5 ms·

It is always amusing to read pieces like this or comments by those who either cannot understand or dislike it. Here's the simple truth: there should be no such

It is always amusing to read pieces like this or comments by those who either cannot understand or dislike it. Here's the simple truth: there should be no such thing as an excellent, inexpensive restaurant for more than a flash in a pan. Why? Because if a restaurant is excellent and is inexpensive, then it underpricing its offerings the same way as an excellent software developer making $50k a year should not exist in Bay Area for longer than a flash in a pan because that software developer is underpricing his offerings. Say I have a successful restaurant. For the sake of the argument it seats 40 people and does fixed price brunch and is only open between 11am and 4pm on Sunday. Brunch costs $20. It is amazing. I have a line out of the door. People wait for hours for tables. What should I do? Well, it is simple, I am going to raise a price for $30. Am I still packed? Are people still waiting? $50 it is! Holy crap, still a line? $100! I'm charging a hundred. Oh look, the line is smaller but I'm still doing the same number of covers I did before. $150! I really have no line but the number of covers now is right around what I can do. Excellent. $150 it is. What does it mean? It means that before my restaurant was excellent, inexpensive and mispriced. Now it is just excellent and priced correctly. Lets try it again: same setup. $20, i have a line and a wait list, and people outside clamoring for the brunch. Ok, I raise price to $30. Line is gone. I'm doing as many covers as before but there's no real line. I decide to hold at 30. Two months later I have half of the tables empty because people moved on. I drop prices to $20 and nothing changes. Still half of the tables are empty. What happened? I discovered I did not have an excellent and inexpensive restaurant, I just had an inexpensive restaurant and as soon as it tripped into not so inexpensive category it was over. P.S. There are tons of cheap eats in Bay Area and SF. They are just not the kind of "cheap eats" that the people who make $150k/year like to eat. P.P.S. Comment of the owner of the restaurant that tech companies are taking away the talent because they pay more, give full benefits and have 9-5 schedule is pure gold: pay. more. money. That will solve the problem. The owner do not deserve to make money for her services any more than Jack The Dishwasher deserves to make money for his.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Freak_NL 9y ago
> What should I do? Doesn't that assume that profit maximization is the ultimate and only goal of every restaurant owner? Perhaps it is, I'm not familiar with San Francisco restaurants. But some might simply enjoy being able to offer excellent food at a comparatively low price simply because all their business, personal, and employee needs are met and rising prices could be detrimental to that balance. For example, if you enjoy seeing low-income families from your local neighbourhood eat at your place because you are affordable (not to mention healthy and delicious), then raising prices would drive them out, and you might be sad and disappointed, for whatever personal reason (i.e., your personal needs are no longer being met as neatly as before).
- notyourday 9y ago
  > Doesn't that assume that profit maximization is the ultimate and only goal of every restaurant owner? It is. Every single restaurant owner wants to make the maximum amount of money. That's why they open restaurants and don't go to community centers to feed less fortunate for free ( or for price below the cost ) > Perhaps it is, I'm not familiar with San Francisco restaurants. But some might simply enjoy being able to offer excellent food at a comparatively low price simply because all their business, personal, and employee needs are met and rising prices could be detrimental to that balance. For example, if you enjoy seeing low-income families from your local neighbourhood eat at your place because you are affordable (not to mention healthy and delicious), then raising prices would drive them out, and you might be sad and disappointed, for whatever personal reason (i.e., your personal needs are no longer being met as neatly as before). In that case they have a hobby they can practice in community centers and dare I say churches.
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    No it's not. My old boss used to own 2 restaurants/cafes, and ended up selling one, even though it was profitable, so that he could go back to basics and run just one restaurant, and being able to run things at ground level. If you've ever worked in hospitality, you'd find that a lot of owners, especially chefs who own their own restaurant, aren't in it for the money. They treat it as an art. It would be preposterous to say that every artist wants the maximum amount of money. It's not always about the money.
xg15 9y ago
So what about the SF residents who don't work in tech?
- fennecfoxen 9y ago
  You mean Oakland residents, right? :P
- notyourday 9y ago
  There are boatloads of good hole in a wall place in SF. Some of them are excellent, just not by the standards of the guide that should have been dropped into a dust bin of history years ago.
dagw 9y ago
People wait for hours for tables. What should I do? Or you could do what the restaurant down the road from me did when they found themselves in a similar situation. Buy out the place next door, build a huge outside patio area, quadruple the number of tables you have, have the quality of your food and service completely collapse under the strain of trying to serve this many guests and lose your reputation is a great restaurant.
- notyourday 9y ago
  That's the quickest way to go out of business.
  - dagw 9y ago
    'Fortunately' they're in a fairly tourist dense area so they seem to have managed to limp along.
- danieltillett 9y ago
  Quality does not scale. If it did Walmart would be the biggest restaurant owner. I am actually surprised that more people don’t try to go micro size, but very high end. Two or three tables, but super high prices.
BoiledCabbage 9y ago
> Here's the simple truth: there should be no such thing as an excellent, inexpensive restaurant for more than a flash in a pan. It's incredible that you can state this even with tons of evidence to the contrary. You may want to rethink your assumptions or understanding of other people's thinking and motivations.
- notyourday 9y ago
  > It's incredible that you can state this even with tons of evidence to the contrary. You may want to rethink your assumptions or understanding of other people's thinking and motivations. Restaurant economy is local, just as salaries of software developers.
sharemywin 9y ago
The real world doesn't work that way. If your reputation is based on cheap, good food and you lose the cheap your left with an average non-remarkable restaurant that no-one talks about.
- notyourday 9y ago
  > on cheap, good food The difference between good and excellent restaurant is larger than the difference between someone who has 1800 ELO and 2200 ELO rating in chess.
  - sharemywin 9y ago
    you want to do good in a restaurant. take the 10% franchises use for marketing and franchise fees and put it into loading your food up with more food or lower your prices. will you have a 5 star restaurant no. will you have one of those places with lines out the door probably.
    - notyourday 9y ago
      That's not the way it works, as so many shows on Food Network demonstrated.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

Freak_NL 9y ago

> What should I do? Doesn't that assume that profit maximization is the ultimate and only goal of every restaurant owner? Perhaps it is, I'm not familiar with San Francisco restaurants. But some might simply enjoy being able to offer excellent food at a comparatively low price simply because all their business, personal, and employee needs are met and rising prices could be detrimental to that balance. For example, if you enjoy seeing low-income families from your local neighbourhood eat at your place because you are affordable (not to mention healthy and delicious), then raising prices would drive them out, and you might be sad and disappointed, for whatever personal reason (i.e., your personal needs are no longer being met as neatly as before).

notyourday 9y ago
> Doesn't that assume that profit maximization is the ultimate and only goal of every restaurant owner? It is. Every single restaurant owner wants to make the maximum amount of money. That's why they open restaurants and don't go to community centers to feed less fortunate for free ( or for price below the cost ) > Perhaps it is, I'm not familiar with San Francisco restaurants. But some might simply enjoy being able to offer excellent food at a comparatively low price simply because all their business, personal, and employee needs are met and rising prices could be detrimental to that balance. For example, if you enjoy seeing low-income families from your local neighbourhood eat at your place because you are affordable (not to mention healthy and delicious), then raising prices would drive them out, and you might be sad and disappointed, for whatever personal reason (i.e., your personal needs are no longer being met as neatly as before). In that case they have a hobby they can practice in community centers and dare I say churches.
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  No it's not. My old boss used to own 2 restaurants/cafes, and ended up selling one, even though it was profitable, so that he could go back to basics and run just one restaurant, and being able to run things at ground level. If you've ever worked in hospitality, you'd find that a lot of owners, especially chefs who own their own restaurant, aren't in it for the money. They treat it as an art. It would be preposterous to say that every artist wants the maximum amount of money. It's not always about the money.

xg15 9y ago

So what about the SF residents who don't work in tech?

fennecfoxen 9y ago
You mean Oakland residents, right? :P
notyourday 9y ago
There are boatloads of good hole in a wall place in SF. Some of them are excellent, just not by the standards of the guide that should have been dropped into a dust bin of history years ago.

dagw 9y ago

People wait for hours for tables. What should I do? Or you could do what the restaurant down the road from me did when they found themselves in a similar situation. Buy out the place next door, build a huge outside patio area, quadruple the number of tables you have, have the quality of your food and service completely collapse under the strain of trying to serve this many guests and lose your reputation is a great restaurant.

notyourday 9y ago
That's the quickest way to go out of business.
- dagw 9y ago
  'Fortunately' they're in a fairly tourist dense area so they seem to have managed to limp along.
danieltillett 9y ago
Quality does not scale. If it did Walmart would be the biggest restaurant owner. I am actually surprised that more people don’t try to go micro size, but very high end. Two or three tables, but super high prices.

BoiledCabbage 9y ago

> Here's the simple truth: there should be no such thing as an excellent, inexpensive restaurant for more than a flash in a pan. It's incredible that you can state this even with tons of evidence to the contrary. You may want to rethink your assumptions or understanding of other people's thinking and motivations.

notyourday 9y ago
> It's incredible that you can state this even with tons of evidence to the contrary. You may want to rethink your assumptions or understanding of other people's thinking and motivations. Restaurant economy is local, just as salaries of software developers.

sharemywin 9y ago

The real world doesn't work that way. If your reputation is based on cheap, good food and you lose the cheap your left with an average non-remarkable restaurant that no-one talks about.

notyourday 9y ago
> on cheap, good food The difference between good and excellent restaurant is larger than the difference between someone who has 1800 ELO and 2200 ELO rating in chess.
- sharemywin 9y ago
  you want to do good in a restaurant. take the 10% franchises use for marketing and franchise fees and put it into loading your food up with more food or lower your prices. will you have a 5 star restaurant no. will you have one of those places with lines out the door probably.
  - notyourday 9y ago
    That's not the way it works, as so many shows on Food Network demonstrated.