Are you planning on dipping your toes in the food industry as a restaurant owner? One of the first things you must do is choose a restaurant concept different from the competition to get potential customers to visit you.
There are a variety of restaurant concepts out there, including supper clubs. But what is a supper club? How do you start a supper club? And is a supper club the best idea for your dream food business? Read on to find out.
What is a supper club?
The supper club started in the United States as a blend of a traditional restaurant and a social club, usually found in more rural areas or on the outskirts of a big town. Nowadays, it can have a couple of meanings:
- Pop-up restaurants: where the restaurant owner rents out a space for a limited time to showcase and sell their dishes;
- Underground club: often a speakeasy that requires a password to enter;
- Small restaurant: that encourages diners to interact as well as enjoy the meal;
- Gathering between friends: people often call their events a supper club, but they are not a business and do not engage in selling food.
Supper club definition
Here are the main characteristics that describe a supper club:
- Limited seating: The small space limits seating options, but also creates a more intimate dining experience;
- Reservation-based: to ensure everybody gets a spot, all supper clubs require their diners to make a prior reservation;
- Fixed, short menu: often with traditional American dishes, but also incorporating seasonal ingredients to offer clients a new taste for each visit;
- Entertainment: many supper clubs also provide music or shows as an added experience for customers.
Supper club vs restaurant
Each supper club business is a restaurant, but not every restaurant is a supper club. Both food business models focus on providing clients with delicious food, but supper clubs create a more intimate and exclusive dining experience.
Should you open a supper club in your area?
Before you invest your money, you must first ensure that not only are supper clubs a viable business idea in your area, but also that you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of this type of restaurant.
Therefore, answer these two questions:
- Is there an audience for supper clubs in your area? You will need to do some market research and find out if people are interested in visiting supper clubs. For example, are there successful competitors on the market? You can also utilize surveys to find out about local people’s interests.
- Do you have a passion for running a supper club? Running a supper club comes with a lot of challenges, such as creating a profitable menu, ensuring clients have a great experience, and earning more than you spend. Having a passion for running this type of establishment will keep you motivated to find solutions during hard times.
Advantages of owning a supper club
Here are the benefits of a supper club that both you and your clients will enjoy:
- Warm hospitality: when you create a friendly service and are attentive to customers’ needs, you increase your chance of turning them into regulars;
- Unique menu: people expect to be impressed by the menu, so this gives your chef the opportunity to experiment and create textural dishes that will stick in people’s minds;
- A lot of user-generated content: because a supper club provides an exclusive experience, people are likely to take lots of photos and post them online. You can use their content to promote your business and attract other customers;
Disadvantages of running a supper club
- Few available seats: while only serving a couple of clients at a time allows you to focus on giving them the best dining experience possible, it also means you can only sell a limited number of dishes during opening hours. If you want to serve more customers in a day, you can enable a QR code ordering system to speed up service;
- High prices: you will have a hard time finding a balance between a price high enough that it covers your costs, yet low enough so you keep getting new clients;
- Tricky marketing: you want to maintain an air of exclusivity to keep in line with the supper club atmosphere, while still promoting your restaurant so you don’t have empty tables.
How to start a supper club?
In this article, we won’t focus on how to start a supper club for your family and friends. Instead, we will give you tips on how to create a profitable supper club business that brings in profit.
1. Find your niche
Starting a restaurant supper club already puts you ahead of the competition, but you must go a step further and choose a niche to differentiate yourself from other supper clubs.
You can start by answering these questions:
- Why do you want to start a supper club? What makes you passionate about it?
- Why is your supper club different from others? What makes it special?
- What will you offer your clients? How can they benefit from visiting your supper club?
2. Create a thorough supper club business plan
Being passionate about a business is the first step, but if you want it to succeed and bring in profit, you need a fool-proof supper club business plan. Here is what it should include:
- Your Unique Selling Proposition, which you can use afterward to draw people in;
- Market research: to find out if there is a demand for your type of business;
- Financial assessment: what are your forecasted costs and sales?
- Hiring plan: how many employees do you plan to hire, and what will their responsibilities be?
Read more: How to Write a Restaurant Business Plan: 6 Practical Tips & Tricks
3. Secure a location
The location plays a big role in a supper club. After you settle on a concept, you must go ahead and rent or buy the space you plan on using to entertain clients. Here are a few location examples standard for a supper club:
- Underground, with a secret entry: the door could be through a bar, a laundromat, a grocery store, wherever you find an appropriate space;
- A temporary space near office buildings and landmarks: ideal for pop-up restaurants that want to gain an audience fast from the footfall;
- A classic small restaurant on the outskirts of the city: while it will limit the number of clients, it will also help you create stronger bonds with the ones near you. The location cost will also be significantly smaller.
Read more: Restaurant Location Analysis: How to Choose the Best Restaurant Location
4. Set your menu
You get people to visit your supper club for the concept, but you encourage them to visit again with delicious and unforgettable food. Here are a few tips for a successful and profitable supper club menu:
- Keep it short: this will help lower your food costs and increase your profit. It will also make it easier and faster for clients to order;
- Allow customization: such as toppings, to enable customers to create their perfect dishes;
- Provide dishes for people with dietary requirements: be open to everyone by creating a few dishes that are vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free. It will also be helpful to list all the allergens a dish contains so people can make informed decisions;
- Use seasonal ingredients: this is another trick to keep costs low, as seasonal ingredients are cheaper. Moreover, it ensures you change your menu often to keep surprising your guests.
5. Expand your sales online
Considering the concept and limited seating, you will have a hard time making a profit, no matter how high you price your dishes. Moreover, sky-high prices will deter people from visiting your restaurant.
Therefore, if you want to stay in business, you need to sell more. You can do so by expanding your business online. All you need to do is add the GloriaFood online ordering system to your website. It only takes 10 minutes, and it is also free.
Once you’ve set it up, you can start discovering the helpful features that will help you promote your business and monitor its rise to success, such as:
- Promotions module: to increase the average check value and get people to visit your establishment even on slow days;
- Autopilot module: to keep in touch with your clients through email marketing. The module automatically segments clients according to purchasing history and sends them relevant emails to prevent cart abandonment, re-engage clients, and encourage second orders;
- Reports module: gives you access to a variety of useful restaurant data analytics, such as order type and amount, type of clients, the areas where most of your clients order from, and much more.
Final words
Before you launch any food business, it is important to do your research and be aware of all restaurant concepts that are available to you. A restaurant supper club can be a good choice if you want to start small and prioritize an intimate dining experience.
