How to Increase Business on Slow Nights

There's a terrific story about Ella Brennan, the owner of one of New Orleans' most respected restaurants, the Commander's Palace. The venerable matriarch was asked in a local interview to name what she felt was the best way to decorate a restaurant. Without a moment's thought, she snapped back, "An ass in every chair, darling!"

Always a legend among New Orleans restaurateurs for her preternatural sense of the business and humor, the anecdote is often repeated to young chefs as they try to tell investors that their planned menu doesn't pander to a crowd by giving them "what they want."

The Brennan family, with 130 years of restaurant business experience in one of the nation's most-visited tourist and convention destinations, has attracted long lines of diners waiting to be seated in the 500-seat dining room. They have a formula and a crowd density that's the envy of independent restaurateurs around the country. While some restaurants, like Commander's Palace and others in cities like Washington D.C, San Francisco, Chicago or Manhattan, seldom have slow nights, that's not the "normal" for most operators. Most restaurants have to juggle a number of factors each week to reduce "empty seat" nights.

The question becomes, "How do you increase business on those sleepy nights?" Do you create special menus? Are aggressive advertising and coupon deals the answer? Do you need to ramp up your social networking campaign? Or is it a systemic problem, requiring a change of concept or chef?

As Brennan put it, "asses in seats" is the first commandment of any restaurant and keeping those "slow nights to a minimum" is what this article is all about. While slow nights may be inevitable in most locations, reducing even a few of them can have a dramatic effect on your bottom line.