Editor's Note: Four weeks ago, Relish reported on a marketing experiment taking place at Monarch restaurant during the month of January, where customers pay full price for beverages but a potentially lesser amount for the food portion of the meal. At the halfway point, Byron Kerman got a read on its success:
Jeff Orbin, the big butterfly at Monarch, reports that the Maplewood restaurant's "Pay What You Think the Meal is Worth" promotion for Mondays and Tuesdays in January is doing gangbusters business.
"We've at least doubled our usual business on those two nights," he says, "and last week we did more than double - we had 120 people on a Monday night in January, which is great."
But what about the checks? "The average discount at the end of the night that people are giving themselves is between 17 and 22 percent of the usual price," he says.
I'm no Danica McKellar, but put the last two paragraphs together and we're talking profitable success.
Orbin adds that diners - who have two more weeks to take advantage of this promotion - can see the standard pricing on the menu. The patrons are looking at the typical food prices and "only about 25 to 30 percent of the tables take a discount," he says. "I've had five tables in the last two weeks actually pay more than their receipt."
And as for the extraordinarily thrifty, who order $200 worth of food and pay ten bucks for it, Orbin says, "we have had some of that, people have taken advantage. I do my best to spend time at each table and talk to them about how it works. If their bill is 80 dollars and they leave 20 dollars, it's unfortunate, but we are going to have some of that."
It's hard to imagine a meal from Monarch's sensational kitchen tasting like it's only worth one-fourth of their asking price, but whattyagonnado? Freeloaders live in this world, too.
At least the servers aren't suffering for the promotion, says Orbin. "A lot of people take the discount but give their server the appropriate-percentage tip anyway," he claims.
