The daypart with the highest average check also is performing the most poorly these days.
Getting customers to come out for a meal after dark continues to prove challenging during these lean times, which are forcing more Americans to eat dinner at home.
And it doesn’t look like the slowdown in dinner is a short-term situation. A recently released report by The NPD Group, a consumer research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y., called “Changing Demographics: Get to Know the New Face of Your Market,” indicated that the fast-growing Hispanic demographic was less likely than most segments of the population to go out for dinner. It also predicted that younger generations would be more likely to go out for breakfast than to sit down at a restaurant at dinnertime.
But many operators are finding that they can entice customers to go out for dinner if they offer food and service that differentiates the meal occasion — especially from lunch.
“I’m a firm believer that most people want full service at night,” said Randy Murphy, chief executive of 13-unit Mama Fu’s Asian House. That’s why after he bought the fast-casual Chinese concept in March 2008, he gradually changed it to what he calls “flex casual,” with counter service at lunch and full service at dinner.
“That’s really helped keep our guest numbers and check averages where they are, and even to grow,” he said.
Murphy said the average per-person check at Mama Fu’s was $14 in 2008. Now it’s between $18 and $18.50.
That’s a small increase compared to what happened to average checks when Mama Fu’s introduced delivery.
“Delivery for us has been kind of a juggernaut,” Murphy said, adding that with its introduction, off-premise meals went from around 24 percent of total sales to “well over 40 percent.”
And the average check for deliveries is about $24, he added, although he acknowledged that the restaurant requires a $20 minimum for deliveries in some markets.
Murphy is adding other flourishes just for dinner, to “make it more experiential.”
He just finished test marketing a traditional Szechuan appetizer of chilled cucumber in a chile vinegar dressing, which Mama Fu’s will be offering for free at dinner.
“We think that’s going to be another way to differentiate our dinner business,” Murphy said.
Limited-time specials help get customers in, too, said Lowell Petrie, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Real Mex Restaurants, the parent of the Chevys Fresh Mex, El Torito Grill and Acapulco Mexican Restaurant & Cantina concepts.
That’s why Chevys offers quarterly menu specials, usually an appetizer, several entrées, a dessert and two or three specialty cocktails.
Petrie said they account for between 15 percent and 30 percent of dinner sales.
“And sales don’t trail off [toward the end of the promotion,] which indicates to me that we probably get repeat traffic,” Petrie added.
Pizza Ranch, a 158-unit buffet chain headquartered in Orange City, Iowa, and specializing in pizza and chicken, also tries to stay top of mind with customers by offering quarterly specials. But chief executive Adrie Groeneweg, echoing Murphy of Mama Fu’s, said providing special service at dinner also is important.
“I think our biggest thing right now — we’ve been doing it for two years — is ‘Buffet Your Way.’”
Customers who order the all-you-can-eat buffet at dinner are asked what their favorite pizza is, and that pizza is cooked and brought directly to their table.
“About half the people ask for something, and it’s kind of what we’re known for,” Groeneweg said, noting that that type of specialized service is particularly appreciated during dinner.
Pizza Ranch also offers a quarterly pizza and salad with a slightly offbeat flavor “so they get people’s attention and make them wonder what we’re going to come up with next,” Groeneweg said.
Currently those items are a Cran-Tastic Salad with dried cranberries and walnuts, and a thin-crust chicken-and-ranch-dressing pizza. Next up is a salad with Mandarin oranges and bell peppers, and a Sweet Chili Pizza topped with Cincinnati-style chili flavored with cinnamon.
Pizza Ranch has an average check of around $17, Groeneweg said.
CASE STUDY: Phillips Seafood , Baltimore
Phillips Seafood Restaurants, a four-unit fine-dining chain based in Baltimore, is known for its high-food-cost crab cakes, but recent marketing programs related to its lesser-known fish items have proven to be a boon to dinnertime sales.
The most recent special was a “Get Hooked” promotion, which offered all four of the fish preparations — mahi mahi, ahi tuna, crab-crusted barramundi and spiced salmon — for $24.99.
“It’s just a couple of dollars in savings, but since they see that price and the [“Get Hooked”] tagline, it has really helped drive traffic during the winter and spring months, when we really don’t have many people for dinner,” said Michelle Torres, Phillips’ corporate director for marketing.
The program was first tested last fall at one of the restaurants, and it did so well that it was run at all four restaurants, in Baltimore; Atlantic City, N.J.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Rockville, Md.
The fish items by themselves normally range from $22.99 to $26.
“All we did was throw in a soup or salad,” said Torres. “It was all in the positioning in the tagline and the point of sale.” The result: dinner sales went up by between 6 percent and 8 percent, she said.
Phillips also ran a $19.99 1 1/4-pound lobster promotion on Monday nights, which is still available in Rockville.
“That price point really helped drive traffic in,” Torres said, noting that, while on most Monday nights only two servers work in the restaurant, they had six to 10 servers on Monday nights during the promotion.
“We sold out,” she said. “Our purchaser had to bring more lobster in.”
The lobster promotion was so successful that officials are now thinking of offering it on Thursday nights, hoping to kick off the weekend early and to get a second weekly visit from customers.
Torres said they already plan to go ahead with the Thursday promotion in Rockville, and might do it at their flagship Baltimore restaurant, too.
This past fall Phillips also e-mailed deals to VIP members of its frequent-diner program in an effort to drive traffic.
They let customers with 400 or more frequent-diner points, meaning they had spent more than $400 in the restaurants and had eaten there at least two times in 90 days, buy one entrée and get a second one for free.
They staggered the program, inviting one-third of their list of VIP frequent diners each month for three months.
“It worked to get us over the hump of our budgeted sales,” Torres said.
As a bonus, the customers, knowing they were getting a good deal, seemed happy to spend extra cash on high-margin items such as wine and dessert.
“They came in with three or four people and got wine and made an event out of it,” Torres said. “It was well worth it to go for a 30-percent food cost for the item we were discounting to get the dessert and wine sales.
“We plan to do similar things in 2011 and going into the first quarter of 2012.”
Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com .
