When you think of the typical early bird special at a restaurant, you might think of retirees and older folk who can come in in for dinner at 4 or 5 p.m. and save 10 percent or more. But, the early bird special is starting to evolve, from a way for restaurants to pick up that older cliental, to a survival mechanism for restaurants across the country.
As more and more people are practicing a frugal lifestyle, eating out is going way down. That was, until many restaurants started getting hip to the fact that their normal customers were visiting the grocery stores right before dinner time.
Early bird specials are now evolving to give discounts of up to 50 percent off of the regular menu, and are also including many current food trends and meals for a wide variety of palates. Customers taking advantage of this half off deals, include young families, couples and even groups of single friends.
Early bird specials, while they typically are available only, well, early, are now being extended to include at least part of the normal dinner hour. You also may see deals that occur through the entire dinner hour but only on certain days, late bird specials (near closing time), and lunch specials.
So, if you haven’t visited your favorite restaurant in a while because you have been concerned about pricing, it might pay, literally, to inquire about early bird or other specials. If you are willing to alter your normal dinner time a bit, you should be able to enjoy a little fun eating out. Traditional early bird specials expire at 6:30, but you’ll encounter many variations of this as noted above.
Early bird specials are also a great way to try out a new restaurant, because the pricing will be affordable, and you can try out the atmosphere and the quality of the food.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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