Support NeoGAF

[riotous]

The article addresses the hyperbole in the title, saying it's not the same as a wall street bubble:

So what have we learned? Well, for one, the restaurant bubble will not burst like the stock market. There will not be massive simultaneous closures -- different cities will be affected at different times, some places may hang on years, often propped up by personal savings or an owner who either doesn't care about losses or refuses to see the writing on the wall.

But for the average city diner, the bubble bursting will have very real consequences. For one, most sit-down dining will, in many ways, revert back to what it was in the '80s/'90s: reserved for special occasions. And this is for the simple reason that restaurants need to universally raise their prices to keep affording to pay their workers and buy food and serve you a choice of sparkling or still water with your house-baked bread and house-cultured butter (this will also serve as a gut check for the mass of people who claim to be for changes to restaurants that result in paying fair wages, but as soon as they see higher prices themselves as a result of said wage increases, immediately forget their lofty talk and take to Yelp to complain)

I feel like the food truck craze is already a move in this direction. Here in Seattle you often even have a place to sit, as the food trucks travel around to locations that don't have kitchens of their own (bars, breweries) but do have a lot of seating.

The "brew pub" has turned into the "beer bar / brewery with rotating food trucks".. and it's pretty awesome IMO.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

* Rent prices are skyrocketing in a lot of major cities which is making it very hard for these places to surive. They need to charge a premium just to make ends meet, but then people don't want to buy $15 burgers or burritos

It's a catch-22. Many local restaurants are faced with higher rent, food costs, and labor costs than ever before and need to charge more. A big problem is that they are open months before they come to these conclusions. They try to not watch the bottom line when they first open and establish a clientele but eventually something's got to give. They have three choices: 1) Close the doors, 2) Raise Prices, or 3) Buy cheaper food/ingredients. The problem is that all 3 options eventually lead to closing the doors.

Raising prices alienates your customers. Many customers will eat there once and never return due to pricing, and many of your regulars will feel insulted and ripped off for food that used to only cost $X. Of course, there are new restaurants opening in the interim that are still lowballing their prices out of ignorance or to build their clienteles, so your customers go there instead. Six months later you are OOB.

The other, more common solution is to simply buy cheaper food and ingredients. How many times have you loved a new restaurant only to notice the quality go downhill after 6 months or a year? Eventually you stop going, and besides, there's a new restaurant serving better food that opened right down the street. Other customers do the same. This death takes longer, maybe a year or two, but eventually you are OOB.

It's not impossible to open a successful new local restaurant that lasts but it's really difficult. Most of the ones around here have been around forever, though. They are local staples, and have a loyal clientele. Many of them have multiple locations, and are taking advantages of the economies of scale like the big chains as that helps with overhead.

 

[Deleted member 284]

God bless the Brooklyn Halal Cart. Chicken and Lamb Gryo over lettuce and tomator with some Tzatziki for $6-7? Why thank you!

 

[TheLaughingStock]

We're literally hearing it all and 2017 just got started. Patterns in job openings and hires suggests swaths of workers lack the skills to work registers and wait tables.

There are not enough skilled hospitality workers to fill all of these restaurants.

Give me a break or pay the market wage for the "skills" you allegedly need..

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

It's a catch-22. Many local restaurants are faced with higher rent, food costs, and labor costs than ever before and need to charge more. A big problem is that they are open months before they come to these conclusions. They try to not watch the bottom line when they first open and establish a clientele but eventually something's got to give. They have three choices: 1) Close the doors, 2) Raise Prices, or 3) Buy cheaper food/ingredients. The problem is that all 3 options eventually lead to closing the doors.

Raising prices alienates your customers. Many customers will eat there once and never return due to pricing, and many of your regulars will feel insulted and ripped off for food that used to only cost $X. Of course, there are new restaurants opening in the interim that are still lowballing their prices out of ignorance or to build their clienteles, so your customers go there instead. Six months later you are OOB.

