At this time last year, Mark Fitzgerald could buy a bag of flour for $3.
Photo Illustration by Jill Connor / The Citizen
The rising cost of food is playing havoc with restaurants trying to serve a varied menu at reasonable cost.
The rising cost of food is playing havoc with restaurants trying to serve a varied menu at reasonable cost.
Now the same bag is $30.
As chef de cuisine for the Aurora Inn, Fitzgerald and the proprietors of other local restaurants are feeling the rising costs of food. Escalating oil prices, foreign demand and ethanol production have pushed up the price of key products in kitchens, sometimes as much as twice their cost within months.
Some restaurants in the area are experiencing the spike more sharply than others and adjusting with different changes.
In addition to flour, chicken, eggs and other poultry are also sources of heavy price surges at the Aurora Inn. So far the restaurant hasn't reacted with equal extremity.
“We don't want to price gouge, so we do things that will be conducive to our business,” Fitzgerald said.
Rather than raising prices, Fitzgerald and other restaurant managers face several possible options for balancing out their bottom line: buying inferior ingredients, removing items from the menu altogether or - as may become the case at the Aurora Inn - adjusting portion sizes. But Fitzgerald expects that response would only take effect temporarily.
“Everything goes up and down through the years,” he said. “We're firm believers the fair market is pretty much steady, so we're sure it'll lower in the following years.”
Kristie Schmitt, owner of Kristie's (formerly Clifford House) in Montezuma, has seen the price of haddock double within the two years she's worked in the restaurant business.
“It's cutting into my profits, but I haven't raised my prices yet,” she said. “I'm trying not to, but I'm sure it's going to have to happen.”
Schmitt has also been hit hardest by spiking prices for eggs and chicken since the start of 2008. Although trimming away at her generous portion sizes may be a potential response, she rules out removing any menu items or substituting ingredients of lesser quality.
“You have to offer a good variety as well as a good quality item,” she said.
In addition to bloated food costs, Schmitt feels another problem for the restaurant industry posed by the rising oil costs is the drop in patronage.
“Everybody's paying more everywhere for everything,” she said. “People can't afford to go out as much as they used to.”
At Hollywood Restaurant in Auburn, owner Joe Colella Jr. estimates 20 to 30 percent of the eaters are from out of town. The dwindling business is made all the more dire by the impact of price surges in eggs, flour and produce. A salad, for instance, costs 20 to 30 percent as much to produce as it did a year ago.
“Everything around the center of the plate,” Colella said.
Recently Colella's profits has also been sapped by fuel surcharges on food deliveries ranging from $4.50 to $7 per shipment. When that figure is multiplied by the restaurant's several sources of food, Colella faces yet another significant source of overhead.
Raising prices at Hollywood Restaurant would be difficult to justify to patrons, Colella believes, because the costlier items are peripheral.
“If it was center-of-the-plate items that were up substantially, we could raise prices accordingly on the menu,” Colella said. “But when everything around it goes up it's hard.”
Mike Tutor, manager of the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles, also has yet to absorb a major meat or poultry price increase because he ordered his supplies far in advance. However, when they arrive, he also faces a $5 to $10 fuel surcharge.
“It was just a few suppliers but now everyone's on the bandwagon,” he said. “I can't think it's a fair charge.”
For now, the Sherwood Inn is absorbing the price spike in wheat-based food products, such as pasta and breads. Tutor said it's too early to find out what effect those increases are exerting on the restaurant's bottom line. If the restaurant does respond, they won't turn to alternative products. They are committed to sustaining the Sherwood Inn's quality with selections like seafood from Boston.
“We'll have to examine the products we sell and maybe cut portions or increase prices,” Tutor said.
Boston seafood is also a menu fixture at Lasca's, in Auburn, where grain-fed items like chicken, beef, veal and pork have surged in price since last year. Though the restaurant at first rolled with the increases and watched their bottom line decrease, they have instituted their own menu price bumps of 25 to 50 cents to recover.
“There was no way around it,” said Lasca's owner Jim DeSocio. “Rather than sacrifice quality or quantity, we raised things a minimal amount.”
Like his fellow restaurant managers, DeSocio sees the food price spikes as a symptom of greater economic trouble that also affects him through his customers. With gas approaching all-time high prices, fewer patrons are finding it wallet-friendly to eat out.
“If the average guy doesn't have 50 bucks at the end of the week,” DeSocio said, “the restaurant is the first to feel it.”
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
As chef de cuisine for the Aurora Inn, Fitzgerald and the proprietors of other local restaurants are feeling the rising costs of food. Escalating oil prices, foreign demand and ethanol production have pushed up the price of key products in kitchens, sometimes as much as twice their cost within months.
