Of course. I thought that was obvious. I price similarly in my line of work, where higher cost items have a lower multiplier than lower cost ones.
It may be obvious to you and to me, and maybe a number of Dopers reading this thread, but it’s not obvious to quite a number of restaurant owners that I’ve met that price everything as a fixed multiple of its ingredient cost.
Yeah, to be fair, I see that a lot in my industry (photography) for pricing, as well. Almost everybody says: you should charge X times material cost. But once you start getting up the scale, it just seems ridiculous. There is little extra work if I sell a $5 print for $20 vs a $100 for $400. Some extra shipping and handling costs, yes, but it doesn’t make sense to me. I’d rather encourage buying large prints by pricing them a little more fairly, like $200-$250. I’m still making $100-$150 profit, and hopefully selling more. But some people seem to do fine with the fixed multiplier, so who knows. Same with per-hour costs. For one or two hours, my hourly rate is much more than if you hire me for ten or twenty (Slides from $325/hr to $225/hr.)
The way things are going, I expect to be given the check along with the appetizers. “There’s no rush!”
Heh heh. Pretty much. I never noticed it until my first visits back from Hungary back then visiting my family in the US. First, I had gotten used to “normal” portions, and American portions just seemed huge to me (although you could find places that will stuff you abroad). And, second, getting the bill dropped at my table pretty much as soon as I was finished eating the last morsel off my plate: “Anything else? No? Here’s the check.” Like why did you have it at the ready already? I might want another beer, or a dessert, or something. Don’t you want to make sure I’ve ordered everything I plan to order before printing it out? It always made me feel rushed, like “get the hell out of this place; I need to turn this table over.”
On the other extreme, as I mentioned before, back in Hungary servers would just disappear at the end of a meal, which is fine when you’re bullshitting and catching up with friends. But when you have some place to be, it can get a little annoying. That said, it did always feel a bit friendlier to me – nobody ever made us feel like we were being chased out, and we can sit there for an hour or so after a meal to no complaint. Here I always feel if I don’t leave reasonably quickly after finishing a meal that the server is missing out on extra income/tips from the next table.
We’ve had this happen a few times (either a long wait after being seated before someone came to take our order, or a long wait to pay our bill) and invariably it has been due to a shift change where whoever was assigned to our table went home, and nobody on the next shift was assigned to take over.
My mother told me about a restaurant, back in the 1940s, where the waiter would swoop in to try to take your plate if you were not actively eating. Even with food still on it.
I’ve had checks given to me before I could try to order dessert. Not a great way to sell the product.
Wellllll … that’s likely the case. I agree, not friendly service, but that’s still likely the dynamic.
I would be pissed off if I was told that, even with a reservation, I’d have to wait an hour. It’s never happened to me - at most, it’s been 10 or 20 minutes’ wait, and even that irks me. I’d certainly appreciate being offered a free drink or two but that probably wouldn’t make me willing to wait another freakin’ hour.
When I’ve had problems getting the waiter’s attention, I’ll usually ask for the check when I order dessert and/or coffee, and tell them I’m in a hurry.
Heh. Exactly what I thought of!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM
I’ve told this story before, but …
Near where I once lived there was a nice restaurant in the white tablecloth sidewalk cafe French style. Named Chez Leon and pronounced by the white-coated faux French waiters as something close to “SHAY Lay ohn”.
One of my more waggish friends promptly christened the place “Cheesy Leon’s”, with “Leon’s” pronounced like you’d expect on a late-night hometown TV ad for “Honest Leon’s Used Cars”.
The name stuck instantly with his/my gaggle of friends and now 20+ years later I can’t think of it as anything but Cheesy Leon’s. Even though the food, atmosphere, and service were really quite good.
I had dinner with a guy once who asked for his check when he ordered.
Yeah, but it was a McDonald’s, so it’s not that unreasonable.
I’m often forced to eat in a hurry. This is SOP for me in those circumstances.
Other times I’m planning a leisurely evening at table and also make that explicit when the waiter first shows up to deliver the menus. The message is “Don’t be inattentive, but don’t expect to turn the table any time soon either. It’ll be worth your while, trust me.”
We eat out fairly often. There are basically three levels: Fast food for fuel, eating out for a change, and upmarket dining experience.
Food for fuel is self-explanatory and may be from a roadside van or any one of the many takeaway/eat-in establishments available everywhere.
Eating out for a change will be at a restaurant with table service, but the menu is printed on plastic sheets and the napkins are paper. Pre-booking is only required at weekends and although it has never happened, I guess an hour would be the limit.
Upmarket restaurants here want a credit card number to make the reservation, which in the past might have to be weeks in advance (not so much now though). We expect to be sat at the table and offered drinks straight away as this type of establishment will only have one sitting per lunch or evening session.
I would almost think Stephan Pastis reads this thread based on today’s “Pearls Before Swine.”
https: //www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/10/27
(Broken link because I’m not sure of the thread policy on it and the preview shows it wants to post the page. And maybe it’s because I’m on a tablet, but I don’t seem to have the necessary editing tools to change it.
To unbeak the link just copy the URL and remove the space after the colon. Sorry for my ignorance in this editor.)
BTW, that link still works. AFAIK, it’s fine to link to things like that.
Yes, speaking as a moderator, it’s fine to link things like that, and it’s fine if the comic is visible in the in-line preview.
If you don’t want to post a preview, just put a space before the URL.
Thanks (above) for the clarification and the information. I was mostly concerned that I might violate copyright if the property (?) of another site (GoComics) or creator (Mr. Pastis) were to appear here.
Naw, if the site is legit, it’s okay to link. The underlying site “decides” what to display.