One of those ideas is pop-up restaurants. While not an entirely new idea, pop-up restaurants have been gaining traction due to their flexibility. Pop-up restaurants come in several forms:
Food trucks
Shared Kitchens
Seasonal restaurants
Seasonal restaurants are a form of pop up restaurant because they close for a season every year. In this article we’ll focus on seasonal restaurants, what makes them special, how to open one, and how to temporarily close one.
What are Seasonal Restaurants, and Why Are they Popular in Canada?
Seasonal restaurants are kitchens that cook and serve food for a limited time. This includes seasonally, monthly, weekly, and even sporadically. However, the most common form of seasonal restaurants are businesses that choose to temporarily close during the slow season.
Not every dining experience needs to be available year-round, and with Canada’s extreme seasonal changes, this model starts to look advantageous. No more waiting through the slow season. Just open when it’ll be busy!
For areas like P.E.I, temporarily closing for a season is a must. With very little tourism and extreme weather conditions, it would be financially risky to stay open. Other restaurants will only open during a holiday season like Thanksgiving.
5 Tips for Temporarily Closing Your Seasonal Restaurant
It’s that time of year and although it’s been fun, it’s time to hibernate.
Here are five things to do when closing your seasonal restaurant.
1. Create a Cleaning Checklist
Keeping a kitchen cleaning checklist should be a top priority while running your restaurant, but it’s just as important when closing it.
Here are things to include in your cleaning plan:
Clean walls and baseboards
Dust and clean storage shelves
Deep clean the front of house
Creating and keeping to a checklist will make cleaning go smooth. Being thorough while cleaning will smooth out your reopening process.
2. Store Your Equipment
Your kitchen equipment will need to be properly stored until next year.
Take care to clean your equipment well; if you don’t, you could have unwanted critters using your space for the winter. Tape any doors shut and unplug everything before leaving.
For the seating area, make sure everything is tidy. Your POS system should be hidden away and items like linens should be taken out for cleaning.
3. Get Rid of Leftover Ingredients
At the end of the season you may still have some left-over perishable items. You could try to mitigate this by offering specials towards the end of the season.
Get creative and make dishes that use any surplus ingredients.
When you’re out of in-house options, donate leftovers to a local food pantry or let your employees take some home. There are several ways to get rid of leftovers without contributing to food waste and food insecurity.
4. Recycle Your Used Cooking Oil
When grease is left to sit it smells, attracts pests, and hardens. Recycle whatever used cooking oil you have in your container.
If you are partnered with a cooking oil recycler, ask them to drain your container one more time shortly after closing. They’ll want to know when you’re done for the season so they don’t send a collector to you.
Partners of Darling Ingredients Canada should call us when they are done operating for the season. We’ll take you off the list and make sure your container is completely empty.
5. Keep Generating Hype
You may be closed for the season, but that doesn’t mean you should disconnect from your audience. Keep tabs on them with occasional social media posts.
Share information about other restaurants that are opening
Post pictures of any work you do in the off-season
Post about visiting food festivals
Generate excitement by teasing new menu options
Don’t let your seasonal work go to waste by losing steam. Keep the excitement going through the whole year, even when your doors are closed!
5 Tips for Reopening your Seasonal Restaurant
The ice is starting to thaw and people are coming out of their homes. It’s time to reopen.
Here are five things to do when opening your seasonal kitchen.
1. Clean
When you closed your restaurant you should have done a deep clean of everything. Repeat that process again before you open.
Break out your cleaning checklist and follow it to a T. There may not be a lot of grime, but there will be dust. Take extra care to sanitize food prep stations and tools. You’ll want everything to be well washed.
After you’ve successfully cleaned and sanitized your restaurant, it’s time to get back into the swing of a cleaning schedule. Look over your cleaning schedule and make sure it’s clear to you and your staff.
2. Check Your Equipment
This part might feel like Christmas. Unwrap your equipment, untape the doors, and plug it all back in.
Do this well in advance to make sure everything is working properly. Check refrigerator temperatures before buying your first products of the season.
Turn on your gas and check your burners and oven temperatures. There may be some smoking, but it will burn off after a short time.
If everything is working correctly, you’re back in business!
3. Restock Your Pantry
Contact your vendors to let them know you’re ready to start putting in orders again. As you start to put in orders, learn from prior seasons and adjust your volume accordingly.
You should also contact waste management, laundry service, as well as used cooking oil recyclers. Darling Ingredients Canada’s customers can simply call us directly to get put back on a custom pickup schedule.
4. Retrain and Update Your Licence (If Needed)
Your new and old staff will need to be trained. Hopefully you have help from prior years to give new hires the rundown. Either way, it’s important everyone is on the same page.
Have a team meeting to walk everyone through their roles and how you plan to run the kitchen. And don’t forget to cover health and food safety regulations.
Double-check your licences and call local regulation organizations to make sure they know you’re up and running again. Once you’ve renewed any outdated licences you’re close to open.
5. Fire Up Promotion & Marketing
Successful pop-ups and seasonal restaurants are all about generating buzz. They can bring in a crowd by building excitement for their limited-time offerings.
Here are some marketing strategies you can implement:
Post flyers in well-trafficked areas
Put up signs near your restaurant
Create or update your social media account
Build a great brand presence through your dining experience
Customers love to see how their favorite restaurant is doing with updates about upcoming menu options or new hours. It's important to keep your customers updated on when you’ll be opening again.
Find a Recycling Partner
Even though your restaurant is only open for a time, it’s still important to handle and recycle your used cooking oil.
Cradle-to-grave laws mean you’re responsible for what happens to your used cooking oil, even after it’s been picked up. Partner with a used cooking oil recycler you can depend on.
Darling Ingredients Canada offers used cooking oil systems that are easy to manage. We’ll match you with a best-fit match for your space as well as a custom-made pickup schedule build for your needs.