Restaurant Logo Ideas | Grubhub for Restaurants
Your restaurant’s logo is the most recognizable and influential part of your restaurant’s brand — it helps your company stand out in a crowd and creates a strong connection with customers. Logos create a visual and emotional tie between customers and their favorite brands. If you ask the average diner what a McDonald’s logo looks like or what colors the Domino’s logo has, they probably can answer at the drop of a hat. Creating a logo that resonates with customers can help make your restaurant more recognizable, keeping your brand on customers’ minds.
If your logo is ready for a refresh, it’s helpful to start by browsing popular restaurant logo ideas. When you can pinpoint why certain designs are successful, it’s easier to create a logo that elevates your company’s visual branding.
Restaurant branding: what makes it important?
Branding is the way you convey your restaurant’s identity and distinguish it from competitors. A brand consists of multiple components, including its values, visual identity, messaging, and unique selling proposition.
The visual identity of a brand — the fonts, colors, and graphics that represent the company — helps shape the public perception of your restaurant. Done well, these elements can create a positive impression even before diners take their first bite. Done poorly, they can turn off customers and prevent them from giving your food a chance.
Branding also helps potential customers understand your business. Your logo, in particular, provides clues about the style and type of food you serve. That’s why vegan and vegetarian restaurants often use leaf imagery and shades of green; because these elements are associated with fresh, healthy and natural food, they signal that a restaurant serves plant-based cuisine. Likewise, fine-dining restaurant logo designs tend to use delicate fonts and sparse, abstract imagery to convey exclusivity and elegance.
A strong logo is essential to building brand awareness — the extent to which the public is familiar with your restaurant’s name and visual identity. Think about the biggest brands in the world; chances are, you can picture their logos immediately. That’s because they’re distinctive, simple, and tied strongly to the company’s identity.
When you’re looking for ways to boost your digital restaurant branding strategy, a great logo is a must. With the prevalence of logo makers and logo templates, creating a stunning design has never been more accessible.
Key elements of good logo design
Logos might seem simple, but the graphic design process is surprisingly detailed. Whether you’re using a restaurant logo maker or working with a marketing agency, make sure to keep these rules in mind:
- Keep it simple. Your logo will be published in a wide variety of sizes across both digital and print mediums. Minimal detailing makes it easier to read, even at the smallest sizes.
- Make it striking. The most memorable restaurant logos use at least one bold element. The McDonald’s logo, with its oversized “M” and bright yellow and red color scheme, is a good example.
- stay with the times. There’s a reason restaurant logos change over time — they need to keep up with changing customer preferences for design and style. The best logos feel contemporary, but not trendy.
- Be original. It’s easy to fall back on cliches or copy existing logos, but originality can help your business stand out from the crowd.
- Follow design rules. Stick to two critical principles of good restaurant logo design: balance and proportion. Logos that are off-balance or disproportionate tend to make customers feel uncomfortable.
Most logos have two key parts: the wordmark and the mark. The wordmark consists of the logo’s text — usually, the name of your restaurant. The mark, which is also called the logomark, is the graphical element. It might be an image, an icon or a shape. On the Taco Bell logo, the mark is the brand’s iconic bell.
Keep in mind that some logos use a wordmark only. When that happens, the designer typically selects an eye-catching font to help the logo stand out. Your design might also include a tagline or a frame.
4 restaurants logo ideas
Graphic designers tend to use a few similar patterns when creating restaurant logos. As you’re searching for restaurant branding inspiration, consider these four tried-and-true layout ideas:
- Wordmark only. Simple and clean, these logos are the easiest to make; just select a font and add color. This style is popular with upscale restaurants such as Noma and The Wolseley.
- Separate wordmarks and marks. This type of logo features the name of your restaurant below or to the right of a graphic mark. An example is the Dunkin’ Donuts logo, which features a cup of coffee positioned next to the stacked brand name.
- Wordmark framed by graphic. For a strong visual statement, frame your restaurant name with your mark. Arby’s logo follows this pattern; the name sits in the center of a cowboy hat.
- Wordmarks with taglines. If your tagline is essential to your food business’s brand, this option can help you incorporate it elegantly. Make sure to create a hierarchy by placing the tagline below the restaurant name in a smaller font. Most brands use this format sparingly; occasionally, you’ll see the McDonald’s logo paired with “I’m lovin’ it” or the Papa John’s logo positioned above “Better ingredients. Better Pizza.”
