Know-How Exchange : Strategy

its all about incremental sales:
1) are you selling apetizers?
2) are you selling deserts?
3) are you selling carry outs?
4) are you booking weeknights?
5) are you selling up-scale wines, liquor, a shot of grappa, a coffee with liquor?
6) are you selling anything special for an Italian Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc?

A couple more questions to add to Frank's excellent list:
Is the restaurant seen as a place just for special events/weekend celebrations, or is it family-oriented?
Do you have quick to-go lunch menu?
Do you have contact information for your customers (to offer them a frequent dining program special)?

In addition to all the good advice above...

Are YOU "working the floor" ?

Circulating amongst your guests asking them how they like the food, the service ? If their answers are positive, ask them if they will recommend you to their friends. If the answers are marginal, ask what you can do to "improve their dining experience NEXT time they come in". If the answers are complaints, FIX IT !

This activity costs NOTHING and it will tell you a LOT about what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. Most of all, it shows your patrons that YOU care...

This is simply a "market test" and you know what they say about THAT ! Test, test, test and re-test...

DO NOT get complacent. ALWAYS be looking for ways to improve. With restaurants, the devil is in the details!

One more suggestion... If you have a "Tip Line" on your bank card receipts, review the percentage of the total bill that your patrons are tipping. This will tell you a lot about the level of service your wait staff is providing.

Good luck... Ciao...

Dario

Where is this restaurant?

It would be fun for a few of us to work on raising your revenue for a kind of case study. But we'd need to be nearby to your location so we could actually help you work on your product as well as your marketing.

But with a community this size, there's bound to be a couple of us close by.

ChrisB