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San Francisco's Cost of Living is even Affecting Restaurant Protocol


DaveO

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On 6/25/2018 at 3:50 PM, DaveO said:

San Francisco is so expensive servers are priced out of the housing market:  Hence full service restaurants and no wait staff.

"San Francisco Restaurants Can't Afford Waiters. So They're Putting Diners To Work" by Emily Badget on mobile.nytimes.com

The Pupatella model. Really - this is exactly what they do at Pupatella (if you're lucky an employee will point out an open table, but you can't count on it - everything's the same, from getting your own water, to getting another glass of wine, to busing your own table - Pupatella does, however, have runners that find the little plastic "sandwich-sign" number you've taken at the counter where you ordered). 

Pupatella (as well as the San Francisco example) may have pioneered the "serverless model," but restaurants - and I'm thinking of two DC-area restaurants in particular - pioneered not only the "chef-less" concept, but also the "free-PR" concept (and guess who their "tool" for free PR was?) 🤔 Well, take what you can get, I suppose. Anyway, the "chef-less" model demands a strong figurehead as owner who essentially designates a line cook to be the "chef," although doesn't necessarily advertise it as such - the first time I noticed it, I was amazed, but the truth is: Even though someone obviously leads the kitchen at any given moment, a restaurant can save itself six figures a year by not being "chef-driven," even though the general public thinks it is. And that line-cook chef? The name is, invariably, Latino (a separate issue, but certainly tangential to other conversations we've had going on here).

Truth is, regarding GM and Chef de Cuisine, an active owner who knows something about food can eliminate both positions, and serve as owner, GM, and even Chef de Cuisine at a very high level, although obviously it would be impossible to work the line during rush hour. This leaves these types of restaurants with *extremely* low salary costs - the primary expenses are food/beverage costs, rent, equipment, utilities, etc, and you can bet your bottom dollar that any of these restaurants in DC would have been a strong "NO!" on Proposition 77 - which bring us to the free-PR aspect, now known as "social media."

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Just to frame things:

I live in one of the more desirable parts of town in a rent-controlled apartment. The flat above us rents for at least $6,000/month and is divided between three people, all of whom work for tech companies. I know that one of them is employed by Google.

My salary is wonderful compared to when I was in NYC, but even with my income, there's little chance I could get my own place in San Francisco unless I won the lottery. So given those data points, you can imagine what things are like on the lower end of the scale.

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8 hours ago, TrelayneNYC said:

Just to frame things:

I live in one of the more desirable parts of town in a rent-controlled apartment. The flat above us rents for at least $6,000/month and is divided between three people, all of whom work for tech companies. I know that one of them is employed by Google.

My salary is wonderful compared to when I was in NYC, but even with my income, there's little chance I could get my own place in San Francisco unless I won the lottery. So given those data points, you can imagine what things are like on the lower end of the scale.

My reference above erroneously referenced high housing costs as the main focus of the article.  It’s not.  The article is primarily  focused on overall high costs of running a restaurant with a trend and move to higher end better quality restaurants moving to self serve and eliminating FOH staff.

Coincidentally I had just spoken with a DC FOH person active in the recent DC tipped wages election (on the NO side).  His fast description:  “It’s about jobs!”

The trend to finer dining self serve eliminates FOH staff and jobs.  

Many links in the article to other restaurants incorporating this trend and other cities where it is occurring.  I assume it will spread in DC. 

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On 7/4/2018 at 2:53 AM, DaveO said:

My reference above erroneously referenced high housing costs as the main focus of the article.  It’s not.  The article is primarily  focused on overall high costs of running a restaurant with a trend and move to higher end better quality restaurants moving to self serve and eliminating FOH staff.

Coincidentally I had just spoken with a DC FOH person active in the recent DC tipped wages election (on the NO side).  His fast description:  “It’s about jobs!”

The trend to finer dining self serve eliminates FOH staff and jobs.  

Many links in the article to other restaurants incorporating this trend and other cities where it is occurring.  I assume it will spread in DC. 

I understood that. I was just providing a frame of reference since most of you don't live here.

Many thanks.

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12 hours ago, TrelayneNYC said:

I understood that. I was just providing a frame of reference since most of you don't live here.

Many thanks.