When restaurants rebrand, their new logos can attract a great deal of attention. Olive Garden is a prime example — their 2014 logo redesign revealed a cleaner, more modern look that marked a significant departure from the dated, overly detailed original. Starbucks has also evolved its logo over the years to keep up with changing design styles, all while maintaining an instantly recognizable visual identity and consistent imagery.
Tips for making a restaurant logo
As you create a logo design for your restaurant, choose each element carefully. The fonts, colors and graphics you choose will affect how customers view your brand.
Font selection, in particular, is critical. To start, pick an option that’s easy to read, even at small sizes. Then, look for styles that represent the personality of your restaurant. It’s usually best to avoid polarizing fonts that elicit strong negative reactions, such as Papyrus and Comic Sans.
Logo colors are important because they’re tied to both emotions and stereotypes. Seafood restaurants often use blue because of its association with the ocean. Mexican restaurants often use orange and yellow; these warm shades hint at spicy food and colorful cultural imagery. Red is a popular color among fast-food restaurants because it’s powerful, it’s energetic, and it stands out in a crowded environment.
When it comes to graphics, proceed with caution. The best logos stick to simplified silhouettes that relate directly to the brand. The Sonic logo, for example, features shapes that hint at a vintage drive-in sign.
Finding the right placement for your restaurant logo
Before you finalize the graphic design of your logo, make sure it will work on different marketing channels. After all, you’ll want to place it in multiple locations to reinforce your restaurant branding. At a minimum, it should appear on:
- Print and digital menus
- Restaurant signage
- Business cards
- Printed brochures, coupons, and flyers
- Social media profiles
- staff uniforms
- Professional e-mail signatures
- Business merchandise
- Restaurant website
- Branded delivery websites from services such as Grubhub Direct
- Food delivery apps
Your logo plays a big role in the way the public sees your restaurant. By spending the time to create a strong design and placing it prominently on all key marketing materials, you can build stronger brand awareness and keep your company at the top of customers’ minds.
Are you ready to get your logo in front of more customers? Partner with Grubhub today to help market your brand and drive more orders to your restaurant.
The importance of a multi-lingual restaurant staff
As cities across the United States become increasingly diverse, restaurant owners are adjusting their practices to better serve diners. Bilingual workforces are growing, allowing businesses to cater toward non-English speaking customers. By hiring employees with a strong grasp of Spanish restaurants, you can create a better experience for a wider range of diners.
Why bilingual staff members are an asset to your business
If you run a restaurant in the United States, chances are good that a percentage of your customers are fluent in Spanish. About 41.76 million people speak Spanish at home; next to English, it’s the most common language in the country. Bilingual staff members enable you to communicate with a diverse customer base, making all your diners feel more comfortable and welcome. They give you a distinct competitive advantage — people who speak Spanish as a first language may be more likely to choose your restaurant if they can converse fluently with staff about the dinner menu, wine options and food allergies.
Experts expect Spanish to grow in popularity in the coming decades. While the majority of the country’s Spanish-speaking population has historically been concentrated in nine states, statisticians are seeing a move toward a broader geographic spread. Whether you run a Spanish restaurant in Florida or an American diner in Michigan, bilingual employees can prepare the company for changing demographics.
The most successful restaurants go a step beyond hiring multilingual employees; they train staff members in niche-specific restaurant Spanish vocabulary and explain how Spanish dinner etiquette varies from culture to culture. For example, when serving customers from Spain, the trickiest aspect of service is waiting to deliver the check until it’s requested. Diners from Mexico and Central America, on the other hand, may have different expectations.
Hiring a diverse staff
Hiring bilingual employees can be a challenge, especially if you aren’t fluent in both English and Spanish. Don’t rely on applicants’ self-assessment of language skills — find someone who’s both bilingual and experienced in the restaurant industry. They’ll be able to help you conduct the search and evaluate candidates more effectively.
When you’re hiring new staff, try these best practices:
- Use bilingual job descriptions.
- Advertise on Spanish-language job boards to reach a diverse group of job seekers.
- Ask current bilingual employees for referrals.
- Find a bilingual person to evaluate candidates’ language abilities.
- Switch between both languages in the interview.
- Test interviewees on their food-related Spanish phrases.
- Judge applicants’ Spanish vocabulary with a written test.
As you’re hiring, be mindful of your customers’ cultural background. If most diners speak a Latin American dialect, you might prioritize candidates who learned Spanish in Latin America as opposed to Spain. This strategy helps you find employees who can use precise regional vocabulary. Of course, if you’re serving authentic Spanish cuisine, you might opt for workers who learned the language in Europe.
