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Events Page

Promote live music nights, holiday menus, themed dinners, and any other special occasions on your restaurant's website. Add an Events page, control how it shows up on your homepage, and let customers see what is coming up.

What the Events Feature Does

The Events feature gives your restaurant website a dedicated Events page where customers can see what is coming up — live music nights, holiday brunches, wine tastings, themed dinners, watch parties, anything you want to promote.

Once you turn it on:

  • A new "Events" link appears in your restaurant website's navigation menu.
  • A public /events page is created on your site, with Upcoming, Past, and All Events tabs.
  • You can also choose to feature your next few events right on your homepage.
  • Each event has its own detail view with a photo, full description, time, venue, and an optional "Reserve a Table" style button.

You manage everything from one screen in your Merchant Dashboard. No coding, no designer needed.

Getting to the Events Settings

  1. Open a browser and go to dinevate.com
  2. Log in with your restaurant account.
  3. Go to your Merchant Dashboard.
  4. In the sidebar on the left, click "Events".

You will land on the Events Settings page. There are two main sections on this page:

  • Events Page Settings — turn the page on/off and control how it looks
  • Manage Events — add, edit, or delete the actual events

Tip: You can also press ⌘K (or Ctrl+K on Windows) anywhere in your dashboard and search for "Events" under the "Catering & Events" category.

A Note for Multi-Location Restaurants

If you have multiple restaurant locations under one Dinevate account, Events are managed from your main location only. The same Events page is shared across all your locations.

  • When you open Events from a child location, you will see a message that says "Events settings are managed from your main restaurant location" with a "Go to {your main restaurant name}" button.
  • Use the starred main location in the location picker at the top of your dashboard to manage events.

Step 1 — Turn On the Events Page

  1. In Events Page Settings, find "Enable Events Page".
  2. Flip the switch on.
  3. As soon as you turn it on, more options appear below: Page Content and Homepage Display.

Once enabled:

  • An "Events" link is added to your restaurant website's navigation menu.
  • The public /events page becomes visible to customers.

Note: If your restaurant is set to Online Ordering Only mode, the public Events page is hidden no matter what — customers visiting /events will be sent to the ordering page instead.

Step 2 — Page Content (Title and Description)

This is what customers see at the top of your Events page.

  • Page Title — Custom heading. If you leave it blank, it defaults to "Upcoming Events". Other ideas: "What's Happening at Mario's", "This Week at the Bistro".
  • Page Description — Optional sentence under the title to give context. For example: "Join us every Friday for live jazz, monthly wine dinners, and seasonal holiday menus."

You do not have to fill anything in here — the defaults work fine.

Step 3 — Homepage Display

You can also feature upcoming events on your homepage so visitors see them right away, without needing to click into the Events page.

  • Show Events on Homepage — Switch on to add an Events section to your main landing page.
  • Maximum Events on Homepage — How many upcoming events to show. Pick a number between 1 and 10. Three is a nice default.

Tip: If you only run an event every couple of weeks, set this to 1 or 2. If you have a packed calendar, 4 to 6 looks great.

When you are done, click "Save Events Settings" at the bottom.

Step 4 — Add Your First Event

Now scroll down to the "Manage Events" section.

  1. Click the "Add Event" button (top right of the section, or in the empty state if you have no events yet).
  2. The "Add New Event" dialog opens.
  3. Fill in the event details (we explain each field below).
  4. Click "Create Event" at the bottom.

Your event is saved instantly and shows up in the events table.

Event Details — What to Fill In

Here is what each field means and how to use it.

The Basics

  • Title (required) — The headline of your event. Examples: "Live Jazz Night", "Mother's Day Brunch", "Taco Tuesday with Live Mariachi".
  • Short Description (required) — One or two sentences shown on the event card in the grid. Up to 500 characters. Make it punchy. Example: "Join us for an evening of live jazz with the Marcus Roberts Trio. Special tasting menu available."
  • Full Details — The longer description shown when someone clicks to view the event. Up to 5000 characters. This is your space to talk about the menu, the artist, the schedule, ticket info, anything you want.

Photo

  • Event Image — Upload a photo to make your event eye-catching. This is the image used both on the event card and on the detail view. A bright, well-lit photo works best.

Date and Time

  • Event Date (required) — The day the event happens. You can pick any past or future date.
  • End Date — Optional. Use this only for multi-day events (festivals, weekend specials, week-long promotions).
  • Start Time / End Time — Optional times. Pick from the time picker. Leave blank if the event runs all day or if the time is "as long as the night goes."

Venue

  • Venue — Where the event happens. Most of the time this is just your restaurant name, your private dining room, or your patio. Examples: "Main Dining Room", "Rooftop Patio", "Wine Cellar".