The other, more common solution is to simply buy cheaper food and ingredients. How many times have you loved a new restaurant only to notice the quality go downhill after 6 months or a year? Eventually you stop going, and besides, there's a new restaurant serving better food that opened right down the street. Other customers do the same. This death takes longer, maybe a year or two, but eventually you are OOB.

It's not impossible to open a successful new local restaurant that lasts but it's really difficult. Most of the ones around here have been around forever, though. They are local staples, and have a loyal clientele. Many of them have multiple locations, and are taking advantages of the economies of scale like the big chains as that helps with overhead.

Or, you do what I've seen around here, claim to be local and organic but then have a Sysco truck roll up for deliveries.

 

[teh_pwn]

I'm in a suburb of Austin. There are 3 good restaurants, and like 50 chicken wing/strip restaurants (and nearly as many mattress firms, I honestly suspect there's drugs here). It's like the chicken restaurants know most of them will fail but whoever wins gets crazy margins.

There's one spot nearby that keeps doing poor quality asian food and renaming itself every year with ambiguous names. If someone put a decent ramen place in there it would make a killing.

Austin itself has some variety, but also lacks in several areas.

 

[Nordicus]

Bubble Tea is different though, as there's ALWAYS going to be hot trends people jump on. Just off the top of my head I can remember bubble tea, cupcakes, froyo, doughnuts (now) and burgers. The main issue with these are the tricks aren't sustainable over the long term. In my area a mac & cheese only place opened and guess what, it closed 2 years later. This stuff only has so much long tail unless there is HUGE foot traffic.

Hah, that reminds me, few years ago someone opened a crepe restaurant right next to my university, and it had very little business when I tried it out (honestly, the crepes I make at home are more to my taste). The idea was cute but of course they closed down within a year because university students actually like to get their stomachs filled.

Then it was replaced by a kebab/pizzeria that emphasized its vegetarian options. Not hard to guess that that one is sticking around and actually seems busy most of the time.

 

[Ponn]

I thought it was something like 80% of restaurants fail since restaurants have been a thing.

It's really fast in the PNW though, I'd walk down a block in Vancouver BC or Portland and a month later all the restaurants except one were new.

After working in restaurants most of my high school, managing and starting to be a sous chef I would never in my life open a restaurant. It is the worst business investment, too flaky of customers, to demanding of time and the return is awful. There's a reason why every head chef I worked with were middle class alcoholics and the owners were cocaine addicts that could never break out of upper middle class and ran from bill collectors. The only thing I would consider opening is like a small bed and breakfast or something that I could run by myself without employees.

 

[fenners]

I'm in a suburb of Austin. There are 3 good restaurants, and like 50 chicken wing/strip restaurants (and nearly as many mattress firms, I honestly suspect there's drugs here). It's like the chicken restaurants know most of them will fail but whoever wins gets crazy margins.

Sounds like Pflugerville a lot though I suspect it's not We've got ridiculous numbers of Mattress places - I've had the reasoning explained to me by someone in the know, but still - three in a row in three neighbouring retail strips.

There's another chicken place being built too.

 

[siddx]

ANd when you think about it the barrier of entry is deceptively simple. Just need a spot, some people, and so food.

But they don't think about overhead, labor costs, and food costs.

Precisely. It's like gamers who think they can make a great video game or movie buffs who are deluded into thinking they could direct a masterpiece. You get foodies and chefs who think loving food and/or being a good cook means you can run a successful restaurant without understanding it's a fucking business and just being able to cook a Tibetan Mexican Icelandic fusion meal doesn't mean you will be successful. Especially if it costs you 30 bucks worth of ingredients to even plate the damn thing.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Where in Michigan are you? There are lots of places to get good lake trout, perch, and whitefish from the Great Lakes. Of course, the best stuff is usually farther north along both coasts.

Ann Arbor.

There is Texas de Brazil in Detroit but it's $50 a head. Also Red Tavern in Lansing is good. I have yet to discover any great non-franchise places besides those.

 

[teh_pwn]

Sounds like Pflugerville a lot though I suspect it's not We've got ridiculous numbers of Mattress places - I've had the reasoning explained to me by someone in the know, but still - three in a row in three neighbouring retail strips.

There's another chicken place being built too.

You were pfucking right.

For breakfast and sandwiches check out black iron eats.

 

[The Albatross]

There's a real misuse of the phrase "bubble." I'd like to write an alarmist article about how the alarmist-journalism industry bubble is about to burst, but I'd have to misuse the concept "bubble" to do it.\

The hospitality industry is much stronger than it was 10 years ago, and the industry almost identically follows the consumer confidence index in the U.S. Consumer confidence is in a 10+ year high right now, after crashing in the late-2000s and slowly climbing over the last 5 years. The hospitality industry is going to be very strong as long as consumer confidence is strong. IF consumer confidence plummets, then the hospitality industry will be the least of our concerns.

The article addresses the hyperbole in the title, saying it's not the same as a wall street bubble:

So the title is a fake-news, clickbait lie trying to encourage people to buy the otherwise uninteresting article about the normal and not surprising rise and fall of the hospitality industry that happens with every financial rise and fall.

This article is like the Guy Fierri of journalism. It's like GUYS KICKIN FIERY BALLS having a disclaimer in the menu, "Guys balls are technically neither kickin nor fiery. They're chicken balls with Ken's buffalo sauce."

 

[Muppet of a Man]

The hipster-ization of the restaurant business is going to fall hard, as there are not enough people with enough money to sustain that segment's continued expansion.

 

[old]

This has been happening in my city for a while. Over priced kitschy places pop up, become the hottest trend, and go out of business 5 years later.

The places that offer damn good food at good prices stay though. I'm only paying $20 for an artisan "Korean-Mexican fusion" kale wrap once. But I'll pay $7 for a damn good burger a thousand times and still keep coming back.

 

[NervousXtian]

Smallwares was just too expensive for what you got. If its gonna be really expensive with tiny portions it needs to be knockout good, like Yakuza. Smallwares was also in a bad location for being expensive.

Exactly, it was a shit location for what it was.. it was good, but not good enough to go out of my way for it at those prices. It was a high-end fusion joint in a neighborhood spot.. it was never gonna work.

Complaining about labor costs? Is $4 an hour too much for servers? Because the only way a server is making that is if they're not getting tipped/subsidized by customers, causing the company to make up the minimum wage difference. Which frequently isn't their fault.

And if it is more counter service/fast casual, there generally isn't a wait staff or food runner. Just chefs/food prep staff and cashiers.

Here in Oregon we have no tip credit, so they get full min wage.. which in Portland will be 11.25 in July, and 14.75 in 2022.

Places aren't allowed force tip-outs either... so they end up with huge labor costs and servers making 2 to 3x what the BOH employees make.

Guys I know are doing counter service and make sure to have cooks also deliver food, as you can they share tips between FOH and BOH and at least be able to pay the cooks a fair wage.

The problem is going to be felt by everyone.. because local joints don't have the buying power of the corp stores. It becomes a problem of how much are you really willing to pay?

 

[Anfang]

If someone put a decent ramen place in there it would make a killing.

Was the same here in Indianapolis for what seemed like a long time. We just had a ramen joint open up here and it's like 5 minutes from my work. Life is good.

 

[The Albatross]

After working in restaurants most of my high school, managing and starting to be a sous chef I would never in my life open a restaurant. It is the worst business investment, too flaky of customers, to demanding of time and the return is awful. There's a reason why every head chef I worked with were middle class alcoholics and the owners were cocaine addicts that could never break out of upper middle class and ran from bill collectors. The only thing I would consider opening is like a small bed and breakfast or something that I could run by myself without employees.

This is so accurate.

I was a food critic/restaurant critic for a newspaper from 2008 - 2015 or so. I worked in restaurants in high school and college. This describes basically every chef I know and owner I know, both when I worked in the industry, or when I covered the industry.

The restaurant industry is brutal from a financial perspective. It always has been and it always will be. The hours for owners is staggering, the returns are so slim. THey never have time off, they work brutal hours, and either they drink themselves stupid after every shift, or they're drugged out, or they work themselves ragged and have no time to themselves with no safety net.

