Comments on: Restaurants and Violins http://hrlori.com/restaurants-and-violins/ Attempting to Unravel the Complex World of California Human Resources Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:15:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Unhealthy Health Plan | HR Lori, Human Resources in California http://hrlori.com/restaurants-and-violins/#comment-27949 Unhealthy Health Plan | HR Lori, Human Resources in California Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:46:34 +0000 http://hrlori.com/restaurants-and-violins/#comment-27949 [...] You already know how I feel about that. [...] [...] You already know how I feel about that. [...]

]]> By: Colin Kingsbury http://hrlori.com/restaurants-and-violins/#comment-5787 Colin Kingsbury Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:02:23 +0000 http://hrlori.com/restaurants-and-violins/#comment-5787 Lori, I live in Boston and have lots of friends in the restaurant scene here. I've complained in the past about the lack of places where you can get a respectable meal for $40/head or so inclusive of a drink or two--there's great $20's pub grub, and no lack of $50-$100 options, but little in between. One exec chef friend took me through his P&L to show me how hard it is to make mid-tier work. The challenge is that people expect creative prep and quality ingredients with fine-dining aspirations, in a desirable part of town, at prices within $10 or so of Chili's or TGIF. Rent and ingredients can easily account for 2/3 of the menu price before we touch labor, insurance (watch out for that liquor license), let alone profit margin. And it doesn't really get easier the higher up you go. People demand fresher and more exotically-sourced ingredients, $200/place china and crystal, rooms that cost $2m or more to build out, and even more extravagant rent. Most restaurants, even very successful ones, operate very close to the line of being vanity businesses, with a few very successful ones lasting long enough to start turning real profits. Anyway, I guess the point is that just because a $20 plate of chicken seems expensive, doesn't mean anyone (except the landlord) is making that much money. Lori,

I live in Boston and have lots of friends in the restaurant scene here. I’ve complained in the past about the lack of places where you can get a respectable meal for $40/head or so inclusive of a drink or two–there’s great $20’s pub grub, and no lack of $50-$100 options, but little in between.

One exec chef friend took me through his P&L to show me how hard it is to make mid-tier work. The challenge is that people expect creative prep and quality ingredients with fine-dining aspirations, in a desirable part of town, at prices within $10 or so of Chili’s or TGIF. Rent and ingredients can easily account for 2/3 of the menu price before we touch labor, insurance (watch out for that liquor license), let alone profit margin.

And it doesn’t really get easier the higher up you go. People demand fresher and more exotically-sourced ingredients, $200/place china and crystal, rooms that cost $2m or more to build out, and even more extravagant rent. Most restaurants, even very successful ones, operate very close to the line of being vanity businesses, with a few very successful ones lasting long enough to start turning real profits.

Anyway, I guess the point is that just because a $20 plate of chicken seems expensive, doesn’t mean anyone (except the landlord) is making that much money.

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