The traditionally slow weeks of January present a dilemma for restaurants. How best can you use that time? Should you chill-out and take stock of the past 12 months or start planning out the year ahead? Is it time to redecorate and refresh your venue or undertake new, one-off projects? Do you close for a while or, with the right menus and promos in place, can you have a remarkably busy January?
Restaurant spoke to leading industry figures to glean a range of inspirational ideas guaranteed to blow away the January blues.
Head to the sun
The prospect of a rainy and cold January this year inspired Manchester-based restaurant Higher Ground to head to warmer climes. The restaurant closes for two weeks at the start of the year, and in 2024 it decamped to South Africa to run a series of dinners at Meuse Farm in Hout Bay, South Africa. “We first met [Meuse Farm founder] Iming Lin while working at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York and Meuse Farm is now one of the most forward-thinking market gardens in the world,” says Higher Ground co-owner Richard Cossins of the decision. “We cooked a series of dinners, highlighting farm produce that was in season, and connecting with local producers.” Cossins says that taking the concept outside Europe was a target of the team “to help build our reputation and increase outreach to guests who don’t have chance to experience what we do in Manchester”. It worked. The restaurant is now seeing guests visit who either ate at the pop-up in South Africa or heard about the collaboration through various media channels. “Getting to meet new people in different parts of the world like that is such an exciting part about working in this industry,” Cossins adds.
Rest up, box clever
With January typically a quieter month, rather than fight for more custom, many choose to use the downtime to their advantage. Lisa Wedgwood, co-owner at Wedgwood the Restaurant in Edinburgh, says she always closes for the first three weeks of January to give herself and her team some much-needed rest. “After a busy year, we find that length of time-off allows proper rest and gives the team chance to holiday or spend time with their families.” To alleviate revenue loss during the winter break, the restaurant offers a ‘Christmas Day at Home’ box to boost December income and will be delivering a Burns Night box nationwide in January. “Rest and staff wellbeing is important to morale, balanced with needing to bring in additional income,” adds Wedgwood. “The boxes allow us to do both.” Celentano’s in Glasgow also plays the Burns Night card to great effect, according to managing director Anna Parker. It puts a haggis-inspired dish on the menu as well as a Burns cocktail running during the week that Burns Night falls and for the past few years has also hosted a private Burns supper for a group of regular customers.
Embrace the meat-free movement
When Middle Eastern restaurant Maray looked at encouraging business in January it decided to take the discount route – but with a difference. “January is competitive for discounting, particularly in Manchester. But we were keen to not discount indiscriminately,” says James Bates, Maray managing director. In January 2020 the restaurant hit on the idea of applying a 50% discount to vegetarian and vegan dishes - which already form an extensive part of Maray’s menu - at its Liverpool and Manchester restaurants. The ‘Green January’ campaign runs Monday-to-Thursday and has seen successful returns and year-on-year growth, according to Bates. Plus, although people are paying half-price for veggie food, last January the restaurants served 7% more guests than in December as a result of the offer. “Financially, it works because we’re using what are, generally, higher GP ingredients, which limits risk,” adds Bates. “Some people come for a cheap meal, which is great, but others want extra value-for-money and spend the same as normal by trading-up on their wines. And there’s plenty we can upsell to guests in drinks or desserts.” Last January The Aubrey in London tried a mushroom menu as an alternative to a vegan menu, incorporating nine types of mushrooms into different dishes from sandos to fried rice. “In the new year, diners are more health conscious. People give up meat, drink a bit less and want to look after themselves,” says executive chef Sebastian Comerso. “We found people were receptive. There was a lot of press at the time about the health benefits of cooking with mushrooms, in immune support, brain enhancing benefits, skin and anti-ageing.”
Offer an immersive experience
In January it helps to give your diners a compelling reason for them to pay you a visit. Neighbourhood restaurant group Boxcar, which operates the Baker & Deli, Bread & Wine, and Bar & Grill venues in London, runs January promotions planned across all three sites, which co-founder and managing director Ankur Wishart says have been designed to “bring something meaningful to our communities”. Its Neighbourhood Nights offer ways for people to connect and discover new skills, such as candle-making or pottery, as do its Sip & Paint evenings. It also runs immersive Root-to-Table experiences that highlight plant-based, zero-waste cooking, with discussions led by its chefs and local suppliers. Celentano’s in Glasgow, meanwhile, closes for the first 10-to-14 days in January to allow the team a good, long break but when it does open it also offers customers more reasons to pay it a visit. “We’ve scheduled one of our pasta masterclasses for January. It’s something interesting for people to do during a quieter month and it makes a great Christmas gifting option,” says Parker.
