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Mimi’s Café focuses on happy hour

Mimi’s Café focuses on happy hour

The restaurant, along with several other casual-dining brands, is seeking to drive a turnaround by boosting bar sales

Mimi’s Café has debuted its “Happiest Hour,” beginning every day at 4 p.m., which aims to drive bar traffic and sales.

Happiest Hour, part of Mimi’s “Value Revolution” positioning, includes $5 wine flights, $5 Bistro Bites, $3 domestic draft and bottled beers, $4 drinks, and $5 select wines by the glass.

The promotion is available Sunday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“We want to give our guests another opportunity to share a Mimi’s moment with friends and enjoy a delightful drink and a tasty bit while staying within their budgets,” said Mark Mears, president and chief concept officer. “Happiest Hour also allows our guests to step out of the everyday and experiment with different tastes and pairings.”

In previous quarterly earnings calls, executives from Bob Evans Fams, which owns Mimi’s, identified value offerings — such as Mimi’s Family Meals To-Go  — and beverage programs, like wine flights discounted from $8 to $5 during Happiest Hour, as strategies to turn around slipping guest counts and sales at the chain. The brand will now use that combination to spur traffic every day during nonpeak times.

Mimi’s $5 Bistro Bites menu includes appetizers and small plates, such as barbecue pork sliders and beef sliders, a signature cheese plate, crab fritters, and crispy zucchini parmesan. Wine flights are offered in red, white or sparkling varieties.

Chains target bar sales

In casual dining, beverages have provided a popular outlet to engineer value for guests who still need to be coaxed to spend. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, for instance, told investors during its second-quarter earnings conference call that happy hour was the only daypart that produced positive same-store sales at the 201-unit chain in the second quarter ended July 3.

The restaurant’s Triple Happiness happy hours are available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day and offer drinks, dim sum and small plates for $6. P.F. Chang’s is supplementing that offer with check-in specials during happy hour on Facebook Places, Foursquare and Yelp.

Ruby Tuesday, with more than 900 units, recently said that growing its beverage sales mix from 9 percent to 12 percent would be a key part of its turnaround strategy.  In late 2008 and 2009, the bar program also was key to a major rebranding, including an emphasis on a $5 price point for most drinks, including name-brand liquor and cocktails.

Other casual-dining brands in recent years, like Chili’s, Applebee’s and Buffalo Wild Wings, have run special discounts on alcohol for happy hours, but typically after dinner to build the late-night daypart.

The 145-unit Mimi’s Café operates in 24 states, mostly in the West. It has headquarters in Irvine, Calif.

Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN
 

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