Four Ways to Adapt Your Restaurant’s Business for the Coronavirus Crisis

Straight talk: coronavirus (COVID-19) is bad for our economy but it’s especially bad for bars and restaurants. Our industry survives and thrives off the social tendencies of people, but when all our guests are ordered to lock themselves in their houses, what can you do?

You adapt. You find ways of bringing in every cent that you can. You lean on your team for ideas to keep your business afloat. The restaurant industry is full of some of the most intelligent, creative and inventive minds in the country. If there’s any industry that can find a way to evolve and wade water, it’s restaurants.

To help jump start your brainstorming process, here are some ways restaurants can adapt their business to survive the coronavirus crisis and serve their communities. We’re sure there are some other great ideas out there, so let us know what you come up with.

Note: Always check with your local rules, laws, and regulations on what you can and cannot do at the moment, as it varies by location.

Offer Restaurant Delivery & Takeout

We’ve been harping on this idea for well over a year now, but it’s even more important now that in-house dining at restaurants is temporarily banned. If you haven’t yet, you should strongly consider setting up a restaurant delivery program at your location(s).

We suggest trying to do it in-house if you can. This way you can convert some of your front-of-house staff who have no guests to serve into delivery drivers in the interim.

If in-house isn’t feasible for your operations, you’ll have to turn to some third-party delivery apps for help. We’ve done a number of posts ranking and researching these partners.

Regardless of your decision, you’ll also want to weigh the pros & cons of both in-house delivery and using a third-party app.

You’ll also want to figure out things like what menu items transport well and are suitable for delivery/takeout ordering, and which should be cut from the menu.

You may also want to setup a hand washing & sanitation station outside your restaurant if you go this route, too. It’ll be good for your drivers, guests, and your local community.

Create Meal Plan Kits

Even before COVID-19, meal plan kits companies were one of the growing threats to stealing away business from indie restaurants. With grocery store lines getting long, grocery delivery times limited, and stock sometimes short in supply, this creates a unique marketing and business opportunity for restaurants.

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To help fill the void, restaurants can create their own meal plan kits to sell to customers. Create a weekly menu based on your available stock, figure out safe packaging, calculate your price points, and start marketing.

These can then be picked up by your guests (takeout) or dropped-off by your staff (delivery).

Here’s a great example from Adventure Pub in Arlington, MA. They have five different meal box options for customers to choose from. On top of that, each box comes with a roll of toilet paper! That’s a win-win for the restaurant and guests.

Think of restaurant meal plan kits as another online delivery order but done in regular intervals. You can sell your usual menu in this way or figure out a separate menu for it. Having a nice mix of also healthy options and vegan-friendly options can go a long way with guests, too.

Sell Restaurant “Dining Bonds”

The idea of the “restaurant dining bonds” work just like any other bonds. You sell the “bonds” at a cheaper rate than what they’ll be worth later.

For example: you sell guests a $100 “dining bond” (see: gift certificate) for $75. This provides your operations with some cash now when things are bleak in exchange of giving your guests a bonus for their dedication and loyalty to your business.

You can learn more about this initiative at SupportRestaurants.org.

Become a Mini Grocery Store

If food delivery and meal kits isn’t your things, you still can sell your stock to customers. Consider turning your restaurant into a mini grocery store. You already have great contacts with food vendors. Leverage that partnership to bring in food and other household goods to help

This provides the customer with the benefit of picking & choosing what foods they want to eat and make themselves without having to deal with long lines at the supermarkets. You may want to list what you have to offer online and have customers place an order, so their order is ready for pickup or delivery.

On your end, you’ll have to figure out your price points and safe packaging, but that’s nothing outside an operator’s wheelhouse.

Again, like restaurant delivery or meal plan kits, you can turn this into a carryout business or have your staff deliver it to guests, keeping them employed a little longer. Some restaurants that have gone this route are even using their table reservation systems to schedule pick-up times with customers.

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