Opening Your Waterfront Seafood Restaurant For Brunch

Posted on: 27 June 2022

If you own a waterfront seafood restaurant, you might be looking for ways to do a little more business. Many restaurants do this by opening for breakfast or brunch, at least a few times per week. This is harder with a waterfront seafood restaurant, of course, since you don't typically think of crab and fish as breakfast foods. However, it is possible to do a good, profitable brunch service at a waterfront seafood restaurant. You'll just want to follow these tips.

Start with just the weekends.

Most beach and seashore towns get a lot of business from visitors and travelers. These people tend to be around more on weekends. Since they are from out of town, they're probably looking for places where they can enjoy brunch. So, you can count on a decent weekend turnout. Start there, and once your brunch becomes popular, you can start serving it on some weekdays, too. Only serving brunch on the weekends at first ensures you don't put time and money into staff and a menu only for the tables to sit empty.

Incorporate seafood into some dishes.

As a seafood restaurant, you don't want your brunch menu to be too much of a departure from the theme. But obviously, you can't just offer battered cod for brunch. What you can do is find unique ways to work seafood into the menu. One option would be to offer a list of sweet, more breakfast-like dishes like pancakes, but a separate list of savory brunch dishes — which are more like lunch options and incorporate some seafood. Ideas include:

  • An omelette made with crab meat or shrimp
  • A breakfast sandwich with smoked salmon
  • Fish and waffles — a play on chicken and waffles made with fried fish

While you don't have to have seafood in every dish, including it in some dishes will ensure your brunch doesn't feel too out of personality for the space.

Offer boozy brunch drinks, if possible.

Most waterfront seafood restaurants are pretty well known for their cocktails, which have a beachy vibe. Boozy brunches are quite trendy and popular, so if you can adapt some of your daytime beach cocktails into a brunch version, that would be ideal! A Bloody Mary with a shrimp as garnish, for instance, would work perfectly. A mimosa with a splash of coconut rum would be another good blend between brunch and beach cocktail.

With the ideas above, you should be able to work brunch service into your seafood restaurant's scheme. Enjoy!

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