Planning a North Carolina restaurant around mountain and coast seasons

North Carolina's two best-known visitor regions have opposite calendars. In the mountains around Asheville, the busiest season is autumn, when the leaves turn and visitors fill the town. On the coast near Wilmington and the beaches, the busiest season is summer. A restaurant, cafe or bar in either place earns a large share of its year in a few months, and a weak week at the wrong moment can be hard to absorb. This guide covers planning for the swings.

What does the Asheville calendar look like?

Travel writers describe Asheville as a food town with a lot of independent restaurants, many of them small and dinner-only, where reservations are the norm. The fall color season is the heaviest period, with weekends booked solid, and summer and the holidays follow. Late winter, after the holidays, is the slowest. Spring brings back visitors and local ingredients, including ramps, a wild onion that appears briefly in spring and that restaurants feature on menus. Plan menus around what is in season, and tell guests when an item is short-lived. A short note on the menu or a board by the door explains why an item is only available for a few weeks, and it turns a limit into a reason to visit.

What does the Wilmington calendar look like?

Wilmington's downtown Riverwalk and the beaches run on the warm-weather calendar: busy through the summer, with spring and autumn shoulder months that are pleasant and less crowded. Winter is quiet, and some beach restaurants cut hours or close, while downtown restaurants stay open for locals. Tourism marketing describes waterfront decks with oysters and fried seafood. NOAA puts the Atlantic hurricane season at 1 June to 30 November, and a storm can close a restaurant for days and spoil a walk-in full of food.

How do you plan staffing?

Seasonal work is a recurring problem in both regions. In the peak, you need extra cooks, servers and dishwashers, and in the trough you need fewer. Hire early for the peak, since good seasonal staff are taken quickly, and train them before the rush. Cross-train servers to run food, bus and host, and cooks to work more than one station, so that a sick call does not close a section. Offer predictable schedules and a clear end date. Build a core team of year-round staff, and offer them hours in the slow months, such as prep, deep cleaning and menu development. For housing, which is expensive in both regions, consider helping with deposits or partnering with a landlord.

How do you plan inventory?

Order for the peak with care: perishable seafood and produce spoil if guests do not come. Use a par sheet that changes by season, and review sales weekly. In slow months, cut the menu, reducing waste and training time. Freeze or preserve seasonal items where it is safe to do so. Ask suppliers about seasonal terms and delivery schedules, because deliveries to a mountain town can be slower after bad weather. Keep a short list of backup suppliers in case a road closes or a storm stops deliveries, and keep a few days of dry goods and frozen stock so that you can keep serving a limited menu.

How do you protect cash?

Set aside a share of profit in the peak to cover the slow months. Pay down short-term debt at the top of the season. Keep sales tax in a separate account, including any local prepared food tax. Consider event deposits, advance gift cards sold in the fall for winter use and a loyalty offer for locals in the quiet months. If you must borrow, arrange a line of credit before you need it.

How do you prepare for a storm?

1. Make a written plan: who decides to close, who notifies staff and customers, and how.
2. Know which of your equipment is at risk and what you can move or protect.
3. Plan for a power outage: how long food can stay safe, and what to discard.
4. Review insurance: whether it covers storm damage, flood and spoiled food, and what it requires.
5. Keep copies of records in the cloud.
6. After the storm, follow local health guidance before reopening, and document losses with photographs.

How do you handle reservations and walk-ins?

At the peak, take reservations for dinner but hold some tables for walk-ins, and use a waitlist with a text message so guests can wait elsewhere. In the slow season, relax cancellation rules and promote walk-in specials. Charge a deposit for large groups in peak weeks, and say so on your booking page.

What should you review each year?

Write down your busiest and slowest weeks, the weather events, what sold and where you were short of staff or stock. Compare with last year. Over three years, a pattern becomes a plan. Ask other owners in your town how they handle the season. Local restaurant associations, chambers of commerce and tourism boards publish visitor counts, event calendars and occupancy reports, and these can help you forecast. Some run training and hiring events before the peak. Sharing information with competitors is useful in a seasonal town, because all of you face the same swings, and a joint approach to staff housing or closing dates can help everyone.

More guides for your business:

• North Carolina ABC permits and the 30 percent food rule for restaurants
• North Carolina prepared food taxes in Wake and Mecklenburg counties
• North Carolina catering permits and ABC rules for offices and events

More in the US guides for food businesses.