Literally Drive your Customers to Your Restaurant

The thought of organising transportation for a group of people just to go out for lunch might seem daunting to some. This will deter them from coming to your restuarant especially if you are far from their office. So if you are able to, provide some sort of transporation to your restaurant. It will give your restaurant an edge above the rest. In my recent I wrote about how we used our resort bus to transport groups from their offices for lunch to our restaurants. Below is an excerpt from the article. If you want to know more, then click on the link to take you to the article.

Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 40 – Literally Drive Customers to Your Restaurant

The resort that I am presently attached to, just purchased a mini bus. To transport their guest as well as  employees to and fro the resort. Of which I felt could also benefit my restaurants too. So I came out with a special package Specially for Corporate Companies to dine in my restaurants. Besides Menus and Beverages, we also provided transportation from their office to the resort. This is for a group between 20 to 35 person, we will pick them up from their company or office in our bus. To know more, please CLICK HERE

How to Build a Restaurant Website with WordPress

    

by Brenda Barron


The primary purpose of a restaurant website is to give guests and potential guests information they need to choose your restaurant. But a well-designed website can actually do a lot more than that.
Sometimes restaurants are chosen days ahead. Other times they are chosen by the visitors while they’re on their way to the restaurant. For this reason, you want a restaurant website that’s localized, works great on both desktop and mobile, and has the information that customers need to make their choice – which often includes information for the whole family.
This means the website has to be easy to use from any type of device or system, needs to give customers information about their menu, and shows them how to get there. It also needs to be easy to find on the web. I know that’s a lot to manage, but bear with me; we’ll cover all that and more here today  

Elements of a Restaurant Website

No matter what kind of restaurant you have, whether it’s a café, a buffet, or a coffee and doughnut shop, all restaurants need the same key elements.
A great site isn’t about looking cool. It’s about providing your guests (and potential guests) with the information they need about your restaurant.
It must be mobile friendly. Mobile devices are becoming more popular and many visitors will use mobile devices when searching for a restaurant. Be sure that every plugin and theme you use is not only responsive, but looks amazing when used on mobile systems.
Here’s a list of the features and pages to consider when building your restaurant website. Some of these are just content while others might take a special plugin. Plugins have been suggested for the elements that require them.

Your Story

People love stories. Especially origin stories and stories about overcoming great obstacles. Restaurants often have great stories to tell. Give your readers your interesting story in an About page. This is also a great place to add a photo gallery to show off your company’s history and your restaurant’s current ambiance.  

Menu

There should be detailed information about the menu. The menu is the star of the show. So please don’t make people download a PDF menu. Show it to them on the site. Make it interactive. Make it shareable. Don’t use Flash.
It should be viewable in mobile devices. Give them the information they need for their entire family. The menu should include information such as:

• Pictures of the food
• Detailed descriptions
• Dietary information
• Price
• Recommendations
• Specials
• What’s new

You may find using a plugin to be the best option for displaying this information. Here’s a good plugin that provides this and more:

This great article gives you a detailed infomation on How to Build a Restaurant Webiste with Wordpress. Please CLICK HERE to find out more.        

Restaurant Website Design, The Easy Way

   

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Restaurant Promotion Ideas for January

January is a very slow month in terms of revenue for the hospitality industry. Most business will slow down spending in January as schools reopen and parents will concentrate on their school going kids. People will also reduce spending after the holidays. Some places might give their staff a few days leave to rejuvenate after the busy holiday season. So January is not the best time for the restaurant industry. But you have still have overheads to pay, you still need to get people into your restaurant to cover your fixed cost. Below are some restaurant promotion ideas that you could try to fill up this slow month.

 Hospitality Industry Specials

January is also the National Thank You month and the Be Kind to your Servers month. You can capitalize on this. Give out discounts and special offers to people in the hospitality industry. As mentioned above some companies will be giving their staffs a break. So of course these staffs will look for a place to unwind. Work with your local inns or tour companies to create a special package just for the people in the hospitality industry. My former General Manager of the hotel where I used to work did just this. He created a package just for the people in the industry for the month of January, that’s how he managed to fill up the hotel rooms when the other hotels were empty.

