Master Your Menu

"My mouth is a happy place "

- Pat Conroy, quoted in The Quotable Feast

"There are so many delicious things to choose from, I can't decide what to order"

- The plaint of many a guest

These two quotes encompass one of the dilemmas of menu development. There are few activities as magnificent as eating favorite foods. As Mark Twain once said, "Part of the secret of life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside".

And with this delightful endeavor, a little rain must fall, usually in the form of a menu. There is no excuse for us restaurateurs to get such a soulful experience off to such a dull start.

I wrote a series of articles on "Maximizing Your Profit - Creating Memorable Menus" back in 2001 and I thought it was a topic worth revisiting. Are there pitfalls to avoid when you sit down to layout a menu? What purpose does the menu serve? How do you design a menu that sells both what the guest and you want? When do you get rid of an item? How do I decide what goes on? Good questions, all.

What are some pitfalls in laying out a menu?

1. Being democratic with the layout. Some real estate is more valuable than others. Don't put a bum in a penthouse.
2. Listing items by price. Every item is not created equal. Don't force people to judge you based on price. Have them love you based on what makes you great.
3. Falling in love with "the look". Looks are only good in support of the sell.
4. Valuing percentages before pennies. Sending a % in as payment does not win you friends. It gets you arrested.
5. Avoiding 'odes to the rutabaga'. Every item does not need the romance of poetry, only the ones which make you money and make you proud.
6. Keeping the losers. No one likes to part with a child. A menu item is not a child.
7. Telling, not selling. Being plainspoken may work for Harry Truman, but it won't get you many second dates.
8. Ignoring the guest's feedback. It's not about you; it's about the guest.
9. Using fancy fonts and script lettering. That's good for wedding invitations, terrible for restaurants.
10. Writing a menu encyclopedia. There is nothing a guest likes better than to sit down to a lot of intense reading before they decide to leave your establishment for good.

Brevity being the better part of valor, we'll continue the discussion in the next issue.

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Mark your calendar! On May 15th Don Moore, President of Chi-Co and I will be doing a tag team presentation to the Association of Independent Certified Public Accountants in Chicago at their annual National Restaurants Conference. It will be held at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel. The topic: What Makes a Restaurant Chain Last?

Get more information here.

Have any questions about this issue? Please feel free to email me at rick@rickhendrie.com, or call me at 617-547-5123 or 617-335-1011. I'll do my best to help you out.