Even if your current menu already features delicious food and drinks, you should consider adding seasonal winter dishes to give your restaurant extra pizzaz during the colder months. 

There are a few benefits of featuring winter foods and drinks on your regular menu. Consumers are naturally drawn to products with limited availability. There is something intriguing about a product, service, or food that is only available part of the year: It makes it seem exclusive.

You can also use seasonal items to try out new dishes: If your customers end up liking some of your seasonal menu items, you may consider keeping them on your permanent menu after the winter season is over.

Let's discuss some of the factors you should consider when planning your winter menu. 

First Thing's First: What Produce Is Best in Winter?

When deciding what winter food and drink items to add to your menu, you should start by settling on a few fruits or vegetables to plan your dishes around. Here is some produce that is best in the winter:

• Root Vegetables: Examples of root vegetables are onions, sweet potatoes, turnips, ginger, and beets.

• Squash: Popular winter squashes are acorn squash, butternut squash, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, and buttercup squash.

• Apples: Apples are typically harvested in the fall, so you should choose apples that will remain fresh through the winter when stored correctly. The best apples for this are Fuji, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and Red Delicious.

• Cruciferous Vegetables: Cruciferous vegetables got their name from the shape of their flowers, which are in a cross shape. Some cruciferous veggies that are best in the winter months are broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, Swiss chard, radishes, and cabbage.

• Persimmons: This sweet fruit tastes like a cross between an apple and a pumpkin. It is in season between October and January.

• Winter Spices: There are a set of spices, otherwise known as pie spices, that are popular in the winter. Because fresh produce is more difficult to come by in the winter, these spices can help give meals extra oomph. Winter spices include cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, cloves, ginger, star anise, nutmeg, and mace.

How Many Winter Items Should You Add to Your Menu?

The answer varies depending on what's best for you and your restaurant. You could do a whole winter menu, or you could add just a few select dishes or drinks.

If you're short-staffed or don't have access to winter produce, you may want to add just an item or two, like a drink and an appetizer.

If you can access the ingredients and your chef is on board, you can create a robust winter menu. For instance, you could create dishes in most or all of these categories: appetizers, soups, salads, main courses, desserts, and drinks.

Winter Menu Design

The two most common ways of displaying your winter menu are adding winter items to your regular menu or creating a separate menu that only contains the winter dishes. 

If you intend to add your winter dishes to your full menu, you have to decide how to incorporate them into your physical menu design. 

• You could add a symbol next to the winter items that are dispersed throughout the menu and a key to show diners what the symbol means.

• You could also add a box to your menu that lists all of your winter menu items together.

Both of these require a little design work. If you need help, there are menu templates available online. 

Another method is creating a stand-alone winter menu that you can hand to diners along with your regular menu. If you use this method, you won't have to worry about switching your regular menu back to the original after winter is over. 

The method you choose will likely depend on how many winter dishes you include and how much design work is required.

Don't Forget to Update Your Online Menu!

It's important that you not neglect your online menu. More people than ever prefer to order their food online. To tap into that market, you must keep your menu up-to-date. 

• Website Menu: Most restaurants have websites that include a page for their menu. Be sure to update your website's menu so it includes your winter items.

• Online Ordering: If you use a service such as Menufy for online ordering, ensure that your menu is updated. The more dishes your restaurant offers, the better the chance that someone will find something they want to order from you.

• Google Business Page: When you Google search the name of your restaurant, some basic information about your establishment pops up. One of the options you can click on is "menu." It's important that you update the menu on your business page so consumers can see the latest version of it.

• Meal Delivery Services: If you partner with meal delivery services such as DoorDash or Postmates, you will need to update your menu on those platforms as well.

Winter Menu Ideas and Examples

Appetizers and Sides

• Root vegetable sticks with roasted garlic dip

• Roasted Brussels sprouts and cinnamon butternut squash with pecans and cranberries 

Soups and Salads

• Roasted acorn squash soup

• Ultimate Winter Salad

Main Courses

• Spaghetti squash casserole

• Beef, leek, and mushroom stew

Desserts 

• Pumpkin apple streusel muffins

• Persimmon pudding cake

Drinks

• Mulled wine

• Spiked apple cider

When you think of winter cuisine, you probably don't think of flavorful dishes and hearty vegetables—but you should. There are plenty of fruits, vegetables, and spices that are harvested in the late fall or early winter. You can use these ingredients to create tasty original dishes that are healthy, comforting, and filling!