Restaurant Spanish: important phrases for all team members to know
For many restaurants, it’s not feasible to hire a full bilingual workforce. However, if you have a large Spanish-speaking customer base, consider training your existing staff in a basic Spanish restaurant. Knowing even a few phrases can help servers communicate more efficiently with people who speak limited English.
Into your standard Spanish vocabulary training, start by teaching basic phrases: bienvenidos (welcome), por favor (please), gracias (thank you), buenos días (good morning) and incorporate buenas tardes/noches (good afternoon/evening). Help employees expand their knowledge by hosting language classes or providing on-the-job training with bilingual employees.
At a minimum, staff members should understand key Spanish dinner, lunch, and breakfast words:
- Dinner: la cena
- Lunch: el almuerzo
- Breakfast: el desayuno
- Allergy: He’s allergic
- Table: la mesa
- Half portion: una media ración
- Appetizer: plato de entrada
- Entrée: plato principal, plato fuerte
- Quiero/quieres: I want/you want
- Beef: carne de res
- Chicken: pollo
- Beer: la cerveza
- Soft drink: el fresco
- Coffee: el cafe
- Spicy: picante
- Large: grande
- Small: pequeña
- Still water/sparkling water: agua sin gas/agua con gas
- Wine: el vino
- Plate: elplato
- Fork: el tenedor
- Knife: el cuchillo
- Spoon: la cuchara
- Glass: copa/vaso
- Bill/check: la cuenta
Navigating a multilingual kitchen
When you start introducing multiple languages into a restaurant kitchen, you can expect an adjustment period as staff from different linguistic backgrounds learn to communicate. Whether you’re running a Spanish restaurant or you simply have a diverse staff, a few communication and inclusivity best practices can create a more welcoming environment for everyone on the team:
- Promote language learning on the job.
- Offer language training in both English and Spanish.
- Establish a no-tolerance policy for insults or bullying.
- Encourage workers to share their languages and cultures.
- Discuss specific vocabulary for authentic Spanish cuisine and Latin American food.
- Bring in translators for performance reviews and training sessions.
- Offer multiple channels for employee feedback to accommodate everyone.
- Take employee feedback seriously.
A company culture that prioritizes connections and celebrates employees’ unique backgrounds tends to feel positive and inclusive for everyone; it helps workers feel safe and reduces employee turnover.
Your restaurant manager play a big role — other employees will look to them for behavioral clues. To help managers navigate a bilingual kitchen more effectively, consider sending them for immersive language training. They might not become fluent overnight, but the extra language skills will go a long way toward breaking down communication barriers and enabling a free flow of ideas. It takes time and effort to build a bilingual restaurant workforce, but the investment can pay off significantly. When you provide services in multiple languages, it’s easier to attract a broader range of customers and build a foundation for long-term success. Need a partner to help your restaurant grow? Sign up for Grubhub today to reach more customers.
Nourish Group restaurants team up to raise funds for KidsCan & SPCA –
Iconic restaurants from Auckland, Andiamo & Jervois Steak House alongside Wellington’s Shed 5, are teaming up with drops from wineries Grove Mill, Mt Difficulty, Martinborough Vineyard and Te Kairanga for an evening of charity donation.
One hundred percent of selected Foley Wines and fifty percent of a la carte purchases on Tuesday 28 March will go to KidsCan and SPCA in areas of New Zealand affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
KidsCan is on a mission to get clothing and food supplies to children and their families via schools and early childhood centers in Auckland, Northland, Hawke’s Bay, and Tairāwhiti and are helping displaced families start again by providing beds, bedding, whiteware, furniture and household items. The SPCA has been working hard on the ground in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Northland, rescuing displaced animals, providing lifesaving transport and shelter and much needed support to vulnerable pet-owners.
Bookings for the fundraiser are now open and can be made on the restaurants’ website at https://www.thenourishgroup.co.nz/
How To Make a Restaurant Schedule
Restaurant scheduling is both an art and a science — it must simultaneously serve the business, satisfy customer demand, and account for employees’ needs. Given the complex factors involved, it’s safe to expect a certain amount of trial and error. Stick with it and you can create a workable restaurant schedule that keeps operations running smoothly and efficiently.
Why is restaurant scheduling important?