Recurring Events

If your event happens on a regular schedule (every Friday, the first Sunday of every month, etc.), use this:

  1. Flip on "Recurring Event".
  2. A recurrence editor appears with these options:
    • Daily — Every day, every X days.
    • Weekly — Pick which weekdays (e.g., every Friday and Saturday).
    • Monthly — Choose either:
      • A specific day of the month (e.g., the 15th of every month), or
      • The Nth weekday of the month — 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or Last of any chosen weekday. So you can set up things like "first Monday of every month" or "last Friday of every month".
    • Yearly — Once a year on the same date (anniversary, holiday).
  3. Set the interval (every 1 week, every 2 weeks, etc.).
  4. Optionally set an end date or a count (e.g., "for the next 12 occurrences").

Tip: Recurring events are perfect for trivia nights, weekly live music, monthly wine dinners, and seasonal happy hours. You set it up once and it keeps showing up automatically.

Auto-Post to Social Media

If you have Dinevate Social Media Manager active and at least one social account connected (Google, Facebook, or Instagram), you can have the system automatically post about this event to your social media:

  • A teaser post goes out 1 day before the event.
  • A reminder post goes out on the event day itself.
  • All written and scheduled by AI — no work from you.

You will see chips for Google, Facebook, and Instagram showing which accounts are connected.

If you do not have Dinevate Social Media Manager yet, you will see an upgrade card titled "Auto-post this event to Google, Facebook & Instagram" with a "Requires Social Media Manager" badge. You can click "Start free trial" (14 days, cancel anytime) or "See what's included" to learn more.

If you have Dinevate Social Media Manager but no accounts are connected, a yellow banner appears asking you to "Connect accounts" first. The toggle stays disabled until you link at least one platform. See the Social Media guide for how to connect your accounts.

Call-to-Action Button

You can add a button on the event detail view that sends customers somewhere — a reservation page, a ticket purchase link, an RSVP form, etc.

  • Button Text — What the button says. Examples: "Reserve a Table", "Buy Tickets", "RSVP Now", "View Menu".
  • Button Link — The URL the button points to. Include the full address (starting with https://).

Leave both blank if you do not want a button.

Published

  • Published — Switch on to make the event visible to your customers. Switch off to keep it as a draft (only you and admins see it).

When everything looks right, click "Create Event".

Editing or Deleting an Event

In the "Manage Events" table you will see all your events with these columns:

  • Image — The event photo (or a calendar icon if no photo)
  • Title — Event name and short description preview
  • Date — Event date, time, and (if recurring) the schedule
  • Venue — Where it happens
  • Status — One of:
    • Published — Visible to customers, upcoming
    • Past — Already happened (still visible in the Past tab)
    • Draft — Unpublished, only you can see it
  • Views — How many times customers have opened the event detail view
  • Actions — A pencil icon to edit and a trash icon to delete

To edit, click the pencil. The same dialog opens with all your data filled in. Make your changes and click "Update Event".

To delete, click the trash icon. You will see a confirmation: "Are you sure you want to delete this event? This action cannot be undone." Click "Delete" to confirm or "Cancel" to back out.

What Customers See

Your public Events page lives at yourdomain.com/events (or /restaurants/{your-restaurant-id}/events on your Dinevate subdomain).

  • The page shows your custom title and description at the top.
  • Three tabs: Upcoming (with a count badge), Past, and All Events.
  • Each event appears as a card with photo, date badge, time, venue, "Past Event" or "Recurring" badges where applicable, and a "View Details" button.
  • Clicking a card opens a detail dialog with the full description, all the metadata, and your CTA button if you added one.
  • Each detail-view open counts as a view in your dashboard table (rate-limited to one view per visitor per hour, so you do not double-count refreshes).

If you have multi-location enabled, customers also see a location switcher so they can view events for a specific location.

On your homepage, if you turned on "Show Events on Homepage", an Events section appears showing your next few upcoming events with a link to see them all.

Quick Tips and Best Practices

  • Use a good photo. A bright, appetizing image dramatically improves clicks. Phone photos work great in good lighting.
  • Lead with the why. Make your short description tell people why they want to be there, not just the facts.
  • Set up recurring events once. Trivia, live music, brunch — set them up as recurring and they keep filling your calendar automatically.
  • Always add a CTA button when there is a next step. Reserve, buy tickets, RSVP — make the action obvious.
  • Use the Draft status to plan ahead. Build out a quarter of events as drafts, then publish them as you announce them.
  • Pair with Dinevate Social Media Manager. Letting Dinevate auto-post your events saves hours and keeps your social channels active. See the Social Media guide.

Need Help?

If something is not working or you have a question, head to your Support Center in the dashboard sidebar and create a new case. Our team will get back to you fast. The full process is covered at the bottom of the Getting Started guide.