With the Great Recession lingering for many households and a new-reality economy taking hold, operators are pondering how to get patrons back out of the house, with wallet in hand.

The key to a foodservice rebound is traffic generation—and the key to building traffic, now more than ever, is offering value. Not in the form of traditional coupons and discounting—which many observers believe will ultimately confuse customers and erode brand value and the ability to return to full prices—but by offering menu options, specials and promotions that represent something unique, well-executed and affordable.

The good news is that the economic downturn has spurred a flurry of creativity, as operators get on their best game to entice customers in the door.

Comfort Food Menu Additions

Steak is all well and good, but not every patron can afford it now. Many chefs are turning to less expensive offerings in the guise not only of less-premium cuts of meat (such as tri-tip and flatiron steak) but also comfort-foods like meatloaf, pot roast and other braised items. Fortunately, these kinds of foods are much on people’s minds right now anyway, as both the economy and the weather cool, so operators can put them on the menu without calling attention to the fact that they carry lower ingredient costs and can therefore be priced more affordably than premium proteins.

Gus & Gabriel, the new “gastropub” retread of the more upscale New York City Greek restaurant Kefi, has a menu that specializes in sophisticated renditions of American comfort classics, including baked ziti, fish and chips, meatloaf, and even housemade “tater tots,” as well as lots of sandwiches and burgers.

New Wave Blue Plate Specials Sunday suppers, daily specials, prix-fixe chef’s menus and other special-menu formats have emerged as a distinctive and successful way to build business. Some are proudly budget-minded, while others fly under the radar by offering foods that are always a good value. For instance, Bolete, in Bethlehem, PA, offers not only regular wine dinners and a casual tavern menu but also a Frugal Foodie Hour program offering a three-course, $35 prix-fixe menu, $1 oysters at the bar and half off any bottle of wine under $100.  In Boston, Chef Ken Oringer has opened his upscale restaurant Clio on Sundays to serve a special Ken’s Fried Chicken Sunday Supper, accompanied by the likes of cornbread, greens and seasonal fruit crisp for $35 per person.  And Tin Roof Bistro, a new restaurant in Manhattan Beach, CA, offers regular nightly features that run from Monday’s chicken pot pie and Wednesday’s pasta Bolognese to Friday’s woodfired roasted whole striped bass and Saturday’s wine-braised lamb shank.  At $14.50 to $26.50, these items aren’t even necessarily less expensive than the standard menu tariffs, but represent value for a special-occasion food most customers would never cook at home.

Extra Menus

Sometimes the best way to build business is to divide and conquer. That’s one of the reasons why so many restaurants with the wherewithal to do so have added second—and even third and fourth—menus offering smaller portions, simpler foods, limited selections or all of the above, with the proviso that the prices are also lower.

Bar menus are a great strategy for enticing customers in to enjoy a few snacks or small plates with a glass of wine, offering a more casual and affordable option to a full-bore dining experience. At Trummer’s on Main, in Clifton, VA, the abbreviated Bar Menu in the bar area touts such categories as “Fried/Crunchy/Salty” (Parmesan popcorn and warm spicy potato chips), “Cured/Brined/Pickled” (roasted peppers and ciabatta bread, marinated olives and a country ham plate) and “Tiny Sandwiches” (steak with Bearnaise and country pork terrine), all $5-8 riffs on chef Clayton Miller’s contemporary American cuisine.

Other alternatives include late-night and patio menus. The Grove, a new restaurant in Houston, even has a simplified Sunday Menu focusing on sandwiches, main course salads and rotisserie meats for that night when families want casual options. The beautiful part of many of the Sunday Night Supper programs being offered now is the fact that do-ahead braised foods and family-style service often requires fewer staff members, thus reducing labor costs too.

Pre-Appetizers and Other Bargains

Many of the best menus these days include a category before the appetizers that is meant to offer an alternative to a full appetizer—appetizers being one of the items that many frugal customers are cutting back on when they do go out. Depending on the menu format, these small offerings (spiced nuts, shrimp, assorted olives, bruschetta) are usually priced at the “why not?” point of $3-6, and might be called tastes, snacks, nibbles, or adopt an ethnic name like the sfizi that refers to little Italian-style antipasti, or they might be merchandised as something for the table to share such as a cheese plate. In the best of all possible worlds, they might even be ordered in addition to appetizers as something to consider the menu over.

Ford’s Filling Station, in Culver City, CA, has a whole roster of sections before its more traditional category of Starters, including Charcuterie (such as housemade pates), Cured Meats (salami and so on), Cheeses, and Flatbreads.

Mix-and-Match Menus

It was happening even before the recession, but now the trend of doing away with the old appetizer/entrée/dessert progression in favor of mix-and-match small plates is coming on strong, allowing customers to assemble their own meal and operators to present items at a lower cost.

The menu at the phenomenally popular California-based Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill chain is a great example how the strategy can be integrated into a traditional restaurant menu. Although not a small plates restaurant, Wood Ranch offers a selection of substantial starters and salads such as crab cakes, BBQ Tri Tip Sliders, All-American Backyard Rib Sampler and Cobb Salad that can be shared and combined, along with such signature sides as Original Peanut Coleslaw and grilled corn on the cob, by anyone who doesn’t want to spring for oversized barbecue plates, steaks and prime rib, and premium seafood entrees.

Click here for some great recipes in our Traffic Building Strategies Recipe Collection.

© 2009 Custom Culinary, Inc. All rights reserved.