When you want to eat something fast and convenient, there are many quick-service restaurants from which to choose. Or, maybe you have the time to dine in at a casual full-service establishment. However, when you want a truly elegant experience that takes you out of your normal routine, there’s nothing more special than a fine dining restaurant.
There’s something gratifying about providing this special experience for others — which is why many restaurant owners decide to open a fine dining establishment. This article defines the concept behind fine dining and provides a high-level overview of how to start a fine dining restaurant so you can offer a truly memorable experience.
An online search of “what is a fine dining restaurant” reveals a lot of conflicting definitions. As you read through these articles, a few common characteristics of fine dining start to emerge:
Because of the above, fine dining restaurants are usually more expensive than their casual dining counterparts. If you want to justify charging higher prices, there are some additional aspects of the fine dining experience you need to understand.
Most restaurants have house rules for the employees, as you’ll see below, but there’s also a certain level of expectation when it comes to the behavior of guests. When providing a fine dining experience, a higher standard of etiquette is expected of customers, including:
Your guests expect a top-notch experience when they visit your restaurant, and it starts with your fine dining staff. Consider implementing the following house rules:
What sets fine dining staff apart from their casual and quick-service counterparts is attention to detail. Be sure to read our guide on how to hire, train, and manage a team about whom customers will rave.
Every fine dining restaurant is different. Chefs often have a lot of leeway when designing menus, but most high-end kitchens structure their dishes around one of three core concepts:
Starting with appetizers and cocktails, each course is brought in stages. The next course doesn’t begin until everyone at the table has finished the previous one.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or already own a restaurant, there’s nothing stopping you from offering customers a unique, elegant, and high-end dining experience. However, the journey becomes easier if you use tools and technology to automate as many aspects of managing your business as possible.
In addition to accepting payments, for example, every Clover point-of-sale (POS) system provides customer engagement and employee management capabilities. With third-party plugins from the Clover App Market, you can easily expand this functionality – whether you want the ability to book reservations online or simply need help managing inventory or designing better floor plans.
To learn more about how our POS solutions can help you achieve your dreams of owning a fine dining restaurant, contact one of our Clover Business Consultants today.
Popular Topics
Sign up and learn more about Clover.
Recent Stories