Hold Events

If you have a large parking space, why don’t hold some events like vintage vehicles or a flea market where the local community can showcase their pride and joy or products. Large shopping centers in Malaysia are doing just that. They loan out their space to the locals to sell their wares once or twice a week. People also drop in to these supermarkets to do their shopping too after they go through the local market. Even if you don’t have a large car park, you can showcase some local artist. Put up on the wall their paintings with a price tags. Cause these artist might have their followers or even their Facebook page, which is free advertisement for your restaurant and also help to decorate your outlet. That’s what we call “killing 2 birds with one stone.”

Appreciation Dinner.

Choose a day and invite alĺ your regulars for dinner to thank them for their support. This is also a great avenue to showcase some of your new dishes for the new ala carte for 2015. You can even create a recipe book to give out to the ladies. In my Restaurant Promotion Idea #18 – Publish and Give out Recipe Books , I mentioned about the benifits of having your very own recipe. To visit the article. please Click Here 

Hold Little Tournaments.

‘If you running a bar or pub, do little tournaments to bring in the crowd. Visit my post in Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 5:- Do LittleTournaments, on the steps I took to organise a Dart Competition. You can also do Cooking competition, where the winning dish will be featured in the new ala carte. To know more, please click here Restauran Promo Ideas #25- Hometown Celebrity Chef

.January might be a slow month for some. But if you carefully observe there might be an opportunity to capitalize on it. I leave you with a quote from this famous person.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

 Restaurant Promo Ideas # 24 :- Chef’s Night Buffet

One promotional activity that some restaurants as well as hotels prefer to carry out is to have Guest Chefs. Should they possess the budget, they will get a Celebrity Chef to prepare some dishes. Most of time hiring a Celebrity might not bring you the profit you desire after taking out the chef’s expenses as well as their perks. However its a good advertising and marketing hook in order to let
people know that you are around. Nevertheless, you also need to ensure that your kitchen prepares food as good as that which was made by the Celebrity Chef or else you will only end up being busy when the he is around. Another alternative would be to create certain theme and obtain Chefs from that region to prepare. When I was attached to a beautiful resort in a little village on the East Coast of Malaysia known as Cherating. Each year for a month in September we used to bring Chefs from our sister property in Thailand to do a month long Thai Promotion. We did some fruit carving as well as Thai food cooking classes for our guests. We even hired a Tuk tuk to shuttle guests from town to our resort. It was really fun. Read more here Click Here



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Restaurant Promotion Idea #28 – Twelve Days of Christmas Promotional Ideas

On the last day of the 12 days Christmas Specials, why don’t you thank your customers for a great year and also build rapport for future business. Homemade gifts are great as it shows the customer how valuable they are as you have taken a lot of thought into preparing the gifts. Here are some gift ideas that you can try Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 27 – Year End Holiday Gift for your Customers Christmas can be a big profit driver if you do it right and the results of building holiday revenue can spill over far into the new year if you do a great job of impressing existing and new customers of how great your restaurant is and how much they will want to come back again soon.   Click here for more 

12 Promotion Ideas for the 12 days of Christmas

Instead of doing just a one day Christmas Promotion, why don’t you do 12 days of Christmas Promotion Activity which will stretch until the Feast of Epiphany. The more days you do a promotion, the more revenue you will receive for your restaurant. To make it more fun, work around the 12 Days of Christmas Lyrics. Here are 12 days of creative promotional ideas that I’ve found along the way.

On the first day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Gift Cards

Give out Gift cards with future discounts or free gifts to all customers visiting your restaurant on the first day of Christmas. You can give out discounts, free gifts even services from other companies like a manicure, car wash vouchers. The list is endless. Print out different gift card vouchers, put in a nice Christmas Theme Envelope, place it at your cashier counter. So when they pay the bill they can draw their lucky gift card.  

