Saturday, May 24, 2008

Changing Your Restaurant From Lunch To Dinner

By Patricia Farnham

It is a good idea to transform the atmosphere of your restaurant from the afternoon to night. You want your customers who come in for either meal to be very happy with what they find. Dinner is often a classier meal for those who choose to dine out so make sure you offer them something spectacular. It doesn't have to cost you very much or be difficult to achieve.

Think about the table settings you use for lunch. Most are happy with paper place mats or nothing but the silverware on the table. Why not kick it up a notch with some colorful table cloths and napkins? Your guests will love the classy feel of it and look forward to coming in for their favorite foods.

For example you likely use paper place mats for your lunch crowd. This is fine and most of them won't give it a second though. You can easily upgrade to cloth table settings in lovely colors. Get pretty napkins and fold them into a great design. This will definitely enhance the look of the table where they will eat dinner over what they see during lunch time.

You can easily change the entire look of your restaurant with the lighting. You will want it to be brighter for lunch than you do for dinner. You can open the curtains and use the lights. For dinner you can close the curtains and dim the lights. Ask an electrician to let you know what it will cost to change from a lighting system that is either on or off to one that you can control the brightness of.

The music in your restaurant is important to evaluate as well. Most places offer some type of background music for their guests. It is often subtle enough though that it doesn't interfere with their socializing. You may want to think about different music to offer for dinner than at lunch time. This is a very simple yet effective way to transform the overall atmosphere.

Allowing guests to seat themselves for lunch is fine, but you don't want to allow it for dinner. Place a sign that asks guests to please wait to be seated. Make sure a friendly face greets them and escorts them to available seating that you offer. Make sure guests can offer a preference too so they won't be placed where they aren't going to enjoy their dinner.

You can easily implement these tips as well as others that may be a good move for your specific type of restaurant. If you are careful in your planning stages you will find this transformation doesn't have to be expensive. You should view it as an investment in the longevity of your restaurant. You want this to be something that works quite well for you and that staff can accomplish in a short span of time.

Making these changes for your restaurant from afternoon to night can be very simple too. You will need to have your staff allocate some time to make physical changes to it. You will also need to invest in some supplies to accomplish this. Other types of changes though aren't going to cost you anything at all. Yet they will certainly be very effective and get more customers coming in for both lunch and dinner.

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