No restaurant is immune to the current economic climate. It’s neither hot nor cold but difficult to maintain a just right feeling. The biggest decision for a restaurateur or chef to figure out is what adjustments are possible without losing the whole enchilada.
In a high-priced restaurant, (translate: business lunch and dinner crowd in addition to strong independent dinner sales and private dining), those adjustments are ever more critical. Cutting too far back makes the guest fearful that quality has been sacrificed in the name of survival. Finding a strategy that communicates to the diner that we hear you is the winning way.
So much of that strategy is in place throughout the country. The New York Times dining blog first reported how quiet some restaurants have become. This week Thomas Keller’s famous New York outpost Per Se will begin serving what they call a “salon menu” during dinner in the 24-seat front lounge area. The 7-9 a la carte offerings will range in price from $24 to $46, a veritable bargain over the more extensive, expensive tasting menu, that often comes in at over $250 a person. Those expense account dinners may be going the way of the two-martini lunch. Remember those? It’s been a while.
The price is still not a bargain, but a taste of a very high-end restaurant that is responding to its customer’s needs. His other big-name restaurant, The French Laundry in Napa Valley, has been a chart-winner for years and may not be suffering the same pressure as his expensive location in the Time Warner Center in New York. Keller is considered the master of fine dining and attention to detail and a passionate chef. He will strive to find a harmonious solution to the current fear that grips the high-end dining market.
No one willingly surrenders.
Reality holds the strongest suit.
Strategy, Strategy « Allbeforecoffee’s Blog said
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