how do i?

[Headie]

succesfully or somewhat at least promote my restaurant...?

its not really up to me to do so but im sick of the person whos job it is not doing anything.
n i kinda feel like were going under.

so any ideas would be appreciated.... alot.

(its greek food....but not like all gyros, real greek food)

[SteverXL]

hire a bum to hold a sign on a busy street corner.

[Mee-Shell]

Local paper's usually work pretty well.

The Stranger or The Volcano.

[Headie]

i thought about that but no one in gig harbor reads those except the ones that have it wrapped around whatever they bought at the green room, or the 9 ravers...

[~Bliss~]

Fire your promoter :D
Newspapers
Radio stations
Make a myspace and add friends and spam their pages (most of the people who will add a restaurant as a friend won't mind if you spam their pages. They're just in it for the friend count)
Flyers
If your business has some sort of theme (say alternative) go to a record store and maybe give them some buy one, get one 1/2 off coupons to give out to their customers, etc.

Also, when people come in to eat, ask them if they enjoyed it. If they did ask them to please tell all of their friends to come and try it out! If they didn't, well that's a whole nother subject ;)

[Resonance Required]

If it's not up to you.. why put the effort into it? The sole success relies "primarily" on management. (I've done restaurant management b4 btw) If management isn't putting the effort to "pull everything together".. then the flow isn't there and there isn't success.. further more, you end up putting in blood, sweat, tears and a lot of heart into something that doesn't give a return and ends up failing anyways. (been THERE b4 too! that's how I got into management) If you're truely realizing it's "going under" or even "not going anywhere" let it go and take care of yourself. Find another job! There's a time and place for anything.. and that definately seems like one door is closing so you better start looking for the one that opens. If you're not 100% sure it's doing poorly, but it feels like it.. why not ask directly? Some owners break even or a slightly just above that and are happy with it.. staying open for years. Also..

Check out CafeAmore' - Stan's a dear friend of mine, (the owner) he's a really great guy and could either give you some tips & advice or perhaps a job.. (if he has an opening) but please note, since I don't know you/haven't worked w/ u, I can't be a reference for you (sorry).

Good luck!?!?

R.~*

[Resonance Required]

here's the link:

http://www.tasteofamore.com/

[sothis]

highly suggest getting yelp.com involved. get one of the stickers, put it in your window, encourage people to fill out reviews.

you could also try working with yelp to get a tacoma-area (if they do this - not sure if it's only seattle) elite event in place. this gets a lot of business to an establishment.

[djthebandit]

Chef Ramsey... probably need better cooks :p

[gingerballs]

Moving out of the 253 area code would be good for starters.

[Headie]

wow.
did not expect to get this much response while i was slicing tomatoes... (at work currently)

so....
promoter=fired.
well person in chardge of pay-roll, stock and promotion is fired and its cool cuz she was a dumb slut. i actually sincerely enjoyed firing her too... im not gonna miss her bullshit.

moving on.

cafeamore seems to muthafuckin have it going on.
(to be blunt)

the menu is unexpected and reminds me of alot of the fusion style that my mom did in our restaurant in greece.... especially the swordfish picatta...not something youd expect to see in the NW....

and our management is great (me), our owner is great, and we really have a working machine ready for demand. the demand just isnt happening, we just regulars, n its our regulars keepin us going, new people come and go, like the food alot, (or at least say so) n then i never see em again...

PLUS
im firing one of our staff for being useless, and another is going to college so i have two fuckin spot to fill with (hopefully) culinarily competent people in the next month.
oh
and im trying to be a dj.
nebody wanna assist in some euthanasia?

[Cethe]

Originally posted by MissDJVelocity
here's the link:

http://www.tasteofamore.com/


looks yummy, might have to take the lady fare there soon :)

[Headie]

Originally posted by Zero5
Moving out of the 253 area code would be good for starters.

i know...

it would.

but i donno if we wanna carry the whole business out.

there is a greek restaurant by seattlecenter that weve been looking into i guess anybody know which it is (supposedly closed during part of the year or some shit....)

[FREEEZZ]

radio, radio, radio! In your demographic it is the single most poweful device at your disposal.

Look at spend 1,500 a month.

If you put it on the "right" station and spent in that ballpark I would let you kick me in the nuts if your business didn't increase %30 over the course of 70 days.

