Colorful Pride Month Restaurant Promotions for 2023

What can you offer for this year's Pride Month restaurant promotions?

This month-long celebration opens an opportunity to offer profitable deals and promos, which can surely boost your sales, help with brand recognition, and increase your customer base. 

You only need strategic and wise planning to implement your marketing strategies successfully. And to operate smoothly amid the expected crowds, you can use a QR code menu software.

This online restaurant tool can help you in various ways—from managing your menu efficiently to marketing your products.

Let's dive into the crucial part: knowing the restaurant promotions you can try.

Pride Month restaurant promotions to get more customers

Check out some of these exciting pride month deals and promos:

Create a special menu category for Pride Month

Optimize your online QR code menu and create a limited edition food category exclusive for the pride month.

Name the category “Pride Month Desserts” or “Pride Month Specials” and include rainbow-themed cookies, cake, cupcakes, ice cream, and other items.

This is a great opportunity to offer creative and unique items that customers won't find on a regular menu. But remember: your dishes should be well-executed and delicious to make customers want more.

Offer a happy hour 

Happy Hour is a time-tested marketing concept that boosts profitability and increases customer traffic.

After attending Pride festival night events, customers can come to your door and choose any item from your happy hour menu and enjoy it at discounted prices. 

This marketing strategy generates immediate sales and encourages customers to repeat visits. 

Free rainbow desserts to customers wearing rainbow-themed clothing or accessories

Freebies sure are an excellent strategy to hook people's interest in dining at your restaurant.

Reward a complimentary dessert to customers who took the effort to dress up in a rainbow-inspired outfit. Promote this activity in advance so there's more chance of increased traffic.

It's a fun and easy-to-implement strategy that customers can take advantage of.

Offer discounted items

Another pride month promotion idea you may consider is offering discounted items inspired by the LGBTQ+ community.

This can include rainbow-themed desserts, cocktails, or entrees named after famous LGBTQ+ activists.

This will pique customers' interest, encouraging them to dine at your restaurant while showing your support for the community.

Also, make sure the items are tasty and visually appealing. Using delicious ingredients and bright colors will make them stand out and encourage customers to try them.

Drag brunch

Create a lively and exciting atmosphere by entertaining diners with live performances from drag queens. 

Since drag performers usually interact with the audience, it creates fun and excitement among customers.

To complete the Pride Month restaurant celebration, overwhelm guests with irresistible and all-time favorite brunch items like egg benedict, pancake, omelets, mimosa, scones, and french toast.

Incorporating this activity will not only offer a unique dining experience to guests but will also support local drag performers.

Other exciting Pride Month promotion ideas

In addition to the abovementioned promotion ideas, you could also try the following fun and engaging activities:

Give back to the community

Celebrate Pride meaningfully by organizing fundraisers and donating part of the proceeds to designated LGBTQ+ charities or non-profit organizations. 

For instance, you could name your fundraising event “Dine for a Cause” and promote it across social media platforms. 

Make sure to be transparent with your event's cause by highlighting the purpose of the promotion and specifying the portion of the proceeds that will be donated to the cause.

Setup a selfie station

Eyeing Gen Z and millennial customers? Create a photo-worthy corner and moment in your restaurant.

Set up a selfie station in your restaurant with rainbow-themed decorations, and hang a rainbow flag to show your support.

Encourage customers to strike a pose, take photos, and post them on social media channels using a specific hashtag you created. 

This will improve your brand awareness and show your commitment to inclusivity.

Consider partnering with a local LGBTQ+ organization near you. They can help you create the perfect selfie station and spread the word about your promotion to their network.

Pride month giveaways

Get your customers excited to visit your restaurant by giving them limited edition Pride merchandise like statement shirts, tote bags, mugs, stickers, and others.

Customers can get these freebies with a minimum purchase of certain menu items on your menu. 

This Pride Month giveaway promotes diversity and inclusivity among customers, and they will have a reason to remember you through these souvenirs.  

Why your business needs a QR code menu to celebrate Pride Month

MENU TIGER, one of the best contactless digital menu today, is a must-have tool during busy days.

It's packed with valuable features to help you manage your menu, speed up the ordering process, and give customers precise orders. 