It isn't new. It's always been a brutal industry. That said, I always understood the industry from a workers perspective, and it's one thing I don't think I agree with when it comes to the general antagonism against the tipping culture on Gaf and elsewhere. From my perspective, the gratuity system allows for new restaurants to open with relatively few expenses other than what they're putting on a diner's plate. I think that if we transitioned from a gratuity system to a higher hourly wage system with no gratuity, the pay would largely shake out to be the same for employees, while being upfronted by the business, and fewer people would be willing to try something new in their town. I could wrong though, but that was always my impression. I'd be happy to be proven wrong about this, but even in this thread you read comments like "I'm willing to try the new place with $15 entrees once in a while... but I'll take the old standbye with the $7 burger any day..." Well, without the gratuity-driven system it becomes a lot harder for a new place to open. Profits in the first years of a restaurant opening are nill, and it often takes 5+ years for real profits to come in.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I read an article years ago that also predicted a bubble burst for similar but slightly different reasons. It talked about how the vast majority of restaurants are opened by people with no clue what they are doing. They choose terrible locations. They create ridiculous menus that either require absurd amounts of resources to maintain or are so fussy that they limit their target audience. And they just copycat other restaurants instead of looking for holes in the marketplace they can take advantage of (derp I'm gonna open the 500th Italian restaurant within a one block radius instead of the first Ethiopian restaurant in the city.)
It largely said that most people opening restaurants are terrible at business and that's why they keep failing.

Another article I read said a new hurdle for opening retaurants is the rise of Yelp and online ratings. Before, if a new restaurant opened, it could take its time and change or tweak its menu and foods based on customer feedback and eventually turn into a place with good reviews and good word of mouth. But now with Yelp, a restaurant has to come out swinging right away, or else it gets one-stared into oblivion and thanks to bad WoM no one comes back even if they improve their food/service. Its do or die from day one.

 

[The Albatross]

Another article I read said a new hurdle for opening retaurants is the rise of Yelp and online ratings. Before, if a new restaurant opened, it could take its time and change or tweak its menu and foods based on customer feedback and eventually turn into a place with good reviews and good word of mouth. But now with Yelp, a restaurant has to come out swinging right away, or else it gets one-stared into oblivion and thanks to bad WoM no one comes back even if they improve their food/service. Its do or die from day one.

With Yelp it goes both ways, but Yelp (and others) are probably good for the industry as a whole. Prior to Yelp, Google Reviews, and other sites like that, it would take months and years for a restaurant to take hold from word of mouth and most closed regardless. Back in the 90s, there was a statistic that 50% of new restaurants close within a year, 80% within 3 years. The hospitality industry has never been hospitable to new businesses. Yelp, Google, and other services bring in a steady influx of visitors without needing word of mouth. Yelp (and the internet in general) enables a small, non-chain restaurant to flourish more so than it leads to their demise. It's not a coincidence that the decline of chains from a public perspective has generally coincided with the rise of the internet. WHen most people go out to eat, they want a known quantity, and the confidence of a big national chain gave that known quantity to most people. Today, people can discover restaurants without name recognition and that has led to a much more diverse industry.

Plus, hospitality businesses should be consumer focused and should be intune with consumers from the onset. If you're serving potential customers, they should have some idea what they're getting before giving their money. Good restaurants recover from shaky starts, while bad restaurants refuse to adapt inspite of bad feedback.

 

[this_guy]

It's not just Yelp, but when a hot new restaurant opens up and I see tons of pics on Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat it'll get me curious and I'll have to try it out.

 

[el jacko]

At that point you are doing it to shove smoke up your own ass.

Actually, seasonal menus are not that crazy. The chains in Japan, for example, offer burgers and rice dishes with seasonal ingredients all the time. Sourcing locally and seasonally are not "shoving smoke up your own ass" - actually, it demonstrates an actual relationship with your producers, knowing what they can grow in each season rather than demanding something unreasonable, or shipping hard-as-a-rock garbage from halfway across the country.

