What needs announcing, and what does not
This guide is about one job: telling your guests and your staff. Two other jobs come before it and have their own guides. To set the price, read menu pricing strategy. To change every copy of the price, from the table tent to the delivery apps, read how to update menu prices. Here we assume the new price is decided and the menus are right. What is left is who to tell, and how.
| The change | Announce it? | Where |
|---|---|---|
| A price goes up a little | Usually not | The menu, and a staff briefing |
| Many prices go up at once | Optional, one line | The menu or one short post |
| A new surcharge or service charge | Yes, before it is charged | Wherever prices are shown, and on the check |
| A favorite dish leaves | Yes, to the people who order it | The server, a week or two ahead |
| A new seasonal menu | Yes, it is good news | The menu, social, the window |
| A dish runs out tonight | No | Take it off the menu and tell the floor |
Price increases: say it plainly or not at all
A small increase does not need a speech. Guests who notice will see the new number on the menu, and a server who has been briefed can answer the one question that comes up. Where an announcement helps is when many prices move at once, or when one dish that a lot of people order moves a lot.
If you say something, one true sentence beats a paragraph. Two that work:
- “Our egg dishes changed price this month with what we pay for eggs. Thank you for eating with us.”
- “New prices from November 1. The menu, the cooks, and the portions are the same.”
Leave out anything you cannot stand behind for a year. A note blaming a supplier reads strangely once that supplier’s prices come back down, and the note is still on the menu.
Timing matters as much as wording. Change prices on a quiet weekday, with the regular crew on, not on the Friday of a holiday weekend with a new server on the floor. Change them all on the same day, so every copy moves together and nobody sees the old price on the table tent and the new one on the check.
Where to say it, in order
- The staff. Every server and bartender hears the change at lineup, with the new prices in hand, before the first guest does.
- The menu itself. Every copy the guest reads: the table, the QR code, the window, the website, your Google profile.
- The regulars. A word at the table from someone they know, for the changes they will feel.
- One post. Social or your mailing list, once, for a new menu or a big change. Not for a fifty-cent move.
The order matters. A guest who reads the new price on the table before the server has heard about it gets a shrug, and a shrug is what makes a price increase feel sneaky.
Tell the staff first
Staff are the announcement most guests actually hear. Give them the new prices on paper, one plain reason if there is one, and the answer to “why did this go up?” in words they are comfortable saying. For a whole new menu, that briefing becomes a tasting and a cheat sheet; see training staff on a new menu.
A new menu is its own announcement
When a whole menu changes, the good news is the point. Date it (“Fall menu, from October 14”) so guests know it is new, keep the two or three dishes regulars would riot over, and tell those regulars which ones stayed. If a favorite is leaving, give it a last week on the menu with a plain line: “Last week for the short rib until next winter.” That line sells the dish and the next season at once.
For the timeline of a changeover, what to change and when, use the seasonal menu changeover checklist. Places whose regulars notice every change, like diners, benefit most from the staff-first order above.
What Gaslamp does and does not do
In Gaslamp, the menu is the announcement you control. Change the prices on your phone, and the hosted menu behind every QR code shows them about thirty seconds after you save. A section’s subtitle, the note under its heading, holds up to 120 characters, which is room for one honest line about a change. Every save is kept in version history (the last 50), so you can see what a price was before.
Gaslamp does not send emails or texts to guests, post to social media, or change your POS, delivery apps, or Google listing. Those are separate steps, and they are on your list.