Have you dined at any of the "finer dining" serve yourself restaurants?  If so, any reaction?

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48 minutes ago, DaveO said:

Have you dined at any of the "finer dining" serve yourself restaurants?  If so, any reaction?

Souvla is a great lunch place that we occasionally go to, although I've ordered from there more than dined there.

I don't really think of it as "fine dining" though. For me, that's at a level of quality akin to Blue Hill or Gramercy Tavern in NYC, or Minibar in DC which is miles beyond.

Souvla is more like 4505 Burgers and BBQ in terms of ambiance and food (quality, technical execution and attention to detail).

 

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3 hours ago, TrelayneNYC said:

Souvla is a great lunch place that we occasionally go to, although I've ordered from there more than dined there.

I don't really think of it as "fine dining" though. For me, that's at a level of quality akin to Blue Hill or Gramercy Tavern in NYC, or Minibar in DC which is miles beyond.

Souvla is more like 4505 Burgers and BBQ in terms of ambiance and food (quality, technical execution and attention to detail).

Is 4505 Burgers and BBQ also self serve/order at the register, possibly pick it up yourself or food runners deliver the food. 

Okay:  I like your description:  quality, technical execution and attention to detail.  Clearly not fine dining.  But excellent food in a more casual atmosphere---where FOH staff are missing. 

That was the point of the article.  It struck a chord with me here in DC as the city just went through a vote on raising the minimum tipped wage gradually over time.  It was discussed extensively by participants in this forum in this thread.

Many restaurateurs were against it, but also a significant number of FOH staff were active, vocal, and worked to defeat the initiative.  It passed.

I have a strong familiarity with FOH staff in a general sense (see my sig--most years we are able to track and record somewhere around 1,000 bartending grads landing bartending jobs in DC its suburbs and elsewhere. ).  As much as we track from employers and grads we miss a lot.  To the extent I spoke with FOH staff in DC they were against it....though clearly there were FOH staff for it.  (There was very extensive coverage on the issue in DC's City Paper plus other local press.)   The very last discussion I had on the topic with a DC FOH staffer who was active against the initiative, (the conversation was after the vote).  He was abundantly clear.  His efforts and those of like minded FOH activists on the issue were entirely because of jobs.

The NYTimes article in the OT was timely relative to the DC vote.  It too was about FOH jobs. 

Frankly none of this bodes well for FOH staffers IMHO.  There are forces at work coming from one angle or the other that are eliminating jobs.  Not all of them, but some of them.  The world keeps changing.

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2 hours ago, DaveO said:

Is 4505 Burgers and BBQ also self serve/order at the register, possibly pick it up yourself or food runners deliver the food. 

Okay:  I like your description:  quality, technical execution and attention to detail.  Clearly not fine dining.  But excellent food in a more casual atmosphere---where FOH staff are missing. 

That was the point of the article.  It struck a chord with me here in DC as the city just went through a vote on raising the minimum tipped wage gradually over time.  It was discussed extensively by participants in this forum in this thread.

Many restaurateurs were against it, but also a significant number of FOH staff were active, vocal, and worked to defeat the initiative.  It passed.

I have a strong familiarity with FOH staff in a general sense (see my sig--most years we are able to track and record somewhere around 1,000 bartending grads landing bartending jobs in DC its suburbs and elsewhere. ).  As much as we track from employers and grads we miss a lot.  To the extent I spoke with FOH staff in DC they were against it....though clearly there were FOH staff for it.  (There was very extensive coverage on the issue in DC's City Paper plus other local press.)   The very last discussion I had on the topic with a DC FOH staffer who was active against the initiative, (the conversation was after the vote).  He was abundantly clear.  His efforts and those of like minded FOH activists on the issue were entirely because of jobs.

The NYTimes article in the OT was timely relative to the DC vote.  It too was about FOH jobs. 

Frankly none of this bodes well for FOH staffers IMHO.  There are forces at work coming from one angle or the other that are eliminating jobs.  Not all of them, but some of them.  The world keeps changing.

You order at the register, take your drinks (and dessert) to your table and a runner serves the food. Your utensils are in a wire mesh container, and your condiments are in a box. It's really casual and not fine dining at all. 

Souvla is a slightly more upscale version of 4505 Burgers & BBQ but not by much.

 

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