Restaurant scheduling creates the framework for your operations. A predictable schedule makes it easier to assign duties, plan deliveries and ensure busy shifts are adequately staffed. It also helps you spread out the workload, ensuring every employee has a chance to work lucrative shifts. That balance is critical, given that hiring is one of the biggest restaurant challenges in 2023; a fair distribution of labor can keep employees happy and boost retention.
The restaurant schedule you choose depends primarily on your business hours. Some common types of schedules are:
- 5-2-2-5. Employees work 12-hour shifts in the pattern of 5 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, and 5 days off. While the shifts are tiring, this schedule enables employees to work full-time while enjoying long stretches of time off.
- 2-2-3. If your restaurant is open 24 hours a day, this schedule might be the right choice. Employees work 2 days, have 2 days off, and work 3 days. To make it work, you need four separate teams of employees who are willing to work 12-hour shifts.
- 5-4-9. This schedule follows a 2-week pattern and requires a 5-day work week. The first week, an employee works 4 9-hour days and 1 8-hour day. The second week, they work 4 9-hour days and get the fifth day off. You might also see this method called a 9/80 schedule.
- open. With an open-hour schedule, you publish available shifts in advance. Staff members can then sign up to fill the time slots that fit their schedule.
Instead of sticking to a rigid schedule template, many restaurants opt to split longer shifts into two shorter shifts. Instead of one 12-hour shift, you might plan an 8-hour shift and a 4-hour shift, for example. This strategy limits long, stressful work days, which reduces burnout and employee turnover.
How to build a shift schedule
When you’re building a shift schedule for your restaurant, there are a few key components to keep in mind. First, consider whether you’re using a fixed or rotating schedule. In a fixed schedule, employees work the same days and hours each week. With a rotating schedule, employees move through different shifts; that way, everyone has a chance to work busy hours with the biggest potential for tips. It’s also important to determine the shift length and the ratio of work days to days off.
Policies are another key component of employee scheduling. These rules govern the process and help employees understand what to expect. At a minimum, your restaurant should have written policies for:
- Requesting time off
- Claiming shifts (if applicable)
- Swapping shifts or covering for other workers
- Overtime pay and limits
- Back-to-back shifts
- Maximum hours per week
As you’re creating a shift schedule, follow these basic steps:
- Set the shifts. Determine the number of shifts you need and the best length for each one. The shift structure should typically be the same each week — that way, you can simply use a restaurant schedule template to speed up the process — but you might occasionally need to make small changes based on employee availability and special events.
- List duties for each shift. Examine the calendar for the upcoming week to determine what needs to be done during each shift. Include tasks such as kitchen preparation, sidework, training new employees and setting up for special events.
- Estimated diner volume. Examine your reservations log and historical sales data to determine the expected sales volume for each shift. Make sure to check local event calendars; if there’s a festival or conference happening nearby, you may need a larger staff to handle the extra foot traffic.
- Consider employee needs. Check for time-off requests and employee conflicts for the upcoming week to determine who’s available for each shift.
- Assign employees to each shift. Determine how many people you need for each open shift. Schedule more employees for busy periods; keep staffing light for slow periods to save on labor costs and help workers maximize tips. If some of your staff members work on a fixed schedule, this process might simply involve adding extra workers to busy shifts.
Restaurant schedule: tips for happy employees
Fair, consistent staff scheduling is an essential part of a productive restaurant culture. To make sure the process accommodates your employees’ needs, follow these best practices:
- Publish the schedule as early as possible.
- Use scheduling templates for consistency and speed.
- Select a digital format for convenience and accessibility.
- Make sure employees understand scheduling policies.
- Be flexible to account for employees’ life events.
- Ensure shifts are adequately staffed to avoid overwork.
- Consider employees’ skills and preferences when scheduling.
- Use a central communication hub to keep each shift updated.
Keep in mind that it will take time to develop a schedule that works well for your team and business. Restaurant managers should observe employees, watch the time clock and monitor labor data to make sure the process is equitable. For example, a pattern of excessive shift swaps could indicate your current schedule is at odds with employees’ personal commitments. If you notice certain shifts are consistently understaffed, it might be time to recruit new restaurant staff to provide extra coverage and enable a better distribution of labor.
By adapting the restaurant scheduling system to help employees maintain a better work-life balance, you can increase job satisfaction and increase retention. While you work to find the right solution, employee recognition incentives can encourage staff members to be patient and stick with the company.
