Ever dreamed of owning your restaurant? We have known restaurants as a public place that offers comfort dining via a nice groomed place with happy crews and good food. Few of us will agree that some of them would want a restaurant as a business. Not only are restaurants are enjoyable to work on, but it’s also quite challenging and guarantees the right amount of capital returns if set and done right. Imagine you’re starting to put up a restaurant business, what would be the first thing that you’ll need to consider first? Of course, we’ll go to the basics like creating a business plan. Under your business plan, you’ll finalize concepts of the restaurant, food options, supplies, location, capital, and of course a restaurant name.
Creating your restaurant name is one of the exciting parts of establishing the business itself. However, we do not just put up a name that we want. Your restaurant name must be relevant to your foodservice, appetizing, easy to remember, unique, and memorable for your customers—no matter how simple your restaurant’s name is. In this article, we’ll share with you our four easy steps to help you formulate a cool restaurant name.
Step #1: Identify Your Restaurant Concept
Also known as a ‘Restaurant Theme’, a restaurant concept focuses on how the restaurant executes its service and what kind of products you offer. There are many kinds of restaurant concepts. Here’s a quick run-through on the definition of some common restaurant concepts:
- Fast Casual Restaurants. An improved version of a Fast Food restaurant, a Fast Casual Restaurant offers more presentable and eye-catching meals served in front of the customers.
- Family Dining. Also known as Casual Style Dining, this restaurant concept offers a decent to slightly expensive price on their menus. They offer personal table service, unlike a Fast Casual restaurant.
- Fine Dining. The most expensive style of restaurant dining, Fine Dining offers good ambiance, lavish menus, and top-notched meals that you do not usually eat outside your home.
- Self-Service Restaurants. These are restaurants that do not offer table services. Their system prompts the customers to personally order via a counter and serve themselves. Under this concept are Cafes, Bistros, and Fast Food chains.
- Buffet restaurants. Buffet restaurants also use a self-service style dining experience. Guests, however, indulge themselves in the variety of dishes readily prepared on a table instead of specifically ordering a meal and paying for it.
Concerning formulating your restaurant name, identifying your restaurant concept helps you draw ideas on what proper restaurant names fit your chosen theme.
Step #2: Identify Your Branding
Branding will answer the “how do you want your restaurant to be known?” question. You will always have to relate your restaurant’s name with your selected brand identity for the restaurant. To make this step simpler, just try to answer the “how do you want your restaurant to be known?” question.
Do you want a restaurant that is known for an old and classic 80’s menu and ambiance? A restaurant is known for flaming hot cuisine? Or a restaurant associated with Fine Dining but at a very reasonable price? Keep jotting down possible questions to formulate your branding. Branding will have to relate to your restaurant concept which narrows down your objective of creating a good restaurant name.
Aside from providing a key element in naming your restaurant, branding also helps restaurant owners with maintaining and identifying their menus. They may also use their brands for advertising and create more sustainable sales, especially from revisiting customers who most probably like your restaurant’s brand and taste.
Step #3: Do a Research
Nothing beats learning from existing markets, especially if you are new in the industry and starting to enter the competition. Try to identify some of the existing restaurant brands that became successful in the industry. We understand that their secret lies in their exclusive menu and excellent service, but their brand identity through their restaurant’s name creates a market for themselves too.
To do this, using Step #1, identify restaurants that are with the same restaurant concepts as yours.
Next, narrow down this list by selecting only the restaurants that are similar or the same as your chosen brand identity.
Lastly, study the competitor’s brand name, their logo, the colors they use in their interiors, how the restaurant’s name sounds, their menu, and of course their prices.
While researching, you will be able to learn tons of ideas from these successful restaurants. You can easily identify if their restaurant names relate to what they serve and if the name is very relatable and easy to remember. Remember, before customers even try to dine in your restaurant, they will first need to see the restaurant’s name. Through your restaurant’s name and logo, customers should be able to relate to it and indirectly entice them to enter your store and try it out. The rest will follow if you offer great and unique meals.
Step #4: Make a List
After identifying your concept, branding, and doing research, try to create a list to chose from. Your list should have all the details you need that correctly relays your restaurant’s concept and brand. Remember the following when trying to make a list of your creative restaurant names:
- Keep it simple
- Make it unique
- Relate it to your brand
- Ask others about their impressions
If you find it hard to formulate an original and unique restaurant name, you may consult online business name generators available. These name generators are AI-powered which helps you formulate unique brand names for any type of business by simply placing a relatable term on its engine or your initial desired name.