A celebrity chef or an imaginative menu have long been built-in revenue boosters for restaurants. However, given the increasingly competitive nature of the hospitality industry, a volatile economy, and supply chain challenges, owners and management need to get creative with additional revenue streams to meet customers’ changing consumer tastes and draw them in during slow business periods.
Thankfully, there are many forks to follow along the metaphorical river. Tangibles such as eye-catching restaurant-related merchandise, take-home food products, and cookbooks remain popular. Meal kits and cocktail kits, which gained traction during the pandemic, empower customers to bring their favorite restaurant experiences home. Even with a slow season or slow days, there are almost countless ways to bring in new customers and keep existing ones interested.
“Relying solely on dine-in sales can be risky, as we learned from the pandemic,” says Eric Sornoso, CEO of Mealfan, a company that connects customers to local restaurants and grocery delivery services. “Offering alternative revenue streams like catering, meal kits, or delivery services can attract customers who might not have the time to dine in. This can widen your customer base and increase sales. Alternatives can also provide opportunities for restaurants to showcase unique offerings to a broader audience, which can lead to increased brand recognition. New menu items and products can help fill those slow gaps when it comes to seasonality. Thematic chef's table nights and cooking classes create experiential memories, ensure a dedicated return visitation, and foster social media buzz that broadly amplifies our marketing reach.”
Winning the Numbers Game
The James Beard Foundation’s “2025 Independent Restaurant Industry Report” revealed independent chefs and restaurant operators across the U.S. can benefit from thinking outside the dining room as they face rising food and labor costs, dwindling foot traffic, and a decline of “regulars.” According to the survey, restaurants need to address the dramatic declines between 2024 and 2025 by evolving their businesses to sustain and kick-start growth.
Over 85% of establishments involved in the study implemented at least one non-traditional business model in 2024, including alternative revenue streams. Tactics that participants reported seeing success with include testing new concepts with small-scale trials such as pop-ups, limited-time events, and weekday-only menus; offering simple-yet-scalable catering and private event services; and monetizing brand loyalty by selling cookbooks, apparel, and gourmet products in-store and online.
These proven tactics continue to help restaurants and bars keep their names and reputations front-of-mind. The Laurel Hotel & Spa in Auburn, AL, provides classic examples of how it’s done, from its “Epicurean Experiences” activities to house-made picnic baskets and a cookbook.
The Texas Restaurant Association, meanwhile, has a program providing members guidance on how to find innovative collaborators for new revenue streams, especially local ones. Even with the assists, the association stresses that each party in the potential partnership should understand one another’s business objectives and brand identity to determine if a collaboration is a fit.
Elsewhere in North America, bars and restaurants have taken this into consideration, with the results showing they have more to bring to the table than drinks, appetizers, main courses, and desserts.
Take the Greggory Hearth and Tavern, which opened in late winter in the historic and affluent Chicago suburb of Barrington. The newly-minted restaurant’s team of industry veterans tapped into their collective experience at some of the U.S.’s most renowned and highest grossing restaurants to stay ahead of the revenue curve. Gregg Horan, one of the restaurant’s principals, provided details about the GVIP Membership program, an ambitious fundraising project the owners and managers hope will lead to a long-term additional revenue stream.
“My background is with the Gibson’s group, which has always had creative alternative forms of income,” said Horan. “These included an online shop where people can purchase steak, fish, and Gibson’s seasoning blends, along with merchandise such as aprons, signature steak knives, meat thermometers, cookbooks, and more. Our goal is to bring more of those types of products to The Greggory as we get established.”
The 12-month membership program with three tiers (Silver, $1,000; Gold, $2,500; Platinum, $10,000) began as an idea brought to the group by a frequent customer. The amount the customer pays is transferred into a house account for use within the restaurant. Depending on the tier, “fans and frequent flyers” earn exclusive perks like naming a signature cocktail, access to specialty menu items and wines, VIP events, complimentary welcome items, and luxury vendor travel experiences. Horan adds that this reimagined loyalty program designed for high-value, exclusive customers benefits from blockchain technology.
“The goal is to have the program’s unique perks and VIP customer brand experience drive loyalty and repeat business, while accelerating working capital for the restaurant,” he states. “Having products is a great branding tool and also serves as a reminder to guests of an experience they enjoyed so much they brought it home with them, so hopefully it brings them back in for another dinner.”
Catering to Changing Tastes
Chicago-based Sunda New Asia’s CEO/Founder Billy Dec and Chef/Partner Mike Morales followed this strategy when they decided to expand from lunch and dinner service only to private dining, allowing guests to host corporate and social gatherings in an elevated setting. This led to expanding meal period offerings with weekend brunch and happy hour, providing additional opportunities for guests to engage with their brand throughout the week.
“Consumer dining habits continue to evolve, with an increased demand for experiential and interactive dining, and our special events and curated offerings are a response to that shift,” explains Dec. “We grew up living these experiences, meanwhile, so elevating and sharing them with the mainstream has always been our passion. [Our income streams beyond regular dining were] organically born out of our core concept and origins. Experiential dining, private events, and catering have always been key revenue streams for Sunda, and during COVID, we pivoted to offer meal kits that allowed guests to enjoy a curated Sunda experience in people’s homes, offices, and events.”
Thanks to this kind of exposure and word-of-mouth, Sunda New Asian has expanded from two Chicago locations to Tampa, Nashville, and soon-to-open Detroit, though its income streams beyond the dining room are designed to take customers even further. Dec and Morales now regularly work with the bar and creative teams to develop experiential offerings that enable customers to “travel to the other side of the world. Guests can do this through sushi rolling classes with Ise Matsunobu, Sunda’s Head of Sushi, or a 40-foot Kamayan (“eat by hands”) feast, a large-format, communal Filipino dining experience that showcases the rich flavors and traditions of Southeast Asia.
“Guests dine family-style, using their hands, creating an immersive cultural experience that goes beyond a typical restaurant meal,” Dec continues. “It’s interactive, celebratory, and has become one of our most highly anticipated events. It’s unlike any other dining experience many of those who attend have ever experienced before.”
However, the most ambitious project to date is screening events of the restaurant’s documentary “FOOD ROOTS,” which follows Dec’s journey through the Philippines to learn the recipes of his ancestors. This offering is staged through on-site sneak peek film viewings in the restaurants’ Private Events rooms served with featured Filipino food recipes.
“We take a proactive approach to staffing, ensuring our team is cross trained for both standard service and special events,” says Dec. “Our event team works closely with our culinary and management teams to ensure seamless execution, whether it’s a corporate catering order, an in-house buyout, or a group dining experience. This allows us to be flexible while maintaining the high level of service guests expect from Sunda."
On a Roll: Food Trucks, Pop Ups, and Other Vehicles
Downtown Docks, created by Ron Silvia and Caroline Winter in 2021, is a first-of-its-kind, fully automated, web-based solution designed to accommodate boaters looking for short-term docking options at waterfront restaurants, bars, marinas, and city docks. Restaurant operators with dockage capabilities, meanwhile, now have a way to seamlessly earn extra revenue through hourly dockage as they can add dock space, set prices, manage their calendar, and manage their reservations to maximize the space usage of their docks.
The customer service side also becomes more efficient as boaters are able to search available docks, reserve spaces to ensure they don’t waste time driving to a full location, and pay through their phone. The system costs nothing for operators, and does not impact their hourly rate earnings. Each booking includes small booking fee for boaters for each reservation that gets paid directly to Downtown Docks. While the company hopes to go nationwide and international, it already has four docks in Chicago, accommodating between 300-500 boats per week.
Pizzeria Portofino General Manager Isabel Shemroske explains that its affiliation with Downtown Docks helps it expand business beyond its terrestrial location and increase ROI during their busy season by catering to guests who arrive at their docks. While it already has an existing alternative revenue stream advantage as a “Lettuce Entertain You” restaurant (a Frequent Diner Program; a merchandise line that includes beach bags, beach towels, wine tumblers, and scented candles), it also boasts a picturesque location on the banks of the Chicago River.
“The restaurant is so aesthetically pleasing that we wanted the same for our merchandise,” she explains. “However, we wanted to offer guests the opportunity to bring Portofino with them wherever they go, even on the river.”
Bodega Taqueria y Tequila, founded in 2014, operates as a fast-casual Mexican street food concept by day and a vibrant cocktail-driven nightlife experience after dark as a speakeasy style lounge. The daytime menu, offering both classic dishes and unconventional interpretations, now counts South Beach, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach in its native Florida. It later added West Loop and River North locations in Chicago, a Washington D.C. location in 2025.
“We have really diversified revenue streams, and catering provides an additional income source outside of the traditional in-house dining, which mitigates the impact of slower months,” says Kylie Spencer, catering and events manager. “Our Florida, Chicago, and D.C. restaurants all have on- and off-seasons, especially depending on the weather. On a super hot summer day in Florida or cold winter day in Chicago or D.C., we can bring catering to an office, a home, or another venue.”
Bodega's Airstreams are vintage RV trailers converted into food trucks (both have working kitchens) offering mobility and flexibility to bring signature tacos and other dishes to outdoor festivals, corporate events, and private parties. Spencer adds that Bodega Taqueria y Tequila is dedicated to providing customers “an exceptional experience” from the time they place a query for an event until the event is completed. The RVs also help boost the role of social media to spread the word about off-site happenings and the restaurants.
“We're not tied to a physical location, as we travel with our Airstreams throughout the tri-county area (Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County) to cater different types of events,” Spencer continues, pointing out Bodega y Tequila’s RVs recently had a presence at the Winterfest Beach Party on Miami Beach and have previously appeared at the Formula One auto race. “[These public events are] a great way to get in front of thousands and thousands of people to try our food while having a really good time. This is a great form of marketing as it puts us before large audiences who may not already know about us. When they're able to try our tacos, we can then tell these customers about our different locations in South Florida. We love popping up at the off-site events as it helps generate really great brand awareness too.”
“For hotels and restaurants that want to tap into new sources of income, the key is to stay true to their brand and culture while looking for what is on trend,” concludes Mealfan’s Sornoso. “Whether it is a retail product, hosting events, or a digital experience, the idea behind it all is that we can extend an offering to our customers beyond the dining room to keep them engaged with our brand and coming back for more. While there are many ways to lure customers, including a strong menu and a highly popular chef, the real art lies in balancing business through seasonal fluctuations and economic downturns. We find that diversifying alternative revenue streams has kept our brand on the tip of people's tongues and helped us capitalize consistently.”
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