Optimizing Your Restaurant Catering Menu for Profitability

Your restaurant’s catering services are an important driver of overall restaurant revenue and growth. When a restaurant catering menu works effectively, it encourages your customers to order catering services for their offices, weddings, and other special events.  

Adapting to catering services can open new revenue streams for restaurants in a challenging post-pandemic economy, where customers face tipping fatigue and may not have the disposable income available to dine out as much as they want to.  

Fortunately, offering catering can be as straightforward or layered as you’re interested in making it, as there are many different ways to add profitable catering services to your core business offerings. Read this article to identify which catering services you should consider offering based on demand and profitability.

Understanding Restaurant Catering Services 

If your restaurant doesn’t currently offer a catering menu, you’re missing out on a valuable revenue stream. Instead of taking orders through first-party and third-party ordering one by one, you serve large quantities of customers at once in the location of their choice. Serving many customers through catering is more cost-effective and creates less food waste.  

It also effortlessly introduces your restaurant to dozens or hundreds of potential new customers at once. It’s very common for special event attendees to try restaurants for the first time as a result of a catered event. 

They may even be so impressed that they want you to cater their own upcoming event. This improved brand visibility may increase revenue and foster a broader customer base. 

Comprehensive List of Profitable Catering Services 

There are so many different types of catering services that your restaurant can incorporate and market to that are profitable and in-demand, such as:  

• Corporate Catering: Provide food for office lunches, corporate event catering, and regular meal programs for businesses. 
• Social Event Catering: Cover catering for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions, and private parties. 
• Full-Service Catering: Charge more to manage all aspects of event dining from setup to cleanup. 
• Buffet Style: Offer a buffet-style meal for a premium per person price, using some of your restaurant’s most popular dishes. 
• Boxed Meals: Add boxed meals to your catering menu for the ultimate convenience at conferences and outdoor events. 
• Specialty Catering: Offer menu options or complete menus for niche markets like vegan, gluten-free, or culturally specific catering, such as Jewish cuisine for bar mitzvahs. 

While you don’t have to use all of these catering ideas in your business plan, it’s worth noting how the market for each type of catering service can change. If you can incorporate different types of catering into your offerings, you can reach different revenue streams and markets, protecting your business against changes in local economic conditions. For instance, if fewer weddings are booked, it doesn’t mean that you will have fewer corporate events. 

How to Offer Catering Services 

Adding catering services to your restaurant’s offerings doesn’t have to be costly and difficult. You can start offering catering services on a small scale to gauge customer interest, ironing out the details, and soft-launching marketing initiatives. Once your services have gained some traction, are fulfilled profitably, and there’s growing demand, scale it.  

Using online ordering tools, such as our online ordering platform, makes it easier to manage catering orders effectively. What you don’t want is to overburden your staff with manual processes on top of their existing duties. Implementing a system designed to process and organize catering orders reduces frustration and makes it easy to integrate catering into your operations.  

Depending on the type of restaurant catering menu you plan to offer, your packaging and serving needs will change. For full-service catering operations, you likely will need large, reusable catering pans and a method for serving hot food and keeping it hot through transport. If you offer boxed lunches, you need packaging for each boxed lunch and a way to package set numbers of items so customers can pick them up.  

Logistics and Delivery 

One of the most pivotal decisions when it comes to a restaurant catering menu and the type of packaging you’ll need is the logistics and delivery for your services. The good news is that there isn’t a right or wrong answer here. Other restaurants have set the precedents about delivery, pickup, and minimum delivery orders, so you can pick what truly works for your restaurant.  

Maybe you don’t start offering delivery until you’re able to get proper transportation like a catering van, but customers can pick up their orders from your restaurant. Some restaurants charge delivery fees while others deliver orders of a certain size or within a certain radius. Be sure to have a clear and consistent policy in place that’s fair to customers.

Marketing Your Catering Services 

The type of catering menu you offer will determine your target market. If you plan to offer corporate lunches, who are the largest employers in your area? Which office buildings have the most employees? 

These are the kinds of businesses that most likely need corporate lunches. Delivering a corporate catering menu to receptionists with a few samples of popular pastries can go a long way toward winning their business. 

On the other hand, if you want to offer full-service buffet dinners, it probably makes more sense to reach out to event planners, venues that do not have their own on-site catering, and expo centers. Partnerships with these key contacts may lead to more catering gigs. 

Create a robust catering marketing plan and let customers know about your restaurant’s catering services through social media and email marketing. If they already know and like your business enough to subscribe to an email list or follow your social media page, they’re great candidates for potential catering customers. Many of them work for companies that use corporate caterers or plan events and are incentivized to recommend you. 

Streamlining Operations with Technology 

Remember to harness technology whenever possible to make each process simpler. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you simply need to find technology that works. For instance, our online ordering system simplifies first-party ordering and keeps your restaurant operations streamlined. 

Ensure that any new tech you implement for catering integrates well into your current restaurant tech stack, including your point of sale (POS) software, payment system, gift and comp software, and restaurant loyalty software. You want to choose systems that work with your existing processes instead of having to check a new, additional platform each day. 

Legal and Compliance Considerations 

Every state has laws in place for restaurant and catering operations. In many cases, the health and safety regulations and the licensing and permits required for catering might be different than for restaurant operations. 

Before taking any steps, it’s wise to consult with a local business lawyer and business resource centers to ensure that you understand any applicable regulations and are compliant. Prepare as early and often as possible to minimize the risk of unexpected fees or having to cancel or delay services. 

The Bottom Line 

Catering can absolutely become an unstoppable driver of revenue and brand recognition for your restaurant. It’s time to slowly add catering offerings to your business. By starting slow and methodically, success is practically inevitable. 

Explore our tools for expanding your restaurant’s offerings into catering. Schedule a free demo now to discuss your specific needs and watch your revenue take off.