Owning a restaurant or bar is about maintaining continuity while embracing change. It’s an admittedly hard balance to pull off, especially for newer places. Very old places can- mostly- get away with never changing. But for anyone else with a restaurant or bar, you have to be able to adjust with the times, embracing new methodologies and trends, but without becoming the kind of joint that is a sports bar one week and then suddenly an upscale neuvo-Fusion cocktail bar the next. That’s no way to attract patrons.
So when deciding how to make sure that your business stays relevant in the upcoming year, you have to look at trends and make the small but important changes that reflect eating habits. Technology, along with changing tastes, will continue to influence the restaurant industry. To keep up with these trends, a cash-out refi loan can get you the liquidity you need to make the vital changes. Here are some 2016 restaurant upgrade trends that can help keep you afloat.
More Mobile Means More Delivery
Do you deliver? If not, you could be missing out on a lucrative business opportunity. Site like Grubhub have changed the way we eat. More and more people can order food just by pulling out their phones and tapping a few buttons. If you aren’t set up to have a delivery service, you are missing out. What’s more, people get to like a restaurant based on ordering in. If someone finds they really like the food from a place, they are more likely to go there and more willing to pay extra for drinks and the tip.
In order to capitalize on this, you’ll need a better computer system, and possibly even a company car. You’ll may even have to revamp your kitchen, so that you have a side focusing on takeout, and one on dine-in. Even if you use a service that does the ordering and delivery, you have to restructure to be able to handle both sides of your business. This costs money, but in the end can be more than worth it.
Healthier Eating
For years, Americans have been getting more and more interested in eating healthier meals, as well as meals that are more locally-grown, organic, green, and lean. For a while, that was ridiculed, because a lot of those meals weren’t very tasty. But over the last decade or so chefs have really begun to explore how to make delicious meals out of locally-grown, healthy options. It’s more than just a trend; it is nearly a demand. Your restaurant should keep up with this, which could mean purchasing new equipment better suited for complex foodstuffs. These are more likely to be perishable as well, which means less deep freezers, and more clean storage space.
A Different Kind of Pubgrub
Ok, this one stands in contradiction to the last, but it is true. There has been, if not a backlash, a mirror to the healthy eating trend, and that’s the rise of gastropub-type places that specialize in meat, and lots of it. This is especially true for bars. Here’s the catch, though: it isn’t onion rings and chicken wings. People want interesting options, and if not healthy, at least locally-sourced and interestingly-prepared. That means ditching the fryer and putting in a wood-burning oven, maybe. It means a place to make burgers and kimchi tacos, and maybe kimchi burgers. It is about experimenting, which can cost money.
More TVs- but not for sports
Most bars and restaurants have TVs for one thing: sports (two things if you count the reruns that come on after the game ends and someone forgets to change the channel). However, the era of “peak TV” has led to a weird new phenomenon. People are going out in groups to watch their favorite shows at a bar, which specialize in these showings. All the TVs are on one channel, the sound is up, and no one is talking.
It’s a great revenue plan. You have a whole bar full of people watching Game of Thrones or The Americans or America’s Next Top Model (reality shows are very popular for this). They buy food and drinks and stay after to talk. But you have to have quality TVs and a great sound system. No one wants to be staring into a small TV in a far corner to see who is stabbing whom. Making your bar into a TV place, even if just for one show, can give you a crowd on a Sunday night where normally you’d be dead.
So there are a lot of ways to take advantage of cultural trends. Keeping your restaurant or bar up to date while still maintaining what makes your place unique and wonderful is the best way to stay open. With the right equity, a cash-out refi loan from Socotra, California’s leading hard money lender, can make sure that success is the top item on your menu. Contact us today to find out how we can keep the kitchen bell ringing.
