When did that happen? As long as I can remember salads were always served before the entree. I’m only 40 though, so maybe you’re a lot older than me or are referencing something anecdotal from someone older that you know?
Is that really true, though? Steaks are a really high food cost item. On a mixed menu, if that restaurant sold nothing but the steak they would probably go out of business. Their margin on the $25 chicken or $20 pasta dish is much better than on a steak.
As for wines, restaurant markup on those (and all alcohol, really) is staggeringly high and has been forever.
I’m 53, and I read old etiquette books…and I remember that a few of them dismissed the new custom of serving a salad first. These old books also recommended something like four to seven courses. I THINK that the salad course changed from #3 or 4 to #1 sometime in the 1920s, but it’s been a while since I’ve read the articles.
Yup. I once cooked in a restaurant that sold (at the time) a 20 oz. porterhouse steak with fries for $8.99. The place made all its money on booze sales after getting people in the door with the cheap steak.
The psychology behind this is pretty sound. You thinking you’re being clever by avoiding the high-priced meal=better self esteem, particularly if the meal turns out to be good. The truth is that you’re almost always being WAY overcharged, even for the cheaper meals. But that’s okay, if you’re happy with the meal AND you’ve cleverly avoided the $40 trap. If the restaurant actually sells a few of those $40 steaks, it’s a bonus, but they’d rather sell 200 steaks at the lower price. If everything was $40, nobody would go there unless they had more money than brains. Substitute any prices or food items you like in this paragraph: the outcome is the same.
I understand that there is a psychological aspect to this, but I was referencing more of a sheer food cost perspective from a kitchen POV in that operating in a corporate environment dictates rigid food cost percentages, and my example of a restaurant that had a menu that covered a lot of bases would in fact go out of business if they only sold their overpriced steak because even though they charge a lot, they pay a lot in food cost and often labor to obtain and prepare quality beef. I was mostly referencing what’s known as a “menu mix” which prices your offerings in such a way as to maximize profit.
In other words, your steak is a loss leader and the hope is that by offering such an item that you will get enough push on not only alcohol but your seemingly less expensive items that actually generate more profit from a food cost perspective. Pasta dishes generally rule that realm as the key ingredient in them is so fucking cheap.
In the 60’s, every entree came with two dinner rolls. The only reason I remember this is because, as a busboy in high school, on busy nights we had to “rescue” the obviously untouched rolls as the bread ovens couldn’t keep up with the demand. Even though we weren’t “supposed” to, there was too much screaming from customers deprived of their dinner rolls (that many of them obviously didn’t bother with).
Serve them before the meal, or with the meal, either way, they’re not free. And obviously, it didn’t cut into dessert profits back then or now.