Examining the Trends of Successful: Modern Restaurants -

(Newswire.net — September 13, 2022) — What determines whether a restaurant impresses you or not? It goes beyond just the food or service during your stay; branding, decor, business attitude, style, and other factors are all in play simultaneously.

Whether you’re looking for bottomless brunch in D.C. or fine dining in New York City, a lot of the same rules apply to how you’ll perceive the business. The pandemic threw a wrench in how many restaurants approach their service, how they treat their employees both on and off the books, and how to stay alive in a worker shortage. Why is it that some restaurants saw their last days during the pandemic while others thrived in new business models?

The Washington Post estimated that 90,000 restaurants closed their doors by the spring of 2021. Those able to survive used a variety of methods to do so: trying delivery services, doubling down on outdoor seating, moving to carry-out-only methods, and adapting their menus.

Now that normalcy has mostly returned to the restaurant world, here are some of the trends dominating popular modern restaurants that have allowed them to thrive in the current landscape.

Outspoken Value of Employees

In a post-pandemic, nationwide labor shortage, struggling restaurants have failed to lock down long-term employees by not offering more stability in structure and compensation.

Using a millennial mindset from management from the top down can ensure your employees are happy and able to be themselves. Encouraging personal expression can help groom professional development among staff members.

Actions speak louder than words, however. Several companies have adjusted their payment methods for more sustainable retention of employees. The $2.13-per-hour, tips-only method of olde isn’t doing it for many restaurant employees, and several are leaving the industry in pursuit of a more stable income stream.

Some restaurants have implemented surcharges to cover rising minimum wages and health care costs. Restaurants that are doing well are generally paying well. However, it’s important to note the concerns about gentrifying an area by pricing out customers if you add too many surcharges to cover employees’ concerns. It’s all a balancing act.

Some of the most common complaints among restaurant workers include inept management, unreliable coworkers, poor or unreliable pay, a feeling of replaceability, and a lack of work-related pride. Going above and beyond to ensure employees feel valued can eliminate mutinous or pessimistic attitudes in the workplace.

Adaptability

Increasingly, tradition is losing to innovation. Restaurants need to adjust their business models to accommodate the world of food delivery apps, different types of orders, catering, and selling to different clientele.

For example, digital ordering — using a delivery app or not — is exploding in the restaurant scene. Customers don’t want to call anymore and wait on hold to place orders. Having a mobile-friendly app or website for your restaurant can eliminate roadblocks that might change a customer’s mind about ordering, like wait time.

Multiple revenue streams are essential: you need to satisfy the walk- and dine-in customers, those placing to-go orders, and those using third-party apps to order all at once.

During the pandemic, for example, digital QR codes to access menus have now made a permanent stay in several restaurants. Ghost kitchens, or cloud kitchens, sprouted up nationally as several businesses closed their dining rooms. These virtual restaurants sell food through delivery only — no dine-in or pick-up options. The global market for these new concepts was estimated to be around $56.71 billion in 2021 and is forecast to reach $112.53 by 2027 (U.S. dollars).

Brand Is Still King

The strongest selling point a restaurant can have is maintaining a strong and specific brand. Coordinating your business model to align with a truly authentic brand is how you get people to keep coming back. In other words, whatever you do, do it well.

This is where your restaurant’s traditions can shine while using modern methods of efficiency and adaptability. Maintaining a brand that customers feel comfortable with and confident in will allow you to weather bumps in the road and keep a loyal customer base.

Sustainable Practices

Restaurants are taking a sustainable step forward in approaching their operations. Not only can this help to focus on eliminating food waste and buying and using local produce and ingredients, but putting an eco-friendly stamp on your restaurant brand pleases customers and reinforces their investment in your business. Below are some basic ways restaurants can take a sustainable approach to their operations:

Attain LEED certification: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the most used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building types, LEED provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings.
Cook seasonally
Partner with the right local producers
Buy local in bulk
Grow your produce
Cut down on food waste/donate food
Buy sustainable cleaning supplies
Opt for eco-friendly to-go supplies
Eliminate straws

What’s Popular?

Doordash outlined the eight most popular and profitable restaurant types in the U.S., based on what people are ordering. Quick-service restaurants (QSR) and fast food restaurants are still kings, mainly for their time-saving convenience, low cost, and diversity in choice. Since mobile is the direction of the industry, it’s important to know what’s doing well. The top eight are listed below:

QSR/fast food restaurants (Taco Bell, Chick-Fil-A)
Casual dining restaurants (Chili’s Bar and Grill)
Fast casual restaurants (Five Guys, Chipotle)
Contemporary casual restaurants (Your favorite local, artsy, sit-down restaurant)
Cafes (Local coffee shops and bakeries)
Pizzerias (it’s pizza)
Pop-up restaurants (Temporary pop-up concepts, for a day or an entire season)
Ghost kitchens (delivery-only concepts with no brick-and-mortar locations)

For pop-up restaurants, the exclusive, limited-time-only nature draws in curious customers looking to find a delicious meal in a serendipitous situation. Pizza will always be popular because it’s pizza. Cafes see some of the heaviest traffic as customers pop in for a coffee on several occasions throughout the week.

The overhead of opening a contemporary casual restaurant, with its intricate decor and atmospheric draw, can be overwhelming. Restaurateurs are taking their creations online through innovative means to appeal to a younger audience. Trends indicate Gen Zers and millennials are much more likely to order food online for delivery and use a third-party app, or robotic system to place orders.