This week from June 21st – June 27th marks The Yelp Eats Event in St. Louis. 12 different restaurants are participating offering a special 3-Course Dinner menu for just $25 + tax and tip. The menus look freaking tasty! Please get out this week and support our local St. Louis restaurants.
Below are the different menus that are offered:
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Its 7:00am when you first smell that fresh coffee brewing. Half asleep and groggy eyed, you quietly pour the first cup of piping hot goodness. As the mug warms your hands, you give a long morning stretch, and lazily open your laptop. The calm peacefulness of early morning is soothing like crawling in fresh sheets after a hot shower. Quiet, serene, the morning is yours. Now it’s time to wake up, sleepyheads!
Like most Americans, your first morning task is to check email, delete spam, and cipher what really matters. Without fail, there is a coupon in your inbox offering 53% off at your favorite local restaurant.
Hook, line, and sinker you’re sold. Is this really a good thing? Are we turning restaurants into department stores?
Across from St. Louis, in the small river town of Alton, IL resides a legendary bar called Fast Eddies Bon Air. Some gather for the drinks, most come for the food. The scene resembles “The Double Deuce” from the movie Roadhouse, hosting everything from bikers to attorneys. The only difference is Patrick Swayze isn’t ripping out throats, and Fast Eddies clientele is MUCH friendlier.
The dark interior of Fast Eddies is lit up with neon beer signs, old memorabilia, and glowing flat screens covering the days sporting events. At first glance, it’s not a place to take your mother. Only to find out, your mom loves Fast Eddies!
So why does Fast Eddies draw such a crowd? I’ve seen Sundays where they ring 500+ food orders by 2pm. That’s just warm up! What is their secret? How do they do it? Here are the 5 reasons why Fast Eddie’s Bon Air sells:
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While they are nothing new, Prix Fixe Menus are a hot trend right now. At least in St. Louis, they are cropping up everywhere! In a downward economy people still want to eat out, but are looking to save cash. Prix Fixe Menus bring in business and help your customers out. Here are some quick reasons why:
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Location is EVERYTHING, right? Of course it is! Will you always be slammed? Not necessarily. The Field of Dreams idea “if you build it they will come” doesn’t really pertain to real life. Mondays, cold rain, lack of exposure, and poor marketing are all factors that can kill a business. Therefore “location is everything” doesn’t always hold true.
Let’s say you’re in a relatively high traffic area and you normally do well. Today just happens to be one of those days, and you’re abnormally slow. How can you increase street business? Google Favorite Places may be one way, but I am a bit skeptical. Let’s ditch advanced technology for a second, and get back to our roots. Below are 5 tips for hustling street traffic:
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Office buildings are freaking hilarious (at least mine is). It’s not uncommon for the question “What’s for lunch” to spring up around 8am. That sounds ridiculous, but if you forget lunch at home then you’re eating out. It’s a great idea to get that ball rolling early.
If you work in a restaurant, you might not understand the politics behind a lunch break. It’s the highlight of the day! Everyone has to eat, and you’ve got one hour to do it. The power is that offices order food in groups. Do most restaurants understand this culture? It amazes me that local restaurants never stop by our office to offer incentives. They could be killing it! Here are 4 quick office promo tips:
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Remember the movie “Field of Dreams?” It’s about a middle-aged guy named Ray Kinsella living with his family among the vast cornfields of Iowa. While farming the yellow fields one day…Ray hears a voice. The voice softly whispers “If you build it, he will come.” Taken by surprise, he continues laboring and tending his precious crops to feed his family. As time passes, the voice starts booming louder and louder – “If you build it, he will come” – “If you build it, he will come.” This sparks relentless ambition into Ray as he realizes what the voice is telling him: Build a baseball diamond. Thus starting the worst movie ever made…
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I see restaurants join Twitter everyday, and that’s incredible news. Then it happens…that new restaurant begins tweeting nothing but specials. Their entire feed becomes a rotating spam bomb of happy hours and ½ off appetizers. No engagement. No personality. Just spam.
Tons of people have expressed this problem to me. They hate when restaurants only tweet specials, they even unfollow them. I agree. People join Twitter to talk and meet people, not to be bombarded with advertising. Is your restaurant making this deadly mistake?
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Recently a shiny brand new site sprung up called UrbHub.com. It’s a rockin niche site that encourages users to talk about what’s happening in their city. I think it’s a great concept that we also encourage on this site. So naturally you can understand why UrbHub and UrbanBacon make great partners.
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting the founder, Brad Hogan, at Park Avenue Coffee in St. Louis. He is a really cool guy that shares similar ambitions and ideas. Right now we are working on collaborating UrbanBacon with UrbHub. It’s going to be sweet! Here are some ideas we are tossing around:
Right now nothing is 100% set in stone. Brad and I both agree integrating the sites will provide more value for our users. In the end, it’s all about providing you guys with more value. I will keep you posted on our progress. Right now, get over to UrbHub.com and start talking!
-Phil Novara
The majority of my life I grew up fishing private ponds, streams, and rivers in Missouri. There is nothing like the serene stillness and peace of a bright summer day on the crystal water. This is my element, at least as a kid it was. I remember tying neon green and construction orange lures in hopes of landing that monster 8lb large mouth bass. Constant casting and reeling while my lure danced across clear water taught me a great deal of patience. In a way, fishing is like social media. Are your customers biting your lures?
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