Lunch is nearly dead

I hope you guys can give me some advice on this. I am I took over an existing restaurant for over 2.6 years. it is a 70 seats casual restaurant. I know the food, service and ambient are always been good because online and in house reviews shown it.  It's been open for lunch since then and lunch is still nothing. I have done groupon, halfoffdepot.com and numerous mail home ad and local newspapers printed ad. It is still not bringing me lunch business. we would be lucky if we get three tables for the whole lunch hours. Normally, we get no tables at all. I am really frustrated. The restaurant is used to be a tapas bar and open just for dinner mon to sat. The business was down tremendously when i took over mid 2009. The sales was $15,000 monthly in an average in 2009. In 2010, i pushed it up $19,000 since i added sushi to the menu. In 2011, I was doing $22,000, but the rent is $4500 a month. For the whole 2.6 years, I was working for nothing. I was not able to get myself a paid since nothing left at the end of the month. I was only able to pay small salary to my family members. I am considered fortunate since they are still helping me to get through this, but I don't know how long i am going to survive at the sales of this. The business never be able to push high enough to be profitable. The rent is 20% of the sales which is not good. Right now, dinner sales makes up 90% of the monthly sales. i want to keep the door open for lunch since store left and right of me are doing great. Can you guys give me some shed me some light on this?        

Maybe a variation of buy X dinners and get a free LUNCH? Business card drawing for a free LUNCH.
 
Seriously, buy a book on third places.

You wrote "want to keep the door open for lunch since store left and right of me are doing great"
 
Are you still serving tapas and now sushi? That's a strange mix Spanish and sushi isn't it? And Tapas is normally a slow dine and talk meal not a in eat and beat it lunch place. Trying to serve a sophisticated, cuisine for lunch is not what the normal lunch bunch wants or needs.What kind of stores are next door? Restaurants? If so what kind of food are they serving? Do you have a bunch of offices near you that have people leaving to get lunch?  How big is the city you live in? You didn't give the information needed to make a judgement call that would allow anyone to help you. Try again and please answer each of my questions. And stop giving away your food with group on, and halfoffdepot.com

Yes, I am still serving tapas and sushi at the restaurant. Yes, it is a strange mix, but it is somewhat reverence since both cuisines are served in smaller portions. Yes, tapas is normally served in the evening after work type of meal. I realized people are not really interested smaller portion like tapas during lunch. That is why I serve sushi and typical Japanese dishes (fried rice, teriyaki, hibachi) during lunch hours but tapas is also available if they want to order. The portions are average and price is between $6 and $12. The store next doors are a Thai restaurant and sandwich bakery café. They both are doing very well. The sandwich shop is a local favor. Majority of traffic is going there during lunch. Therefore, the parking is another issue. The sandwich shop serves a couple of hundred customers easily during lunch hours and majority of people who work at the shopping center are going there also. They get a lot of 5 stars reviews online spread out to major review sites. There are some offices in the area but not a lot. I have tried to take menus to offices in those buildings but I get no response. The city is in the northern suburb of Atlanta which has 100,000 people. I figure giving away food to attract customers is not wise since those customers are generally not loyal. I am running out of options. Do you think I should hire a restaurant consultant to come in and guide me through this? Other than those daily deals site, I just have no money left at the end of the month to do anything (since no ad money is needed upfront). I really don’t know what to do. Being a restaurant owner is not easy. I am learning it right now. I am stressed out.                 

Thank you for your response. I am reading a book as now.