Useful restaurant schedule software
If you have a sizable workforce and multiple daily shifts, building a restaurant schedule is a time-consuming task. Restaurant scheduling software can speed up the process and free you up to tackle revenue-generating projects. These programs benefit your business by:
- Enabling you to edit the schedule from anywhere
- Forecasting demand using historical labor data
- Generating automatic schedules
- Allowing employees to request changes digitally
- Adjusting automatically to shift swaps and other staff scheduling changes
- Providing customizable notifications for managers and staff
The right software program improves the experience for everyone on your team. Employees can log in at any time to see their schedule, eliminating confusion and allowing for advance planning. Workers can request changes quickly and conveniently, giving you more time to cover open shifts.
A variety of manufacturers offer scheduling software; popular options include Paycor, 7shifts, Jolt and ToastTab. Like Grubhub, many scheduling programs are engineered to integrate with your POS system for a seamless employee experience. Be sure to check compatibility with your delivery and POS programs before you invest; software that works with your existing tech stack helps the process move faster.
Don’t have a delivery platform? Grubhub makes it easy to connect your POS software and restaurant scheduling programs. To try it out, get started today.
How to control your food expenses
alone — the rising price of food is one of the biggest challenges for restaurant owners in 2023. While costs are always subject to fluctuation, this year brings a perfect storm of economic forces. Inflation, persistent supply chain disruptions, and a possible recession are driving increases of 10% or more across the board. By finding ways to control costs, you can maintain a positive cash flow and protect your bottom line.
What impacts the cost of food?
The global food market is complex and interconnected, which means an incident across the world can have a significant impact on your restaurant’s operations. For example, Ukraine typically produces 10% of the world’s wheat and 13% of its barley; the Russian invasion has affected crops and exports, reducing the global supply and increasing prices.
Some other factors that affect the cost of food include:
- Supply chain problems. Ongoing disruptions to the global supply chain slow the supply of both food and the packaging it comes in.
- Natural disasters. Storms and unexpected climate conditions can wipe out crops, destroy stored food, or disrupt shipments.
- Disease outbreaks. Diseases that affect crops or animals can drastically reduce the available food supply. In late 2022, for example, an outbreak of avian flu caused egg prices to rise by nearly 60%.
- Labor issues. Food producers rely heavily on human labor; when they have staffing shortages, it can affect supply and drive up prices.
- energy prices. High energy prices make it more expensive to process and transport food.
Types of restaurant food expenses
When you run a restaurant, there are three primary types of food expenses to consider when you’re building a menu: recipe cost, plate cost and period cost.
- Recipe cost is the amount of money you need to spend to make a recipe. To find it, calculate the price of each ingredient. If a recipe takes 1 pound of flour and you spend $30 on a 50-pound bag, the cost for that ingredient would be 60 cents.
- Plate cost refers to the cost of a meal on your menu. If it’s part of a larger recipe, you can simply divide the recipe cost by the number of servings. Otherwise, add the cost of each ingredient or element of the dish.
- period cost is the amount you spend on food over a specific period of time. To calculate it, take the dollar value of your inventory at the beginning of the period and add the value of any purchases you make during the period. Then, subtract the value of the remaining inventory at the end of the period to get your total food cost.
When you understand each type of food expense, it’s easier to set appropriate menu prices. Track each cost regularly — that way you can spot seasonal increases for specific ingredients and adjust your menu accordingly. If blueberries are more expensive in the winter, you might focus on desserts that incorporate cheaper, in-season ingredients such as lemons or oranges. Adopt a seasonal menu to keep up with changing flavor profiles.
Current food-expense data also helps you react quickly when customers reduce spending on restaurants and entertainment.
Food cost percentage: how to calculate it and why it’s important
Food cost percentage is the expense of your ingredients expressed as a percentage of your revenue. This number is an important reference point when you’re keeping tabs on food expenses and profits. If your food cost percentage is too high, you may need to reduce food spending or increase prices to avoid diminishing your restaurant’s profit margin.
In general, a good food cost percentage for restaurants falls between 25% and 40%, but the ideal target depends on your restaurant’s typical meal expense. If you run a fine-dining business that serves caviar and prime cuts of beef, you might have a food cost percentage between 35% and 40%; for a sandwich shop, this number might be closer to 25%.
To calculate your food cost percentage, follow these steps:
- Choose a specific period of time and calculate the period cost for your food (value of beginning inventory + value of purchases – value of ending inventory).
- Calculate the total menu item food sales for the same period of time.
- Divide the period cost by the total food sales and multiply by 100 to get the food cost percentage.
3 ways to control your food expenses
When prices are high, it’s more important than ever to control food costs. Reducing meal expenses creates more wiggle room in the budget to cover incidental expenses.
