Restaurant owners across the country are creating seasonal menus to showcase the changing flavor profiles from each time of year. These menus promote sustainability, attract new customers, and give your chefs the freedom to get creative in the kitchen.

Modern customers are increasingly interested in eating fresh and locally sourced ingredients. By embracing a seasonal menu, your restaurant can create an authentic dining experience that’s unique to your region and community.

What are seasonal restaurants?

There are two common types of seasonal restaurants: establishments that are open only during specific seasons of the year and restaurants that change their menu with each new season. These seasonal menus utilize the ingredients that are currently ripe in the local area. Because the food comes from nearby farms rather than getting shipped in from other climates, it usually offers richer flavors and higher freshness. To highlight these qualities, seasonal menus typically include dishes that showcase the unique flavor profile of the season. Some restaurants switch their entire menu, while others create a small selection of changing seasonal dishes.

Why is it important to have a seasonal menu?

Diners tend to seek out tasty recipes that coincide with the seasons, so a seasonal menu can bring more diners through your door. Offering seasonal dishes that differ from your normal options excites returning customers and inspires new guests to give your restaurant a try.

Customers’ interest in seasonal dishes is reflected in their ordering habits. Grubhub’s State of the Plate report noted that butternut squash soup was one of the most popular dishes ordered this winter, while customers looked for strawberry lemonade freezes in the spring. 

Tapping into seasonal flavors can help you capture these hungry diners who are searching for ways to enjoy each season. For example, with fall and winter coming up, it’s vital that your restaurant considers how to incorporate special deals and ingredients to get people excited about coming to your establishment. That way, you can take advantage of the holiday traffic in a way that boosts your sales and bottom line.

In addition to generating excitement around particular times of the year, a seasonal menu can help control food costs. Cooking with seasonal ingredients that are more abundant during peak times curbs high supply costs because farmers and distributors have larger bounties to sell. Buying seasonal ingredients is sustainable, too. When you prioritize seasonal food, you support your local supply chain while utilizing fresh ingredients.

How do you create a seasonal menu?

Wondering how your restaurant can capture seasonal flavors and build excitement among your customers? Here are seven tips you should know before you craft the perfect seasonal menu.

1. Find what’s in season

The ingredients that are in season vary based on your restaurant’s location. Local farms and distributors can help you find out which ingredients are fresh in every month of the year.

Each season brings different fresh ingredients; your job is to capture these ingredients in your dishes. Here are some ingredients that are usually fresh each season:

• Spring menu ingredients: Blueberry, artichoke, asparagus, peaches, rhubarb, snap peas
• Summer menu ingredients: Watermelon, basil, bell peppers, corn, eggplant, tomatoes
• Fall menu ingredients: Sweet potatoes, apples, Brussels sprouts, cranberry, pumpkin, squash
• Winter menu ingredients: Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, grapefruit, kale, pears

2. Source local

Sustainable eating is on the rise, and diners are increasingly health-conscious and mindful of the food they eat. Sourcing local ingredients creates a fresh dining experience that highlights the origins of your dishes and attracts customers.

Partnering with local farmers to get ingredients for your seasonal menu can foster community relationships. Shopping locally also builds connections in your neighborhood and helps give back to the local economy.

Lighthouse, a farm-to-table restaurant in New York City, has been successful at sourcing local ingredients to craft its menu. Lighthouse utilizes in-season ingredients to help decrease the cost of its local ingredients. It’s been able to create community within the big city and keep customers happy by getting creative with organic, locally sourced ingredients.

3. Let your staff get involved

Seasonal menus give your team a chance to experiment and get creative. Let your chefs come up with new dishes, and encourage your servers to learn the stories behind the limited-edition items. Adding variety to your kitchen can keep staff engaged and excited about your restaurant.

4. Create a holiday menu

Food is a central part of many holiday celebrations — Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without turkey, and the 4th of July wouldn’t be complete without a cookout. 

You know hungry customers are looking for specific dining experiences around the holidays, so why not make your restaurant the go-to place to enjoy these traditions? Every season brings widely celebrated holidays that are an opportunity to build excitement around a limited-edition menu. A great holiday menu can bring in new customers looking for specific traditional dishes.

