An Escoffier guide says a restaurant should first work out who its community actually is, from its existing guests and the surrounding neighbourhood, before choosing any tactic. Its ideas include a regular community night, partnerships with local businesses, local art and live music, pay-what-you-can dishes, and events aimed at specific groups such as students or runners.
Most advice on community involvement jumps straight to tactics. An Escoffier guide starts one step earlier and asks who, exactly, a restaurant means when it talks about its community. Outreach that does not reflect what the people nearby actually want or need comes across as insincere, the guide argues. So the first job is to look at who already eats with you and who lives and works around you: families or office staff, a suburb or a crowded city centre.
Ashley Godfrey, who teaches hospitality and restaurant operations management at Escoffier, says genuine local involvement goes further than serving food and can make the restaurant "a community hub".
Make giving a fixed habit, not a one-off
The guide's most concrete suggestion is a regular community night, when a fixed share of that evening's takings is given to a school group, a local club or another neighbourhood organisation. Godfrey points out that it works twice over: it brings steady custom on a night that might otherwise be quiet, and it builds goodwill people can actually see.
Chef Tammie Barnhill, who founded the student-outreach club 4U Crew, makes the longer-term case. A restaurant that supports its community, Barnhill says, will find that in times of trouble, such as covid, "people will rally around you".
Partner with other local businesses
Buying from local farmers is the familiar version of this. The guide suggests going further:
- Name other local producers on your menu, such as bread from a nearby bakery or beer from a local brewery.
- Lend your space on a slow night to another small business for a pop-up, so the room works for a fellow owner instead of sitting empty.
- Cross-promote beyond food: if you run a loyalty programme, ask nearby shops to give your members a perk, and offer the same to their customers.
Use the room for local art and music
Hanging work by local artists, changed regularly and labelled with prices and contact details, gives the artist free exposure and somewhere to sell, and gives guests a reason to come back and see what is new. Live music from local performers does a similar job. One idea from the guide is to give the weekend brunch you already run a jazz theme. Another is to make a night that never picks up into a fixed live-music night, instead of trying to discount it into being busy.
Pay-what-you-can dishes instead of pay-it-forward
Pay-it-forward schemes, where guests buy a meal in advance for someone who cannot afford one, have a weakness the guide spells out. If nothing has been prepaid when a person in need walks in, they still go without, and some guests feel awkward accepting a meal a stranger paid for.
Chef Vicki Berger proposes a sturdier option: a handful of menu items sold on a pay-what-you-can basis, where guests decide what to pay for an identical dish, so some pay in full and others pay much less. Berger notes that many restaurants run on "razor thin profit margins" and cannot afford to hand out free meals. Bringing guests in through pay-it-forward or donation-based dining, Berger says, lets a restaurant help people in need and still stay profitable.
Run events for a specific group
The guide ends where it began: decide which group you want to reach, then design the event or discount around them. Its examples:
- Trivia or karaoke nights
- A weekly run club that meets at the restaurant
- Hosting fundraisers for a local charity
- Event space at a reduced rate for other local business owners
- A student discount in an area with colleges
Each of these works because it is built for a named group of people nearby, not for the neighbourhood in general.
What this means for your restaurant
- Before choosing any community activity, write down who your regular guests are and who lives and works around you; the guide warns that outreach without this reads as insincere.
- Give your slowest night a job, such as a community night for a local cause, a pop-up by another local business or live music, instead of another discount.
- If you want to help people who cannot pay full price, a few pay-what-you-can dishes hold up better than a pay-it-forward scheme that can run dry.
- Feature local producers on the menu and swap loyalty perks with nearby shops, so each partnership sends customers both ways.
Sources
This article summarises the reporting and guides listed above; the figures belong to those sources and are attributed in the text. Check anything that affects your business against your own platform agreements, payout statements and advisers.