As you adjust your restaurant’s practices, it’s important to move gradually and keep an eye on the latest USDA food plans. Small, sustainable changes enable you to keep expenses in check while maintaining a consistent customer experience during a business meal or family dinner.
1. Get the best prices
When you need to control food costs, start by examining your supplier agreements. Some ways to get a good deal include:
- Shop around. Get quotes from multiple vendors to make sure you’re getting a fair price.
- Negotiate. If you’re happy with your current supplier, see if you can negotiate a better deal. You may need to offer something in return — sign a long-term commitment, for example, or order more products in return for discounted prices.
- Consolidate orders. Save money on shipping fees by consolidating your orders. Instead of ordering pasta and other dry goods every week, order once every 2 or 3 months. As a bonus, this strategy also makes it easier to get bulk discounts.
- Pay on time. Timely payments help your suppliers manage their cash flow. If you have a solid history, they may be more likely to cut you a deal to secure your loyalty.
- Find a local supplier. If your restaurant specializes in seasonal ingredients, consider partnering with a local farmer. You’ll pay less for transportation, and you can often negotiate a reasonable price for higher-quality foods.
Once you’ve found a satisfactory balance between food quality and cost, you can revisit your menu pricing strategy to ensure your food cost percentage falls within an acceptable range.
2. Customize your menu
Compare your menu to the last 3-12 months of sales data. What dishes sell consistently? What are the lowest-performing items? Do certain dishes sell only during specific months?
With these insights, customize your menu by:
- Eliminating low-performers. If certain dishes rarely or never sell, cut them from the menu. That way, the ingredients won’t take up valuable storage space, and you won’t need to worry about spoilage.
- Creating rotating offerings. If customers only order specific dishes during certain times, remove them from the menu the rest of the year.
- Focusing on seasonal ingredients. Ingredients are more plentiful when they’re in season, so prices tend to be lower. Create a seasonal menu that highlights these ingredients, and builds excitement among diners by writing mouthwatering menu descriptions.
Adjusting your menu on a regular basis helps you save money, but it also gives customers a reason to come back. To ensure diners are aware of the latest updates, make sure to communicate the changes in your restaurant with social media posts and marketing emails.
3. Control your inventory
When your inventory goes bad, it’s essentially wasted money. To control costs, manage your inventory carefully. Some ways to do so include:
- Track ingredients. Use software to track every ingredient; note which ingredients sit longer and adjust your ordering process accordingly.
- Order perishable ingredients locally. Locally sourced food has shorter transport times and more frequent deliveries, which can help reduce spoilage.
- Use promotions. If you notice that an ingredient is getting close to its expiration date, offer a special price on dishes that feature it. Grubhub Promotions makes it easy to increase visibility and increase sales for these menu items so you can quickly run through your inventory.
Cutting back on food waste
The food waste in your restaurant consists of the ingredients and leftovers you throw away every day. Spoiled food, returned meals, dropped trays, and inefficient preparation can all contribute to waste. By identifying the most wasteful aspects of your operations, you can get more mileage from your inventory and simultaneously reduce spending. Some ways to reduce food waste and manage your food costs include:
- Order ingredients to align with sales volume.
- Train kitchen staff in low-waste prep for each menu item.
- Prevent spoilage by using ingredients with a “first-in, first-out” approach.
- Standardize your recipes and portion sizes.
A low-waste operation benefits your bottom line — it cuts costs and keeps your food expenses under control, which leads to higher revenue.
Partner With Grubhub
As you find ways to control food costs in your restaurant, Grubhub can help. Your latest sales data is always available, enabling efficient analysis. Need to customize your menu items? The platform streamlines the process, so you can update the seasonal menu or push new promotions with just a few clicks. To get started, sign up for Grubhub today.
March game day promotion ideas for your restaurant
The college basketball tournament is coming. 67 games, 179,560 heart-wrenching, bracket-busting, Cinderella-storytelling minutes of action – and your restaurant can’t miss a single one. With over 10 million people tuning in for each basketball game in 2022 there are endless opportunities to score big this March.
Use these tips on how to grow your business, along with Grubhub, to conveniently offer the delicious food, tasty snacks, refreshing drinks and other essentials your hungry diners need to enjoy every minute of the mania.
How to capture more customers on game days
While the college basketball teams battle it out all month long, fans are eager to build their own brackets and follow their favorite teams to the end. The college basketball tournament tips off on March 14, and in the championship game on April 3. That means you have over 20 days to reach basketball fans and encourage them to include your restaurant in their game day strategy.
