What if the only reason your guests came once is that nothing changed after they left?
Felipe Riccio is chef and partner at Goodnight Hospitality in Houston, TX. At his restaurant March, his tasting menu restaurant, the entire menu is thrown out twice a year and rebuilt around a different corner of the Mediterranean. He is twelve seasons in. He will tell you it is probably not a winning formula.
In this conversation, we get into why a concept nobody can repeat back to you will never travel, how discipline and paperwork are what buy a chef creative freedom, and what it costs to close a restaurant for two weeks twice a year on purpose.
If your guests like you but do not come back, this is a great place to start.
To learn more about Goodnight Hospitality, visit goodnighthospitality.com.
The Playbook Takeaways
- Build the reason to return into the calendar. At March the entire tasting menu is thrown out twice a year and rebuilt around a different corner of the Mediterranean, twelve seasons running.
- A concept guests cannot repeat back to you will never travel. If people cannot describe the place, they cannot recommend it.
- Discipline and paperwork are what buy a chef creative freedom, including the real cost of closing the restaurant for two weeks twice a year on purpose.
Want the systems behind ideas like these? Josh teaches them in a free 5-day restaurant marketing masterclass at Restaurant Business School.
Keep going: restaurant marketing that brings guests back · restaurant concepts and ideas worth stealing · restaurant profitability fundamentals
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Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you’ll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com
About the Author: Josh Kopel is a Michelin-awarded restaurateur, host of the Full Comp podcast, and creator of the Restaurant Scaling System, which helps independent owners grow profitable restaurants through AI-powered marketing. More about Josh · Learn with Josh
