The restaurant business is full of uncontrollables—changes in the local economy, the competition, tax laws, utility rates, etc.—but the one that causes restaurateurs to consider drinking up their bar profits is the weather, and just as importantly, how the media chooses to spin it.
Being cautious and informative is one thing, restaurants owners say, but being unreasonable and sensationalistic is quite another. “Just the mention of bad weather causes a 30% dip in sales,” says veteran restaurant owner Charlie Downs (Cyrano’s Café, Sugarfire Smoke House), “and if what gets predicted actually occurs, the drop is more like 50%,” a figure considered conservative by Brant Baldanza, managing partner for OG Hospitality Group (The Tavern, Corner Pub & Grill, The Shack, Cucina Pazzo).
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“Last Saturday night,” Baldanza said, “when snow was forecast but didn’t even materialize until later–after what would have been the dinner rush–our business was still off over 50%. Restaurants really are at the whim of the weather casters…when they get over-zealous, it kills us.”
“It’s a tough game to win,” Baldanza admitted. “One night we decided to close The Tavern early, on the heels of an ominous weather forecast. So we all went across the street, to Fandango’s, who stayed open. Over the next several hours I ran into a bunch of our customers who said they’d stopped by, and why weren’t we open?”
Then there’s the question of whether a restaurant should open at all when snow is a certainty, as was the case last weekend. On the one hand, an owner might reason, “everyone else is closed, so we’ll close, too,” or take the opposite approach, as Downs and business partner Mike Johnson did last Sunday at Sugarfire, thinking “hey, if everyone else is closed, then we should open,” so Johnson, a guy who likes to have fun with his specials (see above), announced on Facebook that Sugarfire was indeed open, with “donuts for breakfast” (see below), and rewarding the hearty with hot cocoa and peppermint schnapps. The ploy worked: Sugarfire did several thousand dollars worth of barbeque business in just a few hours.
As Monday dawned under a foot of snow, restaurant owners again had to decide whether to try and open their places or not. Several of them admitted that the main criterion was not the few dollars that could possibly be generated, but rather the safety of employees traveling to and from work.
Steve Gontram, owner of 5 Star Burgers in Clayton and now in Kirkwood, says the “open or remain closed” decision isn’t as easy as it used to be. “Not long ago,” he noted, “your employees lived closeby, in the neighborhood, along with the majority of your customers. Nowadays, although the customers might still live nearby, the employees don’t…mine are scattered all over the city. It’s asking a lot of them to come in for business that I can’t promise will be there.”
Yet it’s the casual restaurants, the bar and grill-type places, that feel they have more of an obligation to open up, to service the neighborhoods they’re a part of. “Few people think of fine dining in a snowstorm,” Gontram reasoned, drawing on his past experience as chef-owner of Harvest.
Gerard Craft, owner of four restaurants, agreed, saying that bad weather impacts upscale-dining Niche far more than the laid-back Pastaria. Like all restaurateurs, though, Craft gets frustrated with the hype. “The first time it snows, the media causes everyone to freak out,” he said, “but eventually people have to get out and deal with it…it’s called winter.” His frustration extends further, however, to city and county officials. “If all the streets could get cleared,” he reasoned, “we’d all have a lot easier time dealing with it.”
Then there’s Tony Pietoso, owner of Café Napoli, who said he had “40 on the books” Monday night, “and more will come” because his customers know he tries to stay open for them.
Same with John Rice, owner of Red-L Pizza in Ladue, who’s “always open,” even if employees can’t make it in, as was the case Monday, which happened to coincide with the BCS Championship football game being played that night. “There were times I couldn’t answer the phone,” Rice admitted, “and we had one hell of a night.”
The most timely and telling illustration, though, comes from Arlene Browne, who owns the three metro area Robust restaurants with her husband Stanley. Arlene felt strongly about opening just one of the restaurants—the location in densely-populated Webster—on Monday night; her husband was not as keen on the idea, citing staffing issues and the questionable level of sales. So the couple agreed to let their constituents decide, posing the “do we open up or not?” question on Facebook and Twitter, an option they would never have considered five years ago. The response was a resounding “no,” Robust remained closed until Tuesday, and both Brownes were comfortable with how the scenario played out.