Some restaurants in the area are experiencing the spike more sharply than others and adjusting with different changes.
In addition to flour, chicken, eggs and other poultry are also sources of heavy price surges at the Aurora Inn. So far the restaurant hasn't reacted with equal extremity.
“We don't want to price gouge, so we do things that will be conducive to our business,” Fitzgerald said.
Rather than raising prices, Fitzgerald and other restaurant managers face several possible options for balancing out their bottom line: buying inferior ingredients, removing items from the menu altogether or - as may become the case at the Aurora Inn - adjusting portion sizes. But Fitzgerald expects that response would only take effect temporarily.
“Everything goes up and down through the years,” he said. “We're firm believers the fair market is pretty much steady, so we're sure it'll lower in the following years.”
Kristie Schmitt, owner of Kristie's (formerly Clifford House) in Montezuma, has seen the price of haddock double within the two years she's worked in the restaurant business.
“It's cutting into my profits, but I haven't raised my prices yet,” she said. “I'm trying not to, but I'm sure it's going to have to happen.”
Schmitt has also been hit hardest by spiking prices for eggs and chicken since the start of 2008. Although trimming away at her generous portion sizes may be a potential response, she rules out removing any menu items or substituting ingredients of lesser quality.
“You have to offer a good variety as well as a good quality item,” she said.
In addition to bloated food costs, Schmitt feels another problem for the restaurant industry posed by the rising oil costs is the drop in patronage.
“Everybody's paying more everywhere for everything,” she said. “People can't afford to go out as much as they used to.”
At Hollywood Restaurant in Auburn, owner Joe Colella Jr. estimates 20 to 30 percent of the eaters are from out of town. The dwindling business is made all the more dire by the impact of price surges in eggs, flour and produce. A salad, for instance, costs 20 to 30 percent as much to produce as it did a year ago.
“Everything around the center of the plate,” Colella said.
Recently Colella's profits has also been sapped by fuel surcharges on food deliveries ranging from $4.50 to $7 per shipment. When that figure is multiplied by the restaurant's several sources of food, Colella faces yet another significant source of overhead.
Raising prices at Hollywood Restaurant would be difficult to justify to patrons, Colella believes, because the costlier items are peripheral.
“If it was center-of-the-plate items that were up substantially, we could raise prices accordingly on the menu,” Colella said. “But when everything around it goes up it's hard.”
Mike Tutor, manager of the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles, also has yet to absorb a major meat or poultry price increase because he ordered his supplies far in advance. However, when they arrive, he also faces a $5 to $10 fuel surcharge.
“It was just a few suppliers but now everyone's on the bandwagon,” he said. “I can't think it's a fair charge.”
For now, the Sherwood Inn is absorbing the price spike in wheat-based food products, such as pasta and breads. Tutor said it's too early to find out what effect those increases are exerting on the restaurant's bottom line. If the restaurant does respond, they won't turn to alternative products. They are committed to sustaining the Sherwood Inn's quality with selections like seafood from Boston.
“We'll have to examine the products we sell and maybe cut portions or increase prices,” Tutor said.
Boston seafood is also a menu fixture at Lasca's, in Auburn, where grain-fed items like chicken, beef, veal and pork have surged in price since last year. Though the restaurant at first rolled with the increases and watched their bottom line decrease, they have instituted their own menu price bumps of 25 to 50 cents to recover.
“There was no way around it,” said Lasca's owner Jim DeSocio. “Rather than sacrifice quality or quantity, we raised things a minimal amount.”
Like his fellow restaurant managers, DeSocio sees the food price spikes as a symptom of greater economic trouble that also affects him through his customers. With gas approaching all-time high prices, fewer patrons are finding it wallet-friendly to eat out.
“If the average guy doesn't have 50 bucks at the end of the week,” DeSocio said, “the restaurant is the first to feel it.”
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
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Post your comment - click hereThere are 3 comment(s)
GiveMeLiberty wrote on Apr 17, 2008 10:54 AM:
justaround wrote on Apr 17, 2008 7:56 AM:
Farmer's Gal wrote on Apr 16, 2008 12:55 PM:
Just think -- you don't have to gas tomatoes and breed the taste out of them trying to get a longer shelf life if you buy them locally grown and not shipped across the country -- for example. And you don't pay the fuel costs to get from California or wherever either. You might have to adjust your menu more seasonally, but you could save a bundle while serving your guests more healthy food.
The more we can do locally, the more win-win the situation is. "