​Adjust your recipes for delivery

Winter weather can make it that much more difficult to entice people out of the house and into your dining room. But takeout and delivery could be an easier sell – if you make it worth their while. Is your menu up to the task? Your restaurant might take some cues from the surprise success of Rick Bayless’s Tortas Frontera restaurants at O’Hare Airport. While airports aren’t necessarily known as great destinations for a quality meal, Bayless has managed to make his restaurants such a draw that, according to a recent article in the Washington Post, business travelers are known to purposely schedule connections and layovers at O’Hare just so they can pick up a meal at Tortas Frontera. It gives new meaning to motivating guests to go out of their way to come to your restaurant. The Post article shares how Bayless has ensured his restaurant delivers the kind of quality that keeps guests coming back – and thinking about his restaurant even if they live across the country from it: He knew that his guests would likely be picking up their food, then boarding their plane, then waiting for takeoff and the beverage cart, before digging into their food – a process that would likely take about an hour. So when testing his menu, Bayless placed finished dishes in to-go boxes and let them sit at room temperature for an hour before tasting them, then adjusted the recipe as needed. It’s a formula that restaurant operators looking to grow their delivery business could use too. Taking the time to understand the typical journey of a takeout meal, the habits of those eating it, and how long it generally takes between a meal’s preparation and consumption – can help you make the incremental adjustments a recipe needs to turn casual customers into loyal guests.

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