What You Need to Think About When Planning a Menu Change

Your menu will always be one of the defining features of your restaurant or bar, but a menu change can bring new life to an establishment. Unfortunately, some menu changes can drive customers away. Before making a permanent change, you need to consider any new dishes from every angle.

Consumer Demand

You should always consider consumer demand before making any major changes. A dish might be a hit with you and your staff, but that does not mean that the customers will love it. Before a dish gets approved for the new menu, you should use actual customers to test the dish. This testing process will let you know if people are willing to pay for the new menu item.

Baby Steps

If you change too many items, you will risk alienating some of your loyal customers. Diners might enjoy the ambiance or the fantastic service, but most of your customers are visiting your establishment for the items on the menu.

Equipment

Some valuable kitchen tools are incredibly versatile, but some pieces of equipment will not fit certain jobs. Before implementing a new menu, you need to know that your kitchen equipment is capable of storing, preparing, and serving the new menu items. Sometimes a new menu requires you to buy a few new tools and appliances, so make sure you shop with us for the best deal on new equipment.

Ingredient Availability

Before offering a new menu item, you must have a reliable way of obtaining the ingredients. Running out of a popular ingredient will happen from time to time, but you do not want to annoy customers by promoting a new dish that is never available.

General Resources

Time and money are valuable in a restaurant, and you do not want a dish that consumes too much of either resource. If an item is not popular, you might not make enough money to offset the price of adding the item to your menu. Additionally, if a new dish requires too much preparation time, your staff and your customers might start to get a little agitated. Some items are worth the wait, but customers want to receive their food in a reasonable amount of time.

A new dish can spice up the menu, but you should weigh the benefits and risks of every change. Before altering the menu, test the new items to ensure that the changes are worth your time, money and creativity.

Summer Food Equipment

After an abnormally long winter for most of the country, summer is here! For those of us in the bar, restaurant and catering industry, the arrival of summer means it’s time to shake up our menus a little and add in some food that were made for summer time.

These are some of our favorite summer foods and the equipment you’ll need to make them for your customers:

• Hot Dogs — What food says “Summer!” more than a hot dog? Serving up hot dogs to your hungry patrons will fill them with memories of eating hot dogs outside during the summer. With a hot dog grill, you can make the tastiest hot dogs without too much work. Just drop the hot dogs on the grill and let it do its job.
• Hamburgers and Barbecue — Summer is all about the cookouts with family and friends. Help your customers recreate that feeling in your restaurants with delicious cookout food made right in your kitchen. Our gas charbroilers make it extra simple to cook these foods without having to watch the grill the whole time.
• Ice Cream — No summer meal is complete without ice cream. Consider offering fun novelties or making special flavors of ice cream for your patrons this summer for a special treat. To make novelties extra fun, display them in a case so customers can choose their favorites, and don’t underestimate the importance of a good quality ice cream spade if you’re serving scoops.

What are your favorite foods to cook or eat during the summer? Let us know in the comments below!