Here are more benefits of using this innovative p-at-the-table technology:

Schedule promotions on the custom-built restaurant website

Celebrating Pride Month at your restaurant wouldn't be complete without special deals and promotions; this drives people to dine there.

Suppose you're joining the restaurants celebrating Pride Month. In that case, MENU TIGER can help you implement your time-limited offer with its feature, where you can run promotions on their built-in restaurant website. 

They have different promo types to choose from—a percent off on your diners’ bill, a fixed cart discount, or a discount on selected items.

Correctly implementing these promotions will improve customer retention and encourage diners to do repeat business.

Feature Pride Month specials

Featuring your rainbow-inspired recipes is an excellent strategy to prompt customers to try out special items. 

For instance, if you're promoting rainbow desserts, customers can easily notice them since they’re in the featured section of the digital menu.

And what's favorable about featuring your chosen items on the menu is that it will only take seconds to edit them on your dashboard.

Ensure these items have beautiful images to encourage hungry customers to check them out.

Track your daily, weekly, and monthly sales

After implementing a promotion, tracking your sales is crucial to determine whether you’ve made a profit. This guarantees that your efforts were not in vain.

MENU TIGER comes with sales and revenue analytics—a valuable feature that can help you accurately track your daily, weekly, and monthly income.

This QR code for food menu can help determine your income over a specific period. You can even download the file for reports and documentation.

You can use this data to evaluate the effectiveness of the promotion and make necessary adjustments to your marketing efforts to fit the customer's needs. 

With a thorough analysis of this data, you can save money by implementing essential food sales and proper promotions by encouraging customers to make frequent transactions.

Tailor a fun and exciting digital QR code menu design

Recreate and customize your digital menu to fit your Pride celebration's theme and concept.

For instance, if you’re aiming for a rainbow-themed menu, the QR menu software can help you achieve that.

It has various options for customizing your online menu—from colors and fonts to adding professional-looking images of special items exclusive to the holiday.

For additional information, you may also customize your QR code menu; you can experiment with a different color palette, eyes, data pattern, frame style, QR code shape, and add a logo. 

Just keep in mind to keep the background color light and the foreground dark to ensure it's scannable.

Schedule the visibility of menu categories or items

Offering a new food category/item exclusive for the pride month? 

There is no need to remind yourself to edit the availability of your menu offerings because you can set their visibility to your preferred time frame. You can show the items on selected days and time ranges. 

In addition to that, you may also hide such food categories and items on a specified date and time. 

With such helpful features, you can efficiently manage your menu even in the busiest times

The Best Pride Parades in the world

What does Pride Month really mean?

Pride Month began after the Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969, a series of homosexual liberation protests in New York City's Greenwich Village district.

Trans icons and activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera led the movement, which began after a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan.

This historical event became a turning point for celebrating one's diversity with shared equal rights and opportunities. 

Since then, Pride Month has become a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ culture and a gathering to call for equal rights and visibility of individuals belonging to the rainbow community.

And one of the highlights of this month-long celebration is the Pride Parade, where LGBTQIA+ members and allies gather and dress up in costumes to celebrate love, equality, and acceptance.

Here are some of the places that host the big and grand pride month celebration:

1. San Francisco

Known as the ‘Gay capital of the US’ and ‘the original gay-friendly city,’ San Francisco holds the biggest LGBTQ+ celebrations in the world.

This year's San Francisco Pride celebration will be on the 24th and 25th of June. The pride parade will be on the second day, going down Market Street from Embarcadero to the Celebration at Civic Center.

This parade aims to support the LGBTQ+ community and promote equality and justice for everyone.

2. New York City

This list wouldn’t be complete without NYC—the city where it all began. 

Today's NYC pride parade is one of the grandest and most queer celebrations, attended by millions of people from different countries. 

Extravagant floats, colorful outfits, and lively dance parties are one of the things you can look forward to when attending this annual celebration.

3. Berlin

Berlin Gay Pride is one of Europe's biggest gay pride events. It is also known as Christopher Street Day Berlin (CSD).

The CSD aims to promote the group's visibility, equal rights, and anti-discrimination and celebrate pride in gay and lesbian culture.