On the second day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Two Turtle Doves

Couple Night Out

On the second day of Christmas have a couple’s night out. Parents need a much needed rest after all the Christmas planning for their family’s Christmas event. A day when parents can relax and enjoy a nice lunch or dinner date without the children. Create a romantic candlelight Christmas Theme Dinner for two. If you are near to a daycare centre, workout a package where the daycare centre can take care of their kids while they dine. Create a menu without the turkey or other Christmas dishes, because some people get really bored with all the Christmas dishes year in year out.  

On the third day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Three French Hens

Buy Three pay only for Two

Do a promotion where three people dine and only pay for two special.  

On the fourth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Five Golden Rings

Acts of Kindness

The holiday season is an especially good time to kick off a Community Service initiative for your organization. Choose a day in the week to do some community service with your staff and maybe some of your regulars or suppliers. Work together to visit old folks homes, orphanage and many more places that you can spread love. It will be a fun gathering for every one and also lift everyone’s hearts. Try to get this event in the local newspaper. Even your suppliers can get some marketing leverage when the media gets hold of this story. It’s a real Win – Win situation for all. A few days before Christmas hold a Gift Collection Booth in your Restaurant with names of Kids from the local orphanage and what they would like for Christmas. Your customers can pick a kid buy the present, wrap it up and deposit at the booth. On the Community Service Day you can go and give out the presents with the person who bought it if they want to follow.  

On the fifth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Five Golden Rings

Christmas Thank You Parties

December and Christmas is the ideal season for companies to host year end thank you parties for their staff. Large companies do it at function rooms or restaurants. Holiday parties are not only reserved for large companies, even small companies these days try to reward their employees with a holiday party. To save on costs these companies do it in their offices, here is where you come in. Create a catering menu that you can do and that is easily transported. Create flyers and give out to the companies in your vicinity. This year the fifth day of Christmas falls on a Saturday, create special packages that small companies can reserve a corner of your restaurant to do a small thank you party for their staff (if you have the space).  

On the sixth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Six Geese a Laying

50% Discount

As we are half way through our 12 days of Christmas, give out 50% discounts on selected items in your restaurant. A discount always attracts people.  

On the seventh day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Seven Swans a Swimming

Before the Party Buffet Dinner

The seventh day of Christmas falls on New Year Eve. There will be New Year Celebrations in most bars and disco. You can capitalize on this by offering a before the part Buffet Dinner. You can use words like “Charge up your batteries before the party starts”, “Make sure you’re on full tank before you party”  

 On the eighth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Eight Maids a Milking

New Year’s Day Brunch

The Eight Day of Christmas falls on New Year’s Day, a day when most people wake up late due to heavy partying or just want to wake up late on the first day of the year. Hold a New Year’s Day Brunch. Print flyers early and distribute around, so as your customers can plan ahead. Search the net for different brunch menus which others are doing. Mix and match to suit your clientele and location.

On the ninth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Nine Ladies Dancing

Ladies Night Out

Have a special ladies night where all ladies pay half price or get a free cocktail when they dine at your restaurant.  

On the tenth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Ten Lords a Leaping

Men’s Night Out

This is for the men. Have a beer specials for men only with a special discounted price. Maybe add some dart boards or even a foosball table. If there’s live matches on, show it on a big screen.  

On the eleventh day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: Eleven Pipers Piping

Yahooo the Kids are in School

Check your calendar. Most schools will start during the first week of January. Most parents will be relieved as they had to endure a whole month of their kids and is happy that school starts. Have a special buffet for parents, especially if you are near to a school. Parents can drop by for lunch after they drop off their kids.  

