spend.
To buffet or not to buffet?
One major question restaurants must answer for Mother’s Day is whether to make it a buffet affair or a non-buffet affair. This will largely depend on your restaurant and your customer base. Put simply, you can think like this: The higher-end your restaurant is, the less you’ll want to offer a buffet. A custom Mother’s Day brunch menu, like in the form of a prix fixe menu, can help your establishment stand out as unique.
If you do go with a buffet, you’ll want to have it be as high-class as possible. Think about an omelet station, custom hash browns, Italian cold cuts like prosciutto, or a DIY bloody mary station where people can go nuts with the add-ons.
If you happen to be a Mexican restaurant or anything with a southwestern feel, a taco bar might suit your establishment just right. This would work well for restaurants that have a more laid-back customer base who don’t lift their pinky finger when drinking mimosas.
Mother’s Day menu: Make mom (and grandma) happy
There are tried and true Mother’s Day dishes that are a hit for a reason. People come to associate certain dishes with certain days, and that’s totally cool. We recommend leaning into that and not straying too far, since fan service is what this day is all about. By “fan service” we mean being fans of moms. Let’s look at some classic ideas.
Sweet, sweet carbs
There’s nothing more satisfying on a special day than carbohydrates, especially if you’ve skipped breakfast and saved yourself for a big Mother’s Day brunch.
Consider serving classic breakfast pastries such as cinnamon rolls sprinkled with pecans, Danishes, scones, buns, croissants, or Dutch baby pancakes. You could serve puff pastries on a sharing platter or a tiered plate stand (British afternoon tea style).
Of course, classics like buttermilk pancakes and waffles with maple syrup will be a huge hit too. They can be paired with fried chicken on top or bacon on the side for those craving a combination of savory and sweet.
French toast is an easy and quick dish to prepare for a Mother’s Day brunch. Once the base of the meal is there you can be as creative as you want. Serving with powdered sugar and fresh fruit is a simple option, but fun flavor combinations like lemon and lavender make the menu more memorable. Or perhaps there’s something that your restaurant is known for that you could serve on the side, like house-made sausage or honey butter.
Healthy options
Not everyone wants a heavy breakfast, and menus that accommodate different diets are one of the most important recent food trends. Let’s have a look at some healthy Mother’s Day brunch ideas that don’t compromise on good flavor.
A complex breakfast recipe isn’t always necessary. A simple and fresh fruit salad works well this time of year. Try making homemade granola and serving it with the option of milk or yogurt. Consider your vegan guests here: Offer a version of this brunch dish with milk and yogurt alternatives.
A frittata is great for diners who are on a low-carb diet. A creatively made frittata or quiche can stand alone as a filling dish. Try adding ricotta, feta, or goat cheese as some healthy fats to bulk up this dish. Veggies such as asparagus, spinach, and scallions work well for a spring menu.
Another low-carb option is the exotic shakshuka which hails from North Africa and the Middle East. It’s essentially poached eggs in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, olive oil, onion, and garlic. It’s usually spiced with cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. This could be the perfect dish if you like to give your guests a taste of the wider world while staying healthy.
Bagels
This legendary Jewish bread has become synonymous with breakfast around the world and offers restaurant owners so much diversity of ideas that it deserves its own section. Offer at least a few different types of bagels. Blueberry, cinnamon raisin, everything, asiago, and rainbow are the top five people pleasers, according to Grubhub.
Avocado toast with a poached egg on top of a poppy seed bagel is a delicious option that works well for vegetarians. Scrambled egg works too if you opt for bagel sandwiches with cheese and meat. Smoked salmon and cream cheese is also a guaranteed winning combo. Be vigilant of where you source your salmon from — freshness and sustainability are on your diners’ minds.
Eggs benedict is traditionally served on English muffins with Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Why not try swapping the English muffins out for bagels for a different take on this classic New York brunch?
A Mother’s Day brunch is a great excuse to drink alcohol before noon. You could try creating a casual prix fixe menu here — prix fixe doesn’t have to be reserved for fine dining! Start with a “choose your bagel” section where guests can peruse a long list of fun bagel toppings and bread types. Next, they can pick a side dish like breakfast potatoes, fruit, or a fresh salad. Finally, let guests choose a drink pairing for their bagel, whether that’s coffee, orange juice, or a free cocktail for Mom (nothing completes a brunch like mimosas and bloody marys).
Mother’s Day desserts
Let’s hope that for the sake of diners and restaurant owners that this Mother’s Day will be a day of splurging. Celebrations deserve a decadent dessert option.
Crepes will give you a ton of options that will let you put your restaurant’s mark on this easy Mother’s Day recipe. Try adding baked apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon into a crepe for what is essentially an innovative way of serving up an apple pie. Serve with whipped cream and viola!
Desserts are another great chance to upsell. You can add the option of a hot drink or dessert cocktail alongside an eclectic range of baked goods. Coffee cake is an easy creation, or try serving a variety of cheesecakes for a fresher-tasting option. Also add some hearty high-calorie options like bread pudding and hot chocolate chip cookies à la mode.
Unleash your creative side when planning Mother’s Day brunch
Mother’s Day has the potential to be one of your highest earning days of the year. Getting your FOH right in terms of staffing, seating, and ambiance are key to a successful day. Additionally, perfecting your menu and marketing it creatively is essential to ensure success on the big day.
When you’re hit with a huge flood of customers, you’ll need FOH software you can count on. Consider trying out a new suite of technology that could help to put your restaurant on the map this Mother’s Day. Take charge of your front-of-house management with Yelp Guest Manager. This software supports your team by handling reservations and waitlists, allowing customers to check themselves in, and so much more. Restaurants that start using Guest Manager experience up to 2X the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.*
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