When doing restaurant business planning the higher ratio of lunch to dinner customers can have a significant impact on costs as well as sales. After all, and when opening for the lunch meal period, staffing counts, labor costs and fixed overhead, such as utilities, are often the same as dinner. Yet, the check average is usually not and many times it is lower. Nor, is there an opportunity to up sell patrons on wine and desserts. This is mainly because that meal is usually taken during business hours or in between other activities for the day. Still, according to a recent survey, dining out at lunch versus dinner is still much higher. According to this report in FastCasual.com: – “The average American eats 4.8 meals per week in restaurants or 249 total restaurant meals per year (both dining in and carry out).” – “The most popular restaurant meal is lunch, with 2.6 eaten on average each week (both carryout and dining), followed by sit down dinners (1.4 per week) and brunch/breakfast (.8 per week).” Other facts for your restaurant business planning and reported in this same survey: – “Although the food truck trend continues to grow, just 4 percent of respondents said they regularly eat at one.” Read more on this restaurant industry analysis if you are considering a food truck as part of your food and beverage concept. Or, check out our many restaurant operations consulting resources if you need help developing and writing a foodservice plan. Are you a restaurant who only serves dinner? What reasons would you have to consider opening for lunch or never at all? Please share your thoughts on the pros and cons with our readers.
Perry Group
Hotel & Restaurant Experts For The Hospitality Industry