Mind you your ad campaign is what will bring them in.

i.e specials, ease of location and quality of service,product and enviroment.

[Headie]

n after getting boned by printers for the past couple of months im happy to hear that our 500flyer order is on its way.

[sentravq]

Originally posted by headies
succesfully or somewhat at least promote my restaurant...?

its not really up to me to do so but im sick of the person whos job it is not doing anything.
n i kinda feel like were going under.

so any ideas would be appreciated.... alot.

(its greek food....but not like all gyros, real greek food)

Where is your Greek restuaunt. My wife and I would like to eat there and check it out if its authentic greek food since she specialize in greek food (since raised in greek, cyprus, tyre, etc). My wife just made this pastry (its not bakalava crap) its composed of dough and sweet mozerella glazed with sweeted extract rose and flower juice. Good food promote itself, imo!
Can you list a sample of your menu.

[outoftowner]

If you provide me with a family gift certificate and I get to eat there and I like it, I give you my word that I will tell all of my friends and co-workers about it.

[Headie]

Originally posted by sentravq
Where is your Greek restuaunt. My wife and I would like to eat there and check it out if its authentic greek food since she specialize in greek food (since raised in greek, cyprus, tyre, etc). My wife just made this pastry (its not bakalava crap) its composed of dough and sweet mozerella glazed with sweeted extract rose and flower juice. Good food promote itself, imo!
Can you list a sample of your menu.

it is in gig harbor... its a simple menu as we have been forced to rely on corporate lunch-eaters to stay open... but for dinner we do dinners that actually feel like eating out simply back home....salad and souvlaki and such....

very cool that she was raised out there... i grew up in greece... spoke greek before i did english.... and my godparents are from cyprus so i spent alot of time there...i love the fact that chameleons are all over the place there...

[sentravq]

Well just give us your resturaunt name and address and im sure we will drop by on the weekends for dinner.

[.-=PSYLON=-.]

Originally posted by MissDJVelocity
If it's not up to you.. why put the effort into it? The sole success relies "primarily" on management. (I've done restaurant management b4 btw) If management isn't putting the effort to "pull everything together".. then the flow isn't there and there isn't success.. further more, you end up putting in blood, sweat, tears and a lot of heart into something that doesn't give a return and ends up failing anyways. (been THERE b4 too! that's how I got into management) If you're truely realizing it's "going under" or even "not going anywhere" let it go and take care of yourself. Find another job! There's a time and place for anything.. and that definately seems like one door is closing so you better start looking for the one that opens. If you're not 100% sure it's doing poorly, but it feels like it.. why not ask directly? Some owners break even or a slightly just above that and are happy with it.. staying open for years. Also..

Check out CafeAmore' - Stan's a dear friend of mine, (the owner) he's a really great guy and could either give you some tips & advice or perhaps a job.. (if he has an opening) but please note, since I don't know you/haven't worked w/ u, I can't be a reference for you (sorry).

Good luck!?!?

R.~*


Stan? You mean Sean?

[.-=PSYLON=-.]

Originally posted by Cethe
looks yummy, might have to take the lady fare there soon :)

It is. I used to work there. The food is killer.

Try the Italian Dip.

[Headphones Dude]

See if you can't somehow manage to do a concession stand for Bite of Seattle, Hempfest or Bumpershoot. If it's too late, then get in the process for 09's festivals. Sometimes the best word of mouth is just getting your delicious food in people's stomach. If you haven't opened up quite yet, consider doing a open house, where you either give a free taste test, and if you can't feasibly do that, a discount at a price that won't sink you in your first day of business. One restaraunt I worked at had it where all the co-workers could bring in friends and family for just what I'm mentioning, and nobody was dissapointed. That would be the quickest way of getting noticed in your local area.

Radio, tv commercials, Myspace pages, dancing gorillas on a corner (providing you can get somebody agree to get in a stuffy gorilla suit) are probably other things you can try I'm sure.

You've got alot of pressure to make your business successful, but as long as you've got a good location, plenty of staff (who make themselves usefull, and not being leaches you pay, but they do nothing), parking, and prices, I'm sure any restaraunt can survive. Be careful that you're not too far away from your customers though, since rising price of gas will probably cut off a percentage of customers who may not visit ever if you're too far away from them.

[Gucci Smoochies]

Originally posted by headies
i thought about that but no one in gig harbor reads those except the ones that have it wrapped around whatever they bought at the green room, or the 9 ravers...


