Restaurants & rising costs

Nothing worse that someone who has forgotten where the came from.

" Folger’s and Maxwell House taste like swill when I make it at home in my coffee maker. However, at my former gym(RIP died December 2020-COVID casualty), they had a Bunn coffee maker with direct line to water and that thing made it taste okay. The secret is the hot temperature in the brewing."


So the secret is to get a Bunn in the oven?

Howie52
Always ask such questions with a fully straight face.

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Forcing a business to pay unsustainable wages and benefits is a loss for employees and not just the owners.

The business owner is responsible for hiring competent management. It is the supplier’s responsibility, including suppliers such as employee’s & union’s, to obtain maximum value for their product.

If the business management negotiates inappropriately payment for any product and subsequently goes bankrupt it is the owner’s and management’s responsibility, not the supplier’s.

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Howie!!!

I’m too old to have a Bunn in the oven. :slight_smile:

Lucky Dog

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pauleckler
Ribeye and beef stroganoff.

My solution is I just stocked my freezer with a hind quarter of beef. 185 lb hanging wt at $4.49/lb yielded 95 lb of steaks and roast, 30 lb ground beef, and 10 lb of soup bones. I calculate $7/lb of meat or $8/lb of steaks and roasts.

We’ve done the ‘bulk buy’ thing, too. Also ‘raised’ a whole steer in conjunction with another family. (He got named ‘Spencer’, but that’s another story.)

We’ve gotten some pretty good quality meat from our buys, but I could never really got rid of the nagging feeling that the butcher(s) didn’t help themselves to a chunk or two.

(Hey, how are you gonna miss this nice little rib eye, or two, or medium roast or ???)

No raw evidence, just nagging questions.

(I know, you’re supposed to “know your butcher”, “know your jeweler”… maybe I’m just too mistrustful)

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I know there are horror stories out there. The butcher buys low grade beef that no one else would want and sells it to you at full price. The butcher substitutes beef from their day old cooler collection that didn’t sell. Lots of ways to cheat.

As always you prefer to do business with people you know and are recommended by friends and neighbors.

And especially ones who deliver good product at fair prices. The ones that plan to stay in business and want your order next time.

Not an option for me–my only freezer is the one in my fridge. Also I don’t eat every part of a steer. I rarely buy beef other than chopmeat, chuck, or skirt steak.

Some places offer a 1/8th steer that will fit in the freezer of a refrigerator.

Some years ago my sister’s family got a quarter of beef and were careful not to eat all the steaks and roasts right away. They ended up running steak through the meat grinder because they had eaten all the ground beef and wanted hamburgers.

My solution is I just stocked my freezer with a hind quarter of beef. 185 lb hanging wt at $4.49/lb yielded 95 lb of steaks and roast, 30 lb ground beef, and 10 lb of soup bones. I calculate $7/lb of meat or $8/lb of steaks and roasts.

I got about 40 lbs of venison in the freezer. Only cost me about $100/lb.

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My solution is I just stocked my freezer with a hind quarter of beef. 185 lb hanging wt at $4.49/lb…

Our solution is not to have purchased (or eaten) any meat for almost half a century.

My favorite animal is steak.

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Some places offer a 1/8th steer that will fit in the freezer of a refrigerator.

But then where will my frozen pork/poultry/seafood/veggies/fruit/ICE CREAM go?!

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My fave might be bison burgers (I’ve never tried bison steak–it looks so lean, I’m not tempted to buy it). Or lamb chops. Or pulled pork.

Time to fix beef curry…

Workers get higher wages: Instant talk of how prices will go up and consumers will suffer.

Executives get higher pay/bonuses: Silence

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LD:

$3.35 for a cup of coffee? Why do people pay that?

We have never, ever bought coffees at Starbucks or anywhere like that. We make our coffee or tea at home. When we dine out, we usually just drink water with lemon with our food.

(shrug) Hey, I guess if people want to spend money on simple things like that, so be it!

Vermonter

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alstroemeria:

Our problem around here is that few decent, “middle grade” restaurants are even in business anymore – including Chinese. Some have shocked us by posting signs on the door on a typically busy Friday or Saturday (!) saying that they’re sorry but they are closed for the day due to lack of staff! Mind you, some are places that are paying in the teens now, too.

It will be interesting to see how all of this ends. I know many employers are finding it hard to get office staff to come back, too, so what will happen in downtown establishments – restaurants, bars, and other such places? If people don’t go back into the city to work, what happens to companies who must pay for office space, heat, AC, etc.? And nearby restaurants and such who depend on clients from work?

Again, it’s going to be interesting.

As retirees who don’t go out much, anyway, it’s not a big deal for us, but it IS frustrating when we drive to a well-known place only to find it closed on a usually busy weekend!

Vermonter

A place near me both where I work and live is charging $4 for bottomless iced teas. $4 for black iced tea.

I’ve watched the prices of eating out for lunch (most common for me) rise right to 27%, this looking through credit card bills and we typically order the same stuff. Our $25-ish lunch for two is now right about $31

Fortunately around here most restaurants survived.

The Golden Corral, which was tenuous, failed…and one or two others but all my favorites stayed open. Lots of take out orders saved them.

Yes, they are all short handed with help wanted signs.

Unfortunately, most are part time jobs…no more than 28 hours a week (at 30 hours you become a ‘full time’ employee with full time employee benefits like mandated sick leave, pregnancy’s leave, this leave, that leave leave, full health benefits, etc).

So you work morning shift or noon shift or evening shift- 4 or 5 hours a few nights a week. Not enough to live on. Folks who can find full time jobs take them. Loads of them around.

the Chinese Buffet, Longhorn Steak House, Salsa Tex Mex, Bella Italian, Joe’s Pasta Pizza, Scramblers Cafe, the Red Truck Inn…and others in my town get visits from me regularly. I eat out 5 nights a week, breakfast out weekends.

Prices up a bit but not too bad yet. It will get worse as prices rise everywhere. Gas $4/gal here now. Costco a bit less.

so it goes.

Spending some bucks after LBYM for decades.

t.

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It’s actually the family Asian restaurants here that adapted and survived. My favorite pan Asian (Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Korean) and my favorite Thai both get perfect scores for how they pivoted to flawless takeout with perfect little containers. Thai started an email list with monthly trivia, coupons and stories of what they were doing to survive and how they had new cleaning and distance standards, and then I would think “Thai sounds good. I have to help chef Tukki and get takeout!” The email list was genius marketing.

The ones that stumbled on takeout died. What we call “cheap Chinese” was fine. A brick oven Pizza place tried their hand at family pan lasagna it was meh. Died. American style sit down restaurants thinned way out. Bar-b-Q had long lines. It was all in how well they moved to or already knew takeout.

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