MENUS ARE FROM MARS

Some menus are so confusing, they read like they're from another planet
by Brooke Smith of Foodservice & Hospitality Canada

The secret to creating a great menu is method. "Some people think it's a gut feeling", says Steve Riley of Top Shelf Consultants in Toronto, "but it's a science". This science, known as menu engineering, looks at profit margins to figure out which items are popular and profitable; popular but not as profitable; unpopular and really profitable; and unpopular and not profitable.

"It's an area where the chains are ahead of the independents", says Riley, who targets mostly independent restaurants. He believes less than 10 percent of independents have their menus engineered. "It's important, but it's not a priority", he says. And at new restaurants, it's usually the last thing that comes together. "But it's guaranteed to be the one thing your customers will look at", he says.

Once the profitable, low-cost items from a menu are determined (usually by software programs such as StarChef or Resort Bistro or Resort Restaurant), the next order of business is arranging them on the page.

"People don't read a menu like a book", says Michael Moran of Momentum Marketing Group in Toronto. They scan. In fact, according to a Gallup poll, people spend an average of 109 seconds with a menu. With so little ye time, where, exactly, do customers look when they open a menu?

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

On a three-panel two-fold menu, eyes will start in the centre, head to the upper right corner, across the left, down the left side, back to the centre and upper right corner and finally finish at the lower right corner. For a two-panel, one fold menu (one that opens like a book), the upper right corner is most likely where customers will look first.

It's in this hot real estate - centre and upper right corner - that restaurateurs need to place their most profitable items (that is, high return and low cost). Conversely, if there are items that a restaurant needs on the menu, but are not profitable, hide them in the least-viewed lower right corner.

Phil Policelli, owner of Hollywood on the Queensway in Toronto, attended Riley's seminar on menu creation, and after a few consultations, he redesigned his menu. "Before the redesign we were winging it", Policelli says. On his old three-panel menu, he listed items in order of consumption - appetizers, salads, burgers, et cetera. But the entrees ended up on the back page. "With Riley's help, we looked at where certain items should be placed. Although we're known for burgers and wings, we're selling more entrees now because they've been moved to the centre of the menu". To read the rest of this article please subscribe to Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine.