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Discendo Vox posted:All right then, a related question because I am a ball of privilege-aware neurosis; how annoying is it for me to eat out alone? If it's busy you're the god damned worst, if it's slow I don't care if you just get a half salad and take up an entire 4 top by yourself. As long as there are other open tables in their section servers don't usually give a poo poo, and the kitchen doesn't care at all about who sits where.
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Dec 8, 2015 08:53
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 23:05 |
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Discendo Vox posted:All right then, a related question because I am a ball of privilege-aware neurosis; how annoying is it for me to eat out alone? I go out and eat alone frequently. I do this once every week or so at a restaurant I have never been to. I also have regulars who come in and eat one of my four tops pretty regularly. Don't feel bad about it. Make sure you tip accordingly, everything is fine. I have done this with ordering 1 cocktail and a glass of wine, to ordering a 200$ bottle. Any way you cut it, order what you want, tip correctly, and don't eat the section longer than is due. Just so I don't seem insane, the reason I make an effort to eat alone is that it allows me to focus on the food. I have no distractions, it lets me see how the flow is, lets me see the wine list in its entirety and focus on the message as well as focusing on the service. Before I ever take friends to a place to eat, I eat there alone. Heck, I my best call party is a single dude who sometimes brings a friend or family member. He comes in for alone time and I make sure he gets it.
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Dec 8, 2015 09:37
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Mezzanon posted:Are you sure you're not just tipping out the kitchen? Which is also illegal, in most circumstances. No tip pooling with employees who are not customer facing and providing direct service, ie cooks/dishwashers/back of house, nor managers.
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Dec 8, 2015 10:24
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:How's your ticket avg? Ours is ~$28. 5th highest in company, and I raised prices through the FUCKIN ROOF foe next year. gently caress you, you're paying $23 for our goddamn local chicken, mothafuckas. that better be a whole loving chicken for $23, or you're a dick. a simple chicken entree over $20 is just a dick move. serve a smaller portion, or do whatever you need - but chicken should both be on restaurant menus, and be the affordable option. if your restaurant is a ~$25-35 entree price place, throw a dumb roast chicken thing on the menu for $13-16 for the poors, who would happily eat some well cooked chicken. Also strongly support the $10-13 'gourmet burger'. you still get to make money and deliver on your vision, and the customer gets food for not insane money. again, if you think you need to charge 23 dollars, readjust your portion size or whatever. serve a roasted leg quarter with some vegetables for $16. food cost has gotta be around $3-5 for that, and you hit your margins alright. 
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Dec 8, 2015 10:45
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It's late but basically gently caress the last page or so. Eat how you want where you want, charge what you want if you can, and gently caress off cheffy chef.
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Dec 8, 2015 12:19
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Like seriously where the hell do you get a chicken entree for $13? loving kidding me? Go back to your cubicle and open floor kitchen dude.
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Dec 8, 2015 12:21
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This guy, the ginger nerdy straight version of three olives, going on vacation for 3 months to Prague and Fuckoffistan, is mad at the industry thread for charging $13 for a chicken dinner.
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Dec 8, 2015 12:25
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mindphlux posted:that better be a whole loving chicken for $23, or you're a dick. I disagree. There doesn't need to be an affordable option. If your price range is 20-35 dollars per plate at your restaurant that's the range. if you don't want to spend 20+ dollars don't go there. Simple as that.
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Dec 8, 2015 13:37
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The Maestro posted:the ginger nerdy straight version of three olives 
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Dec 8, 2015 15:06
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mindphlux posted:that better be a whole loving chicken for $23, or you're a dick. Yeah, no. My menu, my prices. Not to mention I'm paying $6/lb for that chicken, and the dish is half a chicken. It's worth $23, you don't want it, then get a burg, reuben, or some other sandwich. You don't have to eat at my restaurant, but if you want quality dishes, you're going to pay for it. Also, no 'poors', as you put it, would be staying at our hotel when room rates are $140+ a night. Food cost on the chicken is right at 8 dollars with sides, but please continue to tell me how to run things.
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Dec 8, 2015 15:14
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As someone who constantly stays at nice hotels for work, a $25 chicken dish would cause me to chuckle a little as I wait for my cab to go literally anywhere else. The best thing about uber/lyft is that it frees me from the tyranny of hotel restaurants.
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Dec 8, 2015 15:43
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Context is everything. I'd gladly pay 30+ to eat another Hammersly's Chicken, but they closed and it is gone to the ether.
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Dec 8, 2015 15:50
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bongwizzard posted:As someone who constantly stays at nice hotels for work, a $25 chicken dish would cause me to chuckle a little as I wait for my cab to go literally anywhere else. The best thing about uber/lyft is that it frees me from the tyranny of hotel restaurants. Sure, but I'm using the exact same chicken that the hottest restaurant in town is using, and they charge 29 just for the breast and carolina gold rice. I've got the better dish, imo, I just don't have a pretentious 30 seat place where everyone wears denim.
