Tapas and You
There’s a trend, mounting since about 2006, toward offering less food at restaurants. At first there were specialized bistros called tapas bars or tapas restaurants, after the tiny noshes which accompany your drink at many bars in Spain (the little plate is set atop your glass, hence the name: tapas means “covers,” literally, or “tops”). Naturally, these were filled with the nostalgic-for-Spain (me!) and then early-adopter foodies (oh, that’s me too).
Other restaurants saw the small-plates trend, and began to expand their appetizer selections, and cautiously tried add smaller serving sizes to their entrees, and found that late adopters who would never go into a tapas bar, still loved the idea of smaller portion sizes. A table may get several tapas and share them around, or one small plate may be just what your slowing metabolism has in mind (me again!).
Now finally, it’s hit dessert menus. Where once the dessert menu was the refuge of those who could spare an extra 1,200 calories in their day, now at many restaurants you can get tiny taste teasers that won’t even make you feel as bad as the margarita you had with your meal. The multi-course meal grows up by slimming down.
Early adopters and late adopters are not what I want to point out today. Something to think about, though.
Chunking. Small offerings. (And, if you must know, the R-word. Recession, or that possibility.)
By observing small plates, how can your company extend what you offer to an audience that might like to taste a tease but isn’t ready to fully commit? Can you chunk out your product or service for tight wallets? Offer one smaller portion of the complete package?
Should you?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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12 August 2008, 7:53 am
Kelly,
Very nice analogy. Food for thought from your email to me (no pun intended, and I’m still working at that - you probably don’t know how much you’ve helped me).
Just thinking of real-life small portions, but maybe it can pass on to your point here too - it isn’t the quantity that makes the experience good, it’s the quality and at the end the experience itself. How you feel after that small bite.
Back to real world again, the best meal experience I’ve ever had was a small lunch at a vineyard - fresh olives, fresh olive oil, both grown nearby, fresh baked bread, wine from the vineyard, a small piece of fresh fish. Lunch for two, $140 - and if you count the $28.50 per person for the ferry ride, a bit more.
Worth every penny, for the small bites. I’ll be back.
-Brett
12 August 2008, 8:23 am
Great post.
Actionable, thought provoking and edutaining.
And the good part, it works in the real world, not just in the theory world, where lotsa bloggers hang out.
Thanks !
12 August 2008, 9:08 am
I agree…quantity does not always equal quality…I dont’ mind paying a bit extra for a slightly smaller portion, if it’s a better food. Same goes for hiring someone to do some high-quality work for me.
On the other hand, when it goes to the other extreme, it pisses me off to no end.
I have absolutely NO USE for those fancy restaurants where you pay 50 bucks for a sliver of meat, four baby carrots, and three potato balls.
And it’s served on a four-foot plate (so is the golf-ball sized dessert). As if to mock you, to emphasize how tiny your meal really is.
There needs to be a happy medium, between Uncle Bobs’ All-you-can-Eat Gulp’n-Spew..and Chez Tabernaques de Cheville-en-Cul.
Then you get the bill and the h
Friar’s last blog post…The Gospel of Action Movies According to Hollywood.
12 August 2008, 12:54 pm
Brett,
I hope it gives you some more ideas. Everybody’s mulling it over or probably should these days. If you have a quality experience with the “small plate,” you’ll be presold when you can afford the whole… enchilada… so to speak.
The nice thing about a small-plate chunking-out, is you still make some money with it, as opposed to a preview or free taste concept.
Mike,
I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being edutaining before, though I’ve certainly tried! Best compliment of the month—thanks!
Friar,
Myself, I prefer to pay a bit less for that smaller portion! I know what you mean about the nouvelle-cuisine places that charge an arm and a leg for art on a plate with about the same caloric value as a Picasso sketch… not what I’m thinking of, food-wise or small-business-wise.
TGIFriday’s chain, down here in the U.S. (are they up with you in CAN?), brought out a small plates (and small price) menu at the beginning of this year. I heard their CEO discuss it with the usual mixture of fear and bravado at the time, and it’s been a runaway success in terms of profits and Customer Experience. The tiny desserts that are all over now are having the same effect.
I think that for small business this may be an excellent inspiration, even in unexpected corners. Example: Earlier in Janice’s Painting a Day blog, she was doing tiny canvasses of cakes, sort of rapid-fire. LOVED them. (Janice, are your ears burning?). Here’s an old favorite of mine.
If a fine artist can see ways to get her work seen, purchased, and appreciated by more people, there’s not much stopping any other small biz from at least thinking about it.
Regards all,
Kelly
12 August 2008, 1:42 pm
Kelly,
It does - I think I know which way to go now (but I’m going to read those books you mentioned too). In the mean time I can start dabbling and see if people like the “food”.
@Friar - all down to the experience, for sure. I will pay more for a view, and less food. Less food in a crowded room, no.
-Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post…viking fridays - the worst sickness.
12 August 2008, 2:13 pm
@Kelly
Small portions I can live with…microscopic portions, NO.
I dunno if you got my other comment. (If this is a repeat, please ignore).
