As we enter the ninth and holiest month of the calendar year, restaurant owners need to shift gears to ensure that they’re ready for the upcoming festivities.
If you plan on keeping your restaurant full during Ramadan ,read this quick article for tips to help you relieve stress and maximize profit during the festival.
Be Prepared for a Midnight Snack Attack
Be mindful that clients will be coming in before sunrise to have their first meal and then are fasting all day until iftar. On this schedule they’ll likely get hungry for a midnight snack instead of lunch.
Even though many people choose to break the fast at home they’ll want to go out and get a sweet treat with friends afterwards. Be prepared for this urge and create a menu with desserts to be served at midnight. This is the best way to capitalize on volume between iftar and suhoor.
Your customers will thank you for it!
Create a Ramadan special Menu
Try tweaking your menu to include popular Ramadan foods like Harees, Machboos, Katayef, or Aishu Laham. You should avoid serving salty food at breakfast that could make people thirsty after sunup. Overly sweet foods will also cause excessive thirst. So serve a savory breakfast that isn’t too salty.
Serve a Hot Breakfast
Offer a quick hot breakfast option for suhur. Have this warmed up and ready to go since many people will be rushing in only minutes before Fajr.
Meal Prep During the Day
Plan to do all of your meal prep when you would normally serve lunch. That way you don’t have to stay late or get up earlier in the morning to prepare for the pre-fast meal. If you’re restaurant is located in a Muslim area chances are you won’t have any customers at lunch time. You can even consider closing the restaurant all together for lunch.
Anticipate Ramadan Related Supply Chain Disruptions
Get to know your suppliers. Are some of your suppliers going to be closed or have altered hours during Ramadan? If so, order what you can in bulk and cancel the rest. Just serve what you can with the supplies you know you can get during the holiday.
Serve Family Style during Ramadan
Serve family style. Make special deals for family style menus. Ramadan is a festive time when people tend to eat in packs. If you make it easy for them to order and they feel like they are saving money they’ll keep coming back. Especially towards the end of the holiday!
Show Gratitude In the Spirit of Ramadan
Don’t forget the true spirit of RAMADAN which is to give to the less fortunate. Provide your customers with free desserts or prizes for kids and donate a portion of their tab to a predetermined charity. Make sure your staff expresses gratitude to customers.
We hope this list helps you with your business this Ramadan! Don’t forget to enjoy and may the spirit of Ramadan fill your soul with enlightenment and peace.