You have sandwiches on one side and Thai on the other. You need to be serving something very different than what they sell (Bear in mind, I know nothing about Mexican or sushi and don't want to). You need to appeal to similar customer base of the neighbouring shops BUT either place yourself between the two or step up above. I vote step up. Go slightly upscale but not priced too high (you need to cover your costs plus but you don't need do do it on one meal). You are looking for a nice date night or family meal out not the once a year anniversary blowout. Close down for lunch. Just for a while. Serve an early dinner/late lunch at a slightly reduced rate. Once you get a good following on the early dinners, try being open for lunch just for Saturday and Sunday. Later, open on Friday for lunch. See how you do. If you have no luinch business, you are wasting $$$ being open. There is no shame in being a dinner only restaurant. More should be in my opinion. What you can do for your empty restaurant sitting empty for lunch is to offer a "catered lunch with business meeting" area. I once worked in a conference center. Had lots of businesses from Atlanta show up. We were in Salem SC.  Look it up on the map.. up I-85 near Clemson. We served a light soup, salad & sandwich buffet for lunch. We also provided in each meeting room: pitchers of water (iced tap) on all the meeting room tables, Urns of coffee, 16 oz bottles of water, 6 oz mini bottles of soda. During the lunch, we cleaned up a bit (little napkins, dirty cups/glasses etc) refilled pitchers, restocked all drinks. Later during the day, we would bake cookies for an extra fee (fresh baked from little plops of Otis Spunkmeyer dough, folks go nuts for fresh baked cookies) Sometimes we did a breakfast since for us, many of the businesses had their people stay over in the condos and play golf, act like fools, etc). No big budgets for that. Now if a business doesn't have a big place to hold in house meetings, they have to find a hotel with a couple of rooms to use. That's not all that easy. You are in a position to offer a service that would complement your restaurant. work up your prices and start contacting. Think outside the box. You don't have to reinvent, just tweak things a little. You will need white boards, DVD player and big TV (over 40" screen), note pads (with your name imprinted at some time). And ask before a "meeting" what they may need. This will allow you to accumulate meeting room  stuff. Google "meeting rooms" to see what is involved. I would suggest you not do breakfast except maybe a Continental coffee, juices (apple, orange, & cranberry... no one drank the grapefruit) and sweet danishes type breakfast. PM me if you want to know a bit more about the things we did.
 
Stop doing the "deals" you are not getting what you need.

Sometimes the best strategy is to just cut and run.
You're not making any money and you're stressed out.
Sooner or later, sticking a sharp stick in your eye will start to hurt.
Sooner or later, the Cash Flow Gremlin will eat you alive.
Without a positive Cash Flow you will continue to die a slow and painful business death.
You're in a Catch 22 - Need to change and don't have the financial resources to reverse the inevitable.
Sorry, but that's the reality of your situation as you describe it and it doesn't sound like anything is going to change quickly to save the business.
How do I know?
I've been there.

Well a couple of thoughts now that you have been more generous with your information. You asked Do you think I should hire a restaurant consultant to come in and guide me through this?
 
HELL YES as long as you get a good one. That's the only answer. Otherwise you end up with heartfelt advice from afar (Roadfood) from folks that really don't know your competition, city, equipment availability, personal experience (yours), staff experience, and  financial situation.  Find the best you can afford. If he decides you need to polish the apple (sell your place) they can help with that.

I guess i need to find one, but where i need to look and how much per hour is reasonable in Atlanta.
 
 

Dr of BBQ


Well a couple of thoughts now that you have been more generous with your information. You asked Do you think I should hire a restaurant consultant to come in and guide me through this?

HELL YES as long as you get a good one. That's the only answer. Otherwise you end up with heartfelt advice from afar (Roadfood) from folks that really don't know your competition, city, equipment availability, personal experience (yours), staff experience, and  financial situation.  Find the best you can afford. If he decides you need to polish the apple (sell your place) they can help with that.

That would be my last resort.  It would be too hard for me to give it up after years of effort. I would like to make some improvements and see if the business pick up more this year. It has been but not at the pace that I wanted. It is not a good feeling to see a beautiful restaurant sitting here with empty tables most of the time. Thank you anyway for the warning.   

