March 2027 food holidays and promotion ideas for restaurants

March 2027 sits almost entirely inside Lent: every Friday is a fish day (March 5, 12, 19 and Good Friday, March 26), and Easter Sunday closes the month on March 28. In between, Sunday, March 14 is Pi Day, Selection Sunday for the NCAA basketball tournaments and the day clocks spring forward. St. Patrick's Day is a Wednesday, March 17. Eid al-Fitr is expected around March 9 or 10, and baseball's traditional Opening Day is Thursday, March 25. There are no federal holidays in March.

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March 2027 at a glance

The food days come from National Day Calendar, a private registry, so treat them as marketing hooks, not official holidays.

Month-long observances

• Lent (Ash Wednesday, February 10, to Easter, March 28). The US Catholic bishops make every Friday in Lent a day of abstinence from meat, and Good Friday a day of fasting and abstinence.
• National Nutrition Month and National Noodle Month (National Day Calendar): lighter-plate or noodle-bowl specials.

Which March dates are worth a promotion?

Every Friday: the Lent fish fry

Four of March's Fridays are in Lent, so a fixed Friday fish plate becomes a weekly habit for many customers. Put it on the menu for Fridays only, keep the price the same every week and take pickup orders ahead so the fryer isn't swamped at 6 pm. On Good Friday (March 26), add a second meat-free main. Ready line: "Lent Fish Fry every Friday: beer-battered cod, fries, slaw and rye. Order ahead for pickup."

Sunday, March 14: Pi Day, Selection Sunday and the clock change

Bakeries and pie shops get their day, bars get the bracket reveal for the 76-team NCAA tournaments, and everyone loses an hour of sleep. Run Pi Day slices at $3.14 on the day and a whole-pie pre-order for the weekend. Bars can turn Selection Sunday into a watch party and then sell weekday lunch bundles for the First Round games on Thursday and Friday, March 18 and 19. Ready line: "Pi Day is Sunday, 3/14: $3.14 slices all day, whole pies by pre-order."

Wednesday, March 17, then Easter weekend

St. Patrick's Day falls midweek, so to-go corned beef dinners matter as much as the bar; see the St. Patrick's Day menu templates. Two weeks later comes Easter: open brunch bookings and family-meal pre-orders by early March. Our Easter menu templates (UK English) have set-menu wording you can adapt. For Eid al-Fitr, see Ramadan pre-orders. Ready line: "Easter Sunday 3/28: brunch seatings at 10, 12:30 and 3. Book now."

Promo copy you can paste

Email to your own list (send from your email tool):

Pop-up banner on your menu: "Lent Fish Fry: Fridays only through March 26. Order ahead for pickup." Announcement bar (under 100 characters): "Friday Fish Fry all Lent · Pi Day slices Sun 3/14 · Easter brunch 3/28: book now" Social caption: "Fish fry Fridays are here. Cod, fries, slaw, rye. Order ahead, skip the line. Link in bio."

Under CAN-SPAM, a promo email needs an honest subject line, your valid postal address and a clear way to opt out, and you must honor opt-outs within 10 business days (FTC). If your customers order on WhatsApp, keep it for order updates: Meta does not deliver marketing template messages to US (+1) phone numbers, so in the US WhatsApp sends order updates (utility messages, about US$0.0034 each), not promotions. Use email for offers. More in WhatsApp ordering for US restaurants.

Worked example: a Lent Friday fish fry plate

These are example figures only. Use your own supplier prices and portions.

At a 30% target cost, $5.80 ÷ 0.30 = $19.33. A price of $18 puts cost at 32.2% and $19 at 30.5%. If you sell 90 plates on each of March's four Lent Fridays, that's 360 plates, $6,480 in sales at $18 and $2,088 in food and packaging. It also means 360 × 6 oz = 135 lb of cod across the month, so agree a weekly order with your fish supplier before Ash Wednesday. FSIS lists 145°F as the safe minimum internal temperature for fish. Try other prices in the menu price calculator.

Your March prep timeline

How to run March promotions in Menuthere

1. Put the specials online (Free). Add the fish plate, pies and Easter dishes, or upload a photo or PDF of your printed menu; AI reads the dishes and prices for you to check. 0% commission on every plan.
2. Show the fish fry on Fridays only (Free). "Show dishes at set times" shows a dish on chosen weekdays between set times, so the fish plate can appear every Friday from 11 am to 9 pm. It works by weekday, not by date, so switch it off after Good Friday. See show dishes at set times.
3. Take pre-orders and Easter bookings (Lite, US$17 a month). Turn on Prebooking for pies and family meals (Specific items, Earliest booking time, Only made on), and add Easter Sunday table time slots with Ask number of people. You get a push alert an hour before each booking; there's no deposit or card hold.
4. Run a Pi Day code (Lite). A discount code can be limited to dates and weekdays, with a minimum order and a use limit, but not to a time of day. See limits, days and validity.
5. Announce it (Lite). Schedule a pop-up banner for each play. For posters, the festival poster maker has St. Patrick's Day, Easter and Eid al-Fitr; for the fish fry or Pi Day, pick General offer.
6. Deliver with your own drivers (Pro, US$39 a month). The rider app runs on iOS and Android, and customers get a live tracking link. You assign each order with one tap. See the rider app.

Tag allergens on every dish (every plan): fish and wheat on the fish fry, eggs in the tartar sauce. The free allergen chart maker has the US list. With a Branded App you can send app users a push notification on Friday mornings. See pricing and pre-orders and table booking.

Pre-orders and table booking start on Lite, with a 7-day free trial (a card is needed to start; nothing is charged until the trial ends).

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More months: February · April · full restaurant marketing calendar.