Trends That Need to End

Pancakes, waffles, eggs, steaks, baked potatos, smoothies, coffee, etc. A lot of food on restaurant menus are easy to prepare. Why offer these? Cuz diners want them. And if eatery A doesn’t offer a certain dish while eatery B does…

I hear you . . . but:
That time was about 20+ years ago.
I liked being able to get turnt on less than $40, too. But those cocktails sucked and even good liquor stores would have looked askance if you inquired about amari or Japanese whiskey. Asking about bitters got you Angostura, maybe Peychauds if you were lucky.
Also, I’m not in college anyone so my idea of a cocktail is no longer a kamikaze or cold gin masquerading as a martini.
Things are so much better now.

I agree that things are better with regard to the variety of top shelf liquor available in bars and restaurants. And I’m not bemoaning the existence of the “cocktail program” per se - it’s nice to see some creativity in drinks as well as food. But I don’t always want a buffet in a glass. And a bar that serves those - and charges accordingly - is also likely to raise its drink prices across the board, even for simple drinks like my usual choice, a Hendricks martini. Almost as if you’re paying an entertainment charge just for walking in.

We have four restaurants in the Lake Tahoe area owned by the same person. They cater hugely to tourists. We ate at one recently. We were having wine but the cocktail menu had no prices on it. I asked why and the server said it was ‘classy.’ I politely informed him otherwise.

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I hear you . . . and thank you!
Your Hendricks martini is certainly overpriced. The higher profit margin allows me to pay a bit less for my mote complex cocktail.
Agree that sometimes you just want simple. My basic is a Manhattan. It can be annoying to pay >$14 for those. These days I tend to avoid those based on QPR.

Yikes! Did Guy Fieri write that, with help from one of the minor Kardashians?

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Well that’s certainly a decent business model if that’s what you want to do.

I owned a business for 20 years (initially gift products, then kitchen textiles) and we tried the approach of following trends. We found that it works great for short term profits, but most trends burn out pretty fast and then you have to search for the next hot thing and hope you hit it again and that your customers will want that next thing. With a restaurant you can take that item off your menu w/ minimal financial loss as long as your business brand isn’t based around that no longer popular item. For us, finding/maintianing our own “voice” and creative vision was a much better business model for longevity.

I hope this trend doesn’t die, $10 poke bowls are awesome.

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