The Latest Trends: What’s New at Night
Summer nights are here . . . and American
consumers are looking for opportunities to be
out and about. Whether they’re in their home
towns or on vacation, their evenings out will likely
include a restaurant dining occasion. That might
mean anything from a snack after the movie to a
leisurely special-occasion dinner.
Why are more Americans visiting restaurants
in the evening? What are they seeking there?
And most important, how can your independent
restaurant meet their needs and make a profit?
Read on to learn more.
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Turn On the Night
Optimizing Dinner Business—continued
The nation’s economy is still on a roller coaster,
but consumers are loosening their purse strings, at
least for day-to-day purchases that offer immediate
gratification. A family that may not be ready to
purchase a car may be eager to splurge on a
restaurant dinner. Since good weather is always
associated with stronger foodservice patronage, the
height of summer may be just the time to rethink
your operation’s appeal to the dinner crowd—and
perhaps add or enhance late-night service as well.
family dinners to go. Pappas Bar-B-Q promoted a
$13.95 Father’s Day Feast for dine-in or takeout,
consisting of beef brisket, link sausage and pork
ribs served with two sides.
Most Americans purchase dinner away from home
at least once a week: 31% do so weekly and 37%
do so several times a week. Late-night dining
is also a surprisingly strong segment: 25% of
consumers purchase food from restaurants late at
night (for dine-in or takeout) at least weekly, and
another 15% will make a late-night foodservice
purchase two or three times a month. As one might
imagine, late-night patronage is particularly high
among younger adults.
Takeout Dinners
Takeout occasions are ideal for consumers
(especially those aged 35 and older) who want a
night off from cooking dinner, but still look forward
to a relaxing meal at home. One in five consumers
are purchasing dinner away from home more often
now than last year, primarily because they’re lured
to purchase food for pickup or delivery.
Diners choose full-service and limited-service
restaurants for both dine-in and takeout dinner
occasions. But drawing dinner traffic in today’s
hypercompetitive environment means exploring
new ways to underscore value beyond low prices.
Family-focused menu promotions are taking center
stage for both FSR and LSR takeout. Tahoe Joe’s
Famous Steakhouse introduced family-style takeout
dinners that include a choice of salad, sourdough
rolls and two scratch-made sides in sizes designed
to serve five to six, 10–12 or 25–30 people; entrée
choices include Joe’s
On average,
Roast, Sierra Mountain
Ribs or a combination of
consumers are about
Roast or Ribs with Wood
twice as likely to
Grilled Chicken. Pizza
Hut’s Big Dinner Box
dine in a restaurant
packs snackable items
(eight chicken wings and
for dinner than they
five breadsticks) in a box
are to order takeout.
with two medium pizzas,
all for $20.
Routine Dinners
Special-Occasion Dinners
Optimizing Dinner Business
Operators can boost dinner sales by strengthening
their overall value with creative pricing strategies
beyond absolute low price, such as specials or
combo meals.
Lower-priced items that can easily be bundled for
a quick and affordable meal for one person or a
whole family are the focus for LSR dinner menus.
Pollo Tropical celebrated Valentine’s Day with a Two
Can Dine for $9.99 meal deal: choice of two entrées
(create-your-own TropiChop or ¼ Chicken Platter
with rice and beans), two regular-size fountain
drinks, a shared regular order of yuca sticks or
sweet plantains, and a shared flan dessert.
Full-service restaurants are also promoting dinner
value with bundled meals and affordably priced
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Nine out of 10 consumers patronize restaurants at
dinnertime to celebrate special occasions. Birthdays
are by far the most common occasion, followed
by anniversaries and date nights. For women,
late-night restaurant occasions are top of mind
for a date or celebration, while men tend to think
of these occasions in terms of watching televised
sports with their buddies.
FSRs need to emphasize “premium” positioning
as part of the value equation for entrées. But also
important to check averages are sales of adult
beverages, appetizers and desserts—the very items
that define a “special occasion” for many diners.
While consumers may rank absolute price fairly low
as a deciding factor for a special-occasion meal,
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Optimizing Dinner Business—continued
it’s still a factor, particularly when there are several
restaurants in the area offering similar meals and
ambiance. Full-service restaurant operators can
appeal to price-conscious diners without damaging
their premium positioning by offering a tiered
or “high-low” price strategy, flexible portions for
core menu items, or both. For instance, upscale
steakhouse Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine
Bar debuted a Small Plates menu featuring seven
dishes ranging from $15.50 to $22.95. This summer,
it added six shareable dishes (including Salt and
Pepper Shrimp, Filet Mignon Flatbread and Prime
Burger), pairable with complementary beers, wines
and cocktails. The special menu puts Fleming’s into
the consideration set for a much wider range of
consumers, at least for special occasions.
Waking Up to Late Night
Consumers are moving away from the paradigm of
consuming three meals a day at predictable times;
instead, they may graze throughout the day or
even eat a full meal late at night. Late-night dining
and grazing are habits of younger consumers in
particular. More than half (55%) of consumers
under 35 report visiting restaurants late at night at
least once a month, and a third of these younger
adults say they would patronize restaurants for
late-night meals and snacks even more often if
more restaurants in their area kept late hours.
Smaller portions, mix-and-match options, and
shareable samplers meet the needs of Millennials
who congregate during late-night hours. Signature
cocktails also help position a restaurant as a
preferred nighttime destination.
Among the operations giving special attention to
late-night business:
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Elephant Bar Restaurant inaugurated a
second happy hour from 9 p.m. until close
every night, with drink specials like halfpriced Mai Tais on Mondays, half-priced
skinny cocktails on Tuesdays and $4 glasses
of wine on Wednesdays, paired with new
small plates including firecracker shrimp,
spicy wood-grilled Italian sausage, woodgrilled Moroccan chicken skewers and
spinach and artichoke stuffed mushrooms.
Waking Up to Late Night—continued

Denny’s AllNighter format offers a “Rockstar”
menu that features late-night specials,
including late-night breakfast offerings.

Limited-service restaurants also have ample
opportunities to cater to consumers with
the late-night munchies. SONIC Drive-Ins,
which already has an afternoon “milkshake
happy hour” during which shakes are offered
at half price, extended it to the 2–4 a.m.
period at its 24-hour restaurants. The new
focus is part of the chain’s strategy to build
on its strengths as a five-daypart restaurant
offering breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks,
dinner and late-night options.
Sysco Can Help
Your Sysco Marketing Associate can help you
leverage both dinner and late-night dining
occasions in a way that’s appropriate for your
concept and clientele. Backed up by Sysco’s
formidable team of culinary and operational
professionals, your Marketing Associate can advise
you on ingredients, menu trends, service and
operational enhancements, and the most effective
ways to market meals and snacks for both early
and late evening.
In addition, Sysco offers you access to two other
invaluable resources:

Periodic Business Reviews in which a team of
Sysco experts examines every phase of your
operations and recommends improvements
to build sales, traffic and the bottom line.

Access to Sysco iCare business partners—
companies that offer specialized value-added
resources to help independent operators
compete against chains and multiconcept
operators as well as other independents in
their local area.
For more information, contact
your Sysco Marketing Associate.
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