Prix Fixe
Jim Fiala is a chef, not a marketer. Or so we thought. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Crossing, he rolled the price of his four-course prix fixe (it’s pree-feeks) dinner back to the opening-day price of $25—and kept it there, every night, for the entire month of April. There were those who thought he’d lost his mind. The bargain-hunters would swarm. Costs would soar. It would be ugly indeed. After the first night, he told his wife, “I’ll see you in May.”
But on May 1, after the dust settled and the numbers were crunched, Fiala decided to continue the program—every night of every month—and immediately start it at his other two restaurants, Liluma and Acero. What was going on here?
“That move revolutionized my business—and maybe dining in St. Louis,” says Fiala. “I was as surprised as anyone else. Yes, my check average went down, but strangely, so did my food cost, and my customer count skyrocketed. It was that cheaper price point that opened the door to a lot of new people. Twenty-five dollars did it … That’s the price.”
Restaurant owners have used prix fixe menus for years, but finding the right price-to-value point is the secret. Downtown Restaurant Week, wisely scheduled during the slow month of August for the past four years, touts three courses for $25 at 25 restaurants, yet none of the group has made the practice permanent. Compare this to Café Provençal in Kirkwood, where a prix fixe menu (currently $30 for three courses) has been de rigueur since the restaurant’s inception and is one reason the restaurant has shown steady growth, despite the state of the economy. Niche’s three-courser is a gourmet deal at $35. Off the Vine pumps up its Monday evenings with three courses for $24, and Harvest and Portabella now both offer three for $30. Kemoll’s three-for-$25 summertime deal is aimed squarely at Cardinals fans, and here’s the hook: It includes parking.
While some operators simply bemoan the slow times and others resort to risky couponing in order to drive sales, Fiala the marketer has taken his value-added tactic one step further: “I’m experimenting with prix fixe spread across several price points, offering an upgraded four-courser for $45 and a tasting menu that starts at $75.”
Portion Downsizing
Fortunately, the “small plates” trend continues its popularity as food costs rise—restaurants would have been tempted to cut portions anyway. Clayton’s Bistro Alexander recently adopted a “small plates”–centric menu that keeps the diner well below his neighbor Harvest’s magic $25 mark. An ample asparagus salad and a pair of respectable chimichurri lamb chops with cucumber slaw go for a measly $14, one of the most satisfying deals in town.
As costs rise, once-ubiquitous items like the 8-ounce tenderloin filet are disappearing, replaced by two smaller medallions, usually arranged on an attractive and colorful “set” (as it’s called in the trade), effectively steering us closer to the ratios espoused by the food pyramid. At up to $20 per pound, those portions must be exact. Says Eddie Neill, partner in Café Provençal, The Dubliner and the newly opened Shakespeare’s Pub, “We’re back to portioning with scales. We’re doing everything you should do … but don’t do when you’re rolling.”
Some restaurants are using sleight of hand to make smaller portions appear bigger, shifting from near-platter-size plates to smaller, curvier, sexier china. Treading onto thinner ice, some have even purchased lighter-weight flatware to make each forkful of those portions feel heavier. And in the drink were several local bar owners who were called out by their customers for selling “pints” of beer in 14-ounce glasses.
Beverage Tactics
Since it’s now acceptable—even hip—to drink St. Louis tap water (voted the “Best Tasting City Water in America” at last year’s U.S. Conference of Mayors), profits from bottled water have dried up. Wine is another story. Chances are, your favorite restaurant is now offering some type of half-price wine deal during the week, with the most generous one at Bistro Alexander: half-price glasses and bottles all night, two nights a week. The revered happy hour has also been taken for a creative spin: The Stable has live music starting at 4 p.m., and Mosaic boasts “the city’s longest happy hour,” held daily from 2 to 7 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. If the economic downturn continues, some owner will surely stretch those happy-hour deals to “all day long.” The only question is, will he be perceived as brilliant or desperate?
Sneak That Check Average Up
Upselling in restaurants is by no means a new practice, but it has become more subtle. A diner may sell himself on a very attractive salad for $7.95, for instance, then find it impossible to resist the server’s off-menu suggestion of a piece of spice-rubbed organic chicken or a few porcini-encrusted sea scallops, catapulting the entree’s cost by at least 50 percent.
Desserts—especially in teeny portions—have become small-but-mighty profit centers as well. At Sage, Chris LaRocca introduced “Sweet Shots,” four-bite, just-right samplings that, when presented tableside in mini six-packs, are only refused by those with jaws wired shut. In lean times, those extra few dollars per guest might be what keep the doors open. Carolyn Downs took a similar approach at Revival with her $2 dessert “snacks,” tempting little goodies that are cleverly packaged to go, allowing for a quicker table turn. The customer leaves smiling and the restaurant wins … twice.
Pencil-Sharp Shopping
As restaurant suppliers increase their minimum orders and tack on higher fuel surcharges, chefs and owners must go to greater lengths to reduce costs. Chef Eddie Neill is now a frequent shopper at low-cost suppliers like Restaurant Depot. “I’ve virtually changed my buying system,” Neill says. “I can save as much as 20 to 25 percent, and the only fuel surcharge is mine.” Chef Cary McDowell is growing herbs, vegetables and 20 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes at Revival in dozens of former salt barrels he scrounged from a farmer. “It definitely impacts food cost,” he says, “and it’s nice to say that our tomato really was vine-ripened and picked about an hour ago.”
As the cost of flour escalates, offering “free” bread has become a sensitive issue. At LoRusso’s, Rich LoRusso is using proof-and-bake bread products to either replace or supplement his bread purchases. The labor is already in place, and the bread—tweaked up and legitimately baked “in-house”—can be served warm from the oven.
Menu Rejiggering
Psychology has entered the art of menu creation. Menu consultants adept in steering diners to specific high-profit items through colors, graphics and positioning are in high demand. We’ve all been sucked in by fancy, food-styled photographs, but most diners do not realize they can be influenced by something as simple as text placement. High-profit items should be located top-right, where the eye goes first, and the low-profit millstones should be located lower-left, an uncomfortable place for the eye to land. Should you see pastas at top-right and steaks bottom-left, chances are that operator is a believer.
Some thought should go into item placement within a menu list as well. Most restaurateurs have discovered that the middle items are the big sellers and act accordingly. “I always put my vegetarian items first,” says Café Provençal’s Eddie Neill. “Vegetarians will find them wherever they are. I put steaks at the bottom, and the items I want to sell go right in the middle.”
Some also claim that it’s imperative that prices follow the menu description, the theory being that after reading a flowery, gotta-have-it exposition, we won’t object to paying $34 for the sea bass. Spelling it out as “thirty-four” may prove less objectionable still.
Selling Service
“Since we’re still building restaurants, four in four months, which is faster than ever, I’m attacking this [downturn] thing nonstop, 24/7,” says Kim Tucci of The Pasta House Co. “With every employee, we are focusing on engagement—reaching out and touching every customer—which goes hand-in-hand with an increased emphasis on our frequent diner club. Both The Pasta House and Pronto can pick up customers during a downturn. Engagement will help to keep them.” Revival partner Charlie Downs agrees: “There’s a lot of good food and beautiful places out there. I emphasize that often the only thing we can do better is service.”
