If you run a restaurant, you are in the business of storytelling. And your menu is one of the most important stories you tell.
Most owners treat their menu as a simple list of food and prices, but in reality, your menu should be a treasure map of profitability.
After almost 20 years of operating Cali BBQ in San Diego, I’ve learned that growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.
Whether it’s a physical piece of paper or a digital interface, menu engineering is the data-driven practice of guiding your guests toward the items that offer the best experience for them and the best margins for you.
Here is how you can stop guessing and start engineering a more profitable business.
1. Master the “Golden” Menu Rule
For years at Cali BBQ, we treated our menu like a simple list until we realized it was actually visual real estate. We learned that the top-left corner is where eyes naturally land, so we placed our $99 Tailgater family-style meal in that “Golden” spot.
We found that when guests see that $99 “anchor,” they use it as a benchmark to compare against other options, helping them decide how to feed their group most effectively while increasing our ticket size.
* Placing high-profit “star” items in the top-left corner of your layout allows you to use “anchors” to increase ticket averages and guide guests toward your most profitable meals.
2. Create Perceived Value (The “Fishbowl” Effect)
At Cali BBQ, we’ve found massive success with our fishbowl drinks (complete with a rubber ducky). Why? Because they feel like an “event” rather than just a beverage.
Even though the base beverage costs are manageable, our guests perceive a massive value of enjoyment because the drink is shareable, social, and experiential.
We found the same success with our “Wicked Peach Cobbler,” which can serve as a communal finale to our family-style meals.
* By creating “Instagrammable” moments through items like shareable fishbowls or peach cobblers, you can charge a premium for the experience, driving higher gross profit margins even on items that may have higher base costs.
3. The Power of the Add-On
Small changes lead to significant bottom-line shifts. If you can increase your Average Check Size by just a few dollars through strategic upselling and shareable items, that translates to a massive impact on your annual revenue. It’s about the cumulative power of small wins.
One of our Cali BBQ Media executive producers Aaron Roberts, used to come into the restaurant and order a side of pulled pork every time.
He mentioned to our CFO, Eric Olafsen, that he really wanted to add grilled onions or jalapeños to his order, but we didn’t have that as a digital option. Once Eric added those as modifiers to all our meats, we started selling more grilled onions and jalapeños than ever before simply because we finally made them available to the guest.
* Engineering your digital menu to include easy-to-use modifiers—like adding grilled onions to a protein—is a simple “digital age” tactic that significantly increases both guest satisfaction and overall ticket value.
4. Leverage the Right Tech Stack
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. To truly engineer a menu, you need data.
Your online menu is often the first “dining room” a guest visits. If your digital menu isn’t engineered with the same care as your physical one, you’re losing customers before they even walk through the door.
We rely on industry-leading tools like Toast to help us design menus that work smarter, not harder.
* Utilizing a tech stack with Toast for real-time sales data and Restaurant365 for weekly inventory tracking is a great way to truly understand your recipe costs and build a menu that is engineered for actual profit.
The Bottom Line
Menu engineering isn’t a “one-and-done” task, it’s a constant evolution. It’s about staying curious, looking at the data, and being willing to move things around until you find the sweet spot of guest satisfaction and profitability.
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