If you are someone that has been planning the opening of your restaurant for some time, you may be overwhelmed. Opening up a restaurant takes a lot of intense planning and sometimes it is easy to forget that in order to truly introduce your restaurant to the world, you need to host a grand opening.

Though you may feel confident when it comes to operating your restaurant, hosting a grand opening event is a brand new ordeal altogether. Hosting a successful restaurant grand opening requires intense planning, so there is no wonder why the prospect of doing so is so intimidating.

If you have found yourself in a situation where you have an upcoming grand opening and you are not quite sure whether or not you are properly prepared, here is our advice on how to host the perfect restaurant grand opening.

Make sure that you have guests

A very common mistake that people make when hosting their first restaurant grand opening is not inviting guests. People tend to think that they can advertise the grand opening and people will just come, but that really isn’t the case. If you don’t have an established business, then it is likely that you will not have a large following and so the likelihood of getting a good turnout from a general advertisement is very slim.

The best way to ensure that your restaurant’s grand opening has a lot of guests is by personally inviting people. If you really want to bring some attention to your opening, you could even invite some local celebrities or the mayor of your town. However, if you don’t have the desire to have celebrities at your event, then you could invite friends or local business owners.

Inviting local business owners means that you can get to know the competition and even make some friends, as you never know when you may need to borrow something or ask for a favor.

Get some publicity

What is the point in having a grand opening if it is not going to get any attention? We recommend that you contact your local newspaper or even buy exclusive leads on local bloggers that can document your grand opening.  Having some publicity will make people want to visit your restaurant once it is officially open.  If you get the right publicity, you can also let people know what you may be selling and what atmosphere you have to offer. This is something that people are not usually aware of until they actually get to your restaurant, so being able to inform them of this information beforehand will only benefit your business.

Make sure that your staff are properly trained

Your restaurant grand opening is the first chance that you get to make a real impression on potential customers. For this reason, it is essential to make sure that your staff is properly trained before your opening event.

We recommend that you employ staff that has at least two years of restaurant experience, this way you will not have to worry too much about them making mistakes and you can instead focus on ensuring that the rest of your opening goes to plan. If you are someone that is new to the restaurant world, then having workers with a lot of experience will also make sure that you feel comfortable.

Offer an opening event deal

If you are worried about your opening event not having enough attention, then we recommend that you offer a one-time deal. Offering a great opening deal will make people much more likely to come and try out your food. Though you will not be making as much money, this will really give you the chance to get your brand out there and even pick up customers that will keep coming back if they like what you have to offer.

When offering a grand opening deal, be sure to check that you are not underselling yourself as you still need to make some sort of profit in order to be successful. Be sure to work out all of your finances before you advertise the deal, just to ensure that you are not losing money.

I recently finished watching FX’s latest season of the hit show ‘The Bear.’ The chaotic chronicles of a master chef trying to turn an old sandwich joint in Chicago into a Michelin star restaurant. If you have seen the show you will know just how chaotic running a restaurant can be. But also just how fulfilling it is too. Food is such an important part of humanity. Not just in regards to fueling our body. It is a part of our histories and cultural heritages.

Opening your own restaurant can be a daunting prospect. But it is a worthwhile venture if you can do it right. This guide will help you lay the foundation for starting your own restaurant.

Finding The Money

Most businesses will run at a loss for a while once they first start. This is only natural. Start up costs are high and you will need time to recoup that initial investment. Which is why it is good to try to find some alternative sources of income to help cover the running costs.

Seeking investors is perhaps one of the best options available to you. There are hundreds of people out there looking to put their money into a new venture. Investment fairs or trading conferences are a great place to network and find potential investors.

You could also look at setting up a more passive income business. For example storage units. This might sound shocking but yes, owning a storage unit business is profitable. The initial cost of acquiring storage units might be high. But, once you start renting out the units, you will be bringing in a lot of passive income with very few expenditures. Enough to cover some of the more consistent costs you will encounter in your restaurant.

Finding The Space

A restaurant is only as good as its location. You could be serving the best food in the world but if you are situated next to a garbage dump you won’t get any customers. It is always worth holding out for the right location.

You need to consider a lot of things. How many covers are you hoping to run each night? The more covers you serve the bigger your kitchen will need to be. You will need a section for a powerful dishwasher and numerous sinks. Along with a staff changing area, walk in fridge and freezer, and external access for trash to be stored and for deliveries to be brought in. Don’t rush this part of the process. Really take your time to find the ideal location for your restaurant.

