Ask George: Do you think news of a restaurant’s “soft” opening should be published? Max F., St. Louis
Yes I do and no I don’t. The ex-restaurant owner part of me feels one way and the journalist in me sees it another. And yes, like many of the facets of restaurant life, it’s complicated.
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First, let’s define the soft opening as it relates to restaurants, as there are more connotations today than in years past.
A soft opening is one that occurs clandestinely and with no advance warning. One can expect one of three scenarios:
1. The guest is offered a free meal (with the exception of alcohol, due to insurance and liability reasons).
2. The guest is offered a discount on food, usually 50%.
3. The guest pays normal menu prices.
In the above cases, expect management to solicit the guest for feedback and constructive criticism, as that’s the purpose of the soft open: to take a few shifts to see how the kitchen and staff handles a customer load in real time conditions, thereby affording them the opportunity to iron out any kinks before the real, “hard” opening.
(Note that a “soft” opening differs from a “private” opening, i.e., where friends, family, neighbors, local politicians, etc., get invited to take the restaurant for an early spin. A charitable party or two is often scheduled as well.)
Before the advent of social media, restaurants could sneak the doors open for a few days to warm up as they’d intended. By the time the media caught on (if at all), the soft opening had already concluded. Announcing it would have been a moot point.
With the advent of SM, however, a case could be made that soft openings no longer exist. (About five years ago, I remember reminding an already exhausted restaurant owner on opening day that he was “one Tweet away from a full house” … then watching all color leave his face.) At that point the rules of soft openings changed: with publications now instantly aware of a restaurant’s plans, they can now choose whether to announce the softie or give the place a pass to let it ramp up. If a scribe knows it and can prove it, they can print it, right? They can, and they do.
However, having been on the operational side of many manic restaurant openings, I’ll often issue a pass, electing to publicize the hard opening date, not the soft one–unless the owner says it’s fine to do so or I get the impression the place is otherwise ready to go.
That said, if a restaurateur chooses to independently announce its soft opening, using SM or otherwise, they can’t expect the scribes to remain quiet, because as we’ve all learned, once it’s out there, it’s out there.
