With the need to desire to thank supporters, train staff and generate buzz, restaurants have various openings, providing different perks.
Then you see activity inside.Increasingly it seems that new eateries are fully opening in a series of stages.
From thank-you previews for family and community who have helped restauranteurs realize their dreams to soft openings to test menu items and work out kinks in service, restaurant operators say such stages are needed to ensure smooth openings or even grand openings. Any advantage is needed in a world where there’s a 30% failure rate for restaurants, according to the National Restaurant Association.
“That soft opening is an opportunity to kind of open up without much fanfare and make sure that we've got everything working well, that the staff is as good as we think they are, give them some experience, you know, that kind of thing,” said Jeff McCabe, co-founder and executive chairman for Nashvillle, Indiana-based BWQOHT Inc., which owns the restaurant and the bar.
Typically limited menu. But, it's free food — from someone you've likely supported enough to score an invite.Soft openings are typically unannounced periods — anywhere from days to weeks — which give restaurants opportunities to work out the final menus and smooth out kinks in service with smaller crowds before restaurants announce their presence.
“We’re not making a lot of mistakes, but things might be a little slower. Or we might be out of things,” co-owner Mark Weghorst said ahead of the opening. “You want to work through those when training the staff, training the servers. I don't want a customer to come in and pay full price and not get the perfect experience.”Benefit to going: