10 ideas to recreate Valentine's Day 2021 outside your restaurant

Once an evening synonymous with great recipes for restaurateurs, Valentine's Day without table service seems compromised. Except for those who seize the opportunity and get creative!

In the absence of the pandemic, more than one in two French people planned to visit a restaurant for Valentine's Day. This meant that establishments could offer special, almost festive menus, and ensure comfortable sales figures. Covid-19 has changed all that. How do you adapt and offer a new experience to your customers? How do you publicize your offer and secure orders? Here are some ideas and tips on how to make the most of this unusual February 14th.

1) Create a special Valentine's menu for a romantic evening at home

A candlelit dinner, rose petals and glasses of champagne sum up the traditional Valentine's Day celebration for devotees. This year, this romantic celebration is somewhat compromised, but the traditions remain the same. This is where you come in! Take these traditions and adapt them to today's conditions. Dare to be creative and propose a menu that reflects this unmissable celebration. As this new menu is ephemeral, don't hesitate to use your in-stock products, while adapting them with originality to create that "wow" effect expected at the restaurant. It's also important to set up a pre-order deadline for potential customers, so as to anticipate quantities purchased and ensure a good delivery service on the big day. Don't forget that this is the annual occasion for lovers to celebrate their union, and thus an inevitable reason for them to mark the occasion. For this reason, consider a complete, multi-stage menu with a variety of choices, as well as a range of festive drinks. The classic menu - starter, main course, dessert - can be extended with a cheese option, an amuse-bouche or a selection of mignardises. It's an evening of indulgence, so seize the moment. But above all, don't forget dessert. Valentine's Day, like all references to love, is accompanied by flowers, chocolates and macaroons. Far from clichés, offer to personalize the dessert, at his or her request. Writing the first names of each person on a pastry is enough to bring joy.

Play on refinement and elegance in the preparation of your menu, and on originality in both food and drink. Yes, drinks will certainly be in the spotlight on this intimate evening! Take advantage of this and differentiate your offer. Why not suggest an aperitif cocktail to start the evening, just like at a restaurant or hotel bar? Prepare all the ingredients required for the cocktail, ready to be mixed at home, accompanied by a recipe card to guide guests. Champagne, red wine, white wine or other beverages, however, should not be excluded from your menu, playing an essential role in the recipes for this evening.

2) Go beyond your Valentine's Day menu to offer an experience

The closure of restaurants for Valentine's Day has an impact on how this February 14 unfolds, as do the closures of cinemas, museums, hotels... In 2019, 64% of French people celebrate Valentine's Day in one way or another, as we saw in our article. What if you were to bring home those establishments that are missing out on this February 14, 2021?Bring your restaurant's table to the customer's home. Take your culinary offering from a restaurant plate (part 1) to a recreation of the atmosphere that should surround it. Include optional extras on the menu, such as scented candles or simple candles, home fragrances, bedding and other relevant table decorations. Any element that helps to recreate the art of the table. If you have the opportunity, set up a collaboration with a brand that can supply these elements. Not only will this reduce costs, it will also raise brand and restaurant awareness. In addition, and being within everyone's reach, slip a personalized, aesthetically pleasing printed or handwritten menu into the bag to complete the restaurant experience. Bring bars and other dance venues into the customer's home. What would a romantic evening for these lovers be without some tender dancing or simple background music? With little time to spare for you, and a perfect evening for them, suggest a special Valentine's Day playlist. Offer a paper list of titles, or share your playlist directly via Spotify, SoundClound or another app. Here are a few songs recommended by Marie-Claire and approved by the Malou team! But it's also an opportunity for you to bring your personal touch to your customers' dinners, and get closer to them off the plate.

Finally, there's the classic but timeless film screening. Take the cinemas on a journey. Continue to participate in this Valentine's evening by extending your contribution to the cinema session. No need to provide a projector, just a suggestion of films, in different categories, for everyone to enjoy. For example, Paris Match suggests 10 must-see films for Valentine's Day. Take it a step further by including a bag of homemade popcorn, and adapt the product to the tastes that inspire you.

