Dallas Restaurants Are Struggling To Stay Alive, Day Two
Yesterday, on SideDish, I ran a post about how many Dallas restaurants are struggling with the high cost of food. The comments were few but insightful. I also received one phone call and two e-mails from local operators who choose to remain off the record. Why? Because they are confused, even embarrassed by the current state of affairs and none of them are clear on how to adjust to the current economy. One mid-level price point chef was upset by the reader who complained about wine-by-the-glass markup. “People don’t bitch when clothing retailers mark their products up more than 50%,” he/she said. “If I marked up the cost of some of my food items by 50%, I wouldn’t sell a thing. I have to make it [profit] up somewhere.”
Another was scared of lowering prices for fear that customers would equate lower prices with lower quality of food. I understand that fear but, on the other hand, I see a chance to turn this scenario into a win-win situation. Like I said yesterday, you don’t HAVE to import pomegranates from Paraguay or nun-picked basil from Basil; there are more than enough less-expensive but fine local and regional products to choose from. Just cook them and cook them well. A restaurant is, or should be, a business first. If you are too concerned about “saving face” in this dismal economy by sticking to expensive ingredients, you will end up, if you are lucky, selling shoes at Neiman’s, which I’m sure are marked up more than 50%. Sure, many of the high-end restaurants with healthy backing–Fearing’s, Abacus, Craft–can “afford” to take more of a hit than our smaller chef-owned spots, but I don’t see any shame in these restaurants changing menus and lowering prices. Let the expense account diners keep the big boys in business and give us little people places to have a finer dining experience and less-than-finest dining prices.
11 Comments to “Dallas Restaurants Are Struggling To Stay Alive, Day Two”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
I actually understand both sides of this scenario. As a waitress for a downtown restaurant, I constantly berated for the higher prices of our recently upgraded menu and wine list–as if I can do anything about this. I have to explain to customers that the restaurant is paying more money for this particular ingredient, that particular dish, etc., and the large portion of food they are getting will make them at least feel they got their money’s worth. The owner also considers himself an “artist” and will not use ingredients unworthy of the dish or take away anything that adds to the aesthetic of the presentation. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not wanting to spend 20 bucks on a dish, plus an extra five for the salad, 12 for a couple of drinks, etc.–like I said, I’m a waitress. Funding is limited folks. I just feel bad for the owners struggling at the restaurants. We have been slower in the last 3 weeks downtown than I have ever seen since I began waiting tables. The restaurant in my own building hosts Scene, which I have been told will close its doors in a few months if business doesn’t pick up. Everyone is struggling.
IMO, there has been an irrational spree of high-end openings in the Uptown, Downtown and Knox-Henderson areas the last couple of years. I was scratching my head two years ago wondering where all this forecasted biz was going to come from. Far too many seats and overhead for the available business.
Established places with established clientele and regulars will weather (with some pain) this downturn without diminishing their prices or offering. Ill-conceived places that didn’t understand the Dallas market to begin with or thought they could bring a NYC or LV business model and make it work in this market, will fail faster and harder due to this downturn.
As you said, it is a business first and businesses suffer and fail if they fail to understand their market going in.
I’ve lived in Dallas all my life. I’m adverse to chain restaurants for the most part, or at the very least when I’m trying to have dinner serve as my entertainment for the evening would like something remotely original.
Problem is, there’s been this shift, just over the last few years, to where everything in that category has a BASIC entree price of $12.95 minimum. That’s if you order the grilled chicken and it goes up from there. Who can afford this? Not me and my husband, and not my parents, either (all of us gainfully employed). My folks wandered off the beaten path into a non-chain the other day (uninformed, as parents sometimes are) and were so caught off guard by the prices that they both ordered salad.
I don’t know what the solution is. The local food supply Nancy mentions is a good idea for many reasons. My issue is, eating something well-prepared and interesting should not be a $50-an-evening luxury. I can’t revert to Chili’s or Taco Cabana for the sake of my health. I’d say we could get more creative in the kitchen at home, but milk costs more than gasoline.
I guess I’ll go stand in the rice line at Sam’s.
This Nichols post and these comments are extremely relevant to me, reading them. I appreciate the wisdom, honesty and candor contained therein. Especially since I hear and read ‘what if they gave a recession and no one came’ glib posts here and yon.
My favorite ‘What planet are you living on’ comment regarding this alleged much-ado-about-nothing ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ economic crisis was recently made by Dallas’ David Johnson. When the ‘downturn’ was mentioned and the word inflation used, his comment went something like this: That despite food and gas being higher (what’s that old Rita Coolidge song, ‘Higher and Higher’?) that the cost of a 60 inch flat screen TV had gone down maybe 40%.