Anyway, no..we don’t get TGIF in Canada (Applebees or Ponderosa’s Steak House, either). Even Denny’s is pretty scarce. So every time I visit the States, it’s a novelty to go to those places.
Have you seen the Doonsebury cartoons where Zonker is a waiter at “McFriendly’s?”. Gary Trudeau constantly pokes fun at those restaurants with “Super Size” menus.
(4,3000 calorie salad, anyone?)
PS. Hey, I remember the Janice-Cakes!
Friar’s last blog post…The Gospel of Action Movies According to Hollywood.
12 August 2008, 4:38 pm
If a menu includes a large portion and small portion offering of an entree, it is forever on my favs list. I want the small portion, and I would rather pay less, than pay more and leave half o it sitting there. Obviously there are people who want the large portion, or they feel cheated. Okay to bring this around to your question? I like options. Sometimes I want the full meal deal, sometimes I want a smaller portion.
Urban Panther’s last blog post…Don’t tell me I can’t
12 August 2008, 5:23 pm
Brett,
Hooray for progress. Keep chugging along.
Friar,
I checked spam, nothing. Your other comment has been eaten by the gods of the ether, so I’m glad you reposted. I think the Super Size trend, in general, is departing with the massive SUV trend. Though Panther makes a good point…
Panther,
Options, yes. In restaurants, I can please anyone I bring along and myself, too if there are choices; in business, there will always be those who want to go all out, even if downscale is the new “up.”
It’s an important consideration right now. Is it right for every business? Hm, hm. I don’t know, but it is right for a lot of folks who are staring at a receding profit margin in pain. Broaden the base and keep old relationships going.
Regards,
Kelly
13 August 2008, 4:13 am
I’ve been living in Spain for a year now and always laugh when I think back to tapas in Toronto where it means “really expensive appetizers with a fancy name.”
In Spain, tapas is one piece of something, sold rather inexpensively. On Sundays we often go out for pintxos (tapas in the Basque Country) and visit 3 or 4 bars having one pintxo at each place. People don’t eat tapas the way North Americans go out to eat - it’s a social thing going from bar to bar chatting with people you run into along the way.
Alex Fayle’s last blog post…Commitment to Growth: Tina Su Interview
13 August 2008, 8:04 am
Alex,
Yes, sir, I remember them well. I was an exchange student in Madrid and in Alicante many years ago and I never forgot them. When I first encountered them here I was enamored of the idea but not alays the price, as you say. I think it’s being adopted much more faithfully now, at least in the States, though I’ll allow that nothing is ever as inexpensive as it was when I was in Spain.
Thanks for your comment, and welcome!
Regards,
Kelly
14 August 2008, 9:21 pm
The “less is more” saying translates well in the food case to “less appears to be more.” I’ve heard the dieter’s trick of using small plates to trick the mind into thinking it’s getting more than it is. I recently went to a stress management counselor who suggested I down my caffeine intake by tricking myself. Use smaller cups. I thought this sounded stupid. But I fooled myself. It worked.
I do offer my clients tiny gifts in pretty packages, so to speak. Always make them think they’re getting a deal, and that they’re special, I always say.
Amy’s last blog post…Controversy: the Always Hot Topic for Freelance Writers/Bloggers?
16 August 2008, 10:26 am
Kelly- Thanks for the shout out. You nailed me. I started my “tapas” to do just that, get the word out and test e-commerce for myself. Guess what? It works. I wanted to give new clients a taste of what my higher end clients get. Remove as many perceived barriers as possible to fine art collecting. Particularly collecting MY work. And getting to know me. And I wanted to break into new venues.
While I cannot grow rich with the tapas and they are as time consuming as the big stuff, I learned alot. A little taste of scrumptuous is what we all want.
Offer big and small. Not just for a potential slow down economically, but as an ongoing part of services offered. I am working on a series of drawings to offer now for that very same reason. Not everyone can afford thousands to spend on a canvas, but spending hundreds on an elegant drawing is a good start at collecting a favorite artist’s work. They’ll actually hold their value just as well.
(I love Raspberry Snow too and the gorgeous Frenchman who makes them…part of the peasure of trying new things is meeting new friends. And one of my favorite places to eat in Santa Fe is a tapas bar on Canyon Road.)
Thanks again my friend.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Week’s End
16 August 2008, 10:28 am
@ Friar- How is it that that sounds so naughty?
LOL
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Week’s End
16 August 2008, 10:43 am
Janice,
Your ears burn slowly, LOL.
Yes, I agree. I think one of the things slowdowns can teach if we’re paying attention, is tactics that would have been competition-killers in the good times—and will be again VERY SHORTLY. Typical recessions don’t last much over a year, folks.
When we’ve got our heads down we don’t always see the this is the real time to be ramping up. Think creatively, put new ideas in place, and you are ready to come bursting out of the gates when they open. Tiered offerings make sense in any economy.
Until later,
Kelly
16 August 2008, 11:26 am
I am sooo behind in my reading this week. LOL .
I think tiers make sense. I don’t know how/if this conflicts with laser like targeting though.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Week’s End