How to Find the Perfect Location for an Italian Restaurant?

Wondering how to choose the best location for your restaurant?

If yes, then you might want to read this!

Because choosing the perfect location is a must if you want your new business to emerge as the best Italian restaurant in Chicago, or any other city.

Why Does Your Location Matter to Your Customers?

The location of your food service business matters as much as the quality of your food or the variety of your menu. Not every location is suitable for every restaurant and vice versa.

The location you choose usually depends upon the overall concept of your restaurant and the demographics of your ideal customers, among other factors. Want to know what factors should be considered while finding location for an Italian restaurant? Keep reading!

How to Find the Perfect Location for an Italian Restaurant

1. Know Your Restaurant’s Concept

The type of people you attract depends on your restaurant’s concept. And so, it’s important to choose the right place for your ‘kind’ of restaurant.

For instance, an Italian fine dining restaurant is likely to attract customers aged 35 or above. Also, the diners are most often high-income couples who’d probably book a table for a date night and arrive in a car, expecting onsite valet parking.

On the other hand, if you’re planning of investing in casual dining, your usual customers would be families with children who’re under 16 years of age, coming from mid-income households. So, if you want to provide your customers with the best Italian food in Chicago, hire a top chef, and go for a true Italian ambiance, with Italian music, Italian furniture, and an Italian way of serving courses.

2. Identify Your Ideal Customers

Once you’ve properly understood your restaurant’s concept, it’s time to identify your customer type accordingly. In order to understand your ideal customers, you’d need to take a look at what’s common in them.

To be precise, you might want to learn about your customers’ demographics, psychographics, and their associated behaviors. For an authentic Italian American restaurant with fine dining, your target audience may typically include people from upper class background, who’re willing to pay more than enough for the best pasta in Chicago and an extraordinary dining room experience.

Most of them would already be aware of some of the popular Italian dishes like, chicken vesuvio, house made pastas, etc.

Wondering why is it so important to identify your ideal customers?

Majorly, because it’s an important step in the process of defining your target market. Apart from this, knowing your target audience would enable you to choose the perfect spot for your business; a place that is populated with, and easily accessible for your ideal diners.

3. Where are They Located?

In order to make sure that your restaurant is well within the reach of your potential customers, you need to learn where they are located. Doing so would help you in choosing the perfect location for your restaurant.

So, after you’ve identified your ideal customers and know your target market, the next step is to find out where your potential diners are located. Remember that you want to locate your food service business in or around the localities of your target market, in places such as Logan Square and Mag Mile.

Don’t know how to figure out where your potential diners are located?

We recommend you to use a public tool provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, called “Quick Facts”, for easily identifying neighborhoods, cities, as well as states.

4. Check the Traffic Rates

Identifying your ideal customers and finding the community where they’re located isn’t enough. There’s something else that you need to do.

And that is deciding whether there are enough consumers in an area for you to open an Italian restaurant. To be precise, it’s all about activity!

So, when you’re choosing a location for your food service business, find out whether a certain location has high levels or activity or not. Because higher traffic is what increases your patronage, so you can capture customers and turn them into permanent clients.

After all, doesn’t everyone want bigger sales and higher revenue?

5. Be Sure to Make it Convenient

Found the perfect spot with great foot and vehicle traffic?

You must think that you’re done with choosing the best location for an Italian restaurant, right?

Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it doesn’t end here!

Apart from the traffic rate, you’d also need to make sure that the desired location is easily accessible for your customers, and has a good visibility. For this, you might want to check out the following factors:

Is it an easy to drive spot?
Could it be conveniently reached?
Is the location visible on the highway or the street?
Are there any obstacles that might make it difficult to reach your entrance? Such as on-going construction, one-way streets, or any other obstructions that could alienate your potential customers.
Would you be able to reach your business location easily?

All set? Move on to settle the parking issues!

6. Availability of Parking Matters a Great Deal

If you’re opening a regional Italian food place with fine dining, parking a necessity. On the other hand, in the case of fast food restaurants, bars, bistros, and casual dining, parking might not be an essential requirement, but it’d still be a great additional perk.

So, if you think a proper parking space is a must for your ideal customers, make the arrangements. For instance, if you’re planning to locate tour restaurant in a busy city, consider offering valet parking.

Or you can also find a spot nearby and utilize it for your diners at a discounted rate. However, if you’ve selected a rural location for your new business, parking might not be much of an issue.

7. Analyze Your Competition

Lastly, while you’re choosing a location for your new Italian restaurant, it’s be best if you select a spot where there aren’t too many food places that serve authentic Italian food.

So, before you finalize your decision, always remember to do some research and determine the competition in the surroundings of your desired location. All in all, a perfect spot is critical in order to ensure a successful business.