Foodbme


Sometimes the best strategy is to just cut and run.
You're not making any money and you're stressed out.
Sooner or later, sticking a sharp stick in your eye will start to hurt.
Sooner or later, the Cash Flow Gremlin will eat you alive.
Without a positive Cash Flow you will continue to die a slow and painful business death.
You're in a Catch 22 - Need to change and don't have the financial resources to reverse the inevitable.
Sorry, but that's the reality of your situation as you describe it and it doesn't sound like anything is going to change quickly to save the business.
How do I know?
I've been there.

I thought the price was little high and selection was limited for lunch in the beginning so i scaled it down in terms of pricing and increased the selections mid last year. However, it makes no improvements. Price is very sensitive for people here in the area i think. I guess Atlanta was one of the hard hit areas in this economy, but i see some restaurants in the surroundings are still doing great. It makes me to scratch my head. My restaurant is considered romantic and a lot of couples would like to have their dates here in the evening, but i guess there are not enough of them coming through the door. Opening lunch does not cost me a lot of money since my mom in the kitchen, me as sushi chef and wife or sister does serving. I do not hire any help. That is why i am still open for lunch after so long. On the meeting room, my restaurant is medium but it's all open. It gets really loud due to the hard surfaces in all directions. I don't know if that works out for people meeting here for lunch and business meeting. Getting meeting will be tough for me since my social skill is lacking and i am Asian. English is my my first language. I will see what my options are. Breakfast is out of question. I am already tire with all these thing going on. currently, we are closed on Sunday for the whole family to some rest.       
 

lornaschinske


You have sandwiches on one side and Thai on the other. You need to be serving something very different than what they sell (Bear in mind, I know nothing about Mexican or sushi and don't want to). You need to appeal to similar customer base of the neighbouring shops BUT either place yourself between the two or step up above. I vote step up. Go slightly upscale but not priced too high (you need to cover your costs plus but you don't need do do it on one meal). You are looking for a nice date night or family meal out not the once a year anniversary blowout. Close down for lunch. Just for a while. Serve an early dinner/late lunch at a slightly reduced rate. Once you get a good following on the early dinners, try being open for lunch just for Saturday and Sunday. Later, open on Friday for lunch. See how you do. If you have no luinch business, you are wasting $$$ being open. There is no shame in being a dinner only restaurant. More should be in my opinion. What you can do for your empty restaurant sitting empty for lunch is to offer a "catered lunch with business meeting" area. I once worked in a conference center. Had lots of businesses from Atlanta show up. We were in Salem SC.  Look it up on the map.. up I-85 near Clemson. We served a light soup, salad & sandwich buffet for lunch. We also provided in each meeting room: pitchers of water (iced tap) on all the meeting room tables, Urns of coffee, 16 oz bottles of water, 6 oz mini bottles of soda. During the lunch, we cleaned up a bit (little napkins, dirty cups/glasses etc) refilled pitchers, restocked all drinks. Later during the day, we would bake cookies for an extra fee (fresh baked from little plops of Otis Spunkmeyer dough, folks go nuts for fresh baked cookies) Sometimes we did a breakfast since for us, many of the businesses had their people stay over in the condos and play golf, act like fools, etc). No big budgets for that. Now if a business doesn't have a big place to hold in house meetings, they have to find a hotel with a couple of rooms to use. That's not all that easy. You are in a position to offer a service that would complement your restaurant. work up your prices and start contacting. Think outside the box. You don't have to reinvent, just tweak things a little. You will need white boards, DVD player and big TV (over 40" screen), note pads (with your name imprinted at some time). And ask before a "meeting" what they may need. This will allow you to accumulate meeting room  stuff. Google "meeting rooms" to see what is involved. I would suggest you not do breakfast except maybe a Continental coffee, juices (apple, orange, & cranberry... no one drank the grapefruit) and sweet danishes type breakfast. PM me if you want to know a bit more about the things we did.

Stop doing the "deals" you are not getting what you need.

I am learning so much from you guys and by reading through the forum.  Thank you so much!

