Restaurant Menu Changes

[nately]

I'm doing some research on restaurant operations and am trying to drill in on the months of the year when restaurants are most likely to update their menus, whether for seasonality or other reasons.

There are those restaurants that rarely change their menus aside from price updates (e.g. pizza places, delis), and then there are restaurants that change their menus daily. For the majority of restaurants that fall in between those two extremes, I'm trying to figure out if there is a pattern to when during the year restaurants are most likely to change/update their menus.

Any insight would be appreciated. I guess I'm particularly interested in the trade-offs between changing your menu "too often" so as to be burdensome vs. how chefs will design/plan the menu in the first place. If it mostly depends on seasonality, does that just mean you would update the menu more frequently (say, weekly) during the spring/summer months, and then less frequently (say, monthly or quarterly) during the winter fallow season? What other factors come into play with the decision to change the menu?

[Cola-Bear]

At the majority of restaurants I've worked at we've changed the menu seasonally like you said, spring (mar/apr/may), summer (june/july/aug), autumn (sept/oct/nov) & winter (dec/jan/feb). And then from keeping both customers and cooks from getting slightly bored we'd add specials from day to day or week to week depending on what's in season/growing.

[Norm Matthews]

One restaurant here has two menus for the customer. One is the same all the time, the other features seasonal items.

[DanM]

Sometimes menus change when the chef gets bored with what he/she is making. Other times it may be a change in the kitchen staff to make the menu fit their skills and strengths. Another factor with menu items is the popularity of the dish.

Regarding seasonality. I know a couple of restaurants that feature market specials based on what is available in the given week's farmer's market. Its fun to see what the chefs are buying as inspiration for my meal.

Dan

Edited August 5, 2011 by DanM (log)

[_john]

The menu changes every day where I work. About 20% of it that is. We print it every day on a high quality ink jet.

[nately]

Thanks for the input so far.

So it sounds like aside from the restaurants that do a larger menu change around the 4 seasons (and supplement with changes in the sides, or market-dependent specials), there may not be a predictable cycle to menu changes. Responses to changes in staff, or changing up specific menu items that aren't popular may happen, but not predictably.

Has anyone noticed any restaurants that update their menus more frequently in the spring/summer when more produce is coming into season in abundance, and yet also change it in the winter, but less frequently -- so different pacing of menu updates depending on season? I can't think of any myself, or at least have never noticed it, but I also don't tend to dine out regularly enough at any one restaurant to have noticed something like that. If anyone has examples, I would love to hear it.

[gfweb]

Fair hill Inn in fair hill Maryland changes monthly to stay hyper seasonal. Very good place.

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