5. Promote your seasonal menu on social media

A seasonal menu is time-sensitive, so it’s important to inspire customers to place an order before it’s gone. Posting about your exclusive seasonal ingredients on social media can get the menu in front of customers and build excitement about ordering. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great places to highlight your seasonal dishes and let customers know how long the menu lasts.

6. Pair your dishes with seasonal drinks

There’s nothing better than warming up with a smooth hot chocolate in the winter or cooling down with a fresh lemonade in the summer. Seasonal beverages are a huge draw for diners and a great way to incorporate seasonal flavors.

Crafting creative seasonal cocktails or featuring a seasonal beer on your menu is also a great way to experiment with new brands and flavors. Diners get excited about specialty drinks, which means adding seasonal cocktails to your alcoholic beverage selection can increase the average order value.

Did you know you can sell alcoholic beverages on Grubhub? Let your diners bring seasonal beverages home by adding alcohol to your delivery and takeout menu.

7. Don’t forget the sides

Side dishes are an easy way to add seasonal ingredients to your menu without making big changes. Sauces, garnishes, and small dishes allow you to incorporate seasonal ingredients at a lower cost.

How can your restaurant plan for seasonality?

Every restaurant deals with some form of seasonality. As you plan for the year, it’s important to consider seasonal shifts — understanding the overall pattern can help you adjust operations to fulfill customer demand while maintaining the highest possible profit margins.

Here are a few ways you can plan for seasonality in your restaurant:

• Analyze historical data. Review past sales data to identify peak and off-peak seasons; your restaurant likely has multiple of each per year. Patterns in the data can help you understand how factors such as holidays, weather, and local events impact your order volume. It can be helpful to plot sales on a line graph for each of the past few years. When you put the annual graphs side by side, it should be easy to spot the overarching trends. This information can help you anticipate busy and slow periods and plan accordingly.
• Create a seasonal menu. When the seasons change, switch up your menu to incorporate ingredients that are currently in season. You’ll keep your restaurant’s offerings fresh so customers always have something new to look forward to. Because seasonal produce is often cheaper and more readily available, this strategy can also help cut costs.
• Staffing adjustments. Labor costs can eat into your profit margins, especially if you have too many workers on any given shift. To mitigate your risk, hire enough workers to manage the slower seasons. During peak seasons, hire part-time or temporary staff to help handle increased demand. That way, you won’t have to cut workers’ hours during slow seasons, and your customers will always experience great service. You can also use Grubhub delivery to handle fluctuating order volume or provide extra support when your in-house delivery drivers are busy. 
• Inventory management. Use your historical sales data to anticipate demand, and adjust your ordering strategy accordingly. Inventory management software is a must — it ensures you always have just enough food on hand to satisfy demand and accommodate unexpected ordering spikes. Smart inventory management helps you avoid overstocking during slow seasons, which reduces food waste and cuts back on storage costs.
• Marketing strategies. Marketing is important all year-round, but it’s critical during slow periods. As you’re mapping out a marketing calendar, pay special attention to times when orders drop; this is a great time to celebrate national food holidays and use Grubhub’s promotion and loyalty tools to attract customers with special deals. For the rest of the year, plan marketing campaigns that align with the season — hot cocktails for Christmas, barbecues in the summer, and winter comfort-food menus can make customers excited to stop by your restaurants. Grubhub even offers social media templates to streamline your design and posting process.

Seasonal shifts are normal in the restaurant industry. By planning ahead, you can be sure your operation is prepared for busy times and actively working to boost order volume during slow seasons.

Tap into delivery with your seasonal menu

Incorporating seasonal ingredients into your menu is a great way to attract new customers, strengthen relationships with local growers, and let your chefs’ creativity shine. Because seasonal menus change regularly, they’re an opportunity to add trending dishes to your menu and intrigue customers who are looking for popular meals. While seasonal ingredients remain consistent year to year, food trends change all the time.

Before you put the finishing touches on your seasonal menu, keep in mind that not every item needs to change. A core menu of popular dishes helps build your reputation and ensures regular customers can enjoy their favorite meals year-round. Seasonal menu items provide a dynamic, ever-changing element, while a consistent selection of staple dishes maintains your restaurant’s personality.Ready to get your seasonal menu in front of more customers? Sign up for Grubhub today to get access to a menu consulting team and restaurant experts who work with you to optimize your menu for online ordering success.