On the twelfth day of Christmas - my true love sent to me: 12 Drummers Drumming

 Year End Gifts

Restaurant Promotion Ideas # 27 – Year End Holiday Gift for your Customers

With the closing of the year, a lot of business will be looking for appreciation gifts for their customers and regulars. Searching the web, you will find a number of organizations offering to create some sort of year end gifts with your logo on it. For small business owners who are scrambling to meet year-end commitments and running the day to day operations, finding just the right gift for your customers can be overwhelming. But you can still give out memorable year end or thank you gifts. One way is to make it your self. Search the web for ideas, there are various ideas that you and your staff can create by yourselves. Below are some of the ideas. I have done two of it myself and the rest I plan to implement it soon. Please Click Here    



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Inexpensive, Tasteful and Easy Halloween Decoration for your Restaurant

Where to find easy DIY Halloween Decorating Ideas for your restaurant or bar.

In my Halloween Promotion Idea Article a year ago, "Restaurant Promotion Idea #15 - Halloween Specials". I pointed out that there are a plenty of Halloween Home decorating tips in the World Wide Web that you could use in your restaurant or pub. These days my favourite site for searching decorations is Pinterest.  Merely go to their search bar and type your search keywords and press enter. What’s great is that Pinterest only displays the featured picture therefore its easy for you to skim through. Click on the picture you desire and navigate to the website.
For me I save most of the interesting web page in Pockets, so as I can go through it later. Below are some sites of which I have found really interesting and I am going to make use of some of their ideas cause they are simple to do as well as inexpensive.  

26 DIY Ideas How to Make Scary Halloween Decorations With Trash Bags

As the title suggest this website has 26 ideas on how to use trash bags to create scary Halloween Decorations. For my bar I will be using the picture on the below
 
 Please click here to go to the website to know more 26 DIY Ideas How to Make Scary Halloween Decorations With Trash Bags  

Ten Epic DIY Halloween Decorations Sure To Make Guests Freak 

This website has 10 different scary and freaky decorations. As my bar Halloween theme this year is a horror theme, I will be going for the No.5 The girl from the Ring movie. There’s also an in detail instructions on how to prepare the deco.
 
 See more at: Ten Epic DIY Halloween Decorations Sure To Make Guests Freak   

5 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations for your Dorm Room

Here I am going to use No 5. Glow in the dark eyes.
 The website to visit is  5 Easy DIY Halloween Decorations for your Dorm Room  

Grimm Monster Mud Reaper

A great set by step website on how to create a life size Grimm Reaper with step by step pictures to guide you through.
 
 To get the instructions just visit Grimm Monster Mud Reaper  

DIY: Scary Well from the Movie "The Ring"

I am thinking of doing this for my entrance.
 
 Click here to know more DIY: Scary Well from the Movie "The Ring"   With these simple ideas, I hope you have an awesome and scary Halloween. I know I will.!!!!

Happy Decorating!!!

How To Start a Successful Restaurant: GUIDE

If dreams of opening a restaurant have filled your thoughts for years, it might be time to sit down and draw up a plan to open your own business. To help you create a recipe for success, we’ve put together a how-to-get-started guide to make sure you have all the ingredients you need to open your restaurant with confidence.

While starting a restaurant is exciting, it’s also time consuming and one of the toughest businesses to successfully launch. In fact, 60 percent of restaurants fail in the first year.

We’re not telling you this to temper you passion. We’re merely pointing out that if you want a successful restaurant, you’ll need to invest some serious time and money.

What’s the biggest reason for failure? Lack of planning. Before you ever make dinner for a customer, you’ll spend a lot of time figuring out every detail of your restaurant. From kitchen appliances and menus to floors plans and staff selections, the planning stage will make or break your restaurant.

To help you plan, fund, and manage your new restaurant, we’ve asked three owners to share their trade secrets. Kim Strengari owns three successful restaurants in the Philadelphia region, including Stella Blu. Yuen Yung owns fast sushi restaurants called How Do You Roll? which received a million dollar investment from the hit ABC show “Shark Tank,” and now has 10 stores in the U.S. Lambrine Macejewski, is the co-founder of Cocina 214, a contemporary Mexican restaurant in Winter Park, Florida. Below are their tips for success.

Planning:

Have the right intentions

If you want to make it as a restaurant owner, you have to love what you do, Kim Strengari says. While she knew a restaurant was the right path for her, she had to work nights cleaning office buildings to make ends meet when she first opened her restaurant.