How fast do you serve you lunch menu? People need to be in and out for lunch - that may be why the sandwich shop next to you is doing better.

khwsuper1
I guess i need to find one, but where i need to look and how much per hour is reasonable in Atlanta.

 
Her is a name Email address of a guy I know through another food forum. The forum is http://forums.foodservice.com   He (Brandon) seems to me to be 1st notch. And his advice on that forum is awesome. brandon@bodellconsulting.com

My customers usually get their food pretty quick unless there are several tables come in at the same time. Then, it would take a little longer. They seem that they are not in a hurry most of the time because they sat for a while after meal. I totally understand most people would have 30 to 45 minutes for their lunch.  

Chicnscoop


How fast do you serve you lunch menu? People need to be in and out for lunch - that may be why the sandwich shop next to you is doing better.

I agree with the Dr, tapas are more of an evening, slow, glass of wine layed back cuisine, the Sushi also draws a select crowd. It looks like it may be working for dinner, but its killing you for the lunch crown. they are yelling loud and clear what they want. The food offerings at both sides of you are working, the lunch crowd is supporting them with large amounts of traffic. The good news is, the crowd is there, You need to get a piece of that traffic, you found the problem now its time to react. You may want to offer a fast lunch, with a variety of Vietnamese sandwiches, Pho. Offer 1/2 sandwiches with soup fast and reasonable, I would not offer the same kinds of sandwiches the others offer, offer something different but still on the same level. The other problem is, having both of other restaurants packed with people and your restaurant is empty, no one wants to go into an empty restaurant, there is a reason it's empty..........soul search what your doing now, cater to what is working in your area, serve good quality and service. When you change your lunch menu, go out and grab people to get them in anyway possible. Grand opening new lunch menu, you can't get a full house unless people try your new ideas..............Take care and good luck................pnwc

Thank you! I will further to contact him.
 

Dr of BBQ

khwsuper1
I guess i need to find one, but where i need to look and how much per hour is reasonable in Atlanta.

Her is a name Email address of a guy I know through another food forum. The forum is He (Brandon) seems to me to be 1st notch. And his advice on that forum is awesome.

I could not agree with you more. People do not go in the restaurant that is empty. Whenever i get new customers come in, they like the food  and service but they are normally eating along. I will not see them again afterword. I guess it's a strange feeling for them. I consider adding more cuisines but my menu is huge already. It will give the feeling to people that you have a little bit of everything, and there is not a sense of identity for the restaurant. I guess I will do some researches on catering and business meeting for lunch business. Thank you for your input.    
 

PNWCHEF


I agree with the Dr, tapas are more of an evening, slow, glass of wine layed back cuisine, the Sushi also draws a select crowd. It looks like it may be working for dinner, but its killing you for the lunch crown. they are yelling loud and clear what they want. The food offerings at both sides of you are working, the lunch crowd is supporting them with large amounts of traffic. The good news is, the crowd is there, You need to get a piece of that traffic, you found the problem now its time to react. You may want to offer a fast lunch, with a variety of Vietnamese sandwiches, Pho. Offer 1/2 sandwiches with soup fast and reasonable, I would not offer the same kinds of sandwiches the others offer, offer something different but still on the same level. The other problem is, having both of other restaurants packed with people and your restaurant is empty, no one wants to go into an empty restaurant, there is a reason it's empty..........soul search what your doing now, cater to what is working in your area, serve good quality and service. When you change your lunch menu, go out and grab people to get them in anyway possible. Grand opening new lunch menu, you can't get a full house unless people try your new ideas..............Take care and good luck................pnwc

The above recommendations are great; getting a restaurant consultant is also great if you can;   ... but I couldn't make sense of your lack of customers while the two restaurants on either side of you have more traffic (note: I didn't say they are doing better than you; they may not, profit wise ???)     ... I didn't know what 'tapas' was and had to look it up.     ... From your description above, tapas & sushi, you are simply serving Spanish & oriental 'appetizers'.     To me, this is not a lunch menu.
 
