How to Get Your Restaurant Ready for the New Year's Eve Rush
It might not seem possible, but we’re already nearing the end of 2021, which means a brand new year is about to take its place. The mark of a new year is a major time of celebration, which is a double-edged sword for those in the restaurant industry. On the one hand, new year’s eve is great for business, prompting plenty of feasting and drinking -- on the other hand, this sudden surge of activity can catch restaurants off guard if they’re not well prepared. The new year is still a couple of months away, but now is the time to make several preparations. Here’s how to get your restaurant ready for the New Year’s Eve rush.
How to Prepare a Restaurant for New Year's Eve
Start Taking Reservations
Every restaurant is different. Depending on your primary audience, what you serve, and the size of your location, you may or may not require reservations on any given night. For most sit-down establishments, however, holiday reservations provide a necessary buffer to ensure your staff isn’t overwhelmed while still seating the greatest number of diners possible throughout the evening. The sooner you start marketing and accepting New Year’s reservations, the better. Doing so as early as November will give you a clearer picture of how many people you’ll be serving when the time comes. Keep in mind that some patrons may cancel their reservation or fail to show up, so be sure to have contingency plans in place, too.
Staff Up
Based on data from previous holidays and this year’s reservations, you can estimate how many hands you’ll need on deck to properly handle the New Year’s Eve explosion. Some of your employees may have requested the night off to enjoy their own celebrations, too. If you think you’ll be short-staffed on New Year’s Eve, now’s the time to search for seasonal help (as well as full-time employees, if necessary). To expedite the process and find the best candidates, you may need to include certain hiring incentives as well, including holiday pay.
Train and Re-Train Employees
Fresh and seasoned employees alike should receive updated training to prepare for the New Year’s Eve rush (and the holidays in general) -- this is especially the case if you plan on altering the existing menu for the holiday or change it on a regular basis. You may even want to run drills with hosts, wait staff, line cooks, and chefs to build muscle memory and further streamline your restaurant’s operations. The goal is to make your restaurant run like clockwork so that no matter how hectic things get, everyone knows where to be, what to do, and how to do it safely.
Fortify Your Restaurant Floors
The logistical elements mentioned above only make up a portion of key holiday preparations to consider for your restaurant. Not only do you want everything to run smoothly -- you also want your business to leave the best possible impression on every customer so they return in the future. Moreover, you want your physical location to withstand the hustle and bustle of holiday activity. To achieve these various goals, you might want to start with your floors; this might not seem obvious at first, but durable, beautiful floors can elevate your restaurant in more ways than one. For starters, coating your kitchen floors with a commercial kitchen concrete floor sealer will increase workplace safety, morale, and productivity, all while protecting your floors from sustaining damage. Likewise, refinishing or otherwise updating the floors in your main dining area will boost their integrity as well as their appearance, leaving a positive impression on everyone inside (even if only subconsciously).
Update the Rest of Your Interior, Too
Your restaurant flooring isn’t the only interior element worth renovating, of course. Gearing up for the holidays is also a great excuse to do some commercial interior painting, especially if it’s been a while and/or you’re rebranding your business. Freshly painted walls and ceilings will make your restaurant feel more welcoming and modern, which fits perfectly into the theme of a brand new year. Best of all, providing your patrons with a recently painted interior may convince many of them to become regular customers for the new year and beyond.
Refresh Your Restaurant Exterior
Don’t forget about the outside of your restaurant when preparing for the holidays, either. Even if your reservation list is filled to the brim, it’s important to impress passersby as they’re out and about on New Year’s Eve looking for new places to go. The right commercial exterior paint colors can encourage people to enter your establishment, especially those in a celebratory mood. Specific colors aside, maintaining fresh commercial exterior painting helps to keep your business competitive year-round.
Prepare Your Restaurant for the New Year Now
The holidays are here -- is your restaurant in proper shape to handle an increase in activity? At Anderson Painting, our commercial painters and flooring experts can help make your establishment the go-to place for those in your neighborhood during the holidays and beyond. To learn more about us and all we do, call today at 919-610-1855 or email us at info@andersonpaintingnc.com!
