Putting the 'sell' in celebrate: hyping a holiday can give a bar or restaurant reason to rejoice

Cheers, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Cheryl Ursin

Jon Bloostein, owner of the four-location Heartland Brewery restaurant chan in New York City, knew he was onto something when two uniformed police officers knocked on the door of one of his restaurants one morning around Halloween last year.

"They wanted to know if we had put the pumpkin ale on yet," says Bloostein, who fields many such queries from beer enthusiasts about his restaurants' seasonal and holiday-themed beers.

The one the police officers liked, Smiling Pumpkin Ale, made with honey roasted pumpkins, ginger, cloves and cinnamon, is a special favorite Bloostein reports that when that ale is served, it is far and away the most popular beer in the restaurants.

"We can sell 500 pints of it in one store in one day," Bloostein reports. In addition to being served by itself , customers also order it mixed with hard cider, as a Jack O'Lantern, or mixed with a spicy oatmeal stout, in the Stumpkin.

The Heartland Breweries mark other holidays with special beers as well. The Old Red Nose, for the winter holidays, with a logo showing a basset hound with antlers on his heard, is another spiced ale, this one tasting something like gingerbread. The restaurants also usually offer an Irish ale for Saint Patrick's Day, brew a beer for the 4th of July and they have offered "anti-Valentine" beers for that February holiday, including Dark Hearted Ale, Not Tonight Honey Porter and Broken-Hearted Pale Ale.

How important are these holiday beers for Heartland? "They are a big deal," says Bloostein. "If we hit upon the right beer and we make it every year, people come back for it."

MAKE EVERY DAY...

Operators of all kinds of establishments, from award winning fine-dining restaurants to neighborhood bars, find that marking a holiday can help business in several ways. Not only can it increase traffic during that holiday, but it can also attract new customers and keep regulars excited about coming back.

According to a National Restaurant Association survey, the most popular dining-out holiday is Mother's Day, when 38% of the respondents reported going out to eat, followed by Valentine's Day (32%), New Year's Eve (17%), Easter (16%), New Year's Day (12%), Thanksgiving (11%), St. Patrick's Day (11%), Christmas (7%) and Secretaries Day (5%). The survey also noted that almost one out of five respondents reported ordering take-out or delivery food from a restaurant for a Super Bowl gathering and an additional 4% reported going to a bar or restaurant to watch the game.

But who gets which holiday's business?

It depends.

Customers tend to choose restaurants offering traditional menus for traditional holiday dinners, such as Thanksgiving. Yet, according to market research done by Miller Brewing, bars see a spike in business, too, but not on Thanksgiving Day. Rather, they are busy the evening before.

"The night before Thanksgiving is one of the largest on-premise days of the year, as people head home to be with friends and family for the holiday weekend," says Buz Cady, brand promotions manager at Miller. This year, to help capture that business, Miller is offering a "Back in Town" on-premise promotion in markets where legal. The campaign includes sticky notes with spaces for phone numbers and addresses so reuniting friends can exchange updated information.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

And sometimes, which holiday will work depends on a quirk of that particular operation's market or location. For example, Bloostein finds that one of his restaurants, located near New York City's Union Square, does well on Halloween because that is where the city's famous Halloween parade ends.

Certain generalities can be made, however. For example, people going out for Mother's Day usually do so for brunch on that Sunday holiday--and they pick a place where they are comfortable bringing Mom. "Because we are brewpubs, we don't fit the standard for a Mother's Day or Easter destination," Bloostein notes.

In contrast to Heartland Brewery, the Dining Room, the fine dining restaurant at the Salish Lodge & Spa, a high-end but traditional inn in Snoqualmie, Washington, is a fairly popular place to bring Mom for Mother's Day. "But we are empty on Halloween," says Michael McPhie, restaurant manager. "A restaurant like ours would be, unless you did something like a murder-mystery [show] or something."

The busiest holidays of the year for the Salish Dining Room are Thanksgiving, the winter holidays, including New Year's Eve, when the lodge as a whole offers a package, and Valentine's Day. Each of the holidays is a unique situation for the restaurant.

Thanksgiving, for example, is a one-day event. The Dining Room offers a set menu, in which every table gets its own whole roast turkey. (The turkeys vary in size depending on the number in the party.) The captain carves the turkey tableside, and after the meal, leftovers are wrapped up and given to the diners.

"That way, they get to have cold turkey sandwiches the next day," says McPhie. The cost of the menu is $100 per person, including a wine pairing for each course, or $75 per person for the meal without the wine.