For many aspiring food kiosk owners, dreaming up the perfect name for your new business was probably one of the first things you did. After all, once you’ve established a concept for your new restaurant idea, picking out a name should come easy. Right? RIGHT?
But what if you’ve headed down the path toward opening day, secured some investment capital, roughed out a viable business plan that seems to hold together, and maybe even secured licensing, insurance, and a few vendors to get your started, and you STILL don’t have a name for your restaurant? What if you’re marching toward opening day, and you just can’t come up with a catchy name that will encompass all of your hard work and fresh ideas?
We’re here to help.
Picking out a name for your new food service kiosk can be incredibly difficult. After all, how do you communicate all of the things you need to for your new coffee shop or ice cream parlor, in just one or two words that will sum up your months (or years!) of sweat and toil? The type of food, coffee, or ice cream. The atmosphere of your location. The types of customers you’re hoping to attract. Your background, the style of cooking, the vibe of the location (shopping malls, corporate centers, college campuses)…these are all things that you must try to capture perfectly, when naming your food kiosk. How can you possibly get started?
Refuge Coffee Co. Truck: Built by M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks
Make a list. Then throw that list away, and make another list.
That’s right. Begin by scribbling down every single restaurant name idea that comes into your head, without being too harsh or judgmental about what could work, and what absolutely couldn’t work. Write everything down. Even the less-than-savory ideas may help jog your brain, and lead to other, more viable names for your business. After you’ve got 30 or 40 ideas down, run through them with a marker and cross half of them out. Copy the remaining names to a new list, and use those names to spin off new ideas. Keep going. Something should present itself.
Keep it short and sweet. Alternately, make it long and weird.
Shorter names are likelier to stay fresh in the minds of your customers, though it may be challenging to find a one or two word domain name for your restaurant’s website. If short and sweet isn’t your style, make it so long and weird that it stands out that way. For example, if you’re going to launch a restaurant specializing in chili (don’t do that, that’s my idea), you could call it either “Chili Bowl,” if you’re into the whole “brevity” thing, or alternately, “Mac’s Royal Chili Emporium and Medieval Toastery.” Both names are memorable, for their own reasons.
Don’t get too specific. Look, the needs of your business may change. You want the name of your business to be able to grow and change, as your concept grows and changes. If you name your restaurant, “Strictly Burgers,” what’s going to happen if nobody likes your burgers, and you need to change the focus of your menu to primarily vegan chilled soups? Pick a name that has room to change with you. Also, please don’t start a vegan chilled soup restaurant.
Similarly, while it may be tempting to incorporate the name of your geographic location into your restaurant name, remember: Things change in this business. You may find yourself having to find a new location when the popularity of your restaurant triples your rent, or you may find yourself opening additional locations in different towns or cities.
Do some market research. Don’t bother trying out your new name on your friends and family; they’re going to be so supportive of you and your new venture (bless them), that they’re likely to be super encouraging of any name you come up with. Instead, ask potential customers for their opinion on your new name; they’re likelier to be more forthcoming with criticism.
Crowdsource your new restaurant name. What if I told you that there was an interconnected network of networks, where millions of people with strong opinions and an underdeveloped sense of the rules of polite society, were just WAITING to help you with your restaurant idea? Try out a restaurant name generator… Sure, you may not get something usable magically handed to you, but these generators can help get your brain working in new directions and coming up with new ideas. Sign up for a few restaurant industry forums, as well…you’ll find plenty of people who are happy to brainstorm name ideas with you.
When all else fails, use one of these 101 restaurant names. Okay, fair warning: These ideas aren’t all winners. But our hope is that even if you don’t use one of the following ideas off-the-shelf, one may still get you thinking in a different direction and help you come up with a new idea you hadn’t previously considered. These are all cool ideas I came up with that you can modify for your own future restaurant. So, without further ado:
- The Spaghetti Pantry
- Shambles
- Brimstone
- Purity
- Embers
- The Hive
- The Lamb and Whistle
- The Honey Comb
- Harvest
- The Streetwise Morning
- The Fable Table
- Big City Catch
- Hand & Fork
- Bread
- Pulpo
- Good
- Town Hall Grill
- Sycamore House
- Fresco
- The Stone Cup
- City Bites
- Knead & Feed
- Plate
- Old Bay Steamer
- Crow Creek
- Breakers
- Viking Grill
- Zocalo
- The Crack Pot
- Dan’s Dumpling Dowry
- Falafel Therapy
- Early Girl
- Cake Walk
- The Frayed Knot
- Gusto
- Heart in Hand
- Salty’s
- Soggy’s
- Sassy’s
- Hold the Anchovies
- Tandoor
- The Kiln
- Bushwhacker’s
- Roaring Rock Restaurant
- Take It Away
- The Wolf
- Trattoria Bella
- Trattoria Bellisima
- Sweet Basil
- Butler
- Mucho Gusto
- Taste
- The Feasting Fox
- Aftertizer
- Banana Cabana
- Kettlepop
- Panache
- Pan Ash
- Peerless
- Pesto Quest
- Rippers
- South Mouth
- The Straight and Narrow
- Big Juicy
- Chew
- Chevre
- The Bloated Tick
- Curb Appeal
- Flying Horse
- Flying Noodle
- Thai Tanic
- Royal Crest
- Florante
- The Eatery
- The Golden Spoon
- The Tined Fork
- Tiffany’s
- The Burnt Biscuit
- Wallflower
- Allium
- Comfort
- Clementine
- Piehole
- Home
- Southern Skillet
- Frankly, My Dear
- The Foyer
- The Porch
- The Mud Room
- Easy Now
- Easy Does It
- EZ Duz It
- Okra
- Azalea
- Heirloom
- Magnolia
- The Red Clover
- Mandoline
- Sweet Home
- The Riverboat
- Roderigo “Salty” Sanchez’s Terrific Taco Take-Out Emporium and While-U-Wait Auto Detailing
Remember, no one but you can name your food service kiosk (unless you’re investing in a franchise opportunity). Soliciting ideas from others may help get the creative juices flowing, but ultimately, it will be up to you to find the name and concept that works. You’ve worked hard to get to this point, and taking the time to find the name that fits your dream perfectly is an important step, with no shortcuts. Be creative, speak from the heart, and let the ideas flow.
Note: Not all of these builds featured in this post were manufactured M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks. Some of the images used as included inside this post were built elsewhere and used for example purposes only.
