Open for Business

Tips, resources and fresh ideas for running a successful restaurant

Tips, resources and fresh ideas for running a successful restaurant
Kelly Merritt  October 17, 2019

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Rise Above the Noise: Learn How to Reach More Diners with Our New Guide

There’s a lot that goes into people deciding on where to eat. What they’re craving, location, and occasion all play a big role, but your online presence is one of the important factors. Search engines and social media, quality of photos, and digital marketing strategies that draw searchers to restaurant websites all influence dining decisions. Reviews — both professional and user-generated — matter, in addition to resources that attract locals or travelers searching for your restaurant on the road.

In our new guide, we’ll share details about how diners seek out and discover restaurants, with tips to help you maximize your online presence and encourage them to book with you. We’ll cover:

  • How people discover restaurants
  • Why similar restaurants don’t yield the same results
  • The value of social media
  • How reviews impact your business
  • …and much more!

We hope you’ll walk away with actionable tips to market your business in real time, put your best food forward, and delight diners so they come back again and again. Get the guide here.

Chef Podcasts Unite Cooks and Listeners, Tackling Long-Overdue Tough Topics

If you’re not listening to podcasts, you’re late to the party. According to National Public Radio, NPR podcast downloads for shows like Up First and Planet Money skyrocketed from 5.4 million in 2017 to 7.1 million in 2018.

For chefs, podcasts have also become a way to achieve a more targeted interaction with the dining public, because the most effective podcasts are specific to a topic. Consider that there are nearly half a billion blogs and just 700,000 podcasts, yet there are nearly one hundred million people listening to them on Apple, NPR, and iHeartRadio alone.

Eric Chiappetta, host of the popular podcast Chef or Death, began sharing his thoughts through a vlog. He switched to audio because video production can be tedious and time consuming, but Chiappetta also learned the listener numbers were better for podcasts than video.

“I always wanted a talk show because my heroes were David Letterman and Johnny Carson,” says Chiappetta, who named the podcast in honor of Eddie Izard and a play on the ‘give me liberty or death’ phrase.

As for the kind of conversations Chiappetta wants to foster, he sees the food and beverage world as its own planet. Nothing is off limits, and everything is relevant.   

“We want to include everyone from pastry chefs to wine makers, restaurateurs to real estate people who help chefs find property, and everyone in between,” says Chiappetta, who has devoted significant podcast time to mental health and addiction issues rampant in the chef community. Chiappetta kick-started the show when Anthony Bourdain died.

“I took his death to heart and he was a hero to me, so I said, we have to do this – we have to start a conversation,” says Chiappetta. “We started the show for and about food and beverage entrepreneurs with the mindset of getting all of these smart, talented and successful people on the show as a resource.”

Chiappetta is especially excited about reaching young chefs before they make mistakes they can’t take back.

“Early in your career, you don’t really know at that point what your soul wants to do and age distills down what you want,” says Chiappetta, who wakes up to emails every morning from people who listened to the show and identified with the topic. “Food and beverage is a lifestyle, not a nine-to-five where you do what you want on the weekends.”

The Colorado chef was awarded an Insight Award for Outstanding Media Professional from the Colorado Restaurant Association, which he says came as a complete surprise. Podcasting has helped Chiappetta grow his brand in a short amount of time.

“This summer was filled with appearances and judging events, plus fundraising events, including one for We Don’t Waste, during which people came up and mentioned my podcasts – so I am honored to have stumbled into it,” says Chiappetta, whose next step is seeking growth expansion, branching out to reach an even bigger audience.

Chiappetta’s podcasts have done more than just help him professionally.

“We tell people’s stories, internalize them, and use the advice we receive to show people that they are not alone,” says Chiappetta, who doesn’t charge or pay anyone to be on his show. “Before this, I was only looking out for how the decisions I made only benefitted me, but I took a hard look at myself and what I could give.”

Chiappetta remains humbled at what can happen. He fields frequent offers to partner or go back to being an executive chef again, but the show and how it is helping others has become his primary focus.

“Once you decide to do something that’s bigger than yourself, it changes you,” he says. “This show is bigger than I am or ever will be.” [Read more…]

Checking Ego, Choosing Words & Embracing Change: Soundbites from Welcome Conference Chicago

The Welcome Conference came to Chicago on the first day of Fall, a prescient new start for the hospitality conference’s first occurrence outside of New York. The brainchild of restaurant gurus Will Guidara and Anthony Rudolf, Welcome is unlike most industry conferences, focusing on the front-of-the-house and the real lives of people behind one of the toughest, most rewarding businesses out there.

Kevin Boehm of Boka Group and Donnie Madia of One Off Hospitality, like Guidara and Rudolf during their days at Eleven Madison Park and Per Se, respectively, were fierce competitors until one morning they decided it’d be a lot easier to come together as friends than keep up the charade—so they did. And as newly-minted collaborators and leaders of the Chicago restaurant community, they approached the New York founders with the idea of bringing the Welcome show on the road to Chicago. 

“Our hope today is that you take an idea, a thought, a soundbite home,” said Donnie in his joint introduction with Kevin. “If you do, you’ll score incredibly—because I know you care so much about your restaurants, staff, and taking care of your guests.” 

The star-studded line up included local figures in the restaurant community like Kevin Brown of Lettuce Entertain You and Phil Vittel, longtime Chicago Tribune restaurant critic, along with national icons like Bizarre Foods’ Andrew Zimmern and Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer. With moving stories of the ups and downs of partnership (Missy Robbins and Sean Feaney) to those of overcoming personal obstacles on and off the job (Ken Frederickson and Mindy Segal, to name a couple), each person spoke with heart and candor, welcoming all experiences and perspectives to the table in one of the most meaningful industry gatherings of the season.   

