Chef-driven cuisine at a savings builds traffic on weekday mornings.

Adapting a ploy from the bartender’s playbook, Toulouse Petit in Seattle is boosting its morning trade with a unique Breakfast Happy Hour that offers big discounts on its extensive menu of New Orleans-inspired fare.

Weekdays from 8 to 11 a.m., the restaurant’s elaborate breakfast plates, priced around $13 at other times, are just $8. That includes dishes like Cured Pork Cheeks Hash, with two eggs, arugula, parsnips, potatoes and onion confit, Toulouse Eggs Benedict with Kurobata ham and house-made Creole hollandaise and Crawfish and Tasso Scramble with tomato and garlic confit and black pepper gravy.

It’s upscale, made-from-scratch food without short cuts or comprises in ingredients or techniques, according to executive chef Eric Donnelly. “We’re talking about hand-cracked eggs and nice fresh products,” he says.

Introduced as a short-term promotion when the restaurant opened last November, Breakfast Happy Hour quickly became a regular weekday event because of its popularity. “The customers tend to love this and appreciate what we’re doing,” says Donnelly. “They know they can get a quick, chef-driven breakfast in a very rich environment with a great friendly staff for a very reasonable price.”

“Maybe we don’t make as much profit on each guest, but we are introducing them to the restaurant and getting them accustomed to coming in,” says Donnelly. “We see a lot of the same people in for breakfast on the weekends, too.”

Long term, there is a strategic purpose to Breakfast Happy Hour. “We want to dominate the sector and increase guest counts and visits,” Donnelly says. “We want people to feel this is my place, this is where I go.”