October 10, 2016

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Over the past few years, gourmet foods have become somewhat mainstream. By this I mean that more and more casual restaurants are offering “gourmet-inspired” menus. However, just because there are already plenty of gourmet eatery establishments around, that doesn’t mean that yours won’t be a success.

Especially as, many of the places calling themselves gourmet, are in fact not offering a gourmet experience at all. Their food may be fancy, but to be a gourmet establishment, it’s about more than just the food. A gourmet restaurant isn’t called gourmet for any old reason; it’s because it offers something above and beyond the norm.

With this in mind, if you’re thinking of launching your own gourmet eatery, here’s what you need to know:

Your gourmet eatery menu needs to be unique

fine dining at a gourmet eatery
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In order for your gourmet eatery to have any chance of being successful, the food that you offer needs to be unique. It doesn’t matter if you sell the same type of cuisine as other local establishments, such as Spanish tapas for instance. However, it does matter if the food that you serve is exactly the same. To launch a venture that has the potential to be successful, the food that you serve has to have a unique twist to it.

It can take time to make your menu unique but don’t rush the process. You need to serve a selection of dishes that not only taste amazing and are unique, but that are also quick and easy to whip up. So that when your restaurant is packed on a Saturday night, there is time to create them. What you don’t want is for your dishes to be hard to do in busy periods because they’re too time-consuming. You want to be able to offer a gourmet experience regardless of how busy you get.

There’s more to running a gourmet eatery than meets the eye

A mistake that many people make when it comes to starting a restaurant is thinking that it’s all about serving delicious food, and that’s it. However, there’s a lot more to running a successful restaurant than that. Of course, the food is important — it is a restaurant after all — but it’s not the be-all and end-all of being successful.

Just like in any business, running an eatery requires you to manage it efficiently. This means organizing ordering, creating an efficient rota for staff, keeping on top of the accounts, and so much more. You need to be able to keep up to date with all of the must-have items for your restaurant. As well as knowing who to call should you suffer an emergency or problem. For example, what do you do if you have a Magic Chef HVAC failure? This could leave your restaurant without heating or air conditioning. The last thing you want is to offer guests an atmosphere that’s below their expectations.

Marketing a gourmet eatery needs to be “upmarket”

Marketing plan concept - lecture with diagram
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Last but not least, it’s crucial to ensure that your marketing is as effective as possible. As well as in keeping with the tone of your place. While the aim of marketing is to build awareness of your brand, it’s important that the marketing is also well suited to your target audience — otherwise, it may not appeal to them. When your marketing is mismatched to your audience, you may fail to get the customers you need to succeed.

Launching a gourmet restaurant isn’t something that you can do without any planning. It will take time to get your new venture up and running.

About the Author

Carma Spence has been experimenting in the kitchen since she was four years old and loves trying out new recipe ideas. She is the author of Bonkers for Bundt Cakes and Your Perfect Pie, as well as author and contributor to several more non-food-related books. With Carma's Cookery, she is taking her passion for empowering people and blending it with her passion for cooking, gift-giving and entertaining.

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