(March 1, 2012)—New England wholesale food distributor AGAR offers advice and solutions to many in the restaurant industry about what to offer their customers during the days of Lent.
A few of those suggestions include:
Meatless Mondays: Lent lasts for 40 days so there are several opportunities for a restaurant to offer specials around “Meatless Mondays.” Offer vegetarian dishes, salads, enhanced pasta specials including a vegetarian Lasagna and of course seafood dishes. Creating Falafels and introducing unusual vegetables is a great way to change up a menu during Lent.
Get Creative: Offering ethnic foods such as Mexican including tortillas that have a main ingredient of cheese can be another way to so meatless during Lent. This is a perfect time to experiment with more types of ethnic foods on the menu. Two Latino flavored cheeses AGAR now carries are Chihuahua and Cotija, both with Latino influences.
Enhance seafood offerings: Skate, dogfish and monkfish are three kinds of affordable fish AGAR is now offering. Restaurant operators can get very creative with new types of seafood on their menu and show their customers they are keeping things interesting. Dogfish can be used for instance in a fish and chips. An attractive part of these types of fish is that they are local and sustainable which can be attractive and affordable to customers.
Soup and Salad: This is a great time to offer new types of soup. It’s still relatively cold outside in the Northeast and customers are looking for warm values. AGAR offers over 300 varieties of soup and there is something for every type of customer out there. Vegan, gluten-free, ethnic and vegetarian soups should all be considered as offerings.
“Every type of holiday or occasion offers a restaurant an opportunity to attract more customers and, make more money,” says Karen S. Bressler, president and CEO of AGAR. “Get creative and make sure you have a selection for meat eaters, for those observing Lent as well as vegetarian and gluten-free items. Keep customers coming through the door by looking for new, more affordable items for your menu. As beef prices rise, it’s a good opportunity for operators to explore new items.”
More ideas including an educational video to enhance business and foot traffic around the days of Lent can be found at the AGAR blog: http://www.agarblog.com/
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