After Johnson shared this reality check wisdom with me, I told that good news to 1) My neighbor who, on $45 grand a year is raising two pre-teen boys while her husband is in Iraq.
2) A waitress who like ang above is seeing her income plummet as people cut back spontaneous dining.
3) A restaurateur partner investor acquaintance who is about to fold after standing room only biz for 2 years
4) The female truck driver who has had to sell her rig and work at a fraction of the income for a commercial company after gas prices made being an independent impossible.
5) Me who watched my bill at Sam’s for items that might have been $75 last fall costing now $118.
But Johnson was correct; the flat screens at Sam’s have become far more affordable. It all balances out in the end. Right? Right??
Last week, I bought flat screens, crushed them, and distilled the juice. My truck didn’t run well on it, and it didn’t taste good, either. So I guess consumer electronics aren’t a good substitute for staple goods like fuel and food. Who knew?
Don’t forget the price of fuel in running a kitchen and the air conditioning when looking at the current woes of the restaurant industry (the minimum wage also just went up). But Rawlins is right - when you look at the whole basket of goods, there is no inflation. It’s just luxuries like the stuff he normally buys at Sam’s (aka, the basics and a fill up) that are going up. They are more than offset by the declining price of a new house and that big screen to go in it.
Wes, Wes. Regarding edible electronics. You must strain all glass and metal ingredients and chill the puree. Just before serving, add a zest of fresh ginger. (No word whether this improves your truck’s performance.)
But yes, even the hookers are feeling the pinch. Live and loin.
What is truly unfortunate is the effect on restaurant employees. Like Ang said so well, there is nothing she, or any other server or FOH worker, can do. Those decisions on ingredients are with the chef and owner(s). If a chef will not sacrifice quality for cost, prices to the consumer have to increase. That hurts servers worse because that is where their income gets affected. It is a principle that a chef holds tightly, so those down the ladder have to suffer unduly.
Hungry/Broke: unfortunately the rice line at Sam’s won’t help much with your budget until Vietnam, Cambodia and a few other Asian countries begin exporting rice again. Thailand is benefiting from this situation as they continue to export rice. Even the prices of California rice are increasing as the demand increases. Take a trip to a large Asian grocery store in Richardson/Garland. You can still get a 25lb bag of rice for under $20, and there is plenty to go around.
Ang: I wish I knew where you worked, so I could dine there and tip you well. Having worked in the industry before, I can feel your pain. I was blessed to have a primary career while I worked in restaurants/bars, so I was less affected than my coworkers with drops in traffic. But I know you may not want to tell us where, in case your bosses read this. I’ll come and see what else is open in the building where Scene is located. I’ll ask for your section when I’m there.
If you dine out and have some disposable income or an expense account, remember those who take care of your dining experience. Don’t penalize them because of what a chef or owner decides on prices. Reward them for the experience they provide you and reward them for the experience you wish they provided. They will remember you the next time and do better.
Anybody who has spent anytime watching the studied BBC version (not the Fox fiasco) of Ramsey’s “Kitchen Nightmares” could relate to some of the sorry stories from some owners/chefs around here. In every single case, the places he is sent to save charge high prices for esoteric or non-local ingredients and they are all failing. Bad management and egos also help.
Local, fresh, simple tends to save them all. There’s a great many places that have opened in this town in the past 4 years, and in the past 2 in particular, that seem to want to outdo the previous new opening. 15 bucks for 3 sliders, “we filter our own water,” artisan brioche with goat milk bread comp’ed, organic pasta with flour imported from Michaelangelo’s grandfather’s farm, and on and on. Then they wonder why people look askance at 35 dollars for pappardelle or 17 bucks for fried chicken pieces on a Caesar salad.
Local, fresh, simple — you can do a hell of a lot with that. And this “recession” is about to show those whose egos are bigger than their knowledge of the dining/paying public that’s what it’s all about, Alfie.
Compete for my dollar, not to outdo the place down the block.
Back when I was a child America was the largest exporter of rice. Guess what happened to the American rice farmer?
Btw, Scene?? Closing??? OMG!!! Say it ain’t so!! I love Scene!!!
~fainting~
…and so it goes.
Here at Kitchen 1924, we have been able to make some concessions that have adversely affected only a few of our customers. Some of these alterations included the removal of our roof-top helipad and the elimination of our 14,347 gallon lobster tank.
The point is that we may be here 10 more months or 10 more years, but none of us were naive to the trials and tribulations of this business before we opened in a strip shopping center in East Dallas.
Work your ass off everyday, focus on the product AND the execution, and have a little fun.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
-H.S.T.