Restaurant Seating

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Changing Up the Menu and the Seating for Restaurant Success

If your restaurant is having trouble getting business, it isn’t the end of the world, and it certainly isn’t the end of your business. You have to take a look at how you are doing things and see if there might be something that you can change. Even some small changes can get the excitement building about your restaurant and bring more people into it. Let’s look at a couple of things that you can do that might be able to breathe more life into your restaurant.

The Seating

You might not even realize that there is something amiss in your restaurant until you look at it from the perspective of a customer. You are concerned with the day to day operations, and you never see that perhaps the seating and tables aren’t up to par. If you have tables with uneven legs, or that are too small (or even too large), or if your chairs aren’t comfortable, it can cause problems. No one wants to be cramped or uncomfortable when they are trying to enjoy a meal. Rearrange the tables if you have to. Also, investing in some high quality restaurant chairs and tables can be a great idea if you can find it in the budget.

The Menu

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Add Healthy Options to Your Restaurant Menu

More and more people are choosing to go the healthy route, and that means that they might not be eating out as much as they once did. Does this sound like a frightening prospect for you and your restaurant?

It shouldn’t.

You can take advantage of this new trend and start adding healthier menu options to drive your business back up.

When you are making these changes to your menu, consider just how much you want to change. Are you going to make sweeping changes to your menu, or are you only going to add a few healthier choices?

You may only want to add a few different options here and there and slowly overtake your menu with healthier choices. The way you do it is up to you. You might want to have a separate menu so that you don’t have to change the layout of your old one that your customers are familiar with. The cost to print these additional menus shouldn’t be too high.

As you make the change and start adding these healthier choices to the menu, you need to make sure that you advertise the changes that you are making. Send out a press release to the papers as well as online. Tie it in with the rising trend of health problems and obesity and tell everyone what you are doing to help combat that. Promote these healthier changes on your blog and anywhere else that you do your advertising so you can be sure that everyone is going to see them.

Changing just the menu might not be enough to start enticing new customers to your establishment. You might also want to make some cosmetic changes to your restaurant. They don’t have to be drastic, but a few décor changes and even buying new restaurant booths, chairs and tables can give your place a new look that matches in with the new theme of your menu. As always, you want to make sure that the restaurant furniture is comfortable and that the seating arrangements work.

How long will this healthy trend last? No one can tell for sure, but it certainly looks as though it is here to stay. With so many people wanting to get into shape and live a better, health conscious lifestyle, there will always be a large segment of the population that wants to have healthy options at their local eatery. Remember, even if your menu isn’t the healthiest around, adding an option for the health enthusiasts can only increase your clientele base. So don’t leave them out.

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Affordable Seating – New and improved

I am happy to reveal that after a lot of hard work one of our partner sites, Affordable Seating, has a new look. This modern look is not only for aesthetics purposes, it’s also designed to make your shopping experience easier and more pleasant.

Now you can not only browse all the great restaurant furniture Affordable Seating has to offer, you can also see related items as well. The shopping cart has been greatly improved too, and instead of a 3 pages long process you can now order your restaurant furniture in one quick and simple check out.

One thing that hasn’t changes is the price. You can still get the high quality low priced commercial furniture just as before only faster. I almost forgot, the new check out page also has a new a coupon system added that makes it easier to include any discount you have into the final price without having to call for the discount to be manually applied by the support team.

Enjoy your upgraded shopping experience!

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The Seating in Your Restaurant Makes the Difference

black vinyl club chair

Let’s pretend that you are not a restaurant owner or manager for a few minutes. Let’s imagine that you just moved to a new city and you are looking forward to trying out a restaurant that serves your favorite food. So you head over to the place for dinner one night with your spouse. The atmosphere seems warm and inviting, and then the pleasant host takes you to your table.

On your way to the table, you notice that everything seems cramped. The tables are too close together. Once you sit down, you find out that the chairs aren’t comfortable at all. After a long day at work, you wanted to be able to find a nice comfy place to have dinner, but the chair is worse than the one you have in your cubicle.

By the time the appetizer arrives, you are already complaining to your spouse about the chair. You barely register the taste of the appetizer. It might have been good, but you just don’t care. When the food arrives, you are even more uncomfortable. People trying to get past your table have bumped and jostled you half a dozen times and almost spilled your wine. You don’t care much about how your food tastes. Once it is all over, you head home and write a negative review about the restaurant online. And only because of the restaurant seating.

Now, let’s step back into the shoes of the owner or manager of the restaurant. (more…)

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Five Features of Kids Friendly Restaurants

Dining out with kids can be a fun experience for the whole family – or a total nightmare.  For restaurants, catering to families with children can be tricky.  However, there are a few features that make a big difference between a kid-friendly eatery and a horror story waiting to be told.

Whether you are a parent looking to find a great place to eat with your kids or a restaurant owner trying to appeal to families, the following are the five most important features in a kid-friendly eatery.

In a previous post we wrote about some aspects of a kids friendly restaurant. Now it’s time to expand on that post and elaborate a little on some of the most important points:

  1. A Real Kids Menu – We have all been to places whose kids menu consists of a choice between a hamburger and chicken nuggets.  However, truly family friendly restaurants offer a real kids menu which includes numerous entrée choices, kid-centric drink options, and even a few desserts.  The best restaurants go out of their way to make the kids menu healthy too, including options like fresh fruit and veggies and healthier dessert items to tempt kids and satisfy parents.  To satisfy customers of all ages, ensure that your menu has multiple choices for little ones, and don’t forget that children are often more sophisticated in their tastes than you may realize, so smaller portions of adult fare may go over well with your young clientele.
  2. Fast Service – While we all know that food in a busy restaurant takes a little longer to come out, many eateries miss the mark when it comes to getting food out quickly.  This doesn’t mean that you should serve families with kids before other customers, but look for ways to keep the kids happy while the food cooks.  In many cases, children are often hungry as soon as they get into their seats, so try to come up with ways to keep hungry tummies satisfied.  You may want to offer kid-friendly appetizers with kids meals (think veggies for dipping, fries, or some other finger-food).  This can keep kids busy and satisfied, preventing parents from becoming agitated and keeping kids calm and happy.  Not only is this great for preserving the atmosphere in your restaurant, it also creates a more pleasant experience for parents who are likely to come back.
  3. Kid Friendly Seating – The best seating for kids can be summed up in one word- booths.  Booth style seating is more comfortable and safer for kids.  Chairs, particularly taller “bar stool” types mean the danger of falling, can lead to tripping, and are more difficult for parents to manage.  Instead, dining booths mean that kids are able to sit comfortably, parents have room for coats and diaper bags, and children are unlikely to fall or to get in the way of other patrons or wait staff.  Parents, particularly those who dine out regularly, tend to choose restaurants that offer booth seating. (more…)
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Get your customers to come back

The recession is hurting many businesses, including restaurants. Losing customers can severely hurt any restaurant, but with a few changes, you can draw them back and keep them coming for more. Customers want a place that has a comfortable atmosphere and friendly staff. The two things a restaurant must offer are great food and great service at great prices. Before you start cutting staff, try these tips.

  1. Offer coupons. Coupons can really pull some people into your restaurant. Ruby Tuesday sent BOGO coupons in the mail and had people come in just to use the coupon. This was effective because it allowed customers to dine with someone and save money. If you’re near a campus, offer student discounts. If you don’t already, advertise new military or senior citizen discounts. You can also partner with another business in the area and allow them to offer coupons to your restaurant if they use that business’s services. (more…)
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