WILL LUNCH FOR A FIVER FILL YOU UP?
It's a cold and gloomy day in January, the time of year when customers are thin on the ground and the majority of restaurants are suffering from a severe bout of winter blues. But a small restaurant in the heart of Dorset is buzzing.
Les Bouviers in Merley, near Wimborne, is just one of hundreds of restaurants in the UK that have signed up to one of the special lunch deals currently touted by the national newspapers.
On face value, it is attractive to both customer and restaurateur. The customer gets a cheap lunch and the restaurant keeps busy.
According to Les Bouviers' chef-proprietor James Coward, who is participating in the Financial Times's offer for the third year running, the deal attracts 80% additional custom throughout the month.
More than 500 restaurants signed up to the FT's offer this year, which aims to raise money for the Save the Children charity. The Lunch for a Fiver deal, now in its fifth year, gives restaurants the choice to offer two courses for £5, £7.50 or £10.
Other newspapers have followed suit, although not all in the name of charity.
The Independent has gone it alone with a £10 meal from Conran restaurants while The Times and London's Evening Standard have stipulated that all participating restaurants must offer two courses for £5. "We want to give readers the best possible offer," says a spokeswoman. "We thought one course wasn't much of a saving whereas two courses for £5 is really worth while."
But how worthwhile is it for the restaurants?
Laurence Isaacson, deputy chairman and marketing director of Groupe Chez Gérard, believes the offer is too generous to the customer and too expensive for the restaurant.
"It looks desperate, and that could reflect poorly on the restaurant," he says.
Coward, who has chosen the £7.50 option, says he simply couldn't maintain his standards if he had to deliver a two-course meal for £5.
But some highly rated restaurants manage to deliver at the lower price with some canny thinking.
The Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, is running The Times's £5 deal, but offers only one starter - pumpkin and goats' cheese soup - which neither compromises quality nor breaks the bank, according to proprietor Helen Avis.
John Scott of Fräre Jacques in Kingston, who is trying the FT's offer for the first time, believes a modest profit can be made from selling two courses at £7.50. "People get very slightly added value. The FT will hype it up, but its basis is to get money for Save the Children."
He is hoping for a 10% boost in custom, but feels a little uneasy over having to ask customers for charity donations at the end of the meal.
"It can be a bit of a cheek if you are presenting the bill and also asking for a charity donation. But I think most of the people realise that is what the offer is about," he says.
Many restaurants are running the offer on a break-even basis, hoping that customers will be unable to resist the temptation of extra courses and drinks that bump up the bills.
But, as the Box Tree has found, among those that the offer attracts there will always be the bargain-hunter element.
"Some people don't know how we operate or understand what our Michelin star rating means. They come along and expect to see the plate piled up and to fill themselves up with one dish," Avis explains.
Perhaps the real key to making money from these deals comes from converting new customers into repeat business. If the restaurant does not compromise on service or standards, the diners that fill empty seats in January could make a difference the whole year long.
As Coward says: "It's about encouraging people to dine out and attracting new customers. If you get it right you can look at 85% coming back."