This year's Pride march in Berlin will start at 11:30 a.m. from Kurfürstendamm and end at Brandenburg Gate.

4. Mexico City

Mexico City Pride, also known as Marcha del Orgullo Lésbico, holds one of the largest pride festivals in Latin America.

Every year, thousands of members of the gay community attend the event to celebrate their growing acceptance.

It’ll take place this year on June 24, starting from El Ángel de la Independencia and ending at the iconic Zocalo—the main square in central Mexico City.

The Pride festivities include several circuit festivals, bear events, a massive march through the city streets, and an epic after-party.

5. London City

This year's London Pride parade will be on July 1, from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall Place. There are over 500 groups and more than 30,000 attendees in this Pride March.

Performers in the parade lineup will be announced soon; you can look forward to seeing the showcased talents of LGBTQ+ on stage.

You can also expect LGBTQ+-themed events, protests, and parties as they complete this annual celebration.

LGBTQ+ chefs who are making names in the food industry

The ever-evolving world of gastronomy has witnessed a surge of talented individuals identifying as LGBTQ+.

Their unwavering passion for their craft and outstanding creations have helped them gain a spotlight in the culinary world.

Get to know their remarkable journey and contributions in the culinary industry:

Tara Monsod

Tara Monsod is a Filipino-American who works as the executive chef at Animae, a world-class steakhouse in the Marina district of San Diego, California.

The steakhouse serves Japan's Wagyu beef and fine recipes inspired by Monsod’s Filipino-American upbringing.

The Filipino dishes on their menu include scallop crudo with calamansi (Philippine lime) and beef short rib kare kare, made with a flavorful sauce of peanut oil and bagoong (shrimp paste). 

Monsod works with other celebrated chefs like Brian Malarkey and Nate Appleman. But before coming to Animae, she worked with prominent establishments like Pizzeria Mozza, Tender Greens, Herringbone, and Burlap.

Kristen Kish

Kristen Kish is a Korean-born American chef, cookbook author, and TV personality known as the Top Chef Season 10 winner. 

She also hosts 36 Hours on Travel Channel, Restaurants at the End of the World on National Geographic, and Iron Chef: Chef Quest for an Iron Legend on Netflix.

Kish was the chef de cuisine at Menton on the Fort Point of Boston before she worked at Arlo Grey, her very own restaurant in Austin, Texas.

Susan Feniger

Susan Feniger is an American culinarian, author, and radio and tv personality.

Feniger starred in the cooking show Too Hot in Tamales and has several businesses in Los Angeles, including the Mexican restaurant Border Grill.

In 2009, Feniger opened her first solo project Street, a multi-ethnic “street food” eatery in Hollywood.

In 2013, the California Restaurant Association awarded Feniger a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

And along with her longtime collaborator, Mary Sue Milliken, she was named the recipient of the Julia Child Award.

Yottam Ottolenghi

Yottam Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and writer.

He is the co-owner of a famous delicatessen in Notting Hill and the author of several bestselling books: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook, Plenty, and Plenty More.

He also worked as the pastry chef at famous restaurants in London, including Michelin-starred Capital Restaurant, Kensington New Town, and Launceston Place.

In 2013, Ottolenghi received two James Beard Awards: “International Cookbook” for Jerusalem: A Cookbook in 2013 and “Cooking from a Professional Point of View” for NOPI in 2016.

Deborah VanTrece 

Deborah VanTrece is an American-African chef, best-selling author, business owner, and founder of the VanTrece Hospitality Group.

Chef VanTrece authored The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors.

VanTrece opened Edible Art, a small restaurant that offers catering services, which became a huge hit.

And with culinary expertise, she opened Twisted Soul Kitchen and Bar in Atlanta in 2015.

Celebrate Pride Month with MENU TIGER

Don't miss the opportunity to draw in traffic at your restaurant when you offer Pride Month restaurant promotions.

Through the strategic implementation of your marketing tactics, data on customer profiles, and the right restaurant tool like MENU TIGER's QR code menu software, you can conclude the month with plausible sales.

Sign up for MENU TIGER's Freemium account. For more advanced features, go Premium and avail of the 14-day free trial.

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