Dallas Restaurants Are Struggling To Stay Alive, Day Two
Yesterday 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.
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The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association is going to hold a seminar for its owner/operator members next week (5/21) entitled:
KNOW THYSELF AND THY CUSTOMER:
How to Create Advantage in Today’s Economy and Beyond
It will be specifically focused on operating in the current regional economy.
The session is part of an ongoing series sponsored by the GDRA.
All this about the the issue/problem being that these retaurants don’t ‘know Dallas’ customers’ is maybe true but far less relevant that the head-in-the-sand realities of rampant inflation coupled with financial market crises. We are in trouble despite all the ‘what if they gave a recession and no one came’ glib posts here and yon.
To my point , the best alleged much-ado-about-nothing ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ economic crisis comment 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? Who would I be to argue with David Johnson?