1. Offer game day deals
Promotions are the easiest way to bring the fans to your restaurant and a great way to encourage on-premise and off-premise dining. An irresistible deal could influence a diners’ game decision and motivate them to order from your restaurant, especially for those who are balling on a budget.
Is your restaurant listed on Grubhub Marketplace? With Marketplace, your restaurant can easily deploy mouthwatering promotions. You can offer a dollar off or a percentage off an order, or gift your customers with free delivery or a free menu item. You can also use promotions to encourage diner loyalty all tournament long. While diners are watching the game and enjoying delicious food, offer them a deal on their next delivery order to enjoy the next game.
Your game day deals can encourage in-person patronage as well.
Is your restaurant located near a college or university? College basketball is a perfect opportunity to get students to stop by. Offer a student discount for those who show you their student ID. Your restaurant can even host a tournament bracket contest where customers with the closest to perfect brackets win a prize.
If your restaurant is the perfect location for game day viewing, offer deals that will keep customers coming back all month long. Go old school and give out punch cards to diners that they can bring each time they visit your restaurant. After five punches, they can get a drink, an appetizer or even a meal for free. Make sure your restaurant is ready for game day viewing – that means televisions, plenty of seating and a stocked bar. You also want to schedule your staff to cover the game time crowd.
2. Create a special game-day menu items
It’s not just the fans cheering who can have all the fun. Use the tournament to create special game-day food bundles and party packages in your delivery menu on Grubhub. Include restaurant favorites or name each combo after one of the NCAA teams playing. Appetizers are likely to be the winning item, so make sure to prepare for larger volumes of orders.
What menu deals are sure to be a slam dunk?
- Game day basketball are great additions to your take out and delivery menus. Feed a watch party with shareable appetizers and drinks.
- happy hour deals score big during the March tournament. Start your happy hour earlier to align with game schedules.
- Team-themed drinks and dishes not only make your restaurant a big tournament contender, but also give you the opportunity to creatively rebrand your menu items all month long.
Is your restaurant located in a team’s homebase? This year there will be games hosted in over a dozen cities across the country. For the fans who made it to the watch party, offer a free drink if your team wins! Or better yet, if they lose, nothing cures the basketball blues like an ice-cold beer, right?
3. Use alcohol to increase online order sales
There’s no doubt alcohol plays a part in the madness this March. As a restaurant, this is a perfect time to promote your drink offerings.
Offering beverage delivery can be a buzzer beater shot that can put your restaurant on top. What are the top drinks during the March tournament? Beer is a must for any game day menu. Canned hard ciders and seltzers are also popular among fans and are easy to add to a delivery order. It’s also a good idea to offer cocktails – you can get creative and make themed cocktails based on the teams in the tournament. Take a look at more tips on how to optimize your restaurant for beverage delivery.
Adding alcohol and cocktails has become a huge opportunity for restaurants on Grubhub to easily increase the average order volume by a whopping $14-15. Read how restaurants are incorporating the latest to-go cocktail trends in their Grubhub delivery strategy.
4. Encourage online dining engagement
It’s no doubt that in order for restaurants to be successful, a strategic online presence is vital, especially during tournament season. In fact, 52% of March basketball tournament viewers were active on social media during the games last year. Twitter is a big hub for basketball fans, with tournament related topics reaching over 576,000 engagements and 1.57 billion impressions.
Does your restaurant have a winning social media presence? Easily connect with your audience online by taking part in the March mania on social media. If your restaurant has that perfect game-day setup, use social media and your restaurant’s website to promote viewing parties on-premises. Get your diners involved by creating a bracket of your restaurant’s best appetizers for hungry customers to vote on which will be half-off on their game day delivery orders.
Use Canva to find tournament-themed graphics and create shareable content to get your restaurant noticed. Check out more tips on how to grow your social media presence.
No restaurant’s digital presence is complete without online ordering. That’s why many restaurants are turning to Direct, our customizable online ordering site that is completely commission-free. With the ability to download diner data and reach out to those owned customers on their own, Direct restaurants are using this data to target loyal customers and boost their orders.
Promote your online ordering platform and restaurant’s website on your social media to turn curious scrollers into raving fans of your food.
What type of tournament promotions should your restaurant run?
It doesn’t matter what type of restaurant you run, there are opportunities to get in on the March tournament madness. Games start in the early afternoon and stretch into the night, giving more opportunities for restaurants to get in on the tournament.
