How To Make Your Restaurant Concept Unique

With millions of food service establishments already existing in the US, it can be hard to formulate a completely new concept for your restaurant business. But the right approach will certainly make it easier. Here’s what you should do.

Brainstorm the Concept

Brainstorming is a great place to start, and this means:

• Taking notes of all of your random ideas
• Creating scrapbooks with images and notes
• Taking pictures and jotting down ideas on your phone

The earlier you start this process, the more potential ideas you’ll have to choose from in the future.

Be prepared to:

• Make a research
• Study the market
• Keep up with the current trends
• Be patient and don’t expect your idea to pop up overnight. It takes time to succeed.

Get Some Inspiration

Plan a trip to the city or a rustling location where you can drop in a restaurant for a drink and draw inspiration from their concepts. If you want to take it a step further, take pictures and keep all of these ideas for later.

A lot of the most successful concepts started on the inspiration of another restaurant. Of course, you can improve on the seen concept and make it your own if you wish. You can also take this time to mix and match ideas to come up with your own unique restaurant concept.

Planning Is the Key to Success

Quality restaurant concepts fail when there’s not a strong plan in place. One major issue in restaurant concept development is that individuals assume that “concept” only relates to the theme and aesthetics of a restaurant.

Successful restaurant concepts include:

• Plans for the initial months of operation
• Theme of the restaurant
• Market research
• Location and design

You’ll effectively use most of your business plan as the concept for the restaurant. But now it’s time to:

• Research. You need to know your market to ensure that your establishment will be a success. Research the competition, make sure that there isn’t too much competition (it leads to business failure) and determine the food and supplies you’ll need to find success.
• Location and design. Where will your location be? A city’s main street is always a great choice, but if your restaurant is at the end of the street, it may not receive the same foot traffic as a restaurant in the middle of the main street. Consider parking, traffic and demographics. A restaurant serving $80-per-plate meals will not work well in an area where the average resident earns $20,000 a year.

Another question is what will you offer to your customers in terms of service? Will you offer:

• Sit-in dining
• Takeout
• Drive-thru windows
• Delivery

For example, if you’re in a small town with little competition but high demand for Italian cuisine, the idea of delivering may be a unique concept for your area.

Determine All Ingredients of Restaurant Concepts

A concept may include the following:

• Restaurant Name. A name should give a potential patron a general idea of what type of food your restaurant serves. You would expect a restaurant named “Steakhouse” to sell steak. “Dolce Vita” would be expected to be an Italian restaurant.
• Menu Writing. When a patron sits down and reads your menu, will it pinpoint the high-end ingredients, explain the savory flavors with precision details or will the menu be fun? The menu should make sense for your ideal customer and restaurant style.
• Décor and Ambiance. The décor and ambiance of a restaurant should have already been part of your brainstorming session. You’ll want to determine everything, including how the ambiance should be. Should the ambiance be romantic, or will you be offering a more casual dining experience?

Restaurant atmosphere types are dependent on the décor and ambiance that you choose. A lot of restaurants with bars are trying to stand out from the crowd. An Irish pub with a true Irish concept with imported bars and seating are very popular in some areas.

Choose how you would like your restaurant’s concept and run with the idea. Classic restaurant concepts work well because they appeal to a wide range of consumers. But if you choose a concept that is too unique, it may distract some potential customers.

Source: https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/restaurant-concept-creation-guide