With summer on the horizon, it’s time to consider how to make your restaurant warm-weather ready. Given the right conditions, people love to eat outside. And, since the Covid-19 pandemic, outdoor dining has become the norm.
By opening up your back garden or front terrace space for alfresco dining, you’re able to increase your revenue during the summer months. The more seats you have, the more customers you can serve, and the more money you can make.
Make it legal with a licence
Some local governments will require you to have a pavement licence* to place tables, chairs and other furniture on the pavement. Rules, restrictions and fees vary region to region, but, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the application process has become streamlined, making it easier for restaurateurs to get a licence.
Certain restrictions apply on how big the furniture can be. You will also have to leave an amount of pavement space free for pedestrian traffic, and clearly mark the borders of your outdoor seating area.
When applying, you’ll need to supply a site plan and a public liability insurance certificate, and may be subject to fines if you fail to meet the requirement, or fail to pay the licence fee.
Adapt your menu
When serving outside, you may want to create a new menu and diversify your offering. Consider dishes that are more specific to summer, and which promote a social style of dining. You also don’t want to be serving food that needs to stay hot, as eating outside means the food will go colder, quicker.
With Lightspeed Restaurant ePOS, you can add multiple menus to your system, and have them functioning at different times of day and in different parts of your restaurant, or in parallel with a delivery menu. This makes the transition to alfresco dining seamless for you and your guests.
Use technology to keep customers happy
According to a poll by HospitalityGem, 48% of UK diners** say slow or low-quality service puts them off eating outside.
Luckily, ePOS technology makes delivering table service alfresco much easier.
Lightspeed customer, Boundary London, is known for its rooftop terrace that’s a buzzy hotspot come summer. By implementing a cloud-based system, Boundary was able to turn what was once a manual, time-consuming procedure – where staff would take receipts from the terrace and run them through to reception – into an automated, seamless process. With an iPad ePOS system, waiting staff can send customer orders to the kitchen straight from the table.
Offer a safe way to dine – and pay – at your restaurant with Lightspeed digital menus and contactless payment directly from the table***. There’s no need for customers to download an app, it’s all done through unique QR codes linked to specific menus or tables.
Alfresco dining: a win for restaurateurs
With the right technology in place, an alfresco offering is easy to achieve. As well as increasing dwell time, alfresco dining gives you the opportunity to test new menu items, and increase your revenue.