I think the suggestion to close at lunch for a few days is good.  Then use the time to survey the area and see what your competition is serving & doing.  If you are a Spanish style restaurant, redo the lunch menu to a more traditional Spanish/Mexican lunch plate with chips & salsa so the customer will have a basic expectation of what you are serving.    .... I lived in Marietta for 15 years. I rotated between the different ethnic restaurants during the week.  The better ones got my repeat business.  And, I eat Spanish/Mexican a couple of time a week.   ... A good atmosphere for lunch is a plus; but most customers only have a hour for lunch so the service must be quick and without hassle.  Do the 'romantic upscale' atmosphere at evening/night. 
 
... just my nickles worth; or maybe I owe you change     ... I'm not there and don't know what you competition is.

Restaurant Impossible, email them

Are you kidding me? That is impossible. It would be like winning a lottery if they come in and help. There is not a chance of that i think. Thank you for the suggestion anyway.  
 

KurtSara


Restaurant Impossible, email them

It is not authentic Spanish tapas that serves here. They are more like fusion tapas which have some oriental twist to it. I agree tapas are not for lunch. That is why all my lunch specials are Japanese dishes with much bigger portion. I thought that will work out in the beginning because we have what a typical Japanese restaurant has on their lunch menu. I thought we would draw in more people to like our Japanese menu. That is not the case for lunch. On the other hand, I do not want to be like any other Chinese or Japanese restaurants out there which serve huge plate of food. That is why I have been hesitated to redo my menu towards that direction. I wanted to be different since competition is huge for that type of restaurant.  I may be closed for lunch if that is what professions or consultants tell me. The restaurant is very closed to Marietta. I hope in the coming weeks I will have better ideas how to tackle this. I have been waited too long to do anything about this. It is my lack of experience. Thank you guys for educating me.    
 

edwmax


The above recommendations are great; getting a restaurant consultant is also great if you can;   ... but I couldn't make sense of your lack of customers while the two restaurants on either side of you have more traffic (note: I didn't say they are doing better than you; they may not, profit wise ???)     ... I didn't know what 'tapas' was and had to look it up.     ... From your description above, tapas & sushi, you are simply serving Spanish & oriental 'appetizers'.     To me, this is not a lunch menu.

I think the suggestion to close at lunch for a few days is good.  Then use the time to survey the area and see what your competition is serving & doing.  If you are a Spanish style restaurant, redo the lunch menu to a more traditional Spanish/Mexican lunch plate with chips & salsa so the customer will have a basic expectation of what you are serving.    .... I lived in Marietta for 15 years. I rotated between the different ethnic restaurants during the week.  The better ones got my repeat business.  And, I eat Spanish/Mexican a couple of time a week.   ... A good atmosphere for lunch is a plus; but most customers only have a hour for lunch so the service must be quick and without hassle.  Do the 'romantic upscale' atmosphere at evening/night. 

... just my nickles worth; or maybe I owe you change     ... I'm not there and don't know what you competition is.

 
OK ... your a Japanese restaurant.    ... I can't be much good.. I know you are in a very heavily competitive area for Oriental foods.    There is a lot of pressure from the Chinese restaurants.   ... I like Chinese, Korean, and Ty.   Korean restaurants tend to serve some common Chinese style plates along with Korean because that is what most customers know. Those that know & like Korean, will ask for those dishes.   ... I do like Korean and shashimi over sushi; but this was hard to find in Marietta.
 
You stated: "I wanted to be different since competition is huge for that type of restaurant."   ... I think you might be enough different so the customer doesn't know what to expect and they are not adventuress enough to try new foods/dishes.   ... My experience with Japanese style restaurants, they tend to be much more pricy and small portions servings with very upscale atmosphere; ie Japanese steak house  (???).   I've never seen a Japanese (advertised) restaurant that served common dishes on a competitive basses to the Chinese restaurants.    ... I have eaten at some Japanese owed restaurant that didn't distinguish them selves as being Japanese but served both Chinese & Japanese dishes.  Most folks didn't know the difference.
 