Research, regroup, plan
January is the perfect opportunity for restaurants to plan ahead and polish their skills. This is a tactic employed by The Black Bull in Sedbergh, which is open in January, but which takes advantage of its team having a bit more free time. “The management team gets together off-site, somewhere comfy over some nice food, to talk numbers, strategy, development,” says co-owner James Ratcliffe. As it does throughout the year, the business takes groups of its wider team to restaurants across the north, such as Heft or Hawksmoor, to inspire them from a culinary or service perspective. “All of this is useful time to gather our thoughts, reconnect as a team and see what others are doing well,” adds Ratcliffe. “Alongside that, we do maintenance, plan our year in terms of sourcing produce and checking out new suppliers, and get ahead of the curve with wine tastings, event planning and the like.” At Edinbane Lodge on the Isle of Skye chef-patron Calum Montgomery also uses the downtime in the off-season for the benefit of staff learning. “I organise stages for my team if they want to do that,” he says. “For example, my young apprentice chef is doing a stage at Glasgow’s Michelin-starred Unalome by Graeme Cheevers.”
Build, renovate, improve
Two Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Opheem usually closes for first couple of weeks in January to give the staff a break and plan ahead, but in 2025 it is also using the time to create a new prep kitchen and build what it says may be the UK’s first spice lab situated within a restaurant. “Once we’re back open, we will incorporate this into the Opheem experience, allowing guests to create their own spice blends to take home with them and use in their cooking,” says Opheem’s chef-patron Aktar Islam. For other businesses, an elected closure can be longer. Mingary Castle in Kilchoan actually closes over January, February and March, due to its remote location on the west coast of Scotland that doesn’t attract many visitors in late winter and early spring. “This benefits us operationally and financially,” says chef-patron Colin Nicholson. “In the cold winter months, heating a 700 year-old castle can be very costly. It also allows us to fix any issues which might have arisen with our beautiful old building. Most importantly, our staff work hard over the nine-month season. They deserve a good long break to unwind.”
Rip up the calendar
The Old Stamp House in Ambleside takes a different view to many restaurants when it comes to closures. The restaurant is shut between 22 December and 2 January to allow its staff time off with their families over the festive period. “We’re in a lucky position to be able to do that and, a couple of years ago, we realised it was a huge benefit in terms of team wellbeing, retaining good staff and, consequently, the business as a whole. It gives us all a sense of normality,” says chef-owner Ryan Blackburn. The practice also makes business sense for The Old Stamphouse, with Blackburn able to capitalise on the fact that many of his competitors are closed when he reopens. “We return in early January, raring to go, to trade as normal with 100% reservations on the books. At a time when much of hospitality is shut, there are still celebrations and special occasions to cater for and, in many cases, guests who’ve received vouchers as presents take the opportunity to redeem them.”
Pop corks
While some restaurants will be throwing themselves headlong into Dry January to capture the business of customers choosing to abstain in the first month of the year, Bob Bob Ricard takes a different tack at its City and Soho restaurants. Rather than focusing solely on cost efficiencies, chief operating officer Tomas Minkley says the group tries to elevate the dining experience. For example, for every gift voucher over £100 redeemed in January 2025, it offers a complimentary bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne.
Roll the dice
Sometimes only a good old fashioned January promotion will do in order to drum up business, as restaurant group Bar 44 has found at its Bristol, Cardiff and Penarth restaurants. The last two years, says director Natalie Isaac, for the whole month it has offered selected cocktails and tapas at 2002 prices - the year it opened its original Cowbridge venue - and Isaac says it always proves “wildly popular”. For 2025 it has decided to change it up and has had custom dice made. Throughout January customers will be able to roll them after their meal for a chance to win either a bill discount of up to 44%, a gift voucher for a return visit, or a copy of its Bar 44 cookbook. “It’s a pick me up for people feeling the pinch after Christmas and a way to get bums-on-seats during a quiet month,” says Isaac. “It’s a bit of fun during what can be a miserable month and harks back to our early days where we’d occasionally let customers flip a coin to win their round at the bar for free.”
Keep calm and carry on
For some well-established restaurants, particularly those in high-footfall areas, January can be like any other month. Bocca di Lupo’s Jacob Kenedy says his Italian restaurant in Soho is “blessed to be relatively busy in January” and that every year the private room has a surprising number of bookings. That said, he does ring in a few changes for the new year. Two years ago, Kenedy collaborated with his friend and Italian food guru Rachel Roddy on a set menu that was available throughout January. The five-course A-to-Z of Italian food featured dishes from, for example, Ancona and Zafferana Etnea. Last year, he reprised this collaboration with an A-to-Z of Italian wines and, in 2025, plans to do something similar, “riffing on the theme of an Italian winter garden”.