Small restaurants and Valentine’s Day a mismatch
Looks can be deceiving. Despite the crowds, many owners find they aren’t raking in the big profits.
Love will be in the air as couples across the nation share romantic Valentine’s Day dinners at their favorite intimate restaurants.
But don’t expect the affection to be shared by many small restaurant owners, who find they aren’t raking in the big profits that one might expect on a traditional dine- out occasion sometimes requiring reservations to be made weeks in advance.
This Valentine’s Day, Americans are expected to spend $ 3.7 billion on an evening out, according to the National Retail Federation. But Valentine’s Day is only the 107th- best sales day of the year, falling behind St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo, according toWomply, a San Franciscobased software company that analyzed credit- card data from 26,000 restaurants last year.
Local restaurateurs see only a 4% increase in the number of checks they’ll hand out compared with a normal night, but the dinner tabs will collectively run 18% higher, Womply found.
That might sound great but not when considered against the extra costs that restaurants incur on the most romantic dining night of the year: ❚ Less table turnover. Patrons will linger longer, which means fewer tables available over the course of the evening. ❚ Tables for two. Tables normally used to seat four people arenowonly booked for two. ❚ Labor costs. They are higher due to the extra manpower needed to handle the crowd. ❚ Prix- fixe menus. To speed service, many eateries serve only a fixedprice menu, which means wait staff can’t as easily up- sell diners on higherpriced, and more profitable, menu choices. ❚ Higher food costs. Some suppliers jack up prices on items they know chefs will want to serve. ❚ Decorations. Owners have to spend extra on giveaways, such as glasses of champagne or roses. “While some types of restaurants, like fine French restaurants, might see a boost, for those more casual in nature it’s a subpar day, and what we’re seeing is an averaging out,” said NickGaylord, senior data scientist for Womply.
Chris Staples, the spokesman for Eat Restaurant Partners with eight restaurants in Richmond, Va., said he understands why restaurant operators “dread” Valentine’s Day.
“It’s the day everyone has high expectations but low patience thresholds. It’s the day people who don’t go out and don’t understand the restaurant scene come out andwant unreasonable things,” he said.
Despite the crowds, Valentine’s Day isn’t the moneymaker you think it is