“I wanted the restaurant more then anything else in life, so the sacrifices were endless and I never minded making them,” she says.

To be successful, you’ll invest a lot of time and money—so make sure that starting a restaurant is your passion, not just a business venture you hope will make money.

Have a solid business plan in place

You can’t scratch a business plan out on a cocktail napkin. You need a detailed business plan that charts the course for your success. That said, we suggest beginning with a “lean plan” rather than the cliché long, dry business plan. 

Yuen Yung’s plan included a list of everything he would need to buy for the restaurant. “It looked like a novel by the time we were done,” he says. “But it helped us stay on budget and keep track of our capital.”

Your business plan should include market research, a comprehensive look at your competitors, explain your target audience, outline marketing plans, and offer a solid budget projection. To get you started, check out these templates specifically for restaurant planning, or check out LivePlan software that will walk you through the process.

Location, location, location

With a restaurant, location is everything. You need a spot that draws crowds, is easily accessible, and has potential for growth. Of course, you need a location that fits within your budget too. The perfect spot can be hard to find, so take your time, Yuen Yung says.

Whether you rent space or build from scratch, selecting a location is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make as an owner.

Test your menu

You probably have several stellar dishes in mind for your new restaurant, but you’ll want to test them out before you laminate your first menu, Yung says.

“Have a small party and invite people over to try your food before you open. Get honest feedback from people on the taste, the pricing, and the location.”

You might love the taste of a certain dish, but if customers won’t pay for it or aren’t keen on its taste, you won’t make money.

Read More at How To Start a Successful Restaurant: GUIDE

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A Summary of my Restaurant Promo Ideas through the years

Being in the Food and Beverage industry almost 26 years, what I have discovered is that the success of the restaurant isn't just the food served, its more than that. I am really passionate about my line of work, so much so I am constantly scouring the media for anything new related to the food and beverage industry. I am always searching for fresh  strategies to promote my product as well as services. The internet provides you with tons of ideas and tips. I started the Restaurant Promo Ideas blog in 2011 as a avenue to write out some of my ideas (tried  as well as untried), hoping that it will help someone out there as other blogs have helped me in promoting my restaurant. Here’s a summary of my earlier post. Some might or might not be feasible to your outlet or business. Use whatever you feel is workable.

Some Ideas to Help you Market your Restaurant

 So you have a beautiful restaurant, the greatest chef, the best wine list and so on. You need to get the word out to bring the people in. You need some marketing ideas to let the people know what’s inside. And advertising on the normal media like magazines, newspapers and even brochures are not enough. Reason being is that almost everyone is doing the same things. You need to bring customers to your place by doing something different. Cause customers are the life and blood of any restaurant. If you removed the customers from your restaurant, then you are left with nothing. So how do you bring them in? In this blog are some of ideas that I have done and also some that I have seen to be successful. Read More

Restaurant Promotion – Some Ideas from the Web

The World Wide Web is loaded with blogs giving you restaurant promotion ideas that you can use. Formerly if we needed creative ideas, we had to look through or purchase lots of magazines to see what others were doing. It was really time consuming and some of ideas cannot be used. Reason being you will be labeled a copycat, as the other restaurant in your area is doing the same thing. To me the World Wide Web is the greatest invention to men. You can get billions upon billions of information at your fingertips. Read More

Some More Ideas to Help you Promote your Restaurant

Even if your restaurant have a chef as famous Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver, you still need to constantly come out with marketing campaigns to attract customers to your restaurant. Even those brands like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and many other fast food chains constantly come out with marketing activities even though they are well-known. Any kid this days know who is Ronald McDonald is. Read more here

Promoting your Restaurant through Great Customer Service

Another key point towards promoting your restaurant, is the customer service. Its how people like your outlet once they are in it. Your chef may be great, your decoration might be top class, your beverage list might extensive but if the front line is not customer friendly then people will not return. Worse of all they might give you bad reviews to anyone they meet. Nowadays bad reviews can reach more people with the help from the World Wide Web. This is the reason why you need to watch what people are saying about you. Read more here.

