Seasonal Menus: Smart Menu Changes for Bar Owners

Are high food costs eating into your profits? Discover how seasonal menu changes can dramatically reduce your expenses while delighting your customers.

Rising food costs and supply chain issues are squeezing bar owners' margins. Strategic seasonal menu planning can help you take advantage of better pricing while keeping your offerings fresh and exciting.

In today's episode learn to:

• Reduce food costs by purchasing ingredients at peak season
• Create buzz and excitement with limited-time seasonal offerings
• Streamline inventory and reduce waste through seasonal planning

Listen now to learn how seasonal menu changes can help you control costs while creating memorable experiences for your guests.

Learn More:
Email Chris
Schedule a Strategy Session
Bar Business Nation Facebook Group
The Bar Business Podcast Website
Chris' Book 'How to Make Top-Shelf Profits in the Bar Business'

Thank you to our show sponsors, SpotOn and Starfish. SpotOn's modern, cloud-based POS system allows bars to increase team productivity and provides the reporting you need to make smart financial decisions. Starfish works with your bookkeeping software using AI to help you make data-driven decisions and maximize your profits while giving you benchmarking data to understand how you compare to the industry at large.
**We are a SpotOn affiliate and earn commissions from the link above.

A podcast for bar, pub, tavern, nightclub, and restaurant owners, managers, and hospitality professionals, covering essential topics like bar inventory, marketing strategies, restaurant financials, and hospitality profits to help increase b...

Transcript

Chris Schneider (00:00.59)
Today, learn how to maximize profits by aligning your menu with seasonal ingredient availability, reduce food costs through strategic seasonal purchasing, and create excitement and return visits with rotating seasonal specials.

Today we're talking all about seasonal menus. And if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know I love seasonal menus. And we're going to walk through why and what they do for you, talk about the cost control benefits, the benefits to customer service, and then how you can implement.

So let's dive right in with cost control benefits. So the main reason I love seasonal menus is cost control.

Chris Schneider (00:49.324)
Now, part of this is when you have a seasonal menu, you can put less things on it. Right? Ideally, a menu is never too long. It's long enough, but not too long.

And so you just by having fewer items, it makes it easier to control costs.

has also let you take advantage of peak season pricing. So we all know, depending on where you live in the United States or anywhere around the world, certain times of year, certain fruits, certain vegetables are way cheaper than other times. So rather than use something really expensive when it's out of season, use it when it's cheaper and in season. And so that peak season pricing, and this is not true for booze, right, but definitely true for food.

As those prices go up and down throughout the year, you can match what you're doing to when the prices are lowest.

Chris Schneider (01:51.778)
Now on the other side of that is inflation. Inflation has been continuous. Inflation is going to continue. And so because inflation is continuous and will always continue, it's very important that you realize you need to be able to adjust your prices on regular basis. Seasonal menus let you do that. Especially because

You can change the items on your menu. When you change the items on your menu, there's no reference for what it used to cost. New item, new cost. No one can complain.

If you just raise your prices, sometimes people complain. So seasonal menus let you get through that. Like I said, it means you have less stuff. Less stuff also means better inventory management. It means more efficient prep processes.

But more important than that, it allows you to maintain consistent food cost percentages. Because you have a smaller menu, because you have less inventory, because you can do these changes every season to adjust for inflation and take advantage of what is in season, you're going to have a lower and more consistent food cost percentage. Now, how does a seasonal menu impact your guest experience? Well, first of all,

When you have a seasonal menu, that means things come off and on every season. So you can build anticipation around returning seasonal favorites.

Chris Schneider (03:34.936)
For instance.

With my bar, we did a meatloaf in the winter. People loved the meatloaf. I mean, it was good meatloaf. It was actually really good meatloaf, but it was still just meatloaf. But people loved it. So every winter, people would be like, hey, when's the meatloaf coming back? Like, December 1st when the menu changes. So we're building that anticipation. The McRib is the perfect example of this, right? You build anticipation with returning seasonal favorites.

You can create and you can use that buzz around those returning seasonal favorites to create buzz on social media around your new items. It gives you something new to market and push online. And of course, you can make very good videos of you showing people how to do that, how you make these items, how to cook the things that you have on your new menu. So not only can you give back to your guests a little bit in that way, but it's a wonderful way to promote.

Now, obviously for your customers, one of things they care about is does the food that you serve match my mood? So when you're changing things seasonally, you align with the weather, you align with seasonal events. That's going to have a better appeal to your guests. They'll feel more connected to what's on your menu.

Chris Schneider (04:58.606)
And the other big thing here, something I remember with my bar, we had a menu. It was really good, but we had it for like a year and I didn't change it. And some I started to hear after about a year, a longer than a year, was, I love your food, but I've had everything on the menu and I don't, you know, I just kind of, I've had it all multiple times and I don't really want it again. So I was losing repeat business because

The people coming into my bar had already eaten everything that I have.

Well, real easy way to fix that.

change the menu. So those seasonal changes, not only do they build anticipation, but they help drive repeat business because if somebody gets tired of what you're offering, if they've had everything on your menu multiple times, now they have other options.

So how do you implement a seasonal menu? Well, you need to plan these things well in advance. I always start planning my next season's menu.

Chris Schneider (05:59.438)
about a month into my current menu. if you're doing a seasonal menu, I like to run spring is March through May, summer June, July, August, fall, September, October, November, and then winter menu December, January, February.

And I would be starting, well, March is next month, isn't it? A few days. So obviously, March, if you're launching a menu March 1st, it's a little late. But I would start working on my summer menu beginning of April. And that's what I would tell my clients to do, right? Because you want to have about two months. A month to kind of get your ideas together, a month to get everything organized and costed and all that good stuff.

Also, when you implement, just like any other change, you've got to train your staff on it. They need to know the seasoning ingredients. They need to know the preparations. They need to try all your food because you cannot sell something you have not tasted. And during that training, you use that time to create excitement among your team. I used to also, when we were trying things out, just give them to regulars and get guest feedback so I could adjust those menu items with real guest feedback before we put them on the menu.

And then of course, at the end of all this, track your items performance, track your food, do the menu engineering, pull your P-Mixes, see what's worked and what hasn't.

So remember, successful seasonal menus combine smart purchasing, careful planning, and strategic timing to reduce costs while creating experiences that keep your guests coming back for more.