Bread Of The Day: A Low-Cost, Innovative Way To Switch Up Your Menu
Posted on: 6 August 2015
A key to running a successful restaurant is building a solid following of people who go out to eat often, so switching up your menu to keep returning customers interested is critical. However, making constant menu changes can be confusing to your restaurant staff and could cause you to need new equipment to explore new culinary realms. Both of these effects are costly, but there is one easy way to switch up your menu with minimal collateral damage: switching up the pre-meal bread.
Easy to Implement
Most menu changes require a meeting or two with your chefs to make sure they know how to prepare a new menu item, as well as work out kinks in the preparation. Your whole staff needs to learn how to describe and sell a new entree or appetizer, but most bread flavors are self-explanatory and easy to teach to a waitstaff, even right before a shift. If you really want to kick up your bread presentation, buying a small toaster to put the bread through before it's served will be a pleasant surprise for your guests.
Leaving an Impression
A funky, new type of bread is something that most people don't think of when they consider their expectations for a restaurant, so it's a great way to take your guests by surprise in a good way. The fact is that most restaurants simply order the cheapest or most generic bread from their bread supplier, so diners often know to expect a plain white baguette to hold them over until the appetizers show up. Putting a delicious rosemary or swirled bread will stick in your guest's minds before the food even shows up and helps distinguish your restaurant from the pack.
Tons of Options
With a bread choice that changes often, you open your guests up to exploring combinations and flavors they may never have thought of before. For example, fruit breads like cranberry walnut go well with salted butter while making the pre-meal nibbling a bit more interesting. Super grainy breads are sure to please the more rugged crowd, and an all-organic or gluten-free option will attract pickier diners. Then, picking an olive oil dip or some butter to accompany the bread choice can be a game-time decision you can change as often as you'd like. The best part of doing a daily or weekly bread selection, however, is the fact that if one of your choices doesn't do so well, you can change your pick quickly and cheaply in favor of a tried-and-true favorite.
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