So now I guessing you are fighting a customer perception of being a "Champagne" type restaurant while they are on a 'beer' budget.
 
Anyway, I can't help.  ....
 

Get a beer license.

It has a liquor license currently. The renewal for 2012 was over 5k. 
 

Sonny Funzio


Get a beer license.

Ken,
i know you pm me but i can't reply back since i am not a member long enough to do the pm back. can you pm me your email?
 
thanks,

Sonny Funzio

Get a beer license.

khwsuper1

It has a liquor license currently. The renewal for 2012 was over 5k.

Excellent.
Beer specials.  $1 domestic drafts noon to 6pm (or noon to whatever hour your normal alcohol sales pick-up per your records and per the day of the week.)  Don't got a bar? ... change the table cloths, table cards and menus in a section of your seating and make it your bar seating during that period.   (Get a bar if you don't have one ... you've got the license.)
Put an A-frame sign trumpeting your dollar drafts out on the sidewalk ... and make sure it’s out when your neighbors are doing all their business. 
Have well priced food specials available at that "dollar drafts" time period for patrons.  Hit them with advertising at the same time ... while you got their attention, let em have it ... posters, table-cards, chalkboards, printed specials on the wall over the urinals ... everything .......... weekend specials, Valentines specials, Chinese New year party (hey, it's in a couple weeks from now) ....... give to those patrons who come to your "dollar drafts promo", coupons for cheap whatevers at some other time (select something: pitchers, appetizers, dinners, whatever) coupons valid only at certain times during your slack periods. 
For deals on that promo item you need to keep good records on what sells when, what your volume is, what your turnover is etc - to do this obviously ... the point is to patch up your slack periods ... better to have a customer buying just a so-so margin food than NO customer buying your good margin food.  Obviously you want to make that promo food (the "whatever" one) an item that is attractive, low prime cost to you (that is, food cost and variable labor in making it) and has at least a little profit for you too ... but still at a really, really great price.
In fact, you should *always* be keeping tight records and trying to specifically patch up your slack periods.
And alcohol specials are particularly useful if your restaurant neighbors don't have booze.  Besides, if you can get a drinking crowd of some sort that starts giving you business other than your dollar drafts, that’s some of the best margins out there.
 
Tapas?  Fine.  Have a tapas and margaritas special ... don't have a booze blender? - get one.  Have the special right in the middle of your neighbors busy period and have a mariachi band playing on the sidewalk (ok, I'm only half serious on that idea ... but I am serious about pairing the tapas and margaritas ... a good mojito with fresh mint is another popular drink right now too)

Another thing, you serve sushi ... the demographic that loves sushi is currently 16 to 25 year olds.  I’m not sure what sort of younger people you have in the area, but assuming you are a restaurant that would happily serve that demographic ... run some sushi specials and advertise the hell out of them at local colleges.

Hey ... how about a Cold Sushi & Hot Sake special (man, I love sake).
 
Oh and by the way ... the old owner only served dinner, right? ... and you're now also serving lunch, right? ... you DO have a GIANT "Open for Lunch" sign out ... right?.  Just sayin.

Ken
 
I got the pm from you but it does not show your email address. Can you pm me your email address again? Thanks

Sonny,
 
Thank you so much for your input on this. I will explore some of your ideas. currently, we have weekly special going on which lists as Mon and Tue $2 glass house wine, Wed $1 beer (4 types of domestic beer) and $5 martinis, and Thur sushi and Tapas special. Event with that, it is not yielding much of business. In the last three days, the restaurant got so slow and I have not seen that slow in a long time. I am desperate in need to increase my sales otherwise it is not going to work out for my business. I want to thank you guys for giving me the ideas. I will win this fight with your help.
 

PM sent.  Email me when you can