Office Hours: Sell the Thing People Dream About

I’m Josh Kopel, a Michelin-awarded restaurateur and the creator of the Restaurant Scaling System. I’ve spent decades in the industry, building, scaling, and coaching restaurants to become more profitable and sustainable. On this show, I cut through the noise to give you real, actionable strategies that help independent restaurant owners run smarter, more successful businesses.

In this episode, I explore the critical role of signature dishes in restaurant marketing. I share why effective marketing is less about offering a large menu and more about creating standout items that truly resonate with guests. I walk through strategies for identifying, crafting, and promoting a signature dish so it becomes a magnet that draws customers in and keeps them coming back. I also highlight the importance of consistency in execution and show how building a brand story around that dish can strengthen engagement and loyalty.

Takeaways:

• Most restaurant marketing fails because it's built on guesswork.
• Menus don't go viral. Heroes do.
• Create the thing the guests dream about.
• People don't remember lists, they remember legends.
• Your signature item sets expectations.
• Rituals turn signatures into traditions.
• It's a magnet and it functions like one.
• Give it an iconic name and a one-sentence story.
• In today's competitive landscape, it just isn't enough.
• If this conversation made you realize the gourmet you need to magnet.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Full Comp and Restaurant Marketing

01:44 The Importance of a Signature Dish

05:38 Operationalizing and Ritualizing Your Signature Item

If you’ve got a marketing or profitability related question for me, email me directly at [e-mail] and include Office Hours in the subject line. If you'd like to scale the profitability of your restaurant in only 5 days, sign up for our FREE 5 Day Restaurant Profitability Challenge by visiting https://joshkopel.com.