Lets state the obvious: Food specials and happy hours are a great deal for diners, but what about the restaurateurs? Do discount nights actually do anything for their bottom line? According to a few food fixtures in town, the answer is yes, but you need to play the long game.

Normally, there isnt a ton of sales volume from 5 to 6, says Jay Bayer, co-owner of Saison. The Jackson Ward restaurant offers $2 off drafts, cocktails and small plates from 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. If you can generate any sort of revenue that didnt already exist through discounted pricing, it gets people in the door, and hopefully they can stay a little longer to buy some more food.

Kendra Feather adopted a date-night strategy at Garnetts Cafe in The Fan to gain traction. Garnetts is so tiny, it has always been a bit of a secret squirrel. And it took years for it to break even because so many people just blinked and missed it, she says. So the main reason we started doing Date Night was to attract customers in the evenings.

Often, discounted food and drink cuts into businesses overhead, with several restaurant workers saying off the record that charging pennies for a taco or selling buckets of beer for the lint in your pocket isnt exactly the most lucrative business strategy. In the end, they hope that patrons will stay for another round of drinks, order a full meal with the normal markups or simply return when specials arent running.

Ultimately, cheap-eats specials are at their best for both customers and proprietors when they dont reinvent the wheel. I like the idea of sharing a sandwich and some wine with a friend, says Feather. Going out doesnt always have to be so expensive. And wine doesnt have to be formal to be enjoyable.

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Cheap Eats: The Anatomy of a Happy Hour - Richmond magazine (blog)