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Unkempt posted:I'm just amazed they used 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' because I didn't think anyone in America knew that song. I did a double take at that. Pub Rock isn't something you really hear outside of, well, the pub.
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Jul 26, 2023 02:47
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Jeremy has an amazing ability to look like he has no chin while actually having an amazing jawline at the same time
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Jul 26, 2023 02:54
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I've already given my opinion on the season and such, and Claire I mostly agree on but I understand what I think they were trying to explore with Carmy's priorities. One thing that irks me though is why is he even feeling that pressured? She's a nurse right, it's a very demanding job, they even discuss how they both have hard jobs that demand a lot of time from them. So where's the pressure? You'd collectively have like 2 days a week to maybe see one another given your schedules, seems like it might be a burden if she worked PT at a coffee shop, but she's a busy accomplished medical practioner. You'd think they both be very understanding.
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Jul 26, 2023 19:30
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Just finished watching both seasons over the last couple weeks. Great show, and kind of surprised they dumped the second season all at once. I think I'll probably take a hot take, the s2 finale was more stressful to me than the Christmas episode. Also, s2 finale had the most devastating text message reveal since episode 2 of Station Eleven.
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Jul 27, 2023 01:21
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Binged this all over the past week since my coworkers won't stop talking about it. I liked S1 a lot more than S2, though the seven fishes episode was great. The new restaurant seems really uninspired to me, and too many of the character arcs were too compressed and I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Would a restaurant really pay for Marcus to go to Copenhagen, or pay for Tina's training? The cicero character seems too convenient a source for money, etc. Also, I would go to The Beef, but I wouldn't go to The Bear. They should have paid cicero the money back and cleaned up their act at The Beef without doing a big remodel biceps crimes fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 02:07
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This show has taught me that the pre-requisites for fine dining apparently are: 1. A meal can only take up 1/12th the area of the plate at most. 2. Drizzle drizzled on everything.
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Jul 31, 2023 02:31
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biceps crimes posted:Also, I would go to The Beef, but I wouldn't go to The Bear. FuriousGeorge posted:This show has taught me that the pre-requisites for fine dining apparently are:
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Jul 31, 2023 02:37
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biceps crimes posted:The cicero character seems too convenient a source for money He's a loan shark / tied in with organized crime. This happens more often with restaurants than you'd think.
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Jul 31, 2023 02:41
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ruddiger posted:All the research in the show went only into how abusive high end restaurant kitchens are. Well except the staging part. If anything they portray it in a positive light.
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Jul 31, 2023 02:44
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I don't know it's convenient that they're in debt to a mobster. That seems decidedly inconvenient.
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Jul 31, 2023 02:53
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LividLiquid posted:I don't know it's convenient that they're in debt to a mobster. love when the mobster is a family friend, doesn't threaten physical violence, agrees to my terms, doesn't charge interest and is genuinely supportive
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Jul 31, 2023 03:01
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He gets the building that's worth far more than their restaurant if they don't pay him back in full in a super unreasonable time frame, so the most important things you said don't apply even slightly.
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Jul 31, 2023 03:06
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They should've gone for a more realistic route and had a bank in the year 2023 approve a sizable loan to a penniless chef so he can open a new restaurant in an area where many of them are closing.
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Jul 31, 2023 03:09
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biceps crimes posted:love when the mobster is a family friend, doesn't threaten physical violence, agrees to my terms, doesn't charge interest and is genuinely supportive I'm just going to quote myself from earlier in the thread: Timby posted:It's my last point that I think is going to rear its head in a hypothetical season 3. Carmy's getting loan-sharked to hell and back by Jimmy Cicero and it is absolutely going to come back to bite him in the rear end; there's no way The Bear is going to have $500,000 in liquid cash sitting around to pay the mob back within fifteen months. They literally lose the restaurant and the property if they don't pay back an insane amount of money in a wildly unrealistic timeframe.
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Jul 31, 2023 03:28
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it'll be fine
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Jul 31, 2023 03:48
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IRL do chefs just declare bankruptcy when that happens but use the prestige they build up for better jobs/better loans?
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Jul 31, 2023 04:30
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CatstropheWaitress posted:IRL do chefs just declare bankruptcy when that happens but use the prestige they build up for better jobs/better loans? Most chefs do not own their restaurants.
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Jul 31, 2023 05:03
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LividLiquid posted:The Beef is still there. So many people missed this that I don't think they did a good enough job explaining it. The sit-down section is the new stuff. The old stuff is the window. They show the window a few times and I think they explained it maybe once? I suspect if they'd may head some signs around it (like I'd expect a beef window to have) it would've been more obvious
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Jul 31, 2023 12:50
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Billionares financing prestige restaurants for clout is one of the cornerstones of the industry.
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Jul 31, 2023 13:49
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FuriousGeorge posted:This show has taught me that the pre-requisites for fine dining apparently are: my favourite thing is they've not shown the foam-everything thing that I saw taking over fine dining again the last few years
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Jul 31, 2023 15:45
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Timby posted:I'm just going to quote myself from earlier in the thread: As someone who actually kept books for a semi popular restaurant 1. The restaurant would pull in about 2.2mil anually 2. Margins were about 94% after everything was paid for (food, cooks, building, maintenance, etc.) 3. The owner brought home about 125k a year 4. It was about 30% liquid cash 5. He complained about losing 20% to taxes It would take about 5 years or less for a semi-popular highway restaurant to pay back the loan. The Bear is a walkable fine dining area. He's making that money back for his uncle in less time.
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Jul 31, 2023 18:24
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I would unironically like to learn more about bookkeeping in restaurants and what a lot of them look like outside of "in the red and barely afloat, going under in 3 years"
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Jul 31, 2023 19:05
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I can’t believe this dramatised television show isn’t totally realistic. I hope somebody got fired for THOSE blunders
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Jul 31, 2023 19:22
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Well, from the country/city club world, we lose money on every event and meal we serve. We're entirely kept afloat on our exlucisvity and dues and initiation fee. It's also why we can afford to be relatively stable and keep 40 hour weeks.
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Jul 31, 2023 19:28
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30% or less in food cost (Inc liquor), aim for 26% if you're mid expansion and can manage a 26% labour cost or something around there. You sell 10k in food let's hope you spent 3k or less, same principal with labour hours paid compared to time in service. If you can hit those margins you're laughing, many places struggle to get them that low and include decent food quality, consistency, and service so often you gotta figure out where you're taking the hit. First season was limited menu and hours to help put a dent in their costs, which apparently wasn't working. The real thorn in my pawn regarding real life logistic of that restaurant is that if the first time you tried third-part ordering you accidentally left the tablet on and took on way more orders than they could possibly make (first season somewhere) that implied to me the demand for The Beef was much greater than they could supply, so I'm not sure why they would t have taken that money and dialed in the original model for a year or two. I guess they wanted.to go big or go home but based on that string of orders they should have been able to dig out of some debt
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Jul 31, 2023 19:28
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Faucet Drinker posted:The real thorn in my pawn regarding real life logistic of that restaurant is that if the first time you tried third-part ordering you accidentally left the tablet on and took on way more orders than they could possibly make (first season somewhere) that implied to me the demand for The Beef was much greater than they could supply, so I'm not sure why they would t have taken that money and dialed in the original model for a year or two. IIRC that surge of demand happened because Syd gave away the fancy dish she was workshopping to a random diner after Carmy spiked it, and that diner happened to be a food critic. The subsequent glowing review pissed Carmy off bc he didn't think they were ready for that level of attention yet. It didn't necessarily reflect demand for The Beef
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Jul 31, 2023 19:33
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Oh right! Thanks for clearing that up.
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Jul 31, 2023 19:36
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Shabadu posted:Well, from the country/city club world, we lose money on every event and meal we serve. We're entirely kept afloat on our exlucisvity and dues and initiation fee. It's also why we can afford to be relatively stable and keep 40 hour weeks. The restaurant business has poo poo margins, but they make it all up selling booze, for which the margins are loving bananas. You buy two drinks and you already paid for the whole-rear end bottle.
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Jul 31, 2023 21:29
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Shabadu posted:Well, from the country/city club world, we lose money on every event and meal we serve. We're entirely kept afloat on our exlucisvity and dues and initiation fee. It's also why we can afford to be relatively stable and keep 40 hour weeks. Didn't realise it was full on losses for food. the place I used to work had fairly expensive meals, but I guess it depends on the model. This place was extremely rare rented out for events. Faucet Drinker posted:30% or less in food cost (Inc liquor), aim for 26% if you're mid expansion and can manage a 26% labour cost or something around there. You sell 10k in food let's hope you spent 3k or less, same principal with labour hours paid compared to time in service. If you can hit those margins you're laughing, many places struggle to get them that low and include decent food quality, consistency, and service so often you gotta figure out where you're taking the hit. I thought the margins on liquor were massive and way better than food, or does that only apply to bars? If say you're at 5% profit on something how much of the 95% cost divvied up between ingredients/labour/rent/maintenance debts kind of stuff?
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Jul 31, 2023 22:07
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The margins on alcohol are always good.
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Jul 31, 2023 22:09
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ilmucche posted:
Margins are indeed good on liquor, what I mentioned was more of a house operation. You could run lower cost on liquor and higher on food and still come in under 30%, it depends on the establishment. They typically easily cover the cost of making the drink but there's more to consider than simply liquor cost <> menu price. If I make you a cocktail I've generated several dishes, which involves labour and chemical to resolve, labour to make the drink, have prepped ingredients, etc. It's pretty much a drop in the bucket compared to the mark up, especially when compared to food service costs, but it's not simply a direct mark up and easy profits. Thank God beyond open kegs and wine bottles that stuff doesn't go bad. Regarding the hypothetical 95% cost: yes. That's why the last 5% is the only thing considered profit. Tenant/property cost, water/hydro, ingredients, labour, chemicals, repairs, smallwares, paper goods, the variety of prep, execution, and maintenance labour. It's a lot more expensive than it seems. I manage in a fairly recent restaurant built from the ground up and due to covid and generally not hitting projection, andI rising ingredients cost our prices have had to be raised several times and at the rate we are moving it will be 21 years before the mortgage has paid for itself. This is why so many kitchens are dirty, cause if you can operate at the same profit margins and reduce labour costs by limiting maintenance, you're seeing more revenue. Not wise ime, as the bill from that fryer fire is going to empty it right back out and then some. And don't even get me started on equipment maintenance, trades people are great but drat if they are cheap. Faucet Drinker fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 22:46
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You also need to put a shitload of cash away for rainy days, 'cause all it takes is something like construction on your block or a diet fad and you're hosed for six months. A lot of just-hanging-on bars go out of business in the period between New Years Day and St. Paddy's Day because everybody's still reeling from spending so much at the end of the year on Christmas and such and have made New Years resolutions besides and if you haven't squirreled away enough cash to operate at a huge loss for two-and-a-half months, you're hosed.
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Aug 1, 2023 01:02
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Part of the constitution where I work locks the upcharge on wine to 2x buying price, which is Absolutely Insane. We're talking first growths for 150 a bottle insanity, all because we charge dues. No such clause exists for the liquor we sell, so an $18 bottle of titos we get from distributors gets sold for approximately $200 worth of individual pours.
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Aug 1, 2023 17:02
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I just wanna say, I find a lot of the complaints about Claire's character being unrealistic kind of funny, when a twitter search for "carmie the bear" will lead to an endless list of women saying "okay but I can fix him" A bit one dimensional? Sure I can get that but it's still (apparently) pretty realistic lol.
