With busy schedules, changing mindsets around food consumption and tougher economic times, some people are turning away from dining out for specific meal occasions and instead opting for snack-time indulgences.
But many venues aren’t set up for between meals, without anything on their menu that caters to small groups of 2 or 3 catching up over a beer or wine. This could be you without you even realising it – do your sales of chips and wedges increase around 3pm? Is there anything else small on your menu or are people resorting to that as the only option?
You could be missing out on valuable revenue. Simply by increasing your snack and sharing options (while ensuring they are cost-effective and high margin) you can attract more diners to your venue and increase drink sales at the same time.
So, what are some of the most effective (from both a time and cost perspective) sharing and snacking menu items? We asked our customers and here are the tried and tested top three:
Pide and Antipasto Platter
This can be the most versatile snack item on your menu. You can make it big enough for one through to twenty by adding and taking away dips, breads and antipasto. Take the time to warm the bread and add some interesting dips and this can easily also be one of the most profitable items you serve.
Garlic Bread
Never underestimate the popularity of a comforting loaf of warm garlic bread. And never underestimate the power of offering it when someone says they ‘just want a drink’. Upsells like garlic bread are easy for your wait staff to pull off, easy to create quickly in the kitchen and keep customers coming back for more. If you want to get creative you can offer dressed up garlic bread like this one topped with grilled peach and burrata or this spinach and three cheese creation.
Mini burgers
This is another great way to scale your offering according to your diners’ appetite. You can sell mini burgers by the pair for couples just looking for a bite. Use sliders and dinner rolls that you can thaw as you need so there is no waste and incorporate ingredients from your burgers so there is no special ordering necessary.