Retail
Value Meals
By By Julie H. Case March 31, 2010
Taking Care Of Business
Holding Suppliers to the Fire: Restaurants take
advantage of market opportunities to reduce the cost of supplies and pass those
savings on to customers. Rays Boathouse, for example, is using a market glut
of frozen fish to fill its larder with fish suitable for smoking.
More bang for the buck: By nixing items that dont sell
and finding ways to make use of lower cost ingredients, eateries are
reinventing menus without raising prices.
Power Of The Dollar
Specials: Playing to the theme, big and little guys are
making use of specials. At the 5 Spot and Hi-Life, for example, the price of
the daily blue plate special is tied to the closing mark of the Dow Jones
Industrial Average, divided by 1,000.
Happy Hours: Better menus and expanded hours mean deals
for customers.
Brunch: The Most Important Meal of the Day: Restaurantsespecially fine
dining institutionsare taking advantage of the relatively lower cost of the
morning meal by serving Sunday brunch specials or getting innovative with their
offerings, such as a new champagne brunch/mimosa bar at Matts in the Market.
Attracting New Customers
Borrowing from Friends: Love Lark? Youll fall for
Crush. Smitten with Crush? Youll want to go over to Rovers. Thats the
thinking behind the Seattle Chefs Table, a dinner event that happens six times
a year, each time at a different restaurant, with those six restaurants chefs
cooking one course apiece. The restaurants hope their loyal customers will
cross over to each others establishments.
Classes and Special Events: Fine dining establishments
are taking on education and the opportunity to rub elbows with winemakers as a
means of getting attention. Events such as winemakers dinners and the Wine
Bootcamp at Waterfront Seafood Grill arent designed to make restaurants money,
but to draw attention.
Luring New Palates: Some restaurants add brunch specials
to attract attention, others play up their specialtiesor the local angle. In
April, Bellevues 0/8 Seafood Grill and Twisted Cork offered all Washington
wines at half price.