In this case, it seems they tried to cook everything to order, rather than preparing ingredients in advance, in bulk, to ensure that prep time isn't *that intense* (which can add a huge amount to staff costs due to extra chefs necessary).

 

[linkboy]

I never understand why all Americans and Canadians don't eat at Chilis every single day. Everytime I go to the US I make sure I go to at least one. It's my babe.

I don't, because the one in my town can't tell the difference between a ribeye steak and a new York strip. I ordered a ribeye, they gave a new York strip, and tried to pass it off as a really thick ribeye.

Plus, it was bland as shit when I did get the right steak.

 

[NeOak]

I never understand why all Americans and Canadians don't eat at Chilis every single day. Everytime I go to the US I make sure I go to at least one. It's my babe.

Getting a good Chili's is plain RNG. Out of several I've gone to in different states, I would only recommend you two locations where the food is good and consistent.

 

[Ishan]

Getting a good Chili's is plain RNG. Out of several I've gone to in different states, I would only recommend you two locations where the food is good and consistent.

Dunno how it is in Canada but many American chains are much better abroad ... I'll take the McDonald's in India anyday over the us one ... And I've heard the same story from friends from Lebanon, France etc so it's not just an Asia thing .

 

[Manmademan]

Dunno how it is in Canada but many American chains are much better abroad ... I'll take the McDonald's in India anyday over the us one ... And I've heard the same story from friends from Lebanon, France etc so it's not just an Asia thing .

McDonald's is a franchise, not a chain (as Chilis is, or Olive Garden is) so individual restaurants from town to town are going to vary a lot in terms of quality.

I've seen some really good McDonalds, but they're generally located in wealthy areas. Mcdonalds overseas are likely catering to tourists, not locals.

 

[CyclopsRock]

I don't, because the one in my town can't tell the difference between a ribeye steak and a new York strip. I ordered a ribeye, they gave a new York strip, and tried to pass it off as a really thick ribeye.

Plus, it was bland as shit when I did get the right steak.

I've never had the steak, but literally everything else is mana.

Getting a good Chili's is plain RNG. Out of several I've gone to in different states, I would only recommend you two locations where the food is good and consistent.

I've been lucky then I suspect, with the exception of one time on in Anaheim had no functioning fryers which, alas, took out 3/4s of the menu.

Dunno how it is in Canada but many American chains are much better abroad ... I'll take the McDonald's in India anyday over the us one ... And I've heard the same story from friends from Lebanon, France etc so it's not just an Asia thing .

I only went to one Chilis outside of the US (they only operate in the US and Canada, plus on a bunch of foreign US military bases) and - get this - it was in my hotel in Canada. It was the best week of my life.

 

[Benzychenz]

Food seems to be doing well here in Australia.

Tons of local places, a lot of which have been around for years. New places popping up seem to be able to find a market, burger place that opened last year has done really well and is opening a second store.

I work in a restaurant and get $23 an hour and the owner of the place is still loaded so American companies complaining about cost of wages is hilarious.

 

[Slayven]

Actually, seasonal menus are not that crazy. The chains in Japan, for example, offer burgers and rice dishes with seasonal ingredients all the time. Sourcing locally and seasonally are not "shoving smoke up your own ass" - actually, it demonstrates an actual relationship with your producers, knowing what they can grow in each season rather than demanding something unreasonable, or shipping hard-as-a-rock garbage from halfway across the country.

In this case, it seems they tried to cook everything to order, rather than preparing ingredients in advance, in bulk, to ensure that prep time isn't *that intense* (which can add a huge amount to staff costs due to extra chefs necessary).

It's the redecorating every 3-4 months thing that takes it over the tope.

 

[Transhuman]

I can't wait till the restaraunt bubble pops so we can end mankind's dangerous obsession with eating food. Why don't people read a nice book instead?

 

[Slayven]

I can't wait till the restaraunt bubble pops so we can end mankind's dangerous obsession with eating food. Why don't people read a nice book instead?

