The Restaurant Community - View Single Post - "The Soda Fountain" menu make-over

04-02-2010, 01:32 PM

Hi Matt-Sorry for the delay in getting back to you in regard to my menu. I found your response in my junk folder recently. The responses I've read make a lot of sense however it may seem strange but we don't have any dogs on our menu (non-sellers). WE do have items that are of low profitability but we are unable to take them off the menu e.g. our burgers, the macaroni and cheese bites (very popular). We are debating on raising our burger price. This as you know, can be a double-edged sword.

We are currently working on taking your advice and moving some items around on the menu. First we are moving the drinks to the back page which will allow us to add more room to the first two pages of the menu. The second change we are making is to the red border on the outside of the menu this will allow for more room on each page. The menu holders you are suggesting are the exact ones we currently using except they have a red border. Any other advise that anyone can give us would be helpful as we are updating our menu right now. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks-Lynn

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattm

Thanks to everyone for your input. I think Lynn is getting some great advice.

Lynn, I bet your head is just spinning at this point. You must be thinking; what do I do now! Don't worry, this is a process and it will take some time.

Let's start with the basics. Menu Designer and Jonathan are both on the same point. What makes you money. Money is what keeps you in business. So, the next step is to decide what items you need to feature to make sure you 1) make money and 2) impress people so they want to come back.

At the same time, think about all the items you have and try to eliminate the ones that are not profitable and the ones that cause headaches. Talk with your staff and see if you have items that are ordered very seldom and end up taking special care because they are not part of the normal flow of things.

Finally, it looks like you have letter size triple menu cover. If you are not able to eliminate enough items then I believe you either have to go to legal size paper, or start using the back for your drinks and give yourself more space.

It appears that you really have two groups of customers; 1) the burger bunch 2) the Grandma's Cooking crowd. To help them both feel like they came to the right place you may want to consider a book 3 menu cover. The book 3 menu will give you the same number of views, but you can have two pages for Starters, Soups and Salads, and Entrees and another two page spread for Burgers, Dogs, and Fountain Favorites.