Summer menu & marketing ideas for restaurants

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Summertime, and the living is easy for your diners … especially at your restaurant with a good drink in hand and a refreshing summer-ified dish on the way. Offering a summer seasonal menu or switching out some more winter-friendly dishes can attract customers of all varieties looking for refreshing warm-weather flavors. It’s time to get brainstorming for summer menu ideas for restaurants of all types.

No matter what genre your establishment falls in, you can find many ways to integrate summery dishes into your repertoire. And really, there is no end to the ideas—but the feel is the important bit. Whether you’re doing a simple weeknight dinner or a more complex, multi-dish prix fixe menu, consider what flavors and feelings you want to convey with your menu offerings.

So, let’s get into some summer menu ideas.

Why should restaurants make a summer push, and how can they benefit?

Bring the summer vibes

For most of the U.S., summertime is a great time to be outdoors. If you are in Texas, Arizona, inland California, or a number of other exceedingly hot places, you may take umbrage with that statement—so hopefully your air conditioning is working well. But really, a stock image of “summer” looks like people grilling food, splashing in the water, relaxing outdoors, and—perhaps most importantly for a restaurant—socializing.

In fact, the average American is 31% more socially active during the summer than during the winter. So, it’s the perfect opportunity for restaurants to lean into summer vibes and offer their services as a social destination. If you have an outdoor space like a patio, rooftop, or garden, you’ll want to make it as welcoming as possible—and market it. If you find you’ve got a slow part of the day, like classic happy hour times from 4-6 p.m., give that a go and make refreshing cocktails a staple of your establishment.

Consider also offering entertainment options and activity nights like trivia, live music, speed dating or singles mixing, or lawn games like bocce ball if you have the space. While many sports are off season then, professional baseball is still going strong, so tap into your local baseball fans and advertise specials during the games—and potentially discounts for those wearing team colors.

Of course, you’ll want to jump on marketing opportunities to make your spot the hot spot for summer. More on that later—let’s get to menu inspo.

Menu ideas for summer weather

It’s time to put the heavy, rich menu items fully on pause and go light and fresh for summer. These ideas will get customers excited to give you a visit.

Grilled and chilled

Summers and BBQ are best friends. Grilling in the sunshine is one of the main staples of the summer season. Make sure to offer grilled dishes during the summer to make patio season even sweeter. So, here are some dinner ideas to follow that logic.

Grilled chicken tacos, BBQ pork ribs, steaks, burgers, grilled shrimp skewers, fresh fish tacos, and more can find itself onto your grill, whether it’s indoor or outdoor. Grilled veggies like zucchini, bell peppers, or other summer vegetables are always popular, especially when prepared with a zesty marinade. Simple kebabs—grilled bits of meat and vegetables on skewers—are eternally popular in the summer.

Fusion flavors can be fun for summer dinner ideas, like Mexican-Korean and Greek-American. Imagine grilled pork ribs with gochujang-based BBQ sauce, or mesquite-grilled, tzatziki-drenched grilled chicken skewers with cherry tomatoes and pickled jalapenos, for example.

To go with grilled foods, chilled side dishes and fresh fruit work wonderfully. We heartily recommend serving chilled fresh fruit like watermelon as a standard, free post-meal offering to help your guests leave with a smile on their faces. Watermelon is fairly inexpensive, so giving it away as part of the deal is a nice “thank you” to guests.

Salads and chilled soups

Salads are a big hit in the summer. With crispy, crunchy fresh veggies of all kinds, the world is really your oyster here. From a classic balsamic or lemony vinaigrette over an arugula-based salad to inventive dressings your chefs whip up, you can really crack open the creativity box here.

Integrating fresh herbs into both your salads and your dressings can help them stand out. A basil-balsamic vinaigrette with grilled chicken, chickpeas, bell peppers, fresh mozzarella, and parmesan or feta for protein can be a solid meal in itself. Sweetening up salads with blueberries or strawberries can often make a hit. Burrata has become quite popular recently and can be the centerpiece of a salad.

Cilantro can make its way into many Mexican or Asian dishes with its classic refreshing taste. A caprese salad with fresh tomatoes, red onions, nutty components like walnuts is a winner as well. Potato salad is also about as summer-friendly as it gets, and is a classic that’s easy to make in large quantities. It’s also budget-friendly.

Summer soups are distinct from winter soups in that they don’t need to warm the belly. You probably know that. So what can a good summer soup look like?

You can take a page from gazpacho’s playbook and serve chilled soups. Yes, indeed, many kinds of soups can be served chilled, and there are many varieties of gazpacho—which you could run on a rotating basis. A roasted tomato gazpacho with cream can be an excellent appetizer or side dish. Got a really hot day? Try a cold cucumber soup with tzatziki and fresh herbs. You can rotate your soups throughout the summer and make them part of your regular menu depending on what’s freshest and what strikes your chef’s fancy.