Bars and pubs are the most popular spots for basketball watch parties. The casual atmosphere, big screen TVs and the flow of alcohol and appetizers make for a perfect spot to watch all the action unfold. If you run one of these establishments, encourage customers to dine in and stay awhile while they watch the game at your restaurant.
If you run a casual or a fast casual restaurant, the tournament is the perfect time to double down on delivery. While you may not have the space to host a watch party, your restaurant can still be the center of at-home gatherings if you offer to-go deals. Want to expand your delivery before tipping off? Partner with Grubhub to get your to-go offerings in front of more customers.
Make this tournament season a slam dunk with Grubhub
No matter what restaurant you run there are dozens of opportunities to get in on the basketball madness this March. 92% of basketball fans said they plan to purchase food from bars or restaurants during the game. Turn customers into loyal fans by giving them opportunities to score delicious deals.
Need a teammate to help your restaurant grow? Partner with Grubhub today.
S$0.13 (vs S$0.042 loss in FY 2021)
Hotel Properties (SGX:H15) Full Year 2022 Results
Key Financial Results
Revenue: S$525.5m (up 53% from FY 2021).
Net income: S$76.4m (up from S$21.7m loss in FY 2021).
Profit margin: 14% (up from net loss in FY 2021).
EPS: S$0.13 (up from S$0.042 loss in FY 2021).
All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period
Hotel Properties Earnings Insights
Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 10% pa on average over the next 2 years, compared to a 12% growth forecast for the Hospitality industry in Singapore.
Performance of the Singaporean Hospitality industry.
The company’s share price is broadly unchanged from a week ago.
Risk Analysis
Before we wrap up, we’ve discovered 2 warning signs for Hotel Properties (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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Plan & prepare now for Cyclone Gabrielle advises RANZ –
The Restaurant Association is urging hospitality businesses across the North Island to prepare for every event, as Cyclone Gabrielle arrives.
In its online resources it highlights the need to clear outdoor eating areas, compile stock takes, and consider backing up power supplies.
“Our advice to members is that you can never be over prepared for a situation like this,” said CEO Marisa Bidois.
“Hospitality businesses are uniquely affected by weather events such as cyclones so it’s wise to plan ahead to minimize the damage and business interruption.”
The Association has put together a checklist for businesses looking to get prepared ahead of the storm. This includes:
- Ensure you are monitoring weather conditions regularly – things can change rapidly. Keep up to date with the advice of your local Civil Defense organisation.
- For businesses with outdoor eating areas, ensure any chairs, tables and other loose items are secured or stored away safely.
- Move everything off the floor that you can store elsewhere.
- Ensure contact numbers (and emergency contacts) of team members are updated and easily accessible. Have a plan for communicating with your team.
- Ensure any critical documents and business related data is securely backed up and accessible.
- Check insurance is up to date and in place.
- Ensure adequate supplies of torches, fresh batteries, brooms, mops and buckets as well as a backup water source.
- Clearing any obstructions disturbing the flow of water down any storm water drains.
- Do a walkthrough of the business and clear any materials around the area that can easily be considered flying debris during a cyclone.
- Carry out a stock take of all supplies and equipment in case there is any damage or loss of stock. Take photos of high-value items.
- Ensure vehicles are away from low lying areas (and insurance is up to date).
- Create a business continuity plan.
- Consider an alternate power source. Some businesses are able to operate during power outages if they have a generator. This can also ensure that fridges and freezers do not turn off and minimize stock loss.
- Communicate with customers. Use your social media channels to keep people informed on whether you have been impacted or not.
- Be sure to remind your team to also be prepared in their own homes.
“It is really important to be prepared but also to remain calm. Our businesses have been under a lot of pressure over the last few years and it is important to look after yourself and your wellbeing. We have a number of resources on our site to help you through this.”
The Restaurant Association also urges diners to listen to warnings from local emergency information hubs and civil defense as well as communicating with local businesses.
For customers, it is important to listen to warnings from your local emergency information hubs and civil defense. Contact the business on the day to see if they are still open for business. Some of the feedback we have had from members has been that bookings are canceled often well in advance and at times unnecessarily so be sure to communicate. The businesses will also be in touch with you regarding any changes that may need to take place.”
Hospitality business owners can access the Restaurant Association resources here
Mental wellbeing resources can be accessed via the First Steps website here
Go to https://www.restaurantnz.co.nz/emergency-response-hub/ for more information.