Profits in restaurants

[TAPrice]

New York magazine has an interesting article on how various businesses (from drug dealers to Goldman Sachs) turn a profit. Two restaurants, a diner and Nobu are covered.

The Diner:

The Upper East Side institution is caught between customers expecting low prices and ever-rising food and staff costs, made more difficult by a giant menu. “I can’t cut the menu because people keep coming back and asking for old items,” says co-owner Elias Katsihtis. “I cut diavolo pasta four years ago, and people are still asking.”

Nobu:

Cheap rent lets Nobu work a lower-price, higher-volume game than many of its top-of-the-line brethren: The median check, including alcohol, is $75. The strategy makes for 90 percent dinner occupancy and 200 to 250 meals per day. Nobu’s spinoffs, Nobu Fifty-Seven and Nobu Next Door, share office and marketing costs and lower the cost of food for the original.