Hosting special nights is a proven strategy that not only attracts new guests but also encourages repeat visits. Whether you’re aiming to introduce a themed night or something more simple like live music, these events can give people a reason to choose your restaurant over others. In this blog, we'll explore the top 7 restaurant special nights that can help you stand out and keep your tables full.
How Special Nights Can Boost Guest Numbers
Special nights are a powerful marketing tool that can drive guest numbers and build customer loyalty. By offering something unique, you create an experience that customers can’t get on a regular night, giving them a reason to plan their visit. Whether it’s a trivia night, live music, or something else, these occasions create buzz, encourage word-of-mouth marketing, and can even boost your restaurant's visibility online.
1. Themed Cuisine Nights
Themed cuisine nights are an excellent way to do something unique and new without fully shaking up the flow of your restaurant. We’ll talk about ideas below, but this is a wonderful excuse to try new ideas, experiment with new flavors, and get a bit of growth on your menu (even if it’s only for a night).
Example Ideas
So, what are some good examples of a themed cuisine night? Let’s look below:
- French night: Build a small tasting menu consisting of French classics (steak au poivre, duck a l’orange, bouillabaisse, etc.).
- Pizza night: This one’s pretty cut and dry — assuming you have the oven to make pizza.
- Tailgate night: Bring out the BBQ, get the hotdogs, and prep the beer — it’s time to party.
Benefits of Themed Cuisine Nights
Themed cuisine nights are a great way to provide a bit of creativity to your kitchen staff, use up aging products before they can’t be used, and shake things up for guests that may not normally be into your “style” of cuisine. Whether you choose to go all-in with something out of pocket or to make something simple, a good themed cuisine night can do wonders for your numbers.
2. Live Music Nights
Live music nights are an age-old attraction for bars, pubs, and other large gathering spaces. While there are a lot of ways that you can do this, the most common option will be to partner with local artists. Let’s take a look at how to set up restaurant special nights with live music.
Choosing the Right Genre
The type of music that you choose can and will have an impact on the success (or failure) of your night. For example, if you’re a relatively serious, dimly-lit Italian bistro, chances are that your patrons won’t be interested in a local country or bluegrass band. Similarly, if you tend to lean into the punk side of things at your restaurant, maybe don’t opt for a pop band.
While this may seem somewhat obvious, if your guests are used to one vibe and show up to another one entirely, they may be a bit off put.
Partnering with Local Artists
It’s important to partner with local artists whenever possible. This is for two reasons: first and foremost, it allows you to support your community and have it support you at the same time. Of equal importance, though, is the fact that local artists will have local fans and a local community of their own — which they can then bring along to your restaurant.
3. Wine Tasting Events
Wine tasting events are a great way to encourage wine and alcohol sales in your restaurant. Another important note, though, is that this doesn’t need to apply only to wineries or wine bars — breweries and distilleries can (and should) still do tasting nights!
Curating a Memorable Tasting Experience
When building a tasting menu, it’s important to have a guide from someone that truly knows their wine. If you don’t have a sommelier, it’s likely going to be quickly apparent that you need to do a bit of brushing up on your wines. After all, wine lovers love wine, and they know quite a lot about it — and we can’t be running a tasting night without the ability to answer questions.
Luckily for you, local wineries are often more than happy to give tasting notes, pairing suggestions, and more when selling wines for a tasting menu.
Collaborating with Local Wineries
Just as we mentioned above, partnering with local groups and businesses means that you get their local community involved in your restaurant special nights. And that is what it’s all about — so reach out. You’d be surprised how often local wineries schedule nights like these for restaurants in their area as a form of marketing!
4. Trivia Nights
Trivia nights are an incredibly effective way to encourage large groups to come to your restaurant on a regular basis. Trivia groups, like karaoke, tend to be incredibly communal and all know each other — which means you have the potential for a lot of new faces.
Popular Trivia Themes
Generally, trivia will be themed out by an overall concept. While you’re more than welcome to try and come up with questions and themes of your own, it’s always best to partner with locals that already run trivia. They have their own community, their questions and themes are pre-established, and it makes everyone’s life a bit easier.
5. Chef’s Table or Tasting Menu Events
Chef’s tables and tasting menus are a time-honored tradition in restaurants, and for good reason. They allow you to run restaurant special nights that are unique to your restaurant and irreplicable, meaning you’ll (in theory) gain something of a following, should you pull it off. So — how should you do it?
Creating an Exclusive Experience
The whole concept of a chef’s table is that it’s unique to your restaurant, on that night, and won’t be done again. As such, it’s important to fine-tune your menu over time. This will allow you to iron out any and all kinks before service and, crucially, make it a night to remember.
Beyond consistency, it’s important to think somewhat out of the box; you’ll want a theme of some sorts. Whether that’s farm-to-table, themed around a specific cuisine, or it explores alternative methods of food preparation, try to find something that’s unique.
Marketing to Your Loyal Customers
Once your menu is nailed down, it’s time to reach out and market your restaurant’s special nights. Your regulars are the ones most likely to throw down a bit of extra cash for a unique night, so that means you should be marketing to them.
If you have contact information from a loyalty program, send out an email or text campaign! If not, try to build a bit of hype in your restaurant through posters and a (subtle) spiel or two from your front of house.
6. Family Game Nights
Game nights are a great way to get families into your restaurant. If you’re trying to encourage a more adult vibe, that doesn’t mean that you can’t run game nights, just that you should tailor them to adults. But there are a few things to keep in mind beyond “get board and card games” when setting up this type of restaurant special night.
Activities for All Ages
Family game nights are, by definition, intended for families. This means that you should be prepared for lots and lots of children and, importantly, have something to keep them engaged. Some shops opt for kid-friendly games like Candyland or Uno, while others will do more involved games for kids like cornhole or even drawing competitions.
Encouraging Group Reservations
The other thing to keep in mind when scheduling a restaurant game night is that families come in groups. As such, it’s crucial to encourage (or even require, if you know you’ll have a large turnout) reservations for groups larger than four.
7. Comedy or Open Mic Nights
Comedy and open mic nights are a great way to encourage your local adult crowd to come in and check out your scene — but they’re not for everyone. They require space, the equipment to actually run an open mic night, and a good bit of control over timing. But if you can pull them off, they’re an incredibly rewarding example of restaurant special nights gone right.
Attracting Local Talent
Once again, it’s crucial to bring in your local scene when building themed nights. Find out if anyone in your area has a side gig running comedy shows or open mics and reach out! If there’s nobody in your area that does, consider reaching out to local groups on social media (FB, Insta) to organize. Chances are that they’ll be just as excited as you are!
Promoting the Event to the Community
The best way to promote this type of event is by word of mouth. You’ll need plenty of people to show up to make it worth the time and investment, so use your social media following to your advantage. Post across all of your social media, send out text or email blasts to regulars, and hype it up in-house when possible. And if your turnout on the first night is less than stellar, take a breath — these things take time.
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