Upscale restaurants are downscaling

[Goldy1]

I live in metro Detroit and we have had quite a few upscale places open the past year , and the newspaper says they are doing well. People need to eat. However, I have seen a couple very upscale places totally close. One of the local Italian places becam emore casual and even attatched the name cafe to it. They run specials like half off pizza days.
I was surprised the entertainemnt book has gotten worse;not as many buy one get on ebut mostly $10 off $40 coupons etc. or worse ie must buy 2 drinks.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We were in vermont and in the town we stayed at the B and B the owner said 3 restaurants within the last month closed. They were losing business fast. Less tourism and less eating out period. Even though prices were "reasonable."

My DH might grill this week with temps hitting 45 to 50. It definitely is cabin fever.

[ladydii]

Grilling and Chilling

I got a chuckle out of this. I am in Calgary, Canada. We definitely get winter here and we grill on the deck all year long. Now it is only a step from our dining room doors but we love to eat grilled food. Many years ago it became a tradition in our home to grill burgers Christmas Eve. One year it was 30 below and I suggested to my adult children that perhaps we should do something else this year. You would have thought I was the Grinch! Needless to say Mom made her special 1/2 lb. burgers.
Dianne

[LivingAlmostLarge]

ladyii, how do you grill in Calgary? My in-laws live even farther north and they don't.

For us it's the snow and gross outside. I know in Calgary it doesn't dump like here. They were wimps complaining about 8 inches when just the other day we got another 15" and that's not the worse dump this year. It's the amount and slushiness of it all. Yuck.

[Confetti]

I work at a restaurant that is as upscale as it gets in my rural town - linen table cloths and napkins, wine service, etc. I do the books so I know how the business is going. I would say it's been way down over the past year and continues to stink in general. It's expensive (by local standards) to have a wedding reception at our place, and the number of bookings for this season is way down. We haven't raised prices with our latest menu and you definitely don't leave our place hungry because our portions are huge. We have been trying to cut in other places. Despite our efforts, things don't look too good at all, and I'm not sure how much longer the owner can keep up the pace of barely covering overhead and sometimes not covering it. Our county has the highest unemployment rate in the state at 11%. I'm just thankful to have a job, even if it's tenuous at best.

I also feel I have to comment on dining out in general. I have been in the restaurant business in one capacity or another for over 20 years. I see people spend so much money on one meal that it makes me ill. That $60 or $100 would be enough to feed my family at home for a very long time. I eat out rarely myself. But you all keep going out and supporting me, k?

[Bernz]

Just heard from radio today that Bennigans will be re-opening 5 of their restaurants in the Chicagoland area. I remember they closed all of their restaurants few months back. Not really sure what's going on with them.

[blankcheck]

Wow, now I feel embarrassed that I like all of the places described so far. Well, actually, not the places, just the things on the menu I know I like. That's my only goal for a restaurant. If I can order one thing, get it consistently done a certain way, and pay an expected price, I don't care if it's a Manhattan upscale or a Burger King, you will see me again...

...some day, because we usually cook for ourselves every day.