Healthy Ideas for Profits

“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher.” Chinese proverb

Good bye winter and hello construction season in Chicagoland. With the onset of construction season and its accompanying warmer weather, people are turning away from comfort foods and towards healthier, lighter fare. Are you poised to take advantage of this shift in the dining habits of your consumers? With the warmer weather people start thinking about swim suit season and everyone makes a mad dash for the gym and the health food aisles in the grocery stores. Why not be an extension of their healthy mindset and become a dining destination for the newly health conscious?

As people put their snow blowers into storage and start pulling out their bikes and other outdoor activity equipment, they start to think about shedding their winter weight. Now is the time to start offering low cal and healthier specials for your LTOs (limited time offers) to take advantage of their new found desire to trim up and get in shape. Salads, fish, half sandwiches, smaller portions, and smoothies are all great ideas to tap into as the seasons change and people start thinking about their waistlines.

Diners love to go out to eat for foods that are too difficult to create at home or are too labor intensive or that they don’t know how to create at home. With that fact in mind, now is the time to freshen up your salads with some different blends of salad greens. Why not try an artisan lettuce, or some mesculine mix to spice up your ordinary house salads. People are more likely to try a gourmet salad at a restaurant than they are going to try to create one at home. Salads are great margin opportunities for operators as well. Why not spice up your regular salad with some nuts or a new house dressing?

People love to go out for seafood and fish because they are too afraid to try cooking it at home. Fish is generally seen as a healthier protein option than red meat, so why not combine those two incentives to try to lure new diners in with a seafood special each week? Since people rarely muster up the courage to cook fish at home, you can always build in some extra margin into your seafood specials. Why not combine both of the aforementioned trends and offer a salad topped with a salmon filet or some tuna?

Now is the time to get out in front of the trends and provide some excitement to your menu with adapting specials and LTOs to the relevant seasons. Take advantage of shifts in taste and trend to add profits to your bottom line.