Fresh, fresh, fresh

Freshness is the key to flavor, and fresh produce is widely available in summer. When designing your summer salad recipe, for example, try to source your vegetables as locally as possible to ensure freshness.

The movement towards local, sustainable food can benefit restaurants in many ways: in flavor, in cost savings, and in customer appreciation. Advertising where your vegetables come from, if they’re from a local farm, can help build your fanbase.

Partnering with local suppliers and farmers can help ensure the quality of your produce and lead to some interesting dinner recipe ideas as well. Making specials out of what is particularly fresh and in season will help keep your menu interesting, keep costs down, and give you varied advertising opportunities.

If you’re near the coast, play up fresh seafood like fish, scallops, oysters, and more. There are about a million ways to serve these, from pasta dish ideas like linguine alla vongole or you can serve scallops or clams Vietnamese style, grilled and topped with fresh green onions, peanuts, and garlic.

Punchy flavors

Punchy, zesty flavors can be the cornerstone of savory summer recipes. For this, turn to fresh herbs and citrus. The classic combination of lime and cilantro has long been a cornerstone of Mexican cuisine, and for good reason: Mexico mostly has a warm climate.

All genres of food can benefit from a healthy addition of fresh herbs, but especially Italian, Mediterranean, or Vietnamese.

Fresh basil gives a number of dishes a lift, for example, and a distinct flavor that can cross culinary boundaries. Whether you’re using Italian basil, Thai holy basil, or any other kind, it can make its way into a number of sauces, dressings, marinades, and more. Pesto anything works well in the summer, too.

Juicy citrus like limes, lemons, and tangerines can also add a lot of brightness to dishes. Whether they’re served as a garnish or as an integral part of the dish, citrus is a summer must. If you’re serving tacos, lime on the side is crucial. Both lime and lemon match excellently with seafood. And tangerines can be added to salads for a sweet, tangy kick.

Desserts

Naturally, a summer menu has to involve desserts. What would summer be without dessert?

In addition to classics like peach cobbler or any number of fruit pies, consider offering homemade sorbets as well. Sorbets made with fresh fruit cap off any summer meal in a satisfying way.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention ice cream, of course. And while serving pre-made ice cream works just fine, making ice cream in your kitchen can be a smash hit. Homemade ice cream is an instant draw and will be an easily marketable item. When customers know they can get a unique item from you rather than one bought from the store, their ears are likely to perk up.

Summer happy hour

A happy hour can be a blissful time in the summer. Sipping a cold beer or cocktail with friends during sunset is an excellent way to start an evening for many people, especially in a beautiful and friendly setting. People that come for happy hour stand a good chance of sticking around for dinner, but be sure to offer appetizer specials to go along with happy hour to liven up social situations.

For cocktails, check out our drinks trends for 2024. Drinks that are especially popular this year include:

• The Hugo Spritz: A refreshing low-alcohol cocktail made with elderflower topped with prosecco and sparkling water. Searches for the Hugo Spritz were up 408% in 2023.
• The martini multiverse: There are a lot of ways to make a good martini. You can let your bartenders’ imaginations run wild here, since people appear keen to try all kinds of new martinis. Matcha martinis were up 1,323% in searches in 2023, for example.
• Coffee cocktails: Espresso martinis are rightfully popular, but others like the carajillo, a Latin-American version of an Irish coffee, are booming in popularity as well. Searches were up 118% in 2023 for a carajillo.
• Smoothies and mocktails: Plenty of people don’t want to drink on any given day, so make sure you offer interesting alcohol-free beverages. Fresh smoothies and mocktails give you an opportunity to use whatever fresh fruit is on hand to make new creations and get guests a refreshing beverage without the resulting tipsiness.

Marketing your summer menu ideas

You’ll want to get the word out about your summer menu ideas. You’ll also want to push the sociability of your place with happy hour offerings as well as the aforementioned social activities. Social media marketing is your friend in such a case. You’ll want to advertise before the summer really kicks in to reap the maximum rewards. Use tantalizing photos of your food and beverages as well as photos and videos of your establishment when it’s busy. Making the social aspect of your establishment front and center can help draw in groups of friends and hopefully help regular customers bring people with them next time.

We recommend at least one social media post per week on all relevant platforms, and really, more is better. Work with local influencers to get the word out about your summer menu on their social media platforms to help build hype.

If people are having fun at your place, they’re likely to come back—and tell their friends.

Get your front-of-house ready for the heat

With summer here and your menu readied, you can prepare for hordes to hopefully descend upon your restaurant and chow down. But you need to be prepared for it, of course. So what’s the best way to get ready?

Make sure your front-of-house is in tip-top shape with the best software. Customers want to be able to make an online reservation, hop on a waitlist, or see what tables you have available. They’ll want easy-to-find delivery, too. What can handle all that seamlessly?

Enter Yelp Guest Manager. It does all that and much more. Want to see how it works? Curious if it’s right for you? Reach out to us for a free demo and we’ll get you started—just in time for summer.