 

[ProtomanNeo]

I'm from Cleveland which has gotten quite the reputation in foodie circles in recent years. The amount restaurants that have opened in our trendy neighborhoods is pretty crazy, and has many who work in the industry a little worried.

 

[Ronin Ray]

In my city like 90% of all new restaurants are Mexican food places. O this Wendy's closed down and there is already 10 Mexican restaurant with in 5 minutes. Lets turn this some bitch into a Mexican restaurant . I also love the taco trucks right next to the Mexican restaurants

 

[tokkun]

That said, I always understood the industry from a workers perspective, and it's one thing I don't think I agree with when it comes to the general antagonism against the tipping culture on Gaf and elsewhere. From my perspective, the gratuity system allows for new restaurants to open with relatively few expenses other than what they're putting on a diner's plate. I think that if we transitioned from a gratuity system to a higher hourly wage system with no gratuity, the pay would largely shake out to be the same for employees, while being upfronted by the business, and fewer people would be willing to try something new in their town. I could wrong though, but that was always my impression. I'd be happy to be proven wrong about this, but even in this thread you read comments like "I'm willing to try the new place with $15 entrees once in a while... but I'll take the old standbye with the $7 burger any day..." Well, without the gratuity-driven system it becomes a lot harder for a new place to open. Profits in the first years of a restaurant opening are nill, and it often takes 5+ years for real profits to come in.

In theory the average value of a tip is added into the price on the menu to compensate for the restaurant paying higher wages. Then the average customer is paying the same amount, the restaurant has an increase in revenue that matches the increase in labor costs, and the staff makes the same amount of money.

Of course that is ignoring the fact that it is very easy to commit tax fraud if you are getting a lot of your income in tips and not so easy if you are getting it via salary.

 

[Nester99]

I wish people would stop using "bubble" incorrectly to fuel clickbate.

 

[Coriolanus]

I work in a restaurant and get $23 an hour and the owner of the place is still loaded so American companies complaining about cost of wages is hilarious.

Sydney? I do hope that there's no tipping "culture" in there. Works out to about 16.6/h USD. Damn nice. You also get what, 20 paid vacation days a year?

 

[TCRS]

I was just thinkng that yesterday, how the hell do all these Restaurants survive?

I guess they barely do.

 

[Yaboosh]

In theory the average value of a tip is added into the price on the menu to compensate for the restaurant paying higher wages. Then the average customer is paying the same amount, the restaurant has an increase in revenue that matches the increase in labor costs, and the staff makes the same amount of money.

Of course that is ignoring the fact that it is very easy to commit tax fraud if you are getting a lot of your income in tips and not so easy if you are getting it via salary.

That naïvely assumes that all the increased revenue goes to the staff.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Something the article doesn't focus on as much that I thought was interesting was the issue with "prestige" in a lot of restaurants. There was a recent op-ed from a guy who bought a share in a NY restaurant and he pointed out that there's so many of these establishments that can't survive long-term but help hurt the environment for every one else. Everyone has fancy, well-designed menus and tasteful decor, etc. that they've basically been increasing the costs for everyone who wants to follow. But some people will still invest in these restaurants because of the glitz of running your own business or being part of that hip new joint in NY or SF or wherever. So it's not just the venture-capital disrupters threatening restaurants, it's the venture-capital backed restaurants threatening other restaurants.

I am glad the article points out that when it comes to fair wages there's a liberal trend to talk a big game and not actually be willing to stomach the costs involved (well, it's a pretty universal human thing, but liberals are the only people particularly pushing for it.)

 

[HStallion]

God bless the Brooklyn Halal Cart. Chicken and Lamb Gryo over lettuce and tomator with some Tzatziki for $6-7? Why thank you!

The Halal Guys are actually going to be opening a chain of restaurants similar in idea to Five Guys Burgers. They are going big time.

 

[CyclopsRock]

In theory the average value of a tip is added into the price on the menu to compensate for the restaurant paying higher wages. Then the average customer is paying the same amount, the restaurant has an increase in revenue that matches the increase in labor costs, and the staff makes the same amount of money.

