New Year and Holiday Season: How Restaurants, Bars and Cafes Should Stock Up for Higher Traffic

December in Tbilisi has its own rhythm. Corporate parties fill restaurants from the first week, families book long tables, and by the thirtieth half the city is ordering supra food for home. Then comes the long run of holidays: 1 and 2 January, Orthodox Christmas on the 7th, Epiphany on the 19th, and Old New Year on the 14th for anyone who is not quite finished celebrating.

It is a great month for business and a terrible one for finding out you are out of cups at six in the evening on the thirty-first.

Plan around the real calendar

The load is not even. The first three weeks of December are mostly corporate dinners and group bookings, which means dine-in, more drinks and more napkins. The last few days of the year are about takeaway and delivery, when people order salads, mtsvadi, khachapuri and Olivier by the tray.

After that, 1 and 2 January tend to be quiet in the morning and busy at night, and many suppliers work shorter hours or close for part of the holidays. Ask yours about their schedule well before the end of the month.

What runs out first

Containers and bags go first. A New Year table order is bigger than a normal delivery, so think about large aluminum and paper containers, salad containers, and kraft bags with handles that can carry more than one container.

Cups, lids and straws come next, especially if you sell coffee, hot chocolate or mulled wine to go. Bars should check canape sticks and skewers for party platters. They are cheap, and nobody remembers them until they are gone.

Napkins and paper towels disappear quickly at crowded tables with greasy food. Parchment paper and foil matter in the kitchen when you are prepping in volume. And do not forget the dull items: till rolls, tape, garbage bags, gloves, soap, toilet paper and dishwashing liquid. A restaurant that runs out of till roll on 31 December remembers it for years.

If you run a set menu or table package

Many places offer a New Year set menu or a table package for delivery at home. If you do, think about how the order is packed, not only what is in it. A full table means several containers in one or two bags, so choose bags with handles that can take the weight and keep hot dishes away from cold salads. Label the containers with a sticker. When forty orders go out in two hours, a quick label saves the courier and the customer a lot of confusion.

Winter changes your mix

Straws and cold drink cups matter less in December, hot drinks and soups matter more. If you carry over your summer order unchanged, you end up with a storeroom full of straws and a shortage of lids. Look at what actually sold last December, not at what sold in August.

How much to order

Start with last December. Pull the invoices, see what you used and add the growth you expect. If it is your first season, estimate from orders: how many guests and how many deliveries you expect on a normal weekend, and how many times bigger the peak days will be.

For the items you cannot afford to run out of, add a safety margin of about a quarter. Cups, napkins and containers do not spoil, so leftovers simply carry into January, the winter season in the mountains and the spring.

Bars should list December events separately. Corporate and private bookings you already know about show you almost exactly how many cups, straws and napkins those evenings need. Your booking list is the best forecast you have.

When to order

Place the main order in the first week of December, a top-up around the middle of the month and a final small one before the 28th. Yans delivers within Tbilisi the same day, which is useful, but do not plan on same-day delivery for 30 December. Every business in the city is trying to do the same thing, and couriers are stretched.

Split the order in two: first the items you will certainly need, then the ones you are unsure about. That keeps the final order small and easy to fulfil.

A check a week before the rush

Do the lids match the cups you have, how many till rolls are in the drawer, are the soap and towel dispensers full, and is there enough cleaning supply for the deep clean on 2 January when things finally slow down? Ten minutes with a notepad at that point can save you an emergency run on the 30th.

A few habits that help

Count what you have before you order, not after. Move the stock for the rush close to where it will be used, so staff are not walking to the storeroom in the middle of service. And give one person responsibility for the list. A holiday rush is not the time to find out that three managers each assumed someone else had ordered the napkins.

After the holidays

January is quiet in the city, but not everywhere. Gudauri and Bakuriani are busy through the ski season, and Old New Year brings another round of dinners. Leftover stock from December is not a problem. It is your January order, already paid for.