Making Your New Italian Restaurant A Success
Posted on: 22 May 2023
When you are in the process of starting a new Italian restaurant, making the right choices in terms of marketing and menu items can significantly affect whether your restaurant is successful. Focusing on key factors will increase the success of your restaurant.
Marketing
The easiest way to have an unsuccessful restaurant is for people to not know it exists. Marketing is key to bringing in customers. If you are in the process of choosing the location for your restaurant, placing the restaurant in a location with a lot of traffic will help. For example, restaurants located in small shopping centers often benefit from the surrounding businesses to help bring attention to the restaurant. Once the location is established, online and physical marketing strategies are necessary. Having a social media account and website is the first step in online marketing. Keeping your business listing updated, adding a picture of the menu, and high-quality food pictures can help. Mailing advertisements announcing the opening may be useful and inexpensive.
Delivery
Restaurants without delivery options often struggle to gain customers, especially since third-party delivery services are popular. You should consider having delivery options both directly from your website and through a third party. Generally, ordering directly from your website will be less expensive for both you and your customers. Third-party delivery services are generally more expensive, but it serves as a source of marketing. Many restaurants tend to raise the price of their food on third-party delivery services to help compensate for whatever additional costs occur for using the service.
Menu
When you are starting your restaurant, having the right menu options will be critical. It is important to start with a small menu to avoid getting overwhelmed by different food options. The goal is to have the major dishes associated with an Italian restaurant and do them well. Some of the major options customers will expect are lasagna, pasta with marinara sauce, meatballs, carbonara, Alfredo, cacio e pepe, and ravioli. Having a couple of desserts available will also be an important part of the menu. Tiramisu and cannoli are among the basics people will expect from an Italian restaurant.
Customers might expect you to make fresh pasta daily. One of the benefits of freshly-made pasta is it cooks in a few minutes, thereby allowing you to complete orders faster. An excellent option is to have a tasting menu where one person can have a small amount of several dishes. Family-style options can also be popular where several people can share various dishes. At a minimum, customers will expect free breadsticks with their meals. Although many Italian restaurants have appetizers, it is better to focus on making the main menu items appealing.
Starting a new Italian restaurant can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to the restaurant business. Focusing on the core menu items and marketing your restaurant will increase your success.
Reach out to local Italian restaurants to learn more.
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