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Aug 1, 2023 22:47
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Orange Crush Rush posted:I just wanna say, I find a lot of the complaints about Claire's character being unrealistic kind of funny, when a twitter search for "carmie the bear" will lead to an endless list of women saying "okay but I can fix him" Yes, 100%. Most straight women don't have a direct cool-girl indie pixie love interest equivalent, they have its inverse and Carmy is that: a brooding, broken, slightly antisocial but secretly vulnerable sad boy with expectant puppy eyes who wants so badly to love someone but nobody has broken through his trauma-hardened defenses. He's Kylo Ren and Draco Malfoy and most YA vampires, the Depressive Demon Nightmare Boy, just for an older and more up-market indie consumer.
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Aug 2, 2023 01:07
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Oh Carm was definitely designed in a lab by a team of scientists to be as attractive to women as possible. It’s actually not weird that the supermodel doctor would fall in love with him. Most people just wish she could have more characterization while doing so. I think my main issue with the plot is I know that the show and the writers are more than capable of crafting a very interesting and well rounded character for her, but they didn’t want to tell that story this season. Hopefully she sticks around and they get that chance.
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Aug 2, 2023 01:15
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Recently watched the Rental and lmao at Lip getting type cast as the poster boy of an unhinged abuser.
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Aug 2, 2023 02:42
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ilmucche posted:I thought the margins on liquor were massive and way better than food, or does that only apply to bars? If say you're at 5% profit on something how much of the 95% cost divvied up between ingredients/labour/rent/maintenance debts kind of stuff? Liquor, depending on the price point of the restaurant, is usually 3x-10x original cost all the way to whatever clubs and fine dining want to charge. So like at Applebees you expect to pay less so they charge you 6 dollars for a LIT made with bottom shelf liquor that probably cost around 2 dollars to buy wholesale. A casual dining restaurant will use the same liquor and charge 10 dollars both because they need to make up on margins that isn't available in a non corporate structure and because customers expect drinks to be more expensive. The bar would want to get 120ish beers out of a keg. A bud light keg would run 150ish so you'd want to sell the beers for at least four dollars due to spillage/customers sending the beer back/etc. Lease + insurance+ maintenance at the restaurant was about 200k a year. Labour was always around 30-40% depending on chef, dish, and hostess count. Food cost is about 40-50% depending on what was being sold. Dairy and fish cost the most, vegetables are just a pain in the rear end because they can come in ugly/rotten but not too expensive, meat cost a lot but could be frozen for a while, grains and soda are dirt cheap, fruits pretty expensive. All those costs are why running a restaurant is expensive and fickle. Car traffic is way less reliable than foot traffic and since America is super spaced out with tons of competition you can have insane busy days and completely barren off days. Those off days can completely sink a business between not selling perishable food and having to buy it all over again. That's not to mention having a flexible staff that sometimes requires a lot of people working and sometimes has them sitting around doing nothing. We'd have eleven servers on a Saturday night for 50ish tables (4-5 tables is around the max you should give a waiter since it's like spinning plates) making 2.14 an hour and that ate up 200ish dollars a night. Not a lot but it's about 30k dollars a year to cover weekends and another 20kish for the week. Labor was around 700-800k a year and servers made up 10% of that, if they were paid 15 an hour they'd be costing the restaurant around 140k a year instead which would essentially be all the owner's profits. That's why paying waitstaff over the tipping method exists. People expect a burger at a casual restaurant to be around 10-13 dollars which is subsidized by the waitstaff being cheap. Food cost for paying waitstaff would go up by 10-20% to cover it which is enough to sink a business when other restaurants offer a similar product for cheaper on lesser paid waitstaff. It's all matchsticks ready to fall down at any second but it employees a ton of people and sometimes restaurants strike it big. The true American Dream. Doltos fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Aug 2, 2023 |
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Aug 2, 2023 04:32
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My takeaway from all this is I’m ripping off my favorite restaurants when I dine there without buying any drinks
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Aug 2, 2023 04:57
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This was a really interesting post. Thanks! I guess the thing I heard about the weekends being full is fine and expected, but it's the midweek that can sink your restaurant is true? It sounds like restaurants are almost forced into being open (nearly) every day to avoid wasting of food
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Aug 2, 2023 08:47
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