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The Tyranny of Specialties – getting creative with your menu

Mar 28, 2011

By Joan Lang

You know what we mean. You have some menu items you’re so well-known for that customers literally won’t let you take them off the menu. On the other hand, your staff is sick of them, the overall share of sales is falling off, the food cost on some key ingredient has gone sky-high (or you can’t even get it any more), or maybe it’s just time for a change.

ethel's, special, hot lunches CC BY 2.0

Short of sabotaging the thing by pouring sugar instead of salt into it, what’s a savvy operator to do?

  • Change up the accompaniments. Like a suit that looks completely different with another tie, your signature dish can take on a whole other personality with different side dishes, garnishes or a sauce. Many places swap out seasonal ingredients anyway, so this can also help keep your menu more timely.
  • Raise the price. Putting the item into another pricing category—within reason of course—could help wean fans off it. At the very least, you’ll get a more profitable recipe that will make it more worth your while.
  • Continue to offer it as a special. Can you serve the dish every few weeks, or for a week out of any given month? You could even give regulars a call when it’s going to be on the menu (and here’s where it’s good to have a mailing list and/or informational database about your customers’ likes and dislikes).
  • Institute a plats du jour program. Many restaurants—beyond French bistros—have a regular of nightly specials on rotation: fried chicken on Sundays, stuffed rainbow trout on Fridays, osso buco on Saturdays. What if your old favorites never die, but just go to live on the daily specials menu?
  • Make it available off-menu. If possible, continue to make the dish if you’ve got the ingredients, and quietly let it be known to customers who ask about the item that you’ll still prepare it. And don’t forget to train your waitstaff on how to handle the situation.

With strategies like these, everyone can win.

Let us know how you handle the problem. We’d love to share your ideas with our other readers.