HOW TO TRANSITION YOUR MENU FROM WINTER TO SPRING
At last, winter is over. Say goodbye to rugging up in front of the heater and say a BIG hello to picnics in the sun, long bike rides, and best of all, updating that menu of yours!
Spring is all about rebirth. With the baby birds out there chirping there's little to be sad about, and a new season is the perfect impetus to update your menu. Sure - hearty, warm, homely foods were fantastic during the winter months but come spring your customers are ready for something a little more colourful.
Spruce up your menu designSeptember means the flowers are well and truly in bloom. Use the flowers as a source of inspiration, but try and avoid the obvious floral patterns in spring? Ground-breaking
Instead, incorporate the colour palette from the natural world into your menu design.
Adobe have a brilliant app called Adobe Capture where you can snap a photo of the world around you and the app will create an inspiring colour palette directly from the photo! Try taking some pics of bouquets of flowers or a beautiful Spring sunset and experiment with colour.
Your menu doesn't have to be entirely in print, of course. With people out and about, enjoying the warm Spring weather, try attracting their attention with some inventive chalk art. Here are some of our favourite examples that would work perfectly with a food truck or a chalk board out the front of your store.
Update the food specials
Pot pies and mac 'n cheese were great in the Winter sure-fire hits in the cold months, however it's time for something different something that suits the delightfully sunny days to come.
The easiest way to announce Spring is by adding a bit more colour into your food. Fruit is the easiest, and healthiest, way to do this. Oranges both brighten up an otherwise bland looking dish, and add a dash of citrus that both excites and cleanses taste buds. The forgotten and under-appreciated cousin of the red apple, the pear, is another winner in any dish. Peel that green skin back and you're left with a delicious addition to any meal, be that a main or a dessertJump on one of these Aussie food trends
Don't feel ashamed for jumping on the bandwagon but try and get on there before your competitors. When updating your menu why not make a statement by being one of the first to try a new food trend. If you want your menu to go viral on Instagram pile up your milkshakes with sugar. These milkshakes from Adelaide based dessert joint 50sixone are walking heart attacks, but the South Aussies have become icons for creating outlandish and insane works of art just by updating a classic.
If sugar's not your thing but you're still wanting to wow your customers, maybe fully-loaded hot dogs are more your thing. Brisbane's very own Red Hook, which specialises in American delicacies, are masters of the loaded hot dog. The NYC Dog is a Kransky sausage with barbecued onions, loads of American pickles and crispy fried shallots. For those with a sweet tooth they even do an ice-cream burger! Now that Spring has officially sprung, street-food will well and truly be in its prime.
