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Importance of an Appropriate Happy Hour
Happy Hour is designed to get people into your restaurant during the time between lunch and dinner, to prevent an otherwise empty bar area. It implies special deals on food and drinks and definitely attracts a certain type of crowd. While it’s good to have ‘Good’ Happy Hour specials to make sure the people come to your place and not the one next door, it’s also very important to not make them ‘Too Good’; that’s how you end up with people that only show up during happy hour and then they’re gone. The goal is to get them to stay for dinner because they’ve enjoyed themselves so much they can’t fathom the idea of going anywhere else. If the Happy Hour menu specials and prices are vastly different than those on the regular menu, there’s no incentive for people to ever visit your restaurant at any time other than during happy hour. A Fine Dining restaurant should partake in things like ‘featured bites’, ‘teasers’ and discounts on existing items; that way people get good quality food for a discounted price, but not necessarily get full on it, leaving room in their semi-happy bellies for potential dinner. It’s also great to have variety; like, ‘Come in on a Monday, we’re doing so and so, and then on a Tuesday it’s a different thing – you should check it out’. Doing something like ‘Half off the entire bar menu between the hours of 4 and 7’ is ridonculous; you’re screwing yourself of ever having any customers at the bar past 7pm.
