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Reviews, Social Media + Data-Driven Change: Takeaways from the 2019 GGRA Industry Conference

From robots to tip sharing to work-life balance, some of the hottest topics facing the restaurant industry were on the agenda at the 5th Annual Golden Gate Restaurant Association industry conference in San Francisco last month. As the presenting sponsor, OpenTable sent two of our top leaders to the stage to engage in conversation about reaching new and potential customers.

Data Dive: Gleaning Customer Insights

It’s important not just to capture the right data, but to know how to use it. OpenTable’s Jenna Swigert (VP Regional Sales and Services) and Alisa Weiner (VP, Restaurant Marketing) participated in a panel discussion delving into some of the best sources for data insights and how to put them to work – regardless of marketing budget. Find highlights and takeaways below.

On Yelp & user-generated reviews:

“We saw an uptick in people complaining about slow service. Rather than feeling offended, we decided to make changes and removed some steps and tiered bread service and immediately found those reviews started to go away.” – Nathan Tenney, Alexander’s Steakhouse

“Having a designated person to respond to reviews is key (GM or host). Keep responses off of the public platform, and keep the conversation personal but professional. We suggest tracking data in a monthly spreadsheet – it can be done on your behalf by aggregators.” – Alexandria Dempsey, Mootz Consulting

“If you’re on OpenTable, maximize your presence. Keep your profile updated with photos and descriptions, and respond to reviews.” – Alisa Weiner, OpenTable

Takeaway? Treat user-generated reviews as data, find trends, and readjust what you’re doing operationally.

On social media:

“Facebook and Instagram allow you to learn how local your diners are, where they live, and the content they are engaging with. It’s very challenging to draw a direct line between an Instagram post and sales, but there are ways to maximize with free analytics tools on Facebook and Instagram. Make sure you have a business account, which allows you to access analytics.” – Alexandria Dempsey

“Try and get people to find content they are passionate about—a dish or ingredient or a drink. That can help you develop out a dish or marketing plan because you can see how people are reacting in real time.” – Nathan Tenney

“Millennials are more likely to trust a post from a friend than a Yelp review. Millennials will pull up Instagram versus Yelp. Use that to your advantage. Go to your followers and like their followers or their followers’ photos.” – Nate Danforth, Toast, Inc.

“Look at your community and what they interact with, and build a community of followers there. For some restaurants it’s Facebook for others it’s Instagram or even Pinterest.” – Valeria DiGrande, Palio

“Quality over quantity. Don’t auto-post from Instagram to Facebook—all the hashtags are messy and the tagging properties are different. It shows you are not detail-oriented.” – Jennifer Kirk, Jenius Consulting

“If you’re a new restaurant looking to hire for social, give yourself plenty of lead time. Hire 6 months or at least 3 months out. Stay true to your personality on social media.” – Amanda Shepherd, Ellipses PR

Takeaway? Use social media as a way to communicate, but also to test and track results, collect data, and bolster visibility. If you can’t hire someone full time, invest in some consulting hours.

On marketing across channels:

“There’s nothing wrong with stalking your competition and taking the best ideas. Look on other platforms to see what they are doing. On Guest Center, you can see where your reservations are coming from.” – Alisa Weiner

“At minimum, be on Facebook and Instagram, but also have an email marketing program. Use social media to gather email addresses for your email marketing.” – Amanda Shepherd

“Get an SEO expert to review your website and optimize it. We add pages for each restaurant, and that increases discoverability.” – Miloni Malhotra, Spacious

Takeaway? Instead of treating each channel independently, use each one to raise your profile across the digital space. [Read more…]

Chef Victor Albisu’s Metamorphosis: Transforming an Underperforming Restaurant into Two Hit Concepts

When chef Victor Albisu opened Del Campo in the spring of 2013, it was lit. The South American-inspired grill fascinated with fire – from burning and blackening to smoking and searing – earned blazing reviews and a Chef of the Year RAMMY Award in 2015 for Albisu. Located in a white-hot spot on the northern edge of Chinatown – adjacent to the upcoming CityCenterDC development complex and just a few blocks away from what was then the Verizon Center (it’s now the Capital One Arena) – it seemed like the restaurant’s flame would burn brightly for a long time.

After four years though, there were signs its success was flickering. The nearly 200 seat restaurant opened with a more formal white tablecloth sensibility, but in early 2017, the linens were stripped away, the space was revamped to give it a more rock ‘n’ roll vibe, and a new menu was rolled out.

“Who was going to predict how this city was going to change?” asks the chef rhetorically. “How many restaurants were going to come, open, and then close or tread water.”

