This is the reality of running a small restaurant in Britain right now. It’s a miracle we survive

[liuzhou]

This article from The Guardian is focused on Britain but at least some of the points raised are universal.

 

The restaurant's menu is here. Revew here.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by liuzhou
added menu link; corrected another link (log)

[Anna N]

47 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

This article from The Guardian is focused on Britain but at least some of the points raised are universal.

 

The restaurant's menu is here.

 

 

Am I being dense again? I see a restaurant review and a restaurant menu but nothing about the difficulty of operating a restaurant. 

[blue_dolphin]

16 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Am I being dense again? I see a restaurant review and a restaurant menu but nothing about the difficulty of operating a restaurant. 

I think this is the article. 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Am I being dense again?

 

No I am!  Duh. Have edited.

 

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

I think this is the article. 

 

Yes. Thanks.

 

 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

No I am!  Duh. Have edited.

 

 

Yes. Thanks.

 

 

It is a sad state of affairs for independent restaurants. But it is an equally sad state of affairs for those of us who would like to support them. If my granddaughter and I order food for delivery we are looking at an average of $65. That is one dish each from an Indian, Korean or Chinese restaurant. No drinks. Not even a glass of water. No dessert. No service,of course. Delivery charges and tip are included in that number. I am on a fixed income and my granddaughter earns not much more than minimum wage. That is a big chunk of change for a single meal.  Not something we can afford to do very often.

edited to add that my mouth is watering reading that review!

Edited May 30, 2023 by Anna N
To add additional information. (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Also startling, that ingredients are less than 25% of the menu price.     No small incentive to cobble something together at home.   

[blue_dolphin]

That brought to mind this LA Times article: Nickel Diner, beloved by Jonathan Gold, Guy Fieri and others, to close this weekend which I’m sure is behind a paywall so I will quote a few sentences:

Quote

…In 2021, the pair said they were paying $20 per case of eggs: a necessary ingredient for a classic diner. They watched them increase and were outraged when the price reached $35 per case, but in January it hit $101 per case from Restaurant Depot, and it was then that they felt they couldn’t continue; eggs are in pastry and in nearly all of their breakfast items …

 

“I thought, ‘We have two choices: Either I raise my prices and nobody comes, or I keep my prices somewhat where they are and everybody comes in, and we just go until we run out of money,’ and that’s sort of where we are,” 

…

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Also startling, that ingredients are less than 25% of the menu price.     No small incentive to cobble something together at home.   

 

Yes, but even cooking at home has overheads and your ingredients will probaby be at retail prices not wholesale. You also have fuel costs, and have to rent or purchase your home, maintain your kitchen appliances and utensils etc. Pay taxes, too.

Sure you could make a cheaper meal at home but the comparison is not that simple.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

Granted you could make cheaper meals at home. But if we took the price that we would pay at a high-end restaurant and bought ingredients for a home meal we could put on a hell of a spread. That is of course, most of us here in the Forum because we know how to cook. And we can't really figure our rent and utilities as overhead because we would have to pay them whether we were cooking at home or not.

But there are a lot of people out there that can't cook or don't have time to cook so there will always be a need for restaurants and people that will pay the prices so some restaurants will survive.

My husband didn't like to go out to eat because he said he got better food at home. I like restaurant food because I didn't have to cook it and I don't have to clean up after it. Fortunately it never became much of an issue because there just weren't very many good restaurants in our area. @Kim Shook drives me crazy. I'd love to follow in her footsteps for a week.

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:

we can't really figure our rent and utilities as overhead because we would have to pay them whether we were cooking at home or not.

 

Restaurants also have to pay overheads when they are not cooking, for example during closing time and days off.

Edited May 30, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

In the past when we have had similar spikes in inflation which put restaurants out of the reach of many of us, eventually we adjusted. We began to eat out again. It was slow at first  but eventually things settled down. The higher prices became normal. Some restaurants were lost for good.
This time it feels different. I am not predicting what might happen but I suspect it will be some sort of revolution. If we can't pay restaurant workers and can't house them then it's hard to understand how restaurants can continue to exist in their current format. 

[MaryIsobel]

We had to pivot from dining out to eating at home during Covid, as did most everyone. The thing is, we have not gone back to our old ways. One example is that our twin daughters' birthday is mid January, one daughter's fiance's is the day after. Rather than taking everyone out for a celebratory dinner at a decent place, which we used to do, we bought a 125.00 prime rib, a few bottles of nice wine, and ingredients for a cocktail or two. This, along with potatoes and veg to go with the prime rib and ingredients for a couple of nice cakes (I have always made our daughters their own cakes) cost far below what we would have spent dining out. It was not a difficult meal and everyone helped in one way or another. We came to realize that having our celebration at home allowed for better mingling and conversation (and games!) and more of a celebratory atmosphere. So, as Anna alluded to, I doubt if we will ever go back. We still eat out but it is more pub type, casual meals.

[dcarch]

I am truly sorry for many of you, those in all parts of the world who have to deal with this problem for now and for a very long time to come. 

 

I feel very lucky, before the pandemic,  in trying to be environmentally sensible, I focused in making my garden more efficient; I compost 100% waste to minimize the use of fertilizers, I home-built a 3,000 watt solar system, and a 1,000 gallon rainwater system. This is helping to minimize the inflation pain somewhat.

With food price not coming down soon, I am thinking of raising chickens . Here not far from NYC, hunting is not a good idea.

 

Shelby, please help!!!

 

dcarch

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by dcarch (log)

[Katie Meadow]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

It is a sad state of affairs for independent restaurants. But it is an equally sad state of affairs for those of us who would like to support them. 

Couldn't agree more. We all make choices about where to spend our money. Sometimes it makes sense, other times it doesn't. Except for people like the Roys, who eat out all the time but never touch their food. We rarely eat out any more, although we were never big spenders when we did. My idea of a splurge now is eating pistachio cream out of the jar. In no way frugal, but way more exciting than a mediocre meal out for two. And at least I'm supporting some farmer who grows pistachios on the side of Mt. Etna. And that crop is only as reliable as the volcano, so I hope those growers are able to put away some change for the day it rains ashes. 

 

The times I enjoy eating out are when I'm on vacation and don't have an option and feel I deserve to catch a break from cooking the rest of the time.  And we don't take a lot of vacations. I consider it a vacation when my husband bakes brioche and makes French toast the next morning.   

 

Wow. It's a long road from Covid and the state of the economy to eating pistachios out of the jar. At least I use a utensil.

 

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

so I hope those growers are able to put away some change for the day it rains ashes. 

 

When it rains ashes, I don't think it's gonna matter much.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

@Katie Meadow  "a mediocre meal out for two"       Word.

 

Given the uncontrollables of dining out, wait times regardless of reservation, noise, menu options and the expected cost, dining in is often an easy option.