Developing a Dining Identity for Your Club: Part 1

Most chefs deal with some type of membership demographic change at their club; the longer you stay at one club, the more shifts you can experience. These changes are often influenced by factors far beyond the kitchen or dining room. Home sales, new developments, membership availability at competing clubs, club renovations, economic conditions, and changing lifestyles can all influence who joins a club—and how they use it. The ability to recognize these shifts and adapt to them is critical. It can have direct impact on your personal longevity and success, your team’s ability to thrive, and the long-term success of the club’s food and beverage operation.

Here at The Forest, we are currently in the middle of a demographic shift that many other clubs in our area are experiencing as well. When we review our historical membership data, we can see that this shift began around 2023. That year represented a peak in the concentration of what we might describe as our “traditional club members”—many of whom were long-term members who regularly frequented the club for dining and were deeply connected to established club traditions. At the same time, however, we began to see an influx of younger members, including executive members and professionals. That trend has continued over the past three years. 

As a portion of our traditional membership has aged into less active levels of club usage, the continued growth of younger members has become one of the primary driving changes in our members dining habits. 

We have seen this impact: Changes in total cover counts, shifts in entrée sales compared with other food options, changes in the most popular nights for dinner, changing preferences for casual versus traditional dining, and new expectations surrounding convenience, experiences, and social engagement.

Ultimately, these changes will have an impact on nearly every aspect of food and beverage operations at the club.  

Why Understanding Your Members Matters 

Over the past year, I have spent considerable time examining this shift more closely—slicing, analyzing, dividing, and evaluating our membership in different ways to determine how we can obtain the most meaningful feedback. This has become an important priority for us. 

If we want to stay ahead of these behavior changes, we cannot simply wait for comment cards, sales numbers or cover counts to tell us what has already happened. We must understand why members’ habits are changing and what they require from the club moving forward. Then we need to develop dining programs that consistently engage our newest demographics of members while continuing to protect and deliver the experiences our traditional members value most. The goal is not to prioritize one demographic over another. The goal is to develop our dining program in a way that remains relevant to the entire membership. 

To help accomplish this, we are working toward establishing a clear dining identity for The Forest. A dining identity should be expressed in approximately three to five clear, descriptive words that communicate what our members want dining at the club to be. Once established, this identity can become a strategic filter for future decisions: Does this menu, event, program, renovation, or operational decision support the dining identity our members have told us they want?

That simple question can provide remarkable clarity and help simplify decision-making processes. 

Step One: Understand the Different Groups of Members 

To establish a meaningful Dining Identity, we first divided the membership into two primary categories: lifestyle dining demographic groups and behavior and motivation-based dining demographic groups. These categories allow us to examine the membership from two perspectives. 

Lifestyle Dining Demographic Groups are primarily influenced by age, lifestyle, family structure, and seasonality. 

The five groups we established are:

1. Active retirees (ages 60-plus): Members who may place a high value on consistency, tradition, quality, community, and familiar dining experiences.
2. Seasonal residents: Members whose club usage, dining habits, and expectations are significantly influenced by the time of year they spend in the area. 
3. Executive golf members and young professionals (ages 35-54): Members who may place greater emphasis on convenience, flexibility, quality, uniqueness, and modern dining experiences. 
4. Families with Children and Adult Dependents

Members who may prioritize flexibility, value, accessibility, and dining experiences that accommodate multiple generations.

Lifestyle, racquet, and social members are members whose dining habits may be closely connected to social interaction, wellness, recreation, and the overall lifestyle experience of the club.  

Behavior and motivation-based dining groups are based less on age and more on how members behave and what motivates their dining decisions. Because of this, they can naturally include members from a broad range of ages. 

The seven groups we established are:

1. Club Traditionalists: Members who value consistency, familiarity, and established club traditions. 
2. Culinary Explorers: Members who seek new flavors, creativity, variety, and unique dining experiences. 
3. Convenience Seekers: Members who value speed, ease, accessibility, flexibility, and frictionless dining experiences. 
4. Entertainment-Driven Members: Members who are attracted to energy, events, themed experiences, music, social interaction, and memorable occasions. 
5. Wellness-Focused Members: Members who prioritize health, nutrition, balance, fresh ingredients, and wellness-oriented choices. 
6. Power Influencers: Members whose opinions, participation, and recommendations have a significant impact on other members. 
7. Infrequent Users: Members who do not regularly use the club’s dining facilities and may provide valuable insight into what prevents them from participating more often. 

If you are considering developing a Dining Identity for your club, there are additional groups that should be considered. These groups do not necessarily fit neatly into the lifestyle or behavior categories above, but they can provide valuable perspectives: 

1. High F&B users (the top 10-15% of spenders): These members can help identify what drives loyalty, frequency, and high engagement. 
2. Low F&B users (the bottom 25% of spenders): These members may help identify barriers that prevent greater participation. 
3. New members (less than five years): These members can provide a fresh perspective on expectations, first impressions, and whether the club’s dining program matches what they expected when they joined. 
4. Long-time members (more than 10 years: These members can help identify the traditions, experiences, and characteristics that make the club unique and special.

This is Part 1 of multi-part series by Drew Tait, Executive Chef of The Forest Country Club.