Of course that is ignoring the fact that it is very easy to commit tax fraud if you are getting a lot of your income in tips and not so easy if you are getting it via salary.

It also has the benefit of meaning that the extra money is shared more evenly amongst the staff, rather than the front-of-house getting the tips whilst the cooks get nothing.

 

[Laekon]

The article addresses the hyperbole in the title, saying it's not the same as a wall street bubble:



I feel like the food truck craze is already a move in this direction. Here in Seattle you often even have a place to sit, as the food trucks travel around to locations that don't have kitchens of their own (bars, breweries) but do have a lot of seating.

The "brew pub" has turned into the "beer bar / brewery with rotating food trucks".. and it's pretty awesome IMO.

This isn't that awesome in smaller population areas. There is a small brewery near me in Ventura county that has food trucks come out most nights but it seems to hurt them. Since it's a more suburban area the food trucks struggle and so have high prices and are out of ingredients often. LA food trucks get invited to big area events and crush them. I've seen other suburban ares in the country where food trucks have pretty much died out.

I think part of this bubble has been brought on by income inequality. A lot of people have so much money they don't know what to do with it. Add in the feeling of being a foodie and they will easily open or invest in poorly thought business plans.

 

[winjet81]

I don't know how anyone can afford to go to restaurants nowadays.

It used to be $40 for a dinner for 2 and drinks... then it became $60 then $80. Now, you can' go to a decent restaurant for less than $100. The least place we went, the bill ended up being over $130 after tip. And the food was OK, nothing more.

The wife and I go to a decent restaurant about once a year now... and have invested that saved money in a great stove, oven and kitchen tools for cooking at home.

 

[Walter White Walker]

The use of "bubble" is getting as annoying as "-Gate".

 

[Fenderputty]

I always wondered if all these copy cats had an impact on each other. Can't be that big of a deman for Korean Mexican fusion

My neighborhood had 3 new poke places pop up after a highly successful one just opened.

 

[Zoe]

There's one spot nearby that keeps doing poor quality asian food and renaming itself every year with ambiguous names. If someone put a decent ramen place in there it would make a killing.

Which place is this?

I feel bad for Dos Chopstix, but I don't want to be the only one in the restaurant either.

It also annoys me that Pflugerville is known for its large Vietnamese population, but there's only one pho restaurant

 

[InfiniteBento]

Thankfully being artfully trained in French pastry isn't common. I don't expect my job to go anywhere but there is absolutely an abundance of oversaturation in the industry.

The amount of new American restaurants in this city alone is terrible. All serving the same pub style burgers, fries or chips, and serving all the same American food. I lose any excitement over future restaurants the moment they claim they will be doing new american "with a twist or not like the other guys". Its all the same shit; Basic burgers with the only "exotic options" including siracha mayo, soy glaze, wasabi something, bacon everything, and mushroom/blue cheese concoctions.

The bubble is far too full of ramen joints, "unique" pizza spots, and burger bars at this point. It needs to burst to make room for people my age who will bring forward the next generation of unique cuisine. We are oversaturated so sticking out isn't that complex but is absolutely a huge risk for failure since all else reeks familiar. Its a slippery slope. None of us know what will happen next but hopefully, we see a flux towards a more exotic culinary future.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

How about food trucks.

I don't get why some people want to spend $12 on 6 wings. Or $16 for a roll with a few pieces of lobster in it.

Why is it inherently worse to spend that at a food truck?

 

[Gentleman Jack]

I never understand why all Americans and Canadians don't eat at Chilis every single day. Everytime I go to the US I make sure I go to at least one. It's my babe.

A look at our average waistline and you'd think we did eat there every single day.

 

[n0razi]

I'm in a suburb of Austin. There are 3 good restaurants, and like 50 chicken wing/strip restaurants (and nearly as many mattress firms, I honestly suspect there's drugs here). It's like the chicken restaurants know most of them will fail but whoever wins gets crazy margins.

You cant beat Pluckers