10 Memorial Day Promotion Ideas for Restaurants to Boost Holiday Weekend Sales

Memorial Day weekend is a chance for everyone to honor service members and kick off the summer. Some of the strongest Memorial Day restaurant promotions will combine a respectful message with offering guests what they really want – including military discounts, patio events, loyalty perks and even summer menu launches. With these 10 Memorial Day promotion ideas for restaurants, you can practically market your business and turn a holiday into repeat customers.

Offer Veteran & Active Military Discounts

Memorial Day is all about thanking veterans for their service, so it makes sense to do the same at your restaurant. Consider offering a discount, free appetizer or free drink for retired or active duty military, as well as others in their party. This small gesture of gratitude is sure to be remembered, encouraging the service members to become regular customers.

Promote Your Summer Menu

Since Memorial Day is the first summer holiday, it’s the perfect opportunity to introduce your summer menu. Whether you promote grilled hamburgers, delicious barbecue, fresh berries, or other summertime classics, your customers will definitely be in the mood for cookout-themed dishes, so your restaurant is likely to sell a lot of these items.

Launch Your Summer Menu for Memorial Day Weekend

4th of July restaurant promotions almost always include patriotic-themed menu items, and Memorial Day is a good time for these as well. Be sure to offer dishes with red, white and blue ingredients, such as strawberries, whipped cream and blueberries. If you want to get creative, use food coloring to make other foods like cakes and drinks fit the patriotic theme as well.

How to execute a summer menu:

• Highlight 3–5 limited-time items


• Utilize table tents, email, and social posts to preview the launch


• Train servers to upsell featured drinks, appetizers, or dessert pairings

Offering red, white and blue menu items is a great way to promote your restaurant on Memorial Day.

Decorate Your Restaurant

In addition to red, white and blue foods, flags, banners and other patriotic-themed decorations are appropriate for Memorial Day, too. If you set up the decorations the week before, you can take photos and videos to promote your restaurant on social media: the resulting buzz will inspire new customers to try your restaurant and old ones to return.

Promote Patio and Outdoor Dining

With warm temperatures and long evenings over the coming months, Memorial Day is the perfect time to promote al fresco dining options. In addition to providing extra seating, research shows that patio dining increases sales. In fact, a survey discussed in an FSRMagazine.com article revealed that 43% of 25 to 34-year-olds spend more on alcohol when dining outdoors.

Host a Memorial Day Event at Your Restaurant

A holiday like Memorial Day is the perfect time to hold an event at your restaurant. Live music, stand-up comedy, or even a karaoke night can be fun ways to draw people to your restaurant. You could also hold cooking classes and charge restaurant-goers a fee to learn how to make summertime classics like hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks and barbecue like a professional chef.

Partner With a Veterans Charity

One of the best Memorial Day promotion ideas for restaurants is donating to charity. People love supporting businesses that give back, so consider donating a certain percentage of all revenue over the holiday to a charity that cares for wounded veterans or helps them find civilian employment. Don’t forget to announce your plans on social media, too.

One of the best Memorial Day promotion ideas for restaurants is donating a percentage of the revenue generated on the holiday to a veterans’ charity.

Offer Memorial Day Takeout Bundles or Catering Packs

Some folks prefer to host a cookout or family gathering at home instead of dining out over Memorial Day weekend. So what does this mean for your restaurant? In order to reach all customers, even those not dining in, you can make Memorial Day takeout bundles and restaurant catering packs to promote. This offers customers a group meal package for pickup, avoiding the need to dine-in as well as cook for themselves.

Start by creating a bundle with options built around popular dishes such as barbecue, burgers, sandwiches and even pasta salad and desserts. You can also alter the options to offer family meal deals for smaller groups and Memorial Day catering specials for larger parties. If this is something you want to do for your business, make sure to run the promotions several days before the holiday weekend to get the word out in time.

Run a Memorial Day Giveaway

Memorial Day weekend is the perfect time to hold a giveaway at your restaurant. If your restaurant has branded merchandise or gift cards, raffle them off to in-person diners. Or, have servers tell guests that if they upload a photo of your restaurant to Instagram or another social media site over the holiday, they’ll be entered into a drawing for a free appetizer or dessert.

Reward Loyalty Members With a Holiday Offer

Every successful business needs repeat customers, so it’s important to keep them happy. If you have a restaurant loyalty program, offer discounts, free drinks or other promotions on Memorial Day. By encouraging your biggest fans to visit your restaurant over the holiday, in the future they might start seeing your establishment as their go-to location for celebrating holidays.