Diversifying your restaurant to enhance its reputation

Making your restaurant profitable, especially during off-peak hours, can be a great way to expand your customer base and boost your visibility. To do this, you need to diversify and expand your offerings with a variety of options. Here are a few suggestions:

1) Turn it into a coworking space

In France, there are nearly 3 million self-employed workers. These mobile workers have a real need for workspaces. The rapidly growing coworking spaces—whose numbers have quadrupled over the past three years—allow these workers to build professional networks, share ideas, and feel supported.

What’s in it for you? Gain visibility, attract more customers, and, best of all, boost your income. These independent contractors use your space in exchange for a financial contribution.

The startup Frenchwork, launched in 2016, specializes in this field.

So don’t hesitate any longer; if your space is suitable, you have an attractive location, and a reliable Wi-Fi connection, go for it!

2) Turn it into an art gallery

Showcase artists on the walls of your restaurant. Whether for a limited time or on a permanent basis, put on an exhibition!

The benefit for you? In addition to entertaining your customers, it’s a great way to get people talking about your business in your neighborhood.

3) Help reduce food waste

Beyond doing good for the planet and helping people, this initiative can help you turn waste into profit.

How does this benefit you? Enhance your restaurant’s reputation, grow your customer base, and—most importantly—build customer loyalty through a unifying initiative by joining the program to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025, which France signed in April 2017, all while improving your purchasing and inventory management.

To achieve this, you can get creative with your approach to sustainability initiatives. For example, Simone Lemon is committed to purchasing and cooking “ugly vegetables” that are usually thrown away because they’re unsellable. This is a concrete action because it prevents unnecessary food waste and also proves to be cost-effective for the restaurant, since these vegetables are purchased at a discount.

4) Offer cooking classes or organize themed tastings

Bringing your restaurant to life by hosting masterclasses, cooking classes, and themed tastings (wine, oysters, cheese, etc.) is a great way to raise awareness of your establishment and introduce guests to some of the restaurant’s signature dishes. It also allows you to attract customers outside of mealtimes and generate revenue during those off-peak hours.

Be creative—feel free to invite one of your producers to lead a class, or have your chef or a culinary personality participate in your classes. Vary the themes while staying true to your identity.

5) Create a gourmet food section

This is a current trend that lets you highlight the products you offer on your menu: this could include wine, but also the ingredients you use in your cooking, such as olive oil, mustard, honey, cheese, and more. This not only provides you with a new source of revenue but also helps build customer loyalty around specific products that they know they can always find at your restaurant.

In short, there are many ways to diversify your business, and doing so will not only strengthen customer loyalty but also help you grow your customer base. This will help you increase your revenue and stand out from the growing competition in the restaurant industry, where there are so many players. And to keep up with trends and developments in the restaurant industry, we’ve also compiled a list of the 10 blogs and media outlets every restaurant owner should follow —a great way to find inspiration for diversifying and bringing something new to your restaurant!

Need Assistance?

Les Grappes, the French leader in direct-from-winemaker wine distribution for professionals, simplifies direct wine purchasing from winemakers. Les Grappes centralizes orders from over 1200 winegrowers, providing a single point of contact from order placement to invoicing. We assist cafés, hotels, restaurants, and wine cellars with their wine selection, and also in creating bespoke wine lists! Based on your project, preferences, and budget, we help you select the best wines through short distribution channels. To get in touch with our team, click here!