While there were so many valuable nuggets, here are a few themes we brought home with us.

Down with the Ego

Hospitality, in its most basic definition, refers to the art of treating others as a guest—which can present conflicts for you, yourself, and you. The themes of managing ego it midst the pressures of service and offering the ultimate hospitality were alluded to throughout a number of talks. 

“Finding joy in being kind.” – Will Guidara, on his hospitality philosophy in introduction to the conference, and why he and Anthony founded the program. 

“Being right too often gets in the way of being generous.” – Danny Meyer, on how to keep yourself in check while focusing on offering the best customer experience possible.

“We left that day [Welcome Conference, NYC] with a new appreciation for the irrelevancy of being right.” – Kevin Boehm and Donnie Madia, reflecting on a humbling experience at Welcome NYC in their talk about why they’ve brought the conference to their hometown of Chicago.

“A great mentor and leader takes the time to teach their team everything – together, we rise.” – Belinda Chang, who spoke about the importance of mentorship throughout her career, charting how each individual contributed to her growth and development. 

“How do you create this atmosphere of grace with people on a daily basis with people whom you might only intersect with for minutes?” – Andrew Zimmern, posing the fundamental question of hospitality in his talk, which shared a set of lessons from his personal experience.

“When we’re actually engaging with other human beings and entering in to a more selfless contract with them, we are not human beings but human doings, being mindful of those other folks out there not being shadows.” – Andrew Zimmern 

Balance Yes + No

Ironically, saying yes and saying no were both hot topics at Welcome Chicago. Danny Meyer suggested that we all need to say more no’s in order to carve space to entertain the opportunities that will change the course of our careers. Ken Frederickson took a slightly different stance, honing in on how how saying yes had propelled his career to where he is now. Both approaches agree that saying yes to the right things is the only way to stay sane. 

“Create a set of rules that serve as a filter – learn what to say no to.” – Will Guidara

“I only want to work with people that I love and am inspired by.” – Danny Meyer 

“When we say yes to everything, it’s not a bad thing – but we’re not always saying yes to the right thing. Saying yes the right way and yes where it’s needed.” – Ken Frederickson [Read more…]

SEO Tips for Restaurants: Drive More Diners to Book Reservations

Your restaurant’s website is where you tell your story. You invest time and resources into getting it just right – a responsive template, beautiful design, quality photos – but those are just the first steps. You want to be sure that someone typing your restaurant’s name into Google is going to find what they’re looking for and – hopefully – become your guest. 

Ideally, you should drive potential diners to your website and to your OpenTable profile page, because bookings through these sources have lower cancellations than those made directly from a Google search result page. Use the real estate on search result pages to send people to your platforms, rather than having them book via Google’s knowledge panel or Google Maps. That’s where search engine optimization comes in. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to making sure your restaurant is front and center in search results, which are now more competitive than ever. We tapped OpenTable’s internal team to learn how to optimize your restaurant site and your OpenTable profile page, so that booking a reservation is never more than two clicks away. Read on for pro tips.

How to Maximize Google Search Results

Generally, it’s not too hard for your restaurant to get the first listing in Google search results with a good website. But if you’re smart about how you structure your site, it’s possible to get several top results in Google – or what we like to call “a very large listing.” A large listing is one that takes up more real estate in Google search results, driving more clicks and pushing competitive links down the page.

TIP: Google likes large listings, and they lead to more clicks to your site. That’s because large listings provide a prominent space to convey lots of relevant information about your restaurant.

To make a large listing, create distinct pages of your website focused on topics that people are searching for. Google will often give a restaurant website up to three separate search results. The two most important and easiest ways to get additional listings on Google are to create different Menu and Reservations pages in your website. Other common pages that help generate additional listings include About, Contact, Directions and Gallery pages.

These large listings look different on Google desktop and on mobile search. On Google desktop you’ll either get a single large listing with “sitelinks,” like this:

Or you can get up to three independent desktop listings:

On mobile, the large sitelink listing looks like this:

And the multiple mobile listings can look like this:

There’s no way to guarantee that Google will give your site large or multiple listings. Even if you do get them, you can’t control which ones Google will use. In general, though, sites with more pages and greater authority are more likely to get the “sitelinks” version.

Here are two key tips to get extra listings:  

  • Keep your navigation simple. Build a very easy to understand website structure, where Google can easily identify pages focused on topics like Menu and Reservations.
  • Tag your pages. Use page titles and meta descriptions so it’s clear to users that the page is about these topics.

The website for Boulder’s SALT restaurant provides a good example of simple, clear navigation. [Read more…]

WATCH LIVE: The Welcome Conference Chicago 2019 Livestream

Will Guidara and Anthony Rudolf on Hospitality, Inspiration, Tech, and the 2019 Welcome Conference

Six years ago, Anthony Rudolf and Will Guidara started the Welcome Conference, a one-day gathering for people across industries to connect over a shared passion for hospitality. Today marks the first-ever Welcome Conference outside New York City, hosted by acclaimed restaurateurs Kevin Boehm and Donnie Madia in Chicago. This intimate, regional event will feature speakers including Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer; Missy Robbins, chef-owner of Lilia and Misi; celebrated sommelier Belinda Chang; and Tim King, CEO of the nonprofit Urban Prep Academics, among others. (For more on the Chicago conference, see our interview with Kevin and Donnie here.)

Today’s event takes place at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, but if you missed out on tickets, you can still take insights and inspiration away from the day’s programming. We’re livestreaming the event today, starting at 10 a.m. CT. Watch below!

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