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Dec 8, 2015 15:51
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Chicken is the basic bitch of meats and I cannot think of any preparation that makes it ever worth that much as a single serving and pricing it that high makes me kinda suspicious of other stuff. I do think there is a place for more simple and lower priced entrées, especially for places like hotels where you have a somewhat captive audience. I mostly travel alone but when I don't nicer places are a really hard sell to a lot of my coworkers unless there is something familiar and "reasonable" on the menu.
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Dec 8, 2015 16:28
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Regardless of anything else I think the idea of putting an entree that's half the price of everything else on the menu is pretty dumb.
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Dec 8, 2015 16:44
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Place I'm at now we do $24 for a half chicken entree, made with Mary's Chicken. Last place I was a chef at we did $24 for an 8oz Jidori chicken breast entree. Our flagship steak was a 16oz bone in ribeye for $45. Both these places are in San Luis Obispo, California. Bunnielab: what do you usually pay for dinner for one when you go out, and what do you get, a salad/app and an entree, just an entree? And what country/area is it in? pile of brown fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Dec 8, 2015 |
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Dec 8, 2015 16:46
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We're using Dewberry Hills Farms chicken. It's goddamn good chicken.
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Dec 8, 2015 16:49
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If I'm looking at a menu and everything but one item is in some elevated price range, whether that's $28-$38 or $45-$55, I'm not going to look at that one item and think "oh, phew, something affordable." The first thing I'm going to think is "well that can't be very good." Then, if I see someone else ordering it, let alone someone I'm with, I'd be wondering why they didn't just go to Ruby Tuesday's. (disclaimer: I like Ruby Tuesday's for what it is. Before we moved away my kid brother and I would hop over for late dinners. Not someplace I'd go on a date or treat my mother to, though, if that helps clarify my viewpoint.)
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Dec 8, 2015 17:07
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pile of brown posted:Bunnielab: what do you usually pay for dinner for one when you go out, and what do you get, a salad/app and an entree, just an entree? And what country/area is it in? I live in a burb of DC and travel to most major and secondary market cities pretty frequently. I almost always get an app and entree, usually with a drink or two. What I pay is all over the map but usually around the $40 per entree level is where I begin to suspect that I am paying more for the owner's rent then I am for an increase in food quality. However, part of my job is cost estimating and working with sales to figure out how to price stuff to make it sellable so I am pretty aware of the cost/overhead/profit margin/price relationship, which I know colors my opinion of stuff.
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Dec 8, 2015 17:28
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Somewhat in correllation to "how long can I sit": When a table is done eating, plates cleared, I offer dessert and this is when I usually ask "Would you like me to bring your check?". Most of the time this goes well, but occasionally people react like I just hit a 60-second timer on them being out the door or the bomb goes off. I try to read my tables, if they look like they're relaxed and very engaged with each other I won't offer the check; unfortunately this doesn't always work, because people are dumb and will ignore me and suddenly irritated that I didn't have a check on the table while their last bite of food was still making its way down their esophagus. How do you all handle this? Actually, I'd love to hear any tips and tricks other servers have for upselling and making people more relaxed. I'm good at my job, but I see no point in doing anything that I'm not constantly improving on.
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Dec 8, 2015 17:31
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When everything has been cleared I ask "anything else?" And most of the time they ask me for the check at that point. Of course I work in a diner so people's attitudes are different than someplace with tablecloths.
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Dec 8, 2015 17:38
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When lunch is underway I usually tuck the check on a corner of the table after entrees with something along the lines of "I hope you're in no hurry to get back to work, but just in case..." At all times I try to have as many entree (or later) checks on my person as I can so if someone asks I have it ready for them. If they respond well to "Can I pique an interest in any coffees, cordials, or desserts to round things out this <time of day>?" I just print out a new one after ringing those in. Then there's basic stuff like when they order a rum and coke, asking them if they have a rum preference, that kind of thing, of course too.
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Dec 8, 2015 18:42
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Trebuchet King posted:If I'm looking at a menu and everything but one item is in some elevated price range, whether that's $28-$38 or $45-$55, I'm not going to look at that one item and think "oh, phew, something affordable." The first thing I'm going to think is "well that can't be very good." Then, if I see someone else ordering it, let alone someone I'm with, I'd be wondering why they didn't just go to Ruby Tuesday's. I do kind of the opposite. If I see an entree priced significantly higher than everything else, I just assume that it's only there to make everything else look more reasonable and I start wondering how many racks of lamb or whatever they sell a night, how often the cooks actually make it and how long the half-cooked barley risotto that goes with it has been sitting in the back of the reach-in then I realize that I've been overthinking it and just order whatever I feel like.
