On 2019-01-22 4:21 p.m., Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 3:56:12 PM UTC-5, Bruce wrote:
>> On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 03:17:22 -0800 (PST), Cindy Hamilton

>>> Restaurant pricing is not driven by the cost of the raw materials.
>>
>> It's part of the equation.
>
> Not solely by the cost of the materials. Labor is huge, especially
> in high-end restaurants. Rent (wasn't the subject restaurant in
> Manhattan?) is also a biggie.

Yes, of course labour is a big factor, but cost of ingredients ranks up
there. When you get the dinners with the more expensive ingredients the
relative cost of those ingredients is reflected in the price. There is
no more work to cooking a basic steak dinner than there is to cooking a
burger, but the difference in price is a lot more than just the
difference in cost of ingredients.

There is a local restaurant I will not return to. The last time I went
there was about 15 years ago and at that time they were charging $14.95
for vegetable soup. It was not sitting on prime downtown real estate.
It was a winery restaurant in the middle of a vineyard. What the hell
could they have been putting into that soup that it would cost that
much? Their wines were all over prices too. They did not have a vast
cellar of imported and cellared wines. They sold only their own wines.