No matter the industry, there will always be a consultant. Perhaps it is the mentoring principle, perhaps we as humans always think that no matter how much we know, there is someone out there who knows the one thing more that can be the secret of success.
The restaurant business is no exception. There are consultants on décor, lighting, table placement, color and style of servers’ uniforms, background music selection, and especially the menu.
So-called “menu engineers” are all the rage these days among restaurants serving families and the casual dining customer. These types of eateries have been affected the most by the recession of the past year.
One such consultant, Gregg Rapp, puts on “menu boot camps” for restaurants around the country. His firm was profiled recently in a New York media report. Rapp’s contribution to society? Removing the dollar sign from menus.
Rapp claims to have first done it 25 years ago. Those of us who dine out often have seen this many times. The menu has the name of the dish, sometimes a description, and then a number.
I tend to like restaurants that do this. I like the philosophy that the gesture seems to put forth, a minimization of the price as one would when talking to a trusted friend. It shows a confidence in the quality of the dish and the ability of the chef.
To me it also conveys an attitude that chef, restaurateur and customer are on the same side and are all adults. Not that price is no object, it always is.
But choosing a restaurant is based on more than price or even food. Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University and the author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” said that the average person makes more than 200 decisions about food every day, many of them unconsciously, including the choices made from reading menus. Menu engineer Rapp divides people into four groups based on these decisions.
• He calls one group “Entrees.” They do not want a lot of description, just the bottom line on what the dish is and how much it is going to cost.
• “Recipes,” on the other hand, ask many questions and want to know as much as they can about the ingredients.
• “Barbecues” share food and like chatty servers who wear name tags.
• “Desserts” are more trendy diners.
I posed these scenarios to Daniel Chong-Jimenez, executive chef of Kensington’s at The Spa at Norwich Inn in Norwich, Conn. Chong-Jimenez has a degree in food science as well as a culinary degree and has been at the helm in the kitchen for more than 10 years. He has seen many changes in his own restaurant as well as in the industry. He says that his restaurant’s philosophy has been carefully thought out.
The chef agrees that there are different types of diners, all of whom are not going to choose his restaurant.
“I would think we would attract more ‘entrée’ types who care about the ingredients we use, a local Stonington scallop wrapped in pancetta for example,” he said. “And I’m sure our guests share their food with each other at the table.”
Then he came up with one of the most profound statements I have ever heard: “A restaurant chooses its own customer.” It’s a point that is elegantly simple and right on the money. It stands to reason that the thought and passion that goes into building a restaurant will make more of an impact on some customers than on others.
No one menu or chef can be all things to all people. Perhaps the menu engineers are able to ply their trade by convincing restaurateurs that they somehow can attract customers who would not otherwise choose their eatery by manipulating emotions or responses.
To our credit in this area, the majority of independent restaurant owners are not of this mindset. The use of so-called menu psychology does not appear to be widespread among the region’s restaurateurs. Touches such as the naked price number are used because it is fashionable and who knows, it may have started here. And too much micro-managing is its own undoing.
One New York restaurateur experimented with numerous fonts and colors on its menu. At one point, some prices were shaded dark blue, and some menu headings were orange. The final version: black and white. And the restaurant ended up having to merge with a sibling eatery to stay in business. •
Bruce Newbury’s Dining Out food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays on 790 AM and radio stations throughout New England. He can be reached by e-mail at Bruce@BruceNewbury.com.
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