Program for Unique Holidays: August 2024
by David Klemt
Do you want to stand out from from other restaurants and bars in your area? Change how you think about your August holiday programming.
Several holidays are set against every date on the calendar, and this month is no exception. These holidays range from mainstream to esoteric.
Pay attention to the “weird” or unique holidays to raise eyebrows, carve out a niche for your restaurant or bar, and attract more guests. Why do what everyone else is already doing? Why program only around the same holidays as everyone else?
Of course, you shouldn’t try to celebrate every holiday, strange or otherwise. Focus on the days that are authentic to your brand; resonate with your guests; and help you grab attention on social media.
You’ll find suggestions for promotions below. However, the idea behind our monthly holiday promotions roundup is to inspire you and your team to get creative and come up with unique programming ideas.
For our July 2024 holidays list, click here.
August 3: National Mustard Day
Condiments offer the perfect finishing touch to the dishes we present to guests. Given their importance, we should celebrate them whenever we get the chance.
For some, nothing but mustard belongs on a hot dog. And there are even those out there who claim it’s the only condiment that belongs on a burger.
August 6: National Night Out Day
Traditionally, this holiday aims at encouraging communities to set up neighborhood watches. However, some communities also use this day to simply foster a sense of togetherness, organizing cookouts, block parties, and concerts.
This is a great day to establish your bar or restaurant as part of the community, particularly if your business is family friendly.
August 7: Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day
This is certainly one of the more obscure holidays I’ve encountered. To put a spin on this day to leverage it for a bar or restaurant, I suggest engaging your kitchen and bar teams to come up with an over-the-top presentation for one food item, and one drink. Make it Instagram-worthy and it’ll spread like wildfire on social media, making it a clever marketing exercise.
August 11: Play in the Sand Day
This is another holiday during which operators will benefit from tapping into the creativity of their kitchen and bar teams. The back of house, for example, can look into creating a sand pudding dessert. As for the bar team, the Blood and Sand is a classic whiskey cocktail that teams with the theme.
August 12: Afternoon Tea Week
An entire week dedicated to afternoon tea! In 2024, this holiday runs to August 18. Afternoon Tea Week is a fantastic way to boost traffic and revenue during the lunch daypart. Further, operators have two shots at brunch to cap this weeklong holiday.
Engage the bar team to have them create an LTO menu of tea-based cocktails, including zero-alcohol to full-ABV options.
August 14: World Calligraphy Day
If you have someone on your team with particularly fantastic handwriting, a sandwich board, and chalk (or markers for acrylic boards), you’re all set to celebrate this holiday. Not only can these signs lure passersby into a restaurant or bar, people like to spread them on social media. The same goes for restaurants and bars with chalkboard menus, making them useful marketing tools.
August 20: National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day
You’ve probably eaten a slice of pecan pie. But what about chocolate pecan pie? It’s possible many of your guests haven’t tried this lesser-known dessert. I bet your kitchen team can change that…
August 22: Burger Day
On its face, Burger Day isn’t particularly unique. However, any holiday can be made unique with a clever and creative promotion.
While it’s the ideal day for promoting your signature burger (or burgers), it will also work as a traffic-boosting LTO. For example, if you don’t have a smashburger on your menu, consider creating one for Burger Day. As another example, if you don’t have sliders, this is the time to offer them. Track the sales of your Burger Day LTOs to consider making them repeat promotions, or adding them to the standard menu permanently.
August 27: National Just Because Day
Sometimes operators are handed the perfect day to create and execute any promotion they can imagine. This is one of those days.
August 30: National Beach Day
Drinks with umbrellas, tropical shirts and beachwear, summery drinks, classic cookout dishes, refreshing desserts… Even bars and restaurants that don’t have an outdoor area can be transformed into a beachy scene.
Image: Ivan Bertolazzi on Pexels
