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The moment has come to leave behind the desserts and cool tastes of summer and start to think about how to give a new look and substance to the menu of your coffee shops for the coming fall season.
With this article we would like to give you some valuable hints and guidelines to follow so you can amaze your most beloved customers and make those you don’t yet know choose your bar or coffee shop, placing the great classics – like a perfectly prepared espresso (link) – side by side on your menu with new intriguing creations.
The timing: how often should the menu be renewed ?
Everyone has their own habits and their own method which has been developed over years of experience
But, even if there is no one universal valid rule, we would like to give you some advice all the same.
Generally speaking, the best choice is not to change the menu too often.
If you do, you run the risk that your customers have no time even to notice the changes and have the chance to taste your new proposals.
But be careful also not to let too much time pass between one menu change and another!
If your customers become bored and unsatisfied, they may start to look around and search for new flavors from your competitors.
Our advice is to create some seasonal menus.
Three months is the ideal period to give your customers enough time to realize the changes and it is an appropriate time frame so that they don’t get tired of the selection you have chosen for them.
The ingredients: what to choose to review your menu?
There’s nothing more disappointing than opening a menu in the middle of summer and finding hot chocolate among the options!
The impression the customer gets in this case is that the owners are not paying enough attention to what they offer their customers and they never update their menu.
To avoid this, we recommend offering seasonal menus using only seasonal ingredients, so fresh, good quality and often cheaper.
Seasonal ingredients often cost less.
For your recipes, try to use warm ingredients in the winter and cool ingredients in the summer, so as to satisfy the needs of your customers in that moment based on the temperatures.
Communication : be original in your menus !
Think of all the time you have dedicated to studying your new recipes, and what you have spent to find the best ingredients and all the work done to get the best result possible.
Of course, your work doesn’t end there. Communicating your new offers is just as important.
Otherwise you risk investing money and energy in something without your customers ever noticing that you have introduced new choices into your menu.
Have faith in your own creativity (or that of a professional graphic artist) to renew your menu also in terms of the graphics.
Adapting the ideas on offer in your coffee shop without the risk of becoming banal is actually one of the biggest challenges there is in this profession!
The recipes: few but good!
One of the most common mistakes people make is to give their customers too many choices, filling the menu with recipes of every possible variety.
Has it ever happened to you to go to a restaurant that has too many choices and give up reading the menu before you even get to the second page ?
That is why it is fundamental to choose just 4 or 5 recipes and no more, from the classics like Irish Coffee to other more innovative ones, so you have more advantages:
– less wastage of food and drink due to the reduced number of ingredients;
– the possibility of creating a less cluttered work station.
Fewer ingredients and pieces of equipment will actually make your work surfaces clearer and cleaner;
– greater control of the recipes requested more often.
In this way it is easier for you to understand which options are “more popular” and make them become the symbol of your bar and, at the same time, alternate those which are less popular more often.
Creativity: the best way to be unique
Being original is a good way to stay in the minds of your customers.
So you must remember that creativity is the fundamental ingredient of every successful recipe, which will make customers prefer you over your competitors.
Building your own identity through your menu and your choice of ingredients is fundamental in an increasingly competitive market.
Find the recipe which suits you and offer it to your customers as a way to tell your story.
This and much more practical and operational advice is available from the consultants of Filicori Zecchini for our bartender clients.
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