3) Offer a moment of sharing

Valentine's Day invites everyone to remember the love they feel for each other. It's also an opportunity to share a warm moment, all the more so as this year's celebration takes place on a Sunday, leaving a whole day to enjoy each other's company. Make the most of the free time on this day off for the majority, and offer a moment of complicity during a cooking workshop. The idea is to deliver to customers an assortment of ready-to-use products, to be cooked at the end of the afternoon for the evening menu, following your detailed step-by-step recipe. In addition to tasting quality products, customers take part in the chefs' experience and share a moment of complicity. For an even more unique experience, invite them on a journey of the senses. Offer a blind menu. All customers have to do is choose the formula they prefer and specify their intolerances. The chef takes care of the rest. A blind tasting invites lovers to take part in the unique experience of a meal while stimulating their senses. It's also an opportunity for you to put your products to good use. Customers don't know the menu ahead of time, so strategically adapt your recipes to suit your stocks. Finally, to round off the culinary journey, it's important to let customers know what's on the menu. If you can't reveal the dishes tasted at each stage, you have several options for revealing the menu. Slip the menu into an envelope to be opened at the end of the meal, write the name of the plate on the back of the container, send an e-mail/text message at the end of the evening...

4) Change the "Candlelight Evening" formula for a "Valentine's Brunch in Bed".

What could be more romantic than a candlelit evening? Breakfast in bed rivals it in the romantic meal category! And this Sunday, we're even talking about brunch in bed! Take advantage of the strong brunch trend (described here) to turn Valentine's Day on its head and create a formula to be enjoyed under the comforter. From orange juice to pastries, fruit salad, pancakes and scrambled eggs, you're spoilt for choice when it comes to designing your formula. A little tip from the team: include a homemade babka on your menu! Yes, the babka trend has only just begun (we already talked about it in this article).

5) Multiply the little touches to create even more pleasure

In these special times, no one is insensitive to small gestures, whatever their nature. A gesture is enough to make your customers smile. "Marie + Paul" inscribed in a heart on the delivery bag is just one example. Extend the surprise effect inside the bag. Slip in a poem, a quote, flower petals, origami, balloons to blow up, a small bag of sweets, chocolates... any surprise adds value to your offer and your restaurant. If you're planning to include some of these attentions, don't forget to say so at the end of your menu in wording such as "...and little surprises from the heart", so that they serve primarily to attract orders. In the long term, these attentions build customer loyalty. Finally, the first impression is the most important. Since all your restaurant's Valentine's Day offerings will be delivered or click & collect, the containers on your menu play an important role. So, if you have the opportunity to vary the packaging, don't hesitate! Show your originality with heart-shaped boxes, red packaging... And give your Valentine's formula an attractive name to show that you're doing your best to make this holiday as good as in previous years. Your creativity will pay off, but you need to let the world know about your special offer. So schedule a communication on your social media, or an emailing to launch pre-orders, relay your offers with a promo code... Don't hesitate to share your Valentine's Day visuals, menus and desserts on your networks to whet the appetite before the big day.

6) Contact your customers directly to let them know about your new offer

Send a targeted e-mailing to your customer database, and reply to the latest customer reviews of the establishment on Google My Business, introducing your new offer. The authors concerned will receive notification of your response by e-mail, and will be informed of your special Valentine's Day offer.

7) Anticipate your Valentine's Day listing

Your restaurant's SEO can make all the difference! A prospect searching for special Valentine's Day offers needs to be able to find you easily. To do this, you need to start thinking ahead today. Update your Google My Business (GMB) page with details of your formula, pre-order deadlines, click and collect and takeaway availability... Post at least two GMB publications using Valentine's Day keywords. And don't forget to update this information after February 14th!

8) Promote your offer on social media

More than ever , social media offers you the opportunity to reach your customers. Use them to broadcast your menu, your special attentions, with attractive content. Highlight your offer with an attractive headline. Post photos, videos, A la une stories on Instagram in particular, and relay them as much as possible. Choose a few Valentine's Day-specific hashtags to support your posts.

9) Relay your initiative to the best influencers

An effective way to reach a larger community? Word-of-mouth on a large scale? Use an influential trusted third party. Get in direct contact with these influencers by offering them a sneak preview of your Valentine's Day menu. Food novelties are opportune moments for them to create content on their page, in the form of stories and the like. By tagging your restaurant in publications, influencers will promote your special offer to their audience, highlighting the initiative to adapt holidays like Valentine's Day to the conditions of the health crisis.

10) Generate awareness through journalists

Monitor and identify the authors of articles published on active restaurants for Valentine's Day. Contact them, present your offer and ask them to present it to their readers. Don't know of any? We'll share some of Malou's favorites with you in this article.You now have the cards in your hands to make this Valentine's Day 2021 a real opportunity. Get the word out about your restaurant, and make hearts and pucks flutter!