Restaurant Promo Idea #5. Do Little Tournaments

We had a lounge in the hotel where I worked, that was not doing too well. We hired a band during festive holidays but people still didn't come. Furthermore the salary of the band was eating into my profits. I noticed that customers preferred watching live football matches on the big screen than listening to the band. So I stopped the band, invested in some dartboards, bought another big screen TV and converted the whole bar into a sports bar. Business was great on weekends when the hotel was full and there were live matches. Now I needed a way to get in business on the weekdays. I found out that there were quite a number of avid darters in our area. So I organized on a bi monthly basis small dart tournaments. Below are the steps I took. Read more here  

Restaurant Promo Ideas #6- Collect Mailing Address

There are numerous Websites or Software on the World Wide Web that can help you collect email addresses that you can use to email your latest food promotion or newsletters. But how do you get addresses from people that is already dinning in your restaurant or your function halls if they don`t have business cards. So naturally the organizers of the functions got on our mailing list. But the list was really small as we could only see a few people at one time. What we failed to see was that we had a large number of potential customers attending these functions. How to collect mailing address Read more here  

Restaurant Promo Idea #7- Watch Television

If you look around, there are restaurant promotion ideas everywhere that you can use. One great media that I have mentioned my previous post Restaurant Promotion – Some Ideas from the Web is the World Wide Web. Another media that have helped me with some of my promotional ideas is what some people call “The Idiot Box“. For those that is not sure what I mean, its “The Television“. Read more here

Restaurant Promo Ideas #8. Be Community Conscious

Another great way to promote your restaurant is to be part of the community not another business but a friend or partner. Get to know what activities the local folks indulge in. If they are doing charitable events, join in. I don’t mean only financial support. You can lend a hand, stocking community food banks; revitalize neighborhood parks and many more. If you ask around, I am very sure there’s tons of a thing you can do for your community that doesn’t involve much money. You can even lend out your place for say a Blood Donation Exercise. Join in the festivities, e.g. St. Patrick’s Day Read more here

 

Restaurant Promo Idea # 9- Postcard Promotion

When I stay in hotels, I’ve noticed that most of the hotels give out a postcard or two in their rooms for their guest to mail to their friends. They normally put pictures of their buildings or their interiors on it. I feel that this is also a great promotional tool for a restaurant too.Read more here  

 

Restaurant Promo Ideas #10. Unique Gift Ideas

A colleague gave me this idea when we were discussing how we can show our local regulars that we value their support. It was for one of our corporate gift that we give to our regulars during festivals. You can read about this in my previous post, Promoting your Restaurant through Great Customer Service. As a majority of our local regulars are Chinese Business Men who are farmers or traders by trade, we had to come out with an idea which they can use and appreciate it. So the normal corporate gift like pens, paperweights or even cardholders were out of the question. These people usually entertain their clients in our restaurants, we needed to come out with a unique corporate gift that will stand out. Read more here

Restaurant Promo Ideas #11. Menu

Another great promotional tool that is often overlooked is your restaurant menu. Like I have mentioned in my Previous Post “Creating Great Customer Service Culture”, first impression counts. Remember that the entire menu will compliment the restaurant theme. If your menu is not appetizing to look at, people will have the same impression of your food. Most restaurants put fancy words to describe their food. But fancy words and fancy fonts to me can be a deterrent for people to order something different from what they know. Most people will not take a chance in ordering an item that they are not sure about or they might not like. Also avoid jargons or terms that only a few people can understand. I have seen some menus that are so beautiful like a works of art, a masterpiece but if your customers finds it hard to read then what’s the point. It’s like a beautifully painted house without any door, you can’t get in. Read more here

Restaurant Promotion Idea – Eid ul-Fitr Giveaway

As mentioned in my previous post Promoting your Restaurant through Great Customer Service. During festivals we go around to visit our regulars, bringing gifts for them. This is to show them that we value their support. It also lets them know that we are still around. We try to give out something that represents our hotel, something different from the norm. This year we did two different giveaways. One for the local regulars and one for the room guest. Read more here

Restaurant Promo Ideas for March 2014

March is a month Carnivals with the colourful Mardi Gras at the beginning of March and the St. Patrick’s Day in the middle. Here are some Restaurant Promotion Ideas that you can use for the month of March.

