5 Important Trends to Watch for a Restaurant Bar Business Plan

Following the latest trends is an important first step in developing a new restaurant bar business plan or updating and refining an existing one. Equally important is to incorporate those trends that have legs – in other words staying power – to provide an ongoing return on investment. Here is a look at five we believe worth watching: 1) Location Selection The number of shopping centers is growing across the USA and this means more large grocery and convenience stores in those locations. Partnerships of supermarkets and restaurants are on the rise and quick service (QSR) restaurants are expected to open more units in these locations. According to a report by Nation’s Restaurant News in the Huffington Post, big box stores, like Wal-Mart, may be the ideal site selection for your restaurant bar business plan concept. 2) Dietary Issues Health and diet are on the minds of potential foodservice customers and these future guests are taking a long term, not short sighted view, when choosing a dining place and where to eat. Fried skins, such as chicken and pork, are also expected to slowly be replaced by salmon skin, which is considered healthier. 3) Menu Preferences Local sourcing and children’s nutrition are some of the menu trends in the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot in 2013” Culinary Forecast this year if you are a food service expert advising clients. Customers also want choices that include “sustainable and organic” say other surveys. In a separate report, one restaurant expert predicts the rise of “farm to fork” concepts. If your restaurant and bar is this type of concept, targeting larger portions of marketing dollars on advertising and promoting toward it should be included in your budget as well. 4) Wine Choices Recent information from a study by GuestMetrics in Nightclub and Bar Magazine says domestic wines are favored by almost 60% of core wine drinkers. The price point for these wines consumed by these customers is in the 30 dollar plus range. 5) Digital Opportunities Twitter is on the rise to surpass Facebook as the primary no-cost, low-cost social media tool to promote and refer restaurants and bars. Getting the chef in the social media spotlight is also important as more sites, such as DigitalCoCo, are rating chefs according to their presence and interactivity with customers online. Lastly and in terms of finding digital startup money for a new restaurant bar business plan, Kickstarter is predicted to be the go to local crowd funding source on the Internet.