For Neighborhood Restaurants, Knowing Your Clientele Is Paramount

Nevin Barich

LOS ANGELES , October 17, 2017 (Off The Menu) – A recent visit to a new neighborhood restaurant made for a good reminder of the importance of knowing your clientele.

Last week, my wife and I paid a visit to Skewers, a San Fernando Valley-based Halal restaurant whose menu includes chicken and lamb kabobs, gyros, beef koobideh and (coming soon) baklava. But one menu item in particular caught my eye:

Pizza.

I found it interesting that kabobs and pizzas were featured prominently on the same menu. After all, they’re not exactly items that go together. But a quick conversation with the owner solved the mystery.

The owner explained that for many years, this location was a neighborhood pizza joint that had many regular customers. When he took it over, he initially had only his Halal menu available. Business, he said, was very slow.

“So I decided to start offering pizzas and subs as well, and business immediately picked up,” the owner said. “Many of those customers who were regulars of the previous owners returned, and after a few visits they started to try my Halal dishes. Now they’re not only my regular customers, but they’re eating my kabobs and gyros more than the pizza.”

Skewers is a great example for any neighborhood restaurant that’s taking over another neighborhood establishment. While name restaurants—whether it be McDonald’s, TGI Fridays or Taco Bell—have the advantage of being a known quantity with a built-in clientele, neighborhood eateries are at the whim of the nearby residents. And if those residents are used to getting a certain type of food from one local place, the new local place has to adapt.

Places like Skewers do it right: Offer familiar food to get people in the door, and then they’re exposed to your new menu.

Nevin Barich is the Food and Beverage Analyst for Industry Intelligence and is also Menuism’s fast food expert. Email him at Nevin.Barich@industryintel.com or follow him on Twitter.

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