Mardi Gras is a very popular festival in New Orleans which dates back to the 16th century . Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday," is the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Its normally a week affair in New Orleans with great food, parades and parties. To know more you can go to their website www.mardigrasneworleans.com. Even if you are not in New Orleans why don’t create a week long Mardi Gras celebration in your bar. Have an All You can Eat Cajun/ Creole style buffet, dance floor and DJ with some lively dance music.

When I worked in a resort Cherating, Malaysia and also in Koh Samui, Thailand. The full moon nights are really beautiful as the moon lights up the sea. What I did was look at the Chinese Calender which is quite easy to get in Malaysia. From there you will get the dates of when the moon is at its fullest. As we had quite a number of long stay guest who normally stayed a week, we put into their rooms that there will be a beautiful full moon in three days time. So on the full moon nights we opened the pool bar which was near the sea, played light instrumental music and served beverages and bar snacks. There were a quite a number of people just sitting having drinks and enjoying the moonlight. Entertainment is provided by mother nature and its free.

 Lent is a month where Christian around the world will abstain from meat on Fridays. If you are in a country that has a majority of Christians, for the Lent Month set up a Seafood Buffet every Friday.

Like Mardi Gras is a St.Patrick’s Day, is a one week affair. It originated from Ireland as St. Patrick os the patron saint of Ireland. In Irish Theme Pubs they will do a week long promotion with Irish Food, Guinness Stouts and Irish Songs.

 In Malaysia, the first term school holidays is geared towards the end of the month. During this time families like families elsewhere in the world will do some traveling. So if you are running a family style resort why don’t create a Food Bazaar. Click here to find out how I did mine.Restaurant Promo Idea # 21- Food and Beverage Bazaar Below are the dates of some

Holidays or Special Events that you can use.
4th Mardi Gras
5th Begining of Lent Ash Wednesday
7th Employee Appreciation Day
8th International Woman Day
16th March Full Moon
17th St. Patrick's Day




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Restaurant Review- Waranee Thai Restaurant

A Gem in Port Dickson

As I have mentioned in my previous post, its so hard to find good and reasonally priced food outlets in Port Dickson. So finding this Gem of a restaurant was great. A friend book this place as a venue to celebrate a birthday. Waranee is a little restaurant hidden away in Kampung Gelam, Port Dickson. If you are heading from Pantai Cahaya Negeri, look for the junction with the Shell refinery on right. At the junction turn left. Drive straight thats where you will come to a row of shophouses on the right. On the left is a row of double storey houses.The signage looks like most Thai Restaurants in Malaysia. The shop is nothing fancy. But food is great and reasonable. A plate of Thai Fried rice is RM5.00.

As for us, we preordered our dinner. The first course was raw vegetables such as carrots, cucumber, young corn served with a very spicy chili paste. Coming from Melaka we love our food spicy, the first course was heavenly. The chili paste was really really spicy. I am not sure whats inside as the owner said it was a secret recipe. After that was Tom Yam Seafood with some really large prawns. For the main course we had spicy lamb, fish cooked in a lime sauce, deepfried fish with Thai sauce, a vegetable dish and crab and mango salad. My favourite was the fish in lime sauce. I miss that alot after coming back from Koh Samui. For the dessert we had the Pumpkin Custard. Every dish that came out was beautifully decorated and tasty.

As I have worked in Thailand for about a year and half, I can fairly say that the food here is authentic Thai. So if you looking for good Thai food in Port Dickson head over to the at Waranee Thai Restaurant. They are opened for lunch and dinner. And closed on Wednesdays