On Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 7:08:04 PM UTC-5, Dave Smith wrote:
> 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.

"If I'm paying a lot for it, it must be really good." A lot of people
think that way. The "posh" factor. Is a Rolex really better than a
Timex? Is it 1000 times better?

Cindy Hamilton