11 New trends in Events Every Restaurant Should Try
Restaurants are chillout spots for many, especially after a hard day’s work. The last thing you want is to walk into a restaurant that kills your vibe, which is often the case in most restaurants.
You want a spot that will make you forget all your troubles at least for the time being. Hence it is important that your restaurant stands out from the competition by offering creative, engaging and attractive ‘solutions’ to your customers. You always want them leaving happier than when they came in!
So, the million-dollar question is, how do you ensure that your restaurant stays fresh & happening at all times? Here are some sure tips and trends that that will transform your restaurant into the favorite establishment in town.
Karaoke Night
Karaoke has been around for the longest time ever. However, if you intend to spark things off, you need to introduce a twist to this tradition. For example, you could invite your customers for a karaoke competition once or twice a week for about an hour or two. Offer the winner a prize or pay their bill.
When there is a prize up for grabs you can be sure that the singing will be of high quality. Of course, some croaky voices will take to the stage, but that just serves to spice up the night and give everyone a good laugh!
Go Live
There is nothing more relaxing than listening to some good music from a live band. Even better, you could invite a local artist to rock the stage. One that the audience can relate to. You could have a regular band, but try and throw in some surprises once in a while.
Staying with the spirit of going live, you could also invite stand-up comedians. Besides, nothing brings people together better than [MM9] a good hearty laugh.
You can also get customers to read poetry or short stories. Have a day where you have an open mic event. One where anyone in the audience could grab the mic and present some inspiring pieces. Give it a spin with a theme — about women empowerment, a favorite beverage or even the fallacy of marraige!
In return, offer a prize to the winner or to the one with the most inspiring piece.
Celebrate Insignificant Holidays
You don’t have to wait for Christmas or Diwali or any other big holiday to attract customers to your restaurant. There are plenty of smaller holidays throughout the year that could fill up your restaurant.
For example, Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Invite both parties depending on whose day it is and offer special discounts. For World AIDS day, you could hold a rock concert and distribute free condoms to the crowd. Just get creative with the days. Pimp out your restaurant with relevant decor or paintings for each celebration.
Dancing with the Stars
This is a definite crowd puller. Get a local celebrity to hit your restaurant. Create a booth, where, after their performance, fans can take selfies with them or get autographs signed. You could also invite celebs to celebrate their birthdays at your restaurant!
Create Theme Nights
Depending on the time of the year or the holiday, you could advertise a certain theme. For example, Halloween or Christmas. Ensure that you set the correct mood at your restaurant by having certain waiters dress in relevant costumes, decorate your restaurant with relevant props, create special menus.
You could also set out 1–2 days in a week to take your customers down memory lane by initiating 80s and 90s theme nights. Other theme nights include:
Singles Night — get all the singles in town to hook up at your restaurant.
Men’s Night — a guy’s night out is fun. It is even more fun when you give them a reason to hit your restaurant while at it. Get real live atmospheric models to brighten up the mood, and watch the crowds line up!
Ladies Night — it’s not all about the men. Once a week, offer the ladies some specials on various drinks, desserts, and appetizers. Liven things up by offering free entertainment like a female comedian or DJ. For more ideas, look at our article on how to organize a rocking ladies night!
Couples Night — don’t wait for valentine’s day to create romantic setups. Stand out from your competition by having a dedicated day once a month, say the last Friday of the month. You can go further by offering special discounts for couples. In a short period of time, this will be the talk of the town and you’ll pull in cash in no time.
Charity Events
Giving back to the community through CSR projects is a fantastic way to bond with your customers. You show empathy by supporting good causes, and gives customers a way to identify with your venue and you personally.
One fantastic cause would be to organise to a blood donation drive. While doing that, switch up the menu for the day with healthy foods, and offer sweet mocktails to all the brave donors to pep them up!
Sports Days
Bar sports are a sure way of getting customers flocking into your restaurant. For starters, get to understand which sport your customers love the most. After digging up that information, you can then do the following:
• Decorate your restaurant with the team colors.
• Host live events where the athletes make an appearance and enjoy good times with your customers.
• Name certain drinks and foods after certain sports personalities
• Reward customers with the team’s merchandise in a trivia contest or for making correct predictions.
Happy Hour
This tradition dates way back in time and it doesn’t get old. Who doesn’t love some free and discounted drinks? Your competitors are probably doing it, so should you. Introduce a BOGO offer (Buy 1 Get 1) on drinks and appetizers on those slow days. You could pull in a few new valuable customers. If you offer great stuff, they will come back for more during regular hours.
For more tips and tricks on how to make Happy Hours made happening, look at our article here!
Guest Chef and Bartender
Having a resident chef is fantastic but inviting a guest chef to prepare something different is a crowd puller. If you can pull a few strings and get a celebrity chef, even better.
The same goes for your bartender. Get a creative bartender to add some new drinks to the menu. While doing that, ask the bartender to teach [MM12] your customers how best to prepare killer cocktails.
VIP Only
Loyalty is everything in this business. There are certain customers that you started out with when you were by the corner. Today you have grown with them.
Treat these customers like the VIPs that they are. You can start a VIP club where members can get exclusive offers. Even better, organize a VIP only event, with VIP access, and spiced up menus for your customers.
And that’s it!
These are just some of the many tips and ideas on how to make your establishment stand out from the rest. As a matter of fact, the sky is the limit when your creative juices are flowing. You can ask your loyal customers for creative ideas that they think should be incorporated into your restaurant.
Remember that the customer is always right and retaining an existing customer is as important as getting an existing one.
All this and more could help revitalize your spot every night.
Good luck and have fun!
