How Denver Restaurants Can Make an Additional $800M in Revenue Per Year

by Kayla King

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Do you ever get that customer where you feel like they must be allergic to air? You don't want to kill them but also question how it’s possible for someone to have that many food restrictions.  Well even though we all dread Susie, with 40 and more intolerances and celiac disease, Susie is your most loyal and revenue generating customer. It’s tempting to say who cares about Susie. There's plenty of fish in the sea. That thought changes when there are 62 million Susies in the US.

Food allergy customers eat out 18 times less than your average customer. This means there is $800M in yearly revenue just sitting on the table in the Denver Metro Area alone, and even if you are really good with gluten free and vegan that's a tiny portion of this market. A huge opportunity is being missed here. 

Then why are these customers not eating out even at the most allergy friendly restaurants? Research shows that the top 3 reasons are: they don’t trust that your staff understands their allergy, they still believe they will get sick, and they are tired of asking a million questions every-time they eat out.

Now I know what you’re thinking. It’s tempting to say if they are really that severe, they should just stay home. We have too small of a kitchen, it takes too much time, we switch our ingredients too often. How do you combat these challenges to cater to this loyal market efficiently and effectively? 

Transparency. 

I’m a health coach and waitress with celiac disease. I’ve walked through and observed 40+ kitchens and what I noticed is that restaurants are doing way more work than you have to. Chefs are responsible with identifying allergens in each dish when gluten alone can be defined by over 100+ ingredients. Liability nightmare. Waiters have to tell the customer what's safe by going back and forth between the kitchen to be able to answer customers' questions. Managers come out to do check points. Time and money are being wasted and your customer only becomes more nervous and embarrassed by the second. All the customer wants are to read the ingredients, identify whether it’s safe for them, understand how dishes are prepared in advance and where the risk of cross contact might be. This takes the liability off of you because now they have the control and autonomy to decide whether that dish is a smart choice for them. 

Start by labeling your menu with the top 9 allergens and or ingredients. Put in writing how you and your staff combat cross contamination. If you aren’t confident in your abilities to identify these allergens or need help with training, reach out to kayla@macro-menu.com. We help prepare you for and reach food allergy customers. 

Properly accommodating allergic requests can boost your profit margin by 24%. Small changes will have a huge return because food allergy customers are like kids, they make the decisions. Help them make the decision to choose you.

Kayla King is a certified nutrition coach and waitress. She has had Celiac disease since she was 8 and is the founder of MacroMenu, a local Denver app that helps people with food allergies find safe places to eat. She works with restaurants to create filterable menus, implement allergy training, and bring in new loyal customers.