Are The Kids Really Alright?

From Lisa Kaplan Gordon:

When a Pittsburgh-area restaurateur recently banned young children from his eatery, some patrons cheered, and the national media wondered aloud if child-free restaurants were the wave of the future.

In fact, only a few restaurants have followed suit, and children continue to dine out with their parents. Nevertheless, the story does beg questions among restaurateurs about the pros and cons of catering to young diners. Do kids' meals and boxes of crayons help or hurt the bottom line?

Like capers on smoked salmon, children aren't for everyone.

“I did not welcome children, but I did not turn children away," says Steve Lipinski, a lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, who ran three restaurants over the years in upstate New York.  "I didn’t provide a product that was child-centric. But times are different now. The industry has realized that in this current economic climate, if you want the parents, you need to accommodate the children."

Americans spend roughly half their food budgets on restaurants, and households with children outspend child-free households by 25 percent, according to the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

"The ability to meet the demands of families with children has become more important," says Hudson Riehle, the NRA's senior vice president of research. "Consequently, attracting those families can be very competitive."

Although parents drive the car, children often drive the decision about where the family eats. If children are happy, everyone's happy.

Restaurants that cater to children make the evening "more pleasant," says David Kincheloe, president of National Restaurant Consultants in Denver. "You're more likely to come back to the establishment and recommend it to your friends.”

Pleasing kids isn't complicated: Feed them quickly, and keep them busy.

"As soon as they arrive, give them something enjoyable to eat: That's when they get antsy," says Kincheloe. It's what he tells clients who want to play in the family sandbox. "Then, you give them crayons. And then maybe a special bread stick. We advise our clients to spread it out."

If you're going to offer a kids' menu, make sure the items are well-priced. Avoid the pricey protein; instead, push the lower-cost starches, like pasta and pizza.

However, make sure the kiddie food tastes delicious and is presented beautifully, just like the items on adult menus.

"If you serve mac and cheese, make it an awesome macaroni and cheese," Kincheloe says. "Something that has taste, looks halfway decent, and appeals to the parents. You want the kids to really enjoy it, so the next time they go out to eat, the kids will say, 'I want to eat there.' "

However, kids don't necessarily guarantee profits. They don't drink alcohol, a common boost to check averages; they break the stemware; and they make messes that slow table turnover. Furthermore, parents don't want to spend $20 for a kid's meal, and turning a profit at a lower price can be difficult.

“There's a perception that a child's meal should be half the cost of an adult meal," Lipinski says. "But that doesn't consider the cost of lights and cleaning and the other expenses that go into hosting children. The challenge for the operator, if they decide to play in this market, is to develop products that will provide an adequate profit margin.”

Of course, families with kids are not the target demographic for every restaurant. Some patrons pick fine-dining establishments because they don't expect to find children at places that charge $35 for an entree. Some places, in fact, charge a premium to discourage, de facto, children from dining there.

Those places, however, may be short-sighted, because today's rug rats are tomorrow's patrons. Playing nice with children, some owners believe, is an investment in the future.

Giovanni Cesaratto, owner of Assaggi Osteria in McLean, Va., says his upscale, suburban restaurant welcomes children because "they become our clients, and their kids become our clients."

"In this suburb, people stick around," he says. "So there's a likelihood that these youngsters will become clients for their special events—homecoming, graduation, the significant milestones in their lives. And they share those with the establishment. If you have your eye on the long term, it pays to treat the kids fairly and treat the parents of kids fairly."

Lisa Kaplan Gordon is a reporter whose 20-year writing career has earned her three National Headliners Awards and two Pulitzer Prize nominations.

Source: http://www.openforum.com/articles/are-the-kids-really-alright

website optimization improve google rankings search engine search marketing web 2.0 experts