Easter Pub Ideas: Menus, Events and Promotions for the Long Weekend

Easter is early in 2027. Good Friday is 26 March, Easter Monday is 29 March, and the clocks go forward in the small hours of Easter Sunday. It is the first long weekend since Christmas, and in most of the UK it brings two bank holidays, so it is four days of trade, not one.

The pubs that do well at Easter plan each of those days for the people who are out on it: a relaxed Good Friday, a Saturday night, a booked Easter Sunday lunch and a family Monday. These are the Easter pub ideas, menus and promotions that fill all four.

Easter 2027 at a glance

The dates, the bank holidays and the clocks

• Good Friday is a bank holiday in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Easter Monday is a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is not, so for most of your Scottish guests it is a working day; move the family event to the Saturday or the Sunday.
• The clocks go forward one hour at 1am on Easter Sunday (GOV.UK). If you trade past 1am on the Saturday night, that night is an hour shorter. Check the rotas, and check that your till and booking system show the right time on Sunday morning.
• School holidays vary. Easter is early this year, so it may not line up with every area's school holidays. Check your council's term dates before you plan the family events.
• Check your licence for any bank holiday hours or conditions before you promote extended opening.

A plan for each day

Good Friday: fish, and a gentle start

Good Friday is a traditional day for fish, so put a fish special at the top of the menu: beer-battered fish and chips, a fish pie or a piece of salmon. Hot cross buns with coffee make a good morning offer if you open early. For many guests it is the first day of the long weekend, and a relaxed lunch is the start they want.

Saturday: International Whisk(e)y Day, and the evening

International Whisk(e)y Day falls on 27 March, which in 2027 is Easter Saturday. Run a whisky flight of three in your house measure, a whisky and cheese pairing, or a whisky cocktail of the day. Gin, rum, vodka and whisky by the glass must come in 25ml or 35ml measures, or multiples of them, and not both in the same pub (GOV.UK). Our guide to national drinks days has more ways to run it.

Then it is a Saturday night, and an hour shorter than usual if you trade past 1am.

Easter Sunday: the lunch

Plan it as the biggest service of the weekend: a set menu, fixed sittings, deposits and pre-orders, run the way you run Mother's Day three weeks earlier. Our Mother's Day guide covers the sittings, table turns and reminders, and they work the same way at Easter.

Easter Monday: the family day

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Easter Monday is a family day out. Run the egg hunt, open the garden if the weather allows, and serve a later, more relaxed lunch. In Scotland, run the family day on the Saturday or the Sunday instead.

Easter menu ideas

Easter Sunday menu ideas

• To start: a pea and mint soup, smoked salmon with brown bread, or a goat's cheese and beetroot salad.
• The main: roast lamb, the traditional Easter roast, with mint sauce or a redcurrant gravy; a beef or chicken alternative; and a vegetarian main as generous as the roast.
• Pudding: simnel cake, the fruit cake with marzipan made for Easter; a hot cross bun bread and butter pudding; or a chocolate pudding for the children, and the adults.
• The children's menu: smaller roasts at a fixed price, and a chocolate treat.

Take the main-course pre-order with the booking, so the kitchen knows how much lamb to order.

Easter menu ideas for the rest of the weekend

• Good Friday: the fish special, with a vegetarian alternative.
• Saturday: sharing boards and the whisky pairings.
• Easter Monday: a family lunch, or a barbecue in the garden if the weather turns. Have a plan for the indoors in case it does not.

Take every dish's allergens from your recipes and your suppliers' specifications: the marzipan in a simnel cake contains almonds, chocolate usually contains milk and often soya, and hot cross buns contain wheat. Giving accurate allergen information is a legal requirement (GOV.UK).

Easter weekend events and community ideas

An Easter egg hunt

The event families come for. Run it well and it fills the garden and the kitchen.

• Fixed times, such as 11am and 2pm, so the kitchen gets two predictable waves instead of a whole day of trickle.
• A defined area that you have checked for hazards before the children arrive.
• A set number of wrapped eggs, so every child finds one, and the labels show the allergens for the parents to read.
• Parents supervise their own children. Say so on the poster and at the start.
• Tickets or bookings, so you know the numbers, and a table booked for lunch afterwards.
• Check your premises licence for any conditions about children on the premises before you promote it.

Our guide to attracting families covers making a pub work for children and their parents.

Community Easter event ideas

• An Easter Monday walk with a local walking group, starting and finishing at the pub, with lunch booked for the walkers.
• A collection for a local cause at the egg hunt, with the total posted afterwards.
• A dog show in the garden, if your pub welcomes dogs.
• A local producers' Saturday, with a cheesemaker, a baker or a brewer for the afternoon.

Easter bank holiday events

• A mini beer festival across the four days, with a tasting board for the people who want to try them all.
• Live music on the Sunday evening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the Monday is a holiday.
• A quiz on the Thursday before, the last ordinary evening before the long weekend. Our quiz night guide covers the format.

The best Easter marketing campaigns start early

1. The week of 1 February. When you open Mother's Day bookings, open Easter Sunday too, for the families who plan ahead.
2. Mother's Day, 7 March. Put Easter Sunday on your Mother's Day confirmations and reminders, and hand every Mother's Day table a card with the Easter menu. Those families are your Easter bookings.
3. The week of 8 March. The announcement: the four-day plan, the Easter Sunday menu and sittings, and the egg hunt times and tickets.
4. The week of 15 March. St Patrick's Day on the Wednesday, then Easter: the whisky flight, the beer festival and an honest update on Easter Sunday tables.
5. The week of 22 March. Last call for Easter Sunday. Post your opening hours for all four days, add them as special hours on your Google Business Profile, and remind everyone the clocks go forward.
6. The weekend. Photos of the egg hunt and the lunch. Ask parents before you post their children.
7. The week after. A thank-you post, and the next dates: the Women's Six Nations from Saturday 10 April, and St George's Day on Friday 23 April.

Our guide to planning your spring with AI has copy-and-paste prompts that write these posts, the email and the poster for you.

Keep it responsible

• Check any drinks offer against your licence. In Scotland, free or cheaper drinks when someone buys a drink, unlimited drinks for a fixed charge and alcohol as a prize are banned, and a changed price must stay the same for at least 72 hours (Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3). In England and Wales, the mandatory licence conditions ban irresponsible promotions such as drinking games.
• Give the drivers a proper choice. A family weekend brings drivers. Stock alcohol-free options worth ordering; our guide to low and no drinks covers the range.
• Brief the team on the clocks. Rotas, opening times and the booking system all need checking before the Saturday night.

When you are ready for more

Everything in this guide works on its own, and you can run all of it yourself.

When you are ready for change, and want the people searching for an Easter lunch to find you first, with bookings that take deposits and pre-orders and figures that show what each day earned, that is what Orange Jelly builds. At The Anchor, our own venue, we grew Google Search visibility by 828%.

If that is what you want for your pub, call me on 07990 587315 or email peter@orangejelly.co.uk. The rest of the season, from Burns Night to Easter, is in our Spring Pub Playbook.

Sources

• UK bank holidays (GOV.UK)
• When do the clocks change? (GOV.UK)
• Women's Six Nations 2027 fixtures (Six Nations Rugby)
• Running a food business: allergies (GOV.UK)
• Weights and measures: specified quantities (GOV.UK)
• Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3 (legislation.gov.uk)
• The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2014 (legislation.gov.uk)

Sources checked on 19 October 2026.