Where in Gag Harbor are we talking? Downtown, like old Gig Harbor off Harborview, or Rosedale or Rosemount area?

THe thing that worked best for any advertisement in Gig Harbor is the News Tribune or the mailer service that goes around. People in Gig Harbor LOOOOVE coupons because they're cheap as hell despite rolling around in Mercedes and BMW's galore. When my mother used to run her stores in Gig Harbor she used the coupon mailing service alot and worked wonders.

The sad thing about Gig Harbor is that you literally have to work your way into its business community. It's very tight knit and people are very suspicious of outside businesses coming in on their turf. Seriously, just give it time and work your magic.

[quickster]

Originally posted by headies
succesfully or somewhat at least promote my restaurant...?

its not really up to me to do so but im sick of the person whos job it is not doing anything.
n i kinda feel like were going under.

so any ideas would be appreciated.... alot.

(its greek food....but not like all gyros, real greek food) coupons in the paper!

[NO-ESC]

Checked out the website..

/droooool


btw your http://www.tasteofamore.com/contest.aspx

page isnt working atm.

good luck wish i was on the west coast this just made me hungry

[Ratboy]

the demand just isnt happening, we just regulars, n its our regulars keepin us going, new people come and go, like the food alot, (or at least say so) n then i never see em again...

I'd say if you get some new customers in, and you have regulars... then you just need to stay consistent on food, but work on your atmosphere and steady happy enjoyable staff, so the walk-ins see the nice vibe and turn into regulars.

but yeah id say do some sort of coupon, handout, flier thing to get some new business in... mebbe makeup a new menu item and hand out samples on a sunny weekend (especially during any kind of outdoor parade, festival, event).

good luck!

[Headie]

whoo.
took the day off yesterday cuz...well...i could.

and today im workin on a bunch of shit.
like-hempfest 09.
hopefully we make it till then...

and were looking into a move.
cuz this shoping center is killing us.

just for the record: Fuck Gig Harbor.

[sentravq]

Well if you want to move locally take a booth in the B&I, i know its a bit ghetto(but they got money to spend) but it does well. My friend has a food booth called the Golden Tea. He gets alot of bussiness and tell me he only really needs to work the weekends and still make alot. They have chinese, mexican and italian but no greek type resturaunt in the food courts. And the monthly lease aint that bad.
Oh yea and one thing, think of value meals not a meal that cost 7.99$
My friend biggest thing of the menu is his 12 piece garlic chicken wings for 4.99$ and he buy his wings in bulk at cash and carry store for 100 for 10.99$. But i know greek food takes time to prepare.

[Headie]

the b&i
ha.
where white kids have been getting grillz since they started to be cool.
hah.
ill look into it.
dono how much id like going to work erryday to the b n i though

[sentravq]

yea but those kidz have money to spend not like some cheap skate middle aged from gig harbor.
BTW wheres is your place in gig harbor my wife and i would like to eat dinner there this weekend.

[Headie]

4920 pt fosdick dr.
next to hairmasters.
and gig harbor optical.

and you raise a valid point with the money thing.
gig harbor kids spend all their money on drugs.
seriously.
the richer the up-bringing, the bigger the twack. or so it seems to have become.

[More Wise]

talk to an account executive for a local media organization about advertisement.

check their demographics and see if that is who you want to target.

also check to see if their "number 1 station" rating isn't "number one station with a station owner that has 3 cats"

every station is the "number 1 station" so be mindful of such things.

the cheapest most effective advertisement is word of mouth, its no secret.

flyer everyone in the surrounding 5 mile area with some kind of special. it may only bring in a handful of people. but its up to you to get those 1 in 20 people to become a regular.

and above all else, promise less and deliver more.

ps, treat the people that dont tip like the people that do.

[gingerballs]

Originally posted by .-=PSYLON=-.
Try the Italian Dip.

You know when Ben says this he is talking about himself right? ;)

[groovinkim]

it seems like people've asked the name/address of this place multiple times w/no response. is it just me?

[Headie]

Originally posted by headies
4920 pt fosdick dr.
next to hairmasters.
and gig harbor optical.

and you raise a valid point with the money thing.
gig harbor kids spend all their money on drugs.
seriously.
the richer the up-bringing, the bigger the twack. or so it seems to have become.

once again.