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Dec 8, 2015 19:06
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Rockzilla posted:I do kind of the opposite. If I see an entree priced significantly higher than everything else, I just assume that it's only there to make everything else look more reasonable and I start wondering how many racks of lamb or whatever they sell a night, how often the cooks actually make it and how long the half-cooked barley risotto that goes with it has been sitting in the back of the reach-in then I realize that I've been overthinking it and just order whatever I feel like. Yeah, that's kind of the other end of the same thing. When there's one thing priced differently, whether lower or higher, it looks funny and people notice. What they think is going to be different based on the lower/higher side of things, but at the end of the day it just reinforces the need to have everything more or less in alignment.
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Dec 8, 2015 19:10
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The items on our menu that are much higher are the ones with the significantly higher base cost: Dover Sole, Bay Scallops, etc. Our seafood guy just quoted us at 45$ a pound on Bays. We could sell them for double our cost now and still sell out every week.
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Dec 8, 2015 19:40
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whee, survived the Dept. of Health's bureaucracy and got my license. I didn't think something could be more annoying than the DMV when it came to the bureaucratic aspect of it.
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Dec 8, 2015 21:08
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Trebuchet King posted:whee, survived the Dept. of Health's bureaucracy and got my license. I didn't think something could be more annoying than the DMV when it came to the bureaucratic aspect of it. Tell me more 
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Dec 8, 2015 21:32
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Yeah, no. My menu, my prices. Not to mention I'm paying $6/lb for that chicken, and the dish is half a chicken. It's worth $23, you don't want it, then get a burg, reuben, or some other sandwich. You don't have to eat at my restaurant, but if you want quality dishes, you're going to pay for it. alright fair enough, I forgot you worked in a hotel kitchen.
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Dec 8, 2015 21:46
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Shabadu posted:Context is everything. I'd gladly pay 30+ to eat another Hammersly's Chicken, but they closed and it is gone to the ether. This chicken?
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Dec 8, 2015 23:34
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Yes, that transcendent roast chicken. My home oven is a pile of trash that can't get to correct temps so all of my attempts at it have failed.
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Dec 9, 2015 01:32
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http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/one-dish-at-the-nomad/?_r=0 Not this one, obvi, but at my restaurant we made a killer roast chicken that was our "safe" dish. Beer brined, roasted at 300 til fully cooked, then broken down. To order, it'd go into a 500 degree convection with a ladle of rich stock, some hunks of butter, and rosemary. Ten minutes later exactly, the skin is deep brown and crisp, the meat is buttery/herby/moist, and then we'd typically serve it with like local baby kale/mustard/collards and benton's bacon, some awesome mash, and garlicky sauce. Simple, straightforward, but definitely worth the low-mid $20s we charged for it.
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Dec 9, 2015 15:53
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Shabadu posted:The items on our menu that are much higher are the ones with the significantly higher base cost: Dover Sole, Bay Scallops, etc. Our seafood guy just quoted us at 45$ a pound on Bays. We could sell them for double our cost now and still sell out every week. Bay scallops like those tiny, lovely scallops that are the scallop version of bay shrimp? I was paying mid 20s for u10 dry pack diver scallops, are you in a seafood desert?
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Dec 10, 2015 17:35
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Bay Scallops are the tiny incredibly sweet and tender ones caught earlier that day/yesterday off Nantucket. They're a delicacy in New England and supply is so low even though the commercial season started Nov 1.
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Dec 10, 2015 18:42
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On the left coast I've only seen them sold iqf for seafood filler in stuff like cioppino or chopped up in mediocre sushi places for scallop brulee on top of rolls
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Dec 10, 2015 20:57
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pile of brown posted:On the left coast I've only seen them sold iqf for seafood filler in stuff like cioppino or chopped up in mediocre sushi places for scallop brulee on top of rolls Pretty much this
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Dec 10, 2015 23:56
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Coming off the Peconic bay this time of year they're the tits. YMMV.
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Dec 11, 2015 09:35
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I hate customers so much, gently caress the holiday season, kill everyone
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Dec 11, 2015 09:45
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WanderingMinstrel I posted:I hate customers so much, gently caress the holiday season, kill everyone you sound like you get down
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Dec 11, 2015 11:45
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Yeah, no. My menu, my prices. Not to mention I'm paying $6/lb for that chicken, and the dish is half a chicken. It's worth $23, you don't want it, then get a burg, reuben, or some other sandwich. You don't have to eat at my restaurant, but if you want quality dishes, you're going to pay for it. I've had CDC's chicken, I wouldn't blink at this cost. Also, when I take the Waifu out to dinner. I want to eat w/o the Poors. She hates crowds and we both enjoy fine dining. Thank you CDC for helping make a better place in the world for people to eat.
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Dec 11, 2015 15:03
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 23:05 |
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Bourgeoisie trap sprung.
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Dec 11, 2015 18:45
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