Get Your Restaurant in Shape Archives

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Is it time to shape up your restaurant?

Earlier this year Open for Business published a month’s worth of tips for improving your marketing, operations, hospitality and more — and now we’re sharing another resource, our How to Open a Restaurant ebook.

You’ll find tips from industry-leading chefs, restaurateurs and influencers on how to manage your business, make the right technology decisions, attract more diners and raise your game in food and drink. Read them all, then follow us @openforbusiness on Twitter.

Day 30: Build Up Your Brunch

Brunch can play an instrumental role in the restaurant business, bringing more diners in mid-day and giving you yet another way to build up a loyal following. At John Besh’s New Orleans restaurant Lüke, Chef Drake Leonards has created a successful brunch program that guests rave about. Here, he shares tips for building a menu, marketing, and more.

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Day 29: Make the Most Out of Restaurant Week

Every year, OpenTable partners with restaurant associations, convention and visitors bureaus, and destination marketing organizations to promote over 150 Restaurant Weeks across the country. Restaurant Week is a program in which restaurants in a metro area offer special affordable menus, from a two-course lunch option to a multi-course tasting experience. It’s a perfect opportunity to draw new diners into your restaurant — and when you wow them, they will become regulars. Make the most of it!

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Day 28: Scale Your Business

First, Tacolicious was a San Francisco pop-up. Next, owner Joe Hargrave turned the Mexican concept into a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the city’s Marina district, and he’s since expanded to four locations in the Bay Area. Last year he opened Chino, a Chinese-influenced restaurant unlike anything he’s ever done — and he’s already thinking about what’s next.

We asked Joe all about his rapid growth, how his operations have evolved, and what he wishes he’d known when he was first starting out. Read on for some of the most important learnings from every stage of his expansion.

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Day 27: Book a Catering Job

Jessica Goin didn’t just jump into the catering business, she dove head first. The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles asked Lucques — the successful restaurant founded by her sister Suzanne Goin, and where Jessica was the General Manager — to cater a gala dinner for 500, and the rest is history.

Jessica tells us: “Suzanne said — somewhat famously in my world — you can do that, but if every bite is not as good as Lucques at its best, I’m going to shut you down.”

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