Menu And Decor

The menu is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of your restaurant. It is the ultimate focus of the business. But a lot of people often forget that the decor of your restaurant should match up to the menu’s theme. No one wants to be eating a fine dining tasting menu in an American diner.

Work with your chefs and interior designers to find the right balance. Remember, minimalism goes a long way in the restaurant game. Subtle and tasteful decorations help set a mood more than garish and bright ones. If your decorations are too distracting it will pull the focus away from the meal your customers are meant to be enjoying.

Securing Good Ingredients

The cornerstone to any successful restaurant is ensuring you are using good quality ingredients. That means avoiding frozen or heavily processed foods as much as possible. It might be a tad more expensive and time consuming. But the results will be worth it.

People want to know that the food they are enjoying is prepared with skill and love. And if you have taken the time to source fresh, local ingredients each day, you can relate that back to your customers. This will ensure they keep coming back time and time again.

Gaming has changed a lot over the last few decades. But one thing that has remained consistent is the love for multiplayer gaming. Cooperative or competitive gaming is baked into the identity of the industry. Even one of the earliest games, Pong, had a multiplayer mode. And we are now lucky enough to live in a digital age, where we can play with our friends or strangers no matter where they are in the world.

There are a lot of contenders for the title of Best Multiplayer Game of 2023. So we have decided to highlight some of our top choices for that title. But we will let you decide which title is the ultimate winner!

Bauldur’s Gate 3

It is impossible that you missed all the hype surrounding Baldur’s Gate 3. Easily the most highly anticipated game of the year. And perhaps the best game release as well. Using the ruleset of D&D 5th edition, the game allows players to live out their Dungeons and Dragons fantasy in a beautiful digital format.

The game can be played cooperatively with up to three other players. And, perhaps most impressively, it also allows for couch co-op. This is something a lot of modern games have ignored as a concept. Much to their detriment.

The multiplayer format for Bauldur’s gate doesn’t change much either. Every player in the party can experience everything the game has to offer at the same time. You aren’t forced to stay together, allowing each player to explore the map as they see fit. The game designers have truly created an engaging multiplayer experience that is not to be missed.

Minecraft

It is impossible to talk about multiplayer games without talking about Minecraft. Even years after its release, Minecraft remains one of the most popular games on the planet. Sitting as the most sold game in history, people of all ages return to the title time and time again.

The beauty of Minecraft is that it offers a lot of freedom in terms of gameplay. And not just within the basic survival or creative modes. There are hundreds of community made game modes to play in either single player or multiplayer format. Bedwars, Skyblock, Survival Island. These are just a few of the many custom modes available. But the true testament to Minecraft’s success is how many joinable smp minecraft servers are still active to this day. Even the most basic game mode in the game is still engaging enough to draw in thousands of players daily.

Warhammer 40k Darktide

In the grim darkness of the 41st Millenium, there is only war. This quote highlights the mood of the popular 40k franchise. A never ending war being played out by humans, aliens, and heretics alike. And Darktide is one of the best games set in this franchise we have seen in a long time.

The premise is simple. A first-person shooter where you and three other players navigate through grimdark maps fighting hordes of mutants, aliens, and heretics. The game can be enjoyed single player, but the true joy comes from pairing up with three other players to blast your way through the endless waves of foes.

Each player can choose from 4 playable classes. The melee focused Zealot. The powerful Psyker. The hulking Ogryn. Or the grizzled Veteran. Each classic has their own strengths and weaknesses. But these weaknesses are negated by working with your team. Each class is designed to complement the others. And with a huge variety of weapons and abilities at your disposal, the game offers a lot of replayability too.

Meet Your Maker

We love any game that tries to blend different genres together. And Meet Your Maker is a title that does this to great effect. Set in a dark sci-fi world, the game has two primary objectives. The first is to build an impregnable fortress to defend your precious genetic material, which acts as currency in this world. The second aspect is infiltrating other players’ fortresses to steal away their genetic material.

While you are building your base, the game is more akin to a classic dungeon management game. You have to build a complex maze filled with traps and mob spawners to try to fend off invaders. But when you are the invader the game becomes a FPS. Forcing you to try to navigate the complex mazes created by others.

The game is primarily a competitive multiplayer game, but it does feature co-op capabilities as well. You and one other player can build a base together, as well as invade other players’ bases as a duo. The game is beautifully designed, with a rich atmosphere and engaging game mechanics. We hope to see more games attempt genre blending in the way this title has in the near future.