There was also the matter of the competition. “We live in a day and age, where things can easily become gimmicks and the substance can be drained,” says Albisu. “I remember going to random restaurants and seeing burnt this and smoked that in combination with the things we were doing. That’s just part of the game and the gig. It’s fair, but it’s something you have to learn to handle as a business owner.”

Lunch sales at Del Campo had always been a week spot. So, late last year, Albisu nixed midday service to transform the bar and front dining room into a pop-up for Taco Bamba, which already had a trio of successful outlets in Virginia. The unconventional taqueria offers a mixture of traditional and chef-driven, globally minded tacos, including those inspired by Vietnamese banh mi, Korean bulgogi, and a Royale with Cheese.

The eatery was an instant hit, the lines often extending out the door and down the block. Unfortunately, that success didn’t help Del Campo. The chef shuttered it this past March, just shy of its fifth anniversary. The flash had faded.

However, this is not the story of failure. Albisu had wanted to open a Taco Bamba in D.C. for some time but hadn’t found the right location. “Then people reminded me that there was a space right underneath my nose,” he says. [Read more…]

How Central Michel Richard Continues to Soar in Washington, D.C.

James Beard Award-winning chef Michel Richard was always larger than life – a visionary culinary innovator with an infectious joviality. Though he passed away in 2016, today, on what would have been his 70th birthday, we’re looking at how his legacy lives on at his Washington, D.C. brasserie, Central Michel Richard, which combines French bistro favorites and elevated American comfort food. Critics continue to be charmed by the renowned chef; it was recently named the #34 restaurant in the city by Washingtonian, while Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema gave it a glowing 2 ½ star review this past fall.

Central – as regulars simply call it – is more than a decade old, a milestone achievement for any establishment, but especially for one whose namesake is no longer living. The fact that it continues to soar is a testament to the team Richard left behind. His longtime business partners – Larry Shupnick and Chipp Sandground – are still involved, while general manager and beverage director Brian Zipin oversees the operations. Executive chef Tony Roussel helms the kitchen, and Richard’s protégé of 15 years, David Deshaies, remains a partner and creative force. “He can see a dish through the eyes of Michel,” says Zipin of Deshaies. “He knows how Michel plated and the textures he loved.”

There was never any discussion of closing the restaurant in the wake of Richard’s death. “We all wanted to keep it going to keep Michel’s voice in this city,” says Zipin. “Since he’s not around, I’m even more sensitive about ensuring everything is just the way he would have wanted it. We’re most proud of the consistency. Our OpenTable reviews are as high as they’ve ever been.”

The chef still literally looms large. An oversized portrait of Richard occupies a wall at the far end of the main dining room, while his cookbooks are for sale in the front of the restaurant. The menu still boasts a number of his classic dishes – from his trademark fried chicken that continues to be the restaurant’s biggest seller and a towering burger topped with a crunchy cheese tuile and a poached tomato to a chocolate bar inspired by a Kit-Kat and an “eggceptional” lemon meringue pie that looks like sunny yolks sitting in halved shells. “It is approachable food, but with bold flavors and a lot of whimsy,” says Zipin.

Not all the classics are still available, such as the long-loved lobster burger, which was taken off the menu over a year ago due to the rising food cost. “Do we want to charge $40 for a lobster burger? No,” says Zipin. “Or do we want to do something with inferior ingredients? No.”

Now the restaurant offers a shrimp burger and is considering bringing the lobster burger back as a summer special.

When Richard’s iconic dishes are 86’ed from the lineup, guests are very vocal about their disappointment. “When we took the frisée salad off the menu, people flipped out,” says Zipin. “We brought it back. Any time you make a change, there’s an uproar. People love what they love.” [Read more…]

Off the Beaten Path: How Off-Street Restaurants Thrive

When plotting your restaurant’s location, a prime consideration is visibility. Where will get me the most eyeballs on my dining room?

That’s why off-street restaurant locations, for so long, have been considered less-than-ideal real estate. But as the number of popular off-street restaurants — places like Lincoln, Cocotte, and Estela — proves, it’s certainly possible to operate a successful restaurant in a non-street level location.

According to Anthony Rudolf, formerly the director of operations for the Thomas Keller Group (which included off-street restaurants like Per Se and Bouchon Bakery), given the rising price of real estate in big restaurant cities, these sorts of spaces are the future of dining. “There needs to be a massive shift to these locations,” he says, adding that off-street spaces can come out to half the cost of street level ones. “Because of the lower price, you are getting six more months of runway on your opening capital. That’s huge.”

But with those cost savings comes an added pressure to make your restaurant as visible as possible. “You can’t live under the mindset that if you build it they will come,” Rudolf says. “You have to be proactive. With [an off-street location], your objective is to get people to break a routine and become aware of you.”

Here are Rudolf’s (and other successful off-street restaurateurs’) tips for maximizing success in an off-street location.

Lean into the tucked-away nature of your location.

It’s easy to think of a slightly hidden-away location only in terms of the downsides. But these days, people tend to really love those restaurants that require a little hunting down and aren’t so blatantly obvious from the street — this can add to the allure.

“I love the uniqueness of our space,” says Sebastian Pourrat, the chef/owner of Cocotte in New York, whose spot is located underground. “When you go down the stairs and enter the dining room, it is like those steps are a frontier between New York City and the experience of the restaurant. It separates the space from the city. It contributes to the vibe.”

Emil Stefkov, owner of the New York Japanese spot Omakase Room, agrees. Having a space underground, he says, “is Tokyo style. It’s the best way to transport guests to a different set-up, far from the city noise and environment.” In promoting the restaurant, Omakase Room leaned into this “hidden, exclusive, ‘in the know’ aspect,” which made the experience seem all the more unique.

Use lighting and other decorative elements to make the outside as visible as possible.

When Cocotte first opened, Pourrat started by hanging a few lights, flowers, and plants outside his restaurant — he soon realized that this was the main driver bringing people from the street into the restaurant, so he doubled down on these efforts. Now, there are lights strung on the trees outside the restaurant (visible from the highly-trafficked adjacent Prince and Spring Streets), and Pourrat has even optimized the lighting on the inside of the restaurant — adding shower lighting and candles at every table — to maximize its attractiveness to passersby.

Put strategic signage up in the area around your restaurant.

In addition to having an attractive exterior, it’s important to make sure that people know about your restaurant even from a few blocks away. Place as much signage with your restaurant logo as possible both outside your restaurant and in the areas surrounding it.

At Lincoln, for example, there are posters on 65^th Street as well as on Broadway, both with Lincoln’s logo and location, to direct tourists and passersby to the restaurant. “Anything you can do to catch people’s attention and orient them and let them know that there is a restaurant nearby is helpful for maximizing foot traffic,” says Tanja Yokum, the director of public relations and marketing for the Patina Restaurant Group, which owns Lincoln. She has even tested out different colored signs to see what attracts the most attention. “Bright colors like pink and red seem to grab people’s attention more so than greys, blues, and greens.”

She adds, “Creativity is great when it comes to publicizing a restaurant that is not obvious to the eye. Whatever you can come up with that’s permitted by your landlord — you never know what is going to work until you try. I absolutely believe that.” [Read more…]

Chef Edward Lee of Succotash on How to Expand Your Restaurant Brand Without Diluting It

When you ask chef Edward Lee what kind of food he cooks, he simply says, “Southern food.”

But then the Korean-American chef adds a caveat; “I do put kimchi in my collards and other things that aren’t traditional. I don’t claim to do straight Southern food.”

That balance of reverence and riffing is evident at the newly opened second location of Succotash in Washington, D.C.’s Penn Quarter, where the menu includes peel-and-eat shrimp with gochujang dipping sauce, corn panna cotta gets topped with caviar, and a chess pie-inspired cookie is accented with jasmine curd and fresh citrus (though you can also get standard Southern favorites, like shrimp and grits as well as fried chicken and waffles). The forward-minded restaurant is the follow-up to the debut location just outside the city limits in National Harbor, Maryland, which opened in the fall of 2015, and Lee’s two celebrated Louisville, Kentucky, restaurants, MilkWood and 610 Magnolia.

His expanding empire didn’t happen overnight. It’s a story a decade and a half in the making, which includes starring turns on Top Chef and The Mind of a Chef, four nominations for a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, and a well-received cookbook, Smoke and Pickles. Though this pace of growth is relatively slow when compared to some of Lee’s contemporaries, he is most concerned about maintaining the quality of his endeavors. Here are his six tips on how to expand without diluting your restaurant brand.

Choose your next location wisely.

Though he was offered opportunities to open in smaller towns, he was drawn to D.C.’s large size and vibrant dining scene. Additionally, the city shares similar DNA to his home base. “It’s not quite the South, but it’s pretty darn close,” he says. “It’s not as deeply entrenched in Southern tradition. So when I say I’m making a chess pie, but I’m including olive oil and citrus fruit in it, people are okay with it.”

Research your new home.

Lee started coming to D.C. regularly four years ago. “Every neighborhood is its own micro-ecosystem,” says Lee. “National Harbor has a lot of conventions, and people want to eat fast. In Penn Quarter, people come in looking for a slightly longer experience. They want to relax. We also wanted to elevate the menu — but not too much — because we’re not a fancy restaurant by any means.” [Read more…]