Dishing it Out - Restaurants in a Recession

Restaurants in a Recession

I noticed a large number of ads in today’s relish advertising restaurant specials, and I can’t help but think they’re motivated by the recession and what is traditionally a slower time of year.

I noticed them, too, when I was trolling around on a few websites to collect addresses and phone numbers for the restaurants I’m including in next week’s column about going out for a cheapskate’s Valentine’s Day. Stay tuned if you need some suggestions - it’ll run Feb. 5.

Back to the specials: Bleu’s got a three-course prix fixe menu for $28, and so does Ombu, for three dollars less (though it seems as if that’s only available from 5 to 6 pm Sunday to Thursday, and 5 to 5:30 pm on weekends). The menus are simple and straightforward, but sound like worth trying - she crab soup, pork tenderloin with a potato and leek cake and salmon with warm pecan vinaigrette are among the choices at Bleu.

Another recessionary special - the Downtown Partnership has banded some restaurants together to offer a “signature dish” at half off on Tuesday through the end of March. They call it a Gastronomic Recovery Plan. Cute, but will it help?

I wonder what’s the bigger success for restaurants: offering 50 percent off one dish one night a week for two months, or prix fixe menus. Or neither…maybe (surprise, surprise) it’s about the deliciousness of the food and the general vibe of a place. I hope so. One restaurant owner I think is overall doing things right told me yesterday that January has been a great month for him. Restaurateurs can be prone to exaggeration - is it the artist in (some of) them? But when I’ve driven past his place at night, it looks bustling.

Back to the main page.

By Laura Giovanelli on 01/29/2009 (11:59 am)

Comments

I think today’s diners are looking for a great value! Our local restaurant community will have to answer to these request and we will see if the are successful in implementing these specials.
I also believe that restaurants need to use the time to improve service, and improve quality in the kitchen now is not the time to make cheap changes in ingredients.

The small business sector will survive because it has always been the most resilient in the economy, benefiting from the lack of cumbersome fixed cost base that burdens large businesses and with little or no debt to service. In fact, it is widely believed that the recession will result in a larger number of business startup in the coming years as individuals stricken by the downturn resort to embarking on their postponed hidden desires to branch out on their own.
Just my two